Remember Nothing

Here's an episode I didn't like very much the first time I watched it. I dunno why, it just didn't sit with me well. But I've watched it several times since then, and each time I watch it, I like it a little bit more. It's a sad episode in many senses, but it also has some happy moments in it as well.

This second episode in Season Two was a good one in many ways. It starts off with Xena and Gabby going to the temple of the Fates,a thing Xena does each year to show her respects to her dead brother Lyceus. A gang of thugs attack the temple,for what reason we are never told. Gabby fights with her staff while Xena fights bare-handed and also with a sword.

It is confusing,because with all these thugs running around chasing the worshippers,not many really attack Xena...her back is to them as she fights karate-like with one guy...anyone could have stabbed her in the back.

She fends off the attackers,and at the last,kills a thug who attacks her. She stabs him with a sword. His helmet falls off and it is a mere youth,but he is man enough to attack and try to kill her or others. Gabby marvels that he is just a boy,so Xena re-enters the temple and asks the Fates to change things so that the youth would be alive again.The Fates do this as a thanks for saving their temple. She never did this in her long history of being the Destroyer of Nations,but now she feels remorse.

The three Fates tell her that she will not be the Warrior Princess,but will be the old Xena before she spilled blood in anger. Xena agrees,and as she leaves the temple,Gabby is nowhere to be seen. She does see her now-alive brother Lyceus,who is puzzled as to why Xena is so glad to see him.

The title bothers me....Remember Nothing.She remembers everything,and the Fates keep reminding her of what will happen if she spills blood...she will return to her warrior-ways. In this world,Cyrene,Xena's mom,is dead and Gabby is not there. Xena is also engaged to Mathius,who can't understand why Xena acts cooly towards him.

Xena mentions that Lyceus is all the family she has,omitting her other brother Toris.Why?

Mathius tells Xena that Cortese keeps interfering with the rebuilding of Amphipolis,and Xena also learns that Cyrene died because she lost everything in the town's demise.

If the Destroyer of Nations does not exist now,what happened to Borias and Alti,and all the other characters? This is a prelude to When Fates Collide,I believe,tho a few seasons early.

Enter Gabby: She is a slave to Mezentius,whom Xena killed in The Path Not Taken. He wants a three-way alliance with Krakus and another bad guy to take over the land. Gabby spits in his wine and lets a dog lick the bread she serves him as a way of protest.

Mezentius says that his spies tell him that the Amphipolis folks ran off when Cortese attacked,but then we hear that Lyceus fought and then ran. Xena never fought,and we never hear of the other brother Toris,who must have run too.

Xena wants to make friends with the new Gabby,who does not believe that Xena is for real. Anyway,after some convincing,Xena devises an escape plan. Gabby will be tossed up the chimney,the exact opposite of her coming down the chimney in A Solstice Carol. Xena also goes up the chimney the same way,due to a seesaw plank,and the girls land in a hay wagon outside the castle. What perfect timing.

At Xena's place,Gabby is transformed from a plain gray slave to a beautiful young woman,and Lyceus is making eyes at her. When she is finally relaxed and sees she is free,it all comes apart. The door is opened,and Mathius comes in with guards to re-capture Gabby,whom Mezentius calls "Sweet Thing." The guards grab everybody,and Mathius realizes too late he has been betrayed. He wanted to save Xena by giving up Gabby.

There is the dungeon scene next,and the three captives are hanging from steel baskets. Lyceus tries to cut thru the metal lock with his medallion,and Xena tries to tell him that she didn't want to fight,but cannot say why. Gabby is crying and does not know whether to thank Xena for the few hours of freedom or hate her for it.

Mathius,in disguise,comes to the prison and says that Lyceus is wanted by the bad guys.Why was he let loose? He attempts to kill the guard,and they fight. A dagger is thrown and Xena catches it,throwing it across the room and cutting the rope holding her steel basket. Once again airborne,she hits the floor,unhurt,and the basket falls apart. She and Mathius lower Gabby and Lyceus to the floor. Mathius just pulls out a pin,and the cage door opens for Lyceus...I guess he couldn't see the obvious.

While Xena,Gabby,and M. talk,Lyceus takes off to fight the bad guys alone. The other three go to the hall where the three groups of thugs are celebrating their alliance.

Lyceus starts the fight...the feasting thugs sort of stand around and are ordered to fight.One group of thugs are wearing chainmail masks,so it is hard to see how they can eat and drink.

The armor the thugs wear looks as if it is made of warped cardboard....pretty poor realism.Xena does her karate moves and stomps bad guys while M. and Lyceus fight with weapons. Gabby grabs a sword as Mezentius attacks her,and she stabs him to death,losing her blood innocence. She looks at the bloodied sword with satisfaction,after all the times she had been whipped and mistreated by the thug.She said,"Here's your Sweet Thing" with real hate.

Xena finally heeds Lyceus' advice and let Destiny take over. Xena kills a thug and is instantly brought back to the present,and the current Gabby is there,warning Xena of the attacking youth.Instead of killing him again,she makes him promise to give up crime...he agrees and runs away.

Xena hugs Gabby amd Gabby wants to know why. Xena says it is because of Gabby just being herself.

I liked the realism of the scenery,the Amphipolis reconstructed,with the peasant women singing as they harvest the crops. The storekeeper was a good secondary character,and the whole town semed to know Xena.Xena also looked good in her dress and her hair was sort of "up",a new look.

Mostly,tho,I liked Xena's attempt to convince the alter-Gabby that Xena only wanted to be her friend,but Gabby had her doubts and trusted nobody. Xena proved herself,and the plot worked out in that respect..Remember Nothing was the wrong title,since Xena remembered everything. A better title would have been Anti-Warrior Princess.

Here are Andrew's thoughts:

Xena learns the meaning of the old saying "Be careful what you wish for - you may get it" in one of my favourite Season 2 episodes.

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XENA AND GABRIELLE

It's touching to learn that Xena commemorates Lyceus' death every year, and hardly surprising that she feels guilty if he was as young as the boy she kills early in the episode. Her determination to preserve Gabrielle's blood innocence is clearly mixed up with her guilt over Lyceus and what she herself later became.

Xena does a great variant of her "wall of death" routine when fighting Caputius' men. She uses two uprights, making her moves much less predictable. Capoiera, the style of fighting she and Caputius use, was taken to Brazil by African slaves. As demonstrated here, the feet are the main offensive weapons.

It's quite amusing to see Xena almost gritting her teeth in an effort not to smack people around, something we'll see again in A SOLSTICE CAROL. Her warrior instincts are a real hindrance in her new life. She has other problems, too. Lyceus is alive, but Cyrene is dead and Gabrielle is a slave. Xena could open a travel agency specialising in guilt trips!

The change in Gabrielle is shocking - full marks to the makeup department for actually making Renee O'Connor look plain! Bitter, cynical and dispirited, this Gabrielle is a world removed from the cheerful, optimistic bard we've come to love. She's still smart, however, and she reports the plans of Krykus and Mezentius to Xena. While Lucy Lawless plays the same old Xena - albeit one trying to pretend she's something she's not - Renee O'Connor has to play a totally different character, and does as excellent job.

I love Xena's escape from the kitchen - it's totally impossible, of course, but great fun! There's another touching moment when Xena tells Gabrielle "You remind me of my best friend", calling her "the purest, the kindest person I've ever known, someone who's full of wonder and stories and who would never give up on anything - or anyone."

When Gabby appears wearing Cyrene's dress, her old "light" is back and she and Lyceus obviously find each other attractive. This is spotted by Xena, who seems quite happy about it. In the final battle it's the sight of Gabrielle quite deliberately killing Mezentius that proves too much for Xena, driving her to shed blood and restore the previous timeline. Although Xena appears to be the central character this story is really about Gabrielle, hardly surprising when you consider it was written by Steven L. Sears and Chris Manheim, who between them produced the best Gabrielle-centred stories of Season 1.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

The 3 Fates are correctly represented as the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone, and the closing credits give their proper names - Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.

Okay, NOW we know why Xena misses Lyceus so much! Aaron Devitt is perfectly cast, and I liked him from his very first scene. Lyceus is brave, clever, cheerful, optimistic - doesn't he sound a lot like a certain bard we all know? This helps to explain why Xena let Gabrielle tag along with her at the beginning. She saw Gabby as a surrogate for the brother she lost all those years ago.

When Lyceus notices Xena staring at him he asks "Is my face dirty or something?" This great throwaway line links directly to SINS OF THE PAST. When Xena brushed the dirt from Lyceus' sarcophagus she said "You always did have trouble keeping your face clean."

Guilt seems to run in the family, as Lyceus blames himself for Cyrene's death. In this reality, HE led the defence against Cortese, which should make Xena feel better. She didn't get him killed - he would have fought anyway.

I like the gate guard's warning against drunken driving!

MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS

"Glede Ma Glede", always associated with Amphipolis, is heard once more. The haunting "At Mother's Tomb" would be used to great effect in many later episodes.

FAMILIAR FACES

Only a week after appearing as Dagnon in ORPHAN OF WAR, Mark Ferguson reprises his earlier role as Krykus from HOOVES AND HARLOTS. Stephen Tozer reappears as Mezentius, killed by Xena in THE PATH NOT TAKEN.

LITTLE PROBLEMS

The opening footage is taken from early Season 1, as Gabrielle is clearly wearing her original peasant outfit.

Caputius appears to be unarmed when he attacks Xena. Perhaps he was disarmed by her "wall of death" move, and the sword he later picks up is actually his.

Xena and Maphias have been engaged for something like10 years. Boy, they REALLY don't want to rush into this marriage!

Discussing Xena with Maphias, Lyceus says "She's all the family I've got." What about Toris? Maybe he kept on running and became the "black sheep" nobody talks about.

Why are the guards over Mezentius' gateway facing inwards? Isn't a lookout supposed to look OUT?

Why does Xena still have memories of the previous timeline? If she'd never become a warrior she wouldn't have those memories. Of course, she wouldn't have saved the Temple of the Fates either, which means she wouldn't have had the opportunity to NOT become a warrior in the first place, so - excuse me, I'm just going to lie down for a little while.....

Don't you just HATE paradoxes? Come to think of it, is that actually the plural of paradox? Seriously though, I think the Fates arranged this as a lesson for Xena, demonstrating that the warrior path was the right one for her. This explains why at the end of the episode they gave her the opportunity to spare the boy's life without changing her ways.

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An excellent episode most notable for showing us the man Lyceus would have become had he been spared, and a great performance from Renee O'Connor as the alternate timeline's Gabrielle. It's a real pleasure to watch episodes like this, as the reviews virtually write themselves!

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