Ulysses
I have read a lot of negative reviews of this episode. I'm not going to say it'ss a terrific episode, not by any means, but I have the feeling
I enjoy it more than the average fan.
One of the reasons for that is simply that the story of Ulysses is one I'm very familiar with. I can remember reading The Oddyssey in
high school, and I always liked the story.
The opening scene is one I like a lot...Gabrielle trying to convince Xena to just stop and smell the flowers.
Xena isn't taking her too seriously though...she seems to be in a somewhat playful mood, but she finally humors the bard.
What does Xena feel when she thinks of seagulls? "I feel irritated because they're so noisy."
Xena literally melts the second she lays eyes on Ulysses. Her whole demeanor shows she is immediately interested in the man, and
not in a platonic way either.
When they finally take off across the sand to aid Ulysses, you'd think superhuman Xena would be way ahead of Gabrielle, but Gabbers
is right at her heels.
Nice intro..."Name's Xena."
"Ulysses...thanks for the help."
"Ah...my pleasure."
"Grab on."
How did Ulysses and Xena know what the other had planned? Ulysses took her hands and put her into an immediate airplane ride,
as though it was a well rehearsed move.
Actually, I can handle the "airplane" ride easier than a lot of Xena's other battle moves.
Why wouldn't Xena know about Ithyca? When Gabs told her about the island, Xena acted as if she was hearing it for the first time.
Even Xena reacted strongly to seeing Poseidon. Is that the first time she met him? Is that an imposter who raises her sword to
the Water God every week in the opening credits?
From the long shots to the closeups, Xena and Ulyssess are standing in two very different spots when they talk to Poseidon.
I get a kick out the of the fact that Xena is impressed that Ulysses blinded a Cyclops. "Done the same myself."
Gabrielle tries to get a rise out of Xena..."What a man", she intones, but Xena's response is "ehh."
But Xena is definitely interested, or she never would have brought up Penelope to Ulysses.
Once again, Xena and Ulysses demonstrate how in tune they are with each other. They are discussing the plans, but really very discussion
is needed, just a confirmation here and there.
The two of them have very good ears...I definitely didn't hear Gabrielle approach them.
Whose plan was it for Gabrielle to dress in that outfit and do that dance?
And where did the wig and her outfit come from?
Xena gives Gabs a look like she's impressed by the bard's dance moves.
What's up with Xena and Ulysses exchange of grins before the fight begins on the boat? Are they looking that forward to the fight?
Gabs seems to be getting in a little practice with her mop moves...She'll use similar tactics in Locked Up and Tied Down.
I always find it odd that Xena uses a board to dispense of some of the bad guys. That doesn't seem to be her style...Dunno why though.
I like the cabin boy's "Yeah!" and jump overboard.
I love the way Xena gets to the top of the mast to release the sail...What a woman! Hey...that's what Ulysses just said! Hee hee.
So, can a ship really go all night witout someone manning her? The anchor had been cut free, remember.
Xena respects Ulysses talking about his "bow", but she doesn't really seem impressed.
It's interesting, when Ulysses thanks Xena she almost looks embarrassed. She gives a little dip of her head.
Ulysses is a good-looking guy, but he looks to blowdried. The actor who plays him is a regular on Comedy Central's hysterical show,
"That's my Bush."
Xena tells Ulysses, "I learned a long time ago not to leave her out of anything." She's refering to Gabrielle, of course. But isn't Xena
constantly leaving the bard in the dark as to her plans?
Has Gabrielle never traveled on a boat before? She's having a rough time!
Xena: All men...I'm not a man.
Ulysses: Yeah, I've noticed.
Xena gives him a very odd look in response to that line. I always wonder why.
Did Gabbers really think she would feel better on the high seas?
Xena is merciless...."Hi Gabrielle, how's it hangin?"
Then later, "Just close your eyes and smell the seagulls."Hmmm...on top of being a cheater, is Ulysses into bondage? I don't remember that from high school!
Gabrielle is SOOOO miserable..."Kill me now!" Hee hee!
The Sirens were too much like the Supremes for me. What was up with that?
Gabrielle tells Ulysses to think of something else to get his mind off the Siren's song. "Like discus throwing." Maybe he should think
about polishing his sword.
I know it isn't real, but the punch Ulysses gives Xena seems very realistic. Xena seems caught off-guard.
Xena's outsinging of the Sirens is a bit much, especailly since she isn't really singing...it sounds to me like she's just stringing a bunch
of nonsense syllables together.
Xena is truly a girl after my own heart...she can even mess up bread and cheese.
It's very obvious that Xena wouldn't fool around wih a married man. I guess she learned her lesson after stealing Borias from
Natasha.
I love her "dunno"'s in this scene...she'll use the line twice.
Ulysses may have found his soulmate in Xena, but it's obvious that the feeling isn't reciprocated. Is that even possible?
She tells Ulysses she has to think about his offer, but gives him her widest grin, which is disconcerting.
The next morning, Xena realizes that Gabrielle has heard it all. Their conversation is very tender:
Gabrielle: Promise me one thing.
Xena: What?
Gabrielle: That you'll follow your heart.
Xena: Gabrielle, you're part of my heart.
Gabbers might have shown Xena how to love, but Xena didn't love Ulysses.
Gabrielle seems all for it though.
I don't know who was more happy to be on dry land, Gabrielle or Ulysses.
Seeing Gabs kiss the ground is disgusting...blech!
The carving didn't look like an eagle OR a fish to me.
I like the little squeaky noises Gabs makes when she fights. She is beginning to enjoy skirmishes as much as Xena does.
I really like the sincerity of Ulysses's friend, Mendacles.
At least some parts of this episode ring true to the epic adventrues of Ulysses.
All Ulysses could talk about on the ship was Ithyca, but suddenly, he doesn't seem to care about it at all.
Once again, Xena couldn't have Ulysses...he just was all wrong for her. And when she said she was embarrassed by his mush,
she may have been telling the truth.
But she gave him a gentle putdown. She just won't let a married man cheat with her.
She couldn't be in love becasue she likes her life the way it is? I'm going to have to think about the logistics of this one.
Xena didn't seem too confident that the three of them could do some good, as Gabs put it.
The faithful dog named Argos is directly from the legend of Ulysses.
What's up with Xena having to help Ulysses string the bow? I'll never figure that out.
How convenient for all the bad guys to line up so Ulysses could shoot through them all.
Ulysses wanting to cheat on Penelope really counted against him, especially in the finals scene. Xena won't really miss him after all,
knowing what a slime he was.
One of the things I like about this episode is the fact that most of it takes place at sea...I love seeing Xena play pirate and she gets
to show off a bit in Ulysses. It's not the greatest episode, but it's certainly entertaining enough for me.
Here are Gary's thoughts:
This was an interesting episode,since I wanted to see how RenPics treated
the hero,Ulysses. There was pretty much a sketchy history of him concerning
Ithica,where he was king,and of his blinding a Cyclops. Other than that,even
the powerful bow he had,not much was in this episode except what I believe
to be a love story gone bad.
Xena and Gabby witness Ulysses fighting a few guys on a beach,but when Gabby
asks Xena why doesn't she help him,Xena wants to wait and watch. When more
bad guys show up,THEN Xena tells Gabby to run with her to Ulysses' aid. The
girls fight well,and somehow Ulysses knows that Xena is going to grab his
hands so that he can swing her around and do her patented kicks at thugs,who
just happen(as usual) to come running one at a time to attack. How does
Ulysses know what style of fighting Xena has?
After making introductions,Ulysses wants to go back home to his kingdom. He
was told that his wife,Penelope,is dead,but he wants to go back anyway and
take his rightful place.
Xena and Gabby agree to go with him. U. has a ship that three people can
sail in the harbor,but the trio must get the thugs off it first.
The plan: Gabby will use her considerable feminine wiles to occupy the
thugs...she will dance,like a western movie saloon girl,who punches guys in
a playful manner. Even so,she knocks some out. Her attire is lots of
scarf-like stuff,and (here I go again) pretty revealing. Good.
The girls,with U.,nail everybody,but when one thug aims a crossbow at
Gabby,Ulysses steps in front of it. Xena chastises him for doing that and
taking the bolt in the shoulder. She says she could have hit the guy with
her Chakram.Note: She says of the Chakram:"It's unique to me."
Too bad we never saw HOW she got it and WHY it works the way it does.Never
happened.
On the trip,Posiedon makes an appearance telling Ulysses he will never make
it. Evidently the Cyclops Ulysses blinded was some relative.
Poseidon tells the Sirens to sing their song to entice U. to steer the ship
to the rocks,sealing his doom.
Xena has Ulyssee tied up to prevent him from doing this,but he escapes by
kicking Gabby pretty badly...even tho he was "brainwashed" by the Sirens'
song,I winced at that. He climbs to the deck and fights Xena for the
wheel,and Xena stops him. He is about to jump to his doom,when Xena starts
singing(a lot better) and he heeds HER song.
I confess,I thought it a pretty bad song...it sounded horrible in one
way...I didn't know at this time Lucy could actually sing for real.
Moving along,Gabby is throwing up a lot. She is seasick and cannot wait
until she gets to land. Xena,in my opinion,could have shown her the pressure point cure THEN instead of in Lost Mariner. I think she was cruel,and she seemed to enjoy Gabby's
plight. Maybe they had a fight,heh-heh,and Xena was getting even.
The trio make it to the island,and Gabby kissed the wet black sand,looking
kinda cute,tho dirty. They walk to the castle,and see a man set upon by some
thugs. The trio stomp them,and learn from the guy they save that Penelope is
alive,and that Poseidon had lied.
Backtracking,on board ship,Xena dressed The wound U. received,and he starts
feeling affection towards Xena. She likes him,too,and by the time they make
it into the castle,U. says he is in love with her. Xena does a really cruel
put-down with him. She says so what if she kissed him and smiled at
him...that does not mean she is in love with him. I think she really WAS in
love then anyway,but couldn't bring herself to steal a man from his
wife,even tho he said he didn't love Pen.,and that he was gone for ten years
on his Odyssey.Note: Xena steals Borias from his son and wife in the
backstory in Last of the Centaurs.
He also learned from his servant,that a band of pirates want to get one of
their number to marry Pen,so that they will rule Ithica and set up a
permanent operation there.
Xena and Gabby disguise themselves as servants and sneak into the main hall.
Pen is there and says she will marry the man who can string Ulysses' bow,a
tough thing to do. A few try and fail,but U,dressed as a peasant,strings
it,with Xena's help. She had crawled under the table and helped bend the
bow,unseen by everybody. Ulysses and the girls then proceed to wipe out the
pirates. Three of them stand in a line so that one arrow shot by U. gets all
three. It reminds me of Maleagher throwing the spear thru three thugs in The
Prodigal.
Note: U's dog,after ten years,comes over for a pat on the head,but U sends
him away so as not to give him away. What a reward for such faithfulness.
Note:two pirates could have strung the bow at any time,if that was the
reason to be the king.They could have uses the same trick Xena used,right?
One then could have rewarded the other for his help.
Xena made a strange comment to U: she never would never leave Gabby out of
things,but we see this time after time thru the series.
At the end,Xena leaves,convincing that U. is needed there with his wife to
rule. I think Xena felt bad it didn't work out with him...he was her
type...a hero in the true sense of the word.
Anyway,I like shipboard shows,and we will see others later,with Gabby not
being seasick except in Who's Gurkhan?,where Gabby forgets how to use her
pressure points. Strange.
And what did Andrew think?
Xena and Gabrielle encounter one of the great heroes of the Trojan War, and Gabby learns that she and sea voyages do NOT go well together!
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XENA AND GABRIELLEGabrielle is clearly onto a loser as she tries to bring out Xena's more spiritual, less practical side in the opening scene. When Xena sees Ulysses fighting three pirates she's in no hurry to help, and clearly enjoys watching a skilled swordsman who can more than hold his own.
Gabby's fighting style is definitely becoming more athletic and inventive, improvising with a mop and later a chair to defeat her opponents. She deals with a pirate who disarms her, leapfrogging him before recovering her staff.
Gabrielle also has the funniest scenes in the episode. Her slightly panic-stricken "I'm thirsty!" is a hoot, as is the way she decks several pirates who get too fresh during her belly-dancing act. A good example:
Pirate: "Like it rough, do ya?"
Gabby: "LOVE it!"
CRUNCH!!!
Her later run-in with seasickness is also funny, with requests ranging from "Xena, would you mind knocking me unconscious?" to the more urgent "Please, kill me!" Despite this she refuses to leave, and Xena knows better than to try and make her go.
It's clever of Xena to break up the Sirens' harmonies by adding her own, oddly discordant, vocals. Her singing actually sounds Thracian (ie, Bulgarian), a nice touch.
Gabrielle is clearly affected by the prospect of Xena's romance with Ulysses breaking up their partnership, but tells her friend "Follow your heart, and don't worry about me." She also quickly realises that Xena's lying when she tells Ulysses she doesn't love him.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONSFor some unknown reason the Ithacan King is given his Roman name of Ulysses. The Greeks knew him as Odysseus. He's smart, a good fighter, and confident to the point of cockiness. No wonder Xena finds him so attracive - they're two of a kind!
Poseidon has a grudge against Ulysses because the hero blinded his son, Polyphemus the cyclops. This event is described in Homer's epic "The Odyssey". The scene where Ulysses strings his bow then use it against Penelope's suitors is also accurate (apart from Xena's intervention), as is the moment when his old dog Argus recognises him.
MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS"Stowaway" from DESTINY is used to good effect in this episode, notably when clearing the pirates from Ulysses' ship.
LITTLE PROBLEMSWhy do Xena's opponents always fall for the "wall of death" attack? All they have to do is stay back so she has no one to kick!
It's clearly a sunny day when the episode begins, yet when Poseidon appears the sky has turned grey and stormy. Also, Xena and Ulysses have been suddenly transplanted from the beach to a rocky headland. Gabrielle, on the other hand, remains where she is.
Why is Poseidon the only god to take on such a dramatic appearance? All the others appear as normal sized humans - OK, in one case a giant chicken, but that was a very strange episode...
Didn't the pirates ever stop to ask themselves what an itinerant belly-dancer was doing out there in a canoe? Come to think of it, where did Gabrielle get the outfit? From her baggage? From Xena's? From Ulysses'? The mind boggles!
After Ulysses gets shot Xena tells him "I would have gotten him with my chakram". The chakram is in her hand just before the arrow is fired, yet she doesn't throw it at the pirate as he draws his sword to kill Ulysses. Instead, she wastes time closing to finish him hand-to-hand, and the chakram has magically transferred itself back to her belt. She then forces the arrow through from the front - why? The head is clearly protruding from behind Ulysses' shoulder. It would have been much easier to pull it through.
Ships in those days didn't have wheels or rudders. Steering was achieved by using two large oars with tillers.
Somehow I've never imagined the Sirens as a 60s-style girl group!
The main problem with this episode is that everything is too rushed, especially the Xena-Ulysses romance. If the story had been spread over two or even three episodes, there would have been time for the relationship to develop in a convincing manner, and for the trio to battle more mythical foes (Circe the sorceress and the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis spring to mind). As it is the plot seems contrived, a weakness of many R. J. Stewart stories.
Ulysses actually took ten years to reach his homeland of Ithaca, by which time his son Telemachus was a grown man.
I'm sure Ulysses wouldn't have been able to draw such a powerful bow with that shoulder wound. Oddly enough, in the final scene he's still wearing his bloodstained tunic. The ship has a new crew and has presumably been re-provisioned - you'd think he's have taken the time to change his clothes!
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This story is a wasted opportunity. So much more could have been made of it, but too much was crammed into a single episode. Having said that, I don't believe it deserves its WHOOSH! readers'rating as one of the six worst XWP episodes ever made. I think that has more to do with Xena's overtly heterosexual behaviour than anything else. At any rate, a much better nautical adventure comes up in a couple of weeks.
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