Is There a Doctor in the House?
This episode quite simply astounded me the first time I saw it, and it continues to do so to this day. The first half is like watching a serious episode of MASH,
and the second half is an observation on how much Xena realizes she needs Gabrielle in her life.
The very first shot reminds me of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with its dizzying camera angles.
Gabs mutters,"Gotta learn to keep my mouth shut." It wouldn't have mattered...Xena would have stopped the war anyway!
I feel so sorry for Ephiny...about to give birth, a gashed forehead, and her husband has just been killed!
Xena, on foot, easily keeps up with a galloping horse! Get this girl in the Olympics!
Whenever Xena wears her hair tied back, as she did in this one, she always reminds me of Meg.
Why does Galen feel the need to call Xena a "harlot"? Unless Ancient Greeks had a different meaning for the word, I see no basis
for Galen using that choice of words. If Xena would have just chakramed him then and there, she could have saved herself a whole
lot of headaches in this one. What an annoying ass Galen was!
Xena uses no sterilization with the breast dagger when she went to work on the first guy. Wow.
Do cobwebs really stop bleeding? Next time I cut myself, I'm diving for the corner of my living room!
Where did Xena magically come up with a needle and thread for the guy whose arm she sewed up? She didn't have her never ending
saddlebag with her...it just magically appears!
Sorry, but I've seen my share of pig bladders (don't ask why), and that was NO pig bladder!
Xena tells Gabs to "try to keep the rhythm of his own breathing" when Gabs takes over the artificial respiration. Uh...the guy isn't breathing,
Xena...isn't that the whole point of the genuine imitation pig bladder?
Why does Xena even bother arguing with Galen? Probably for the same reason I'm mentioning him again...he just won't go away.
It was hard for Xena to have to admit she couldn't heal a great loss of blood. But I'll bet if she were given some time, some cherry kool-aid, and
a toilet plunger, she'd figure out a way! She's the McGyver of Ancient Greece!
Gabs apologizes to Xena when the man with the pig bladder treatment dies? That was too sad!
Both of the young healers had awfully modern haircuts!
And Gangrene Man had the ugliest leg I've ever had the displeasure of seeing! It was worse than the guy in Misery!
"Unless you want another wound in your other shoulder, you'll get over here now." It got Marmax over there, but was he paying attention?
He didn't seem to know Xena had wounded him until the end of the episode.
The whole leg chopping scene is brutal...and well-done!!
Cauterize it? Was that even a word then? Nope, I looked it up...it's a Fifteenth Century word. Once again, Xena is way ahead of her time!
I know Gabs was worried about the little boy, but it really wasn't very smart for her to go outside without leaving word with Xena.
Gabs holds Xena's hand the whole time Xena is sewing her up.
Is that a man or a woman who comes in and tells them the Mitoans are nearby? I can't tell!
It's darn near impossible to make Xena lose her cool...even with the threat of impending attack, she's calm, cool, and collected. That makes
the big scene with Gabs that much more telling.
The whole time she's working on the young healer, Xena's eyes keep travelling back to Gabs...It's obvious where her real thoughts lie.
My emotions well up in the scene where Xena whispers to the unconscious Gabrielle. Her "I'm so sorry" is just amazing!
I love this exchange:
Hippocrates: But you'll die!
Xena: Cynic!
Marmax calls the centaurs "centors".
Xena delivered Ephiny's baby by Caesarian (did they call it that then?) because he was breech. She delivered Nikka's baby by the same method
in The Last of the Centaurs. Why? My guess is judging from the size of Nikka, it would have been a difficult birth.
Xena: Warrior Hypnotist. Xena truly does have many skills!
This is one of my bizarro thoughts, but I'll go for it. I always think it's a nice touch when Xena asks for the knife again while working on Ephiny. It
was totally unnecessary, but adds a nice touch of realism.
Xena's reaction to the birth is just great! Marmax's is pretty good too.
One of my very favorite bloopers occurs in the scene where Marmax is ordering his men to stop fighting. Check out Xena and Gabs in the background.
Lucy says something to Renee, who says something in response. She's susposed to be unconscious!
Of all the scenes on Xena that have emotionally effective to me, none have surpassed the scene where Gabrielle stops breathing and Xena fights to save her.
I have watched it numerous times, and it never fails to get to me. The acting on the parts of both Lucy and Renee is nothing short of astounding.
Xena just absolutely cannot let Gabrielle die. She looks to the others for help, but they've given up. This is as close to losing control as we'll ever see the Warrior
Princess.
Her "Don't you leave me...don't leave me...wake up!" I get shivers just thinking about it!
Enough can't be said about the depth of Lucy's performance during this scene. But a lot of credit goes to Renee too. Not only does she not flinch
when Lucy is pounding on her chest, but her look of wonder and shock when she wakes up is fantastic!
So Xena taught Hippocrates...why not?
"There's a lot about me that you shouldn't emulate," Xena tells Hippocrates. "Emulate" is a Sixteenth century word. My dictionary got a workout in this one!
Gabrielle has an Uncle Morose? Bet he's a cheery fellow! Heh heh!
Gabbers apparently had an out-of-body experience while she was dead. She starts to tell Xena about it as the episode ends. I wonder if she got to
"head toward the light."
Simply put...this is one of the best episodes ever...and has a permanent place among my top ten. I poked a lot of fun at some of Xena's medical techniques, but the overall
acting and writing of the episode is superior.
Here's how Gary felt about Is There A Doctor in the House?
Well,is there? We see a Warrior Princess who has many skills and her
assistant,who helps her as ordered. We also see at the hospice/temple,a
priest who relies on his god and some prayers to heal the wounded.
The episode opens with Xena nailing a general with her Chakram. He is
chasing an enemy soldier,so as usual,Xena knows who is right and wrong in
any battle. It is like when she and Gabby come across the tribes fighting in
LEGACY.She just KNOWS who are the good guys.
They also find Ephiny,the Amazon from HOOVES AND HARLOTS. She is pregnant
with a Centaur's child.Fantes,the Centaur is dead,and Ephiny is ashamed of
her marriage with a half-man,half-beast,and wanted to go to Athens to have
the child because they are more tolerant there.Evidently,bigotry is common
back then,too.
Xena takes Ephiny and the wounded general to the temple/hospice for
treatment.There is chaos there,with the priest,who resents Xena and her
healing powers,and his assistants,one of whom is Hippocrates,medicine's
patron founder,thanks to Xena's teaching.
Xena does many modern-type things: She puts the pinch on a guy whose leg she
amputates. She does her usual arrow-removal on another,sets a broken
leg,does a tracheotomy,and tries and fails to reinflate a collapsed lung
with a reed and a bladder.
The war continues outside and is getting closer. The general is forced to
help Xena,and Gabby helps dress his own wound. She tells him of a king who
the gods turned into a deer,and he thinks it is a bad thing,but Gabby tells
him that the king,when turned back,learned the peaceful way of the deer. The
general starts thinking about that.
Ephiny is near giving birth,and Xena does a Caesarian section on her to get
the kid out.Normal birth is impossible.It makes one wonder HOW the logistics
of getting pregnant happened...best left to the imagination,I guess.The mind
boggles.
The baby is delivered,a boy,and all is well.The priest is getting a bit
impressed himself with Xena's skills,but still scoffs a little.
Meanwhile,Gabby had been told that a young boy was outside alone. His father
was wounded and had asked Gabby to rescue the kid. She does,but is brought
in severely wounded herself.
The scene where Xena tries to revive(bring back to life) Gabby is great. I
said back to life because she did die. She didn't move,breathe,and there was
no heartbeat...the graveyards are full of those who had the same symptoms.
Xena tries to get Gabby breathing by giving her mouth-to-mouth ...no go. She
shakes her,all the time telling her to breathe and live. Gabby just looks as
if she is gone for good. Finally,in a tearful and believable scene,Xena
pounds Gabby's chest,starting her heart up,and saving her.
The general sees how dedicated and good Xena was,even saving some of his own
troops,so calls off the war. He parts company with the girls,and the
religious and territorial war is over.
Gabby tells Xena as they leave the temple,that she crossed over to the Other
Side,and that she saw her dead relatives,including her Uncle Morose(he must
have been quite the life of the party,huh?).
One point:The medical scenes were great,with young Hipp. talking a lot of
notes,but we know that Gabby is an Amazon Prncess.Amazons have their own
resting places for eternity...we see this in Sin Trade.Different tribes have
different places,says the original Cyane.
Why then,does Gabby cross to the Ely. Fields(where else would she go?).
Also,in IDES OF MARCH,she and Xena go to heaven.RenPics gives us data then
ignores it in future shows.
Despite it all,I liked the show a lot,and there was fine acting from both
Gabby and Xena.The moral about the uselessness of war was apparent,but it
was well-done.
What did Andrew think of this one?
M*A*S*H gets the Xenaverse treatment in the final episode of Season 1 - and a dramatic finale it is.
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XENA AND GABRIELLE
Xena just can't resist a challenge, even an accidental one like Gabrielle's comment that she can't stop a war. This is a trait she'll learn to regret before the episode is over.
Xena's "many skills" get a real workout in this episode. She stitches wounds, amputates a leg, performs a tracheostomy with her breast dagger (good thing Gabby bought it, huh?), organises triage, hypnotises a patient, delivers a centaur baby by caesarian section and unwittingly discovers CPR! By the way, cobwebs DO make a good clotting agent in an emergency.
Gabrielle begins the task of reforming General Marmax, telling him one of her stories and finishing with the sound advice "Life is only what you make of it." Xena is later able to follow up on this. Democritus is impressed by Gabrielle's bedside manner - when he's not being impressed by her beauty, that is! I love Gabby's contemptuous little snort, "Men!"
Being such a sensitive soul, Gabrielle takes it very hard when she loses a patient, despite Xena's best efforts to comfort her. She then goes out alone to rescue a missing child. Impulsive and ill-advised, perhaps, but totally in keeping with her nature. How did such a great heart ever fit in such a small body?
I still remember my sense of shock when I first saw Gabrielle stretchered back into the temple. Renee O'Connor is very terrific in this scene, giving the impression that she's in almost too much pain to breathe. Also established here is the fact that Gabrielle would sooner die than take a life. She knew how to kill the Mitoan who attacked her - she simply chose not to.
Xena realises she made a mistake in getting involved in the war, saying "My pride may have killed my best friend." Such confessions come hard for the Warrior Princess, but it's clearly heartfelt.
The delivery of Ephiny's baby is very well handled. There's a look of pure joy on Xena's face as she lifts him out.
What comes next is really harrowing. Xena has many skills, but she can't bring back the dead, and when Gabrielle goes into cardiac arrest the Warrior Princess is helpless. The first time I saw this episode I was horrified. With no spoilers to help me out, and remembering Tasha Yar's fate in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", I feared we'd seen the last of Gabrielle. I still get tears in my eyes today, thanks to Lucy Lawless's affecting performance. It would have been so easy to ruin this scene, but Lucy plays it perfectly. For the first time we see Xena totally crushed by grief, and we see also just how emotionally dependent on Gabrielle she has become.
Spare a thought also for Renee O'Connor, who makes a very convincing corpse! When she finally revives, she genuinely looks as if she doesn't know where she is or what happened. Xena's expression of joyful disbelief is just beautiful. The best part for me is that Gabby was saved by a sheer fluke - even Xena calls it a miracle!
Just for the record, Gabrielle was on the "Other Side" for 2 minutes 26 seconds. Whilst there she saw Talus, her lost love from DEATH IN CHAINS.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
The opening shots are pretty spooky. A similar effect would be used later in GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN.
Ray Woolf is excellent as General Marmax, a decent man turned savage by war and the murder of his family. For all his ruthlessness, he's clearly popular with his men - I like the way he holds a wounded soldier's hand while Xena operates. He's genuinely shocked when he learns how Phantes died, and it's Ephiny who completes the work started by Xena and Gabrielle. His look of wonder when Ephiny's baby is born mirrors Xena's own, and he thoughtfully asks Xena to tell Gabrielle that he found the "inner peace" she spoke of in her story.
Galen - what a pompous ass! Still, he learns his lesson eventually. Democritus and Gabrielle are obviously kindred spirits - even with an arrow in his chest he's more concerned about her welfare than his own. Hippocrates proves to be an able student, and now we know where he got the idea for his Oath!
It's hardly surprising Galen refers to Xena as a "harlot". The only women normally found in a war zone would have been camp followers, a euphemism for prostitutes. Perhaps he mistook Xena's armour for "warrior chic"?
Ephiny plays a small but important role, reminding us of Gabrielle's status as an Amazon Princess. It's interesting to see that the member of Melosa's tribe with the greatest hatred of centaurs eventually married one. The scene of her holding her baby son's hands as he learns to stand is beautiful.
LITTLE PROBLEMS
Xena removes Marmax's helmet and cloak right in front of the temple. I'm surprised the guards didn't notice.
Centaur pregnancies puzzle me. Allowing for an average of two episodes per Xenaverse month, this story occurs only seven months after HOOVES AND HARLOTS, yet Ephiny has had time to fall in love with Phantes, marry him and carry a baby to full term. Centaur children grow very quickly - I can only imagine the same applies to their fetal development.
Marmax is slow to realise that Xena put that hole in his shoulder, especially when she offers to give him a matched set! Mind you, between being clobbered with a chakram and falling off his horse he's probably concussed.
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This episode ties with SINS OF THE PAST as my favourite of Season 1. Watching it again reminds me of how good the series USED to be, before Xena became a self-righteous parody of her former self and Gabrielle lost so much of her endearing spirit. Why TPTB felt they had to sacrifice the characters in favour of special effects and grandiose story arcs is beyond me.
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