One Against an Army
This is a beautiful, wonderfully done episode.
And it's so refreshing after all the sadness and tension in the Rift.
It's a good thing Xena doesn't take as long as Gabrielle does to do some of her flipping moves. Her fights would take forever!
Gabrielle made a Xena doll. Too cute!
The doll makes the precarious journey from Gabrielle's cleavage to Xena's mouth and back to Gabs cleavage again.
Love Gabs' "Slow learner, huh, Xena? I had the same problem with basket weaving."
And then she delivers the prophetic statement concerning trying the flip without her staff, "It's not going to kill me."
Xena is looking delightfully smug when she says, "You tried something and you failed. It happens."
Xena comes up with a clever way to get Gabrielle's boots off, as long as it doesn't cause the bard to have a heart attack.
Persians, by the way, are modern day Iranians.
Phiddipides really did run from Marathon to Athens. He collapsed and died. He shoulda listened more closely to Xena.
Lucy says her short a sounds funny. "The pass" sounds like "the piass".
I like Xena's line, "I don't give up my heart to just anyone."
And when Xena says "Oh, haven't I?" when whats-his-face says she hasn't told them her plans, it's easy to tell there's something up.
Why does Xena push the arrow through Gabbers in such an agonizingly slow manner? Usually, she just jabs it through.
Were Persians known to use poisoned arrows? What made Xena smell the tip of the arrow that hit Gabs?
Xena just seared the wound cloth and all. Is that the way she should have done it?
Zacharus? Why do I get the feeling someone who had a son named Zachary made that name up?
Xena is SO smart. She knew Dorian was a spy all along.
She tells Argo to "take care of her" referring to Gabrielle, before she enters the healer's hut.
Gabs tells Xena to do the greater good, but Xena tells Gabrielle she's more important.
This will become a recurring theme during the course of the series.
Gabs wants to know if it's because she's Xena's friend, and Xena snaps back a "yes".
Gabs tries to get Xena to promise her, but Xena can't make herself do it, at least not yet.
Xena didn't seem to be very patient when she tried the Chin trick; she let her temper get the best of her.
Gabs' hallucinating is just too touching. It gets me everytime she says, "I want to be like you."
And Xena's is even more heartwrenching. "And I want to be like you."
Gabs' dream is too real. I don't like seeing Xena getting her throat cut.
Xena looks so peaceful in sleep, with those long eye lashes crescented against her cheeks.
The next morning, Xena decides they are leaving again.
Xena says, "There are always choices."
Then, "I'm done paying for my past mistakes; my responsibility now is you." Why couldn't she have said that in the finale?
Love Xena's line: "You've always said I was the brave one. Look at you now."
And then, the beautiful words, "Even in death, Gabrielle, I will never leave you."
Xena talks to Argo like she's her kid. "Don't you stop for any stallions."
And then "Go on! You do as I say! Go!"
There are a lot of great lines in this one. Next series is
Xena:You're my source, Gabrielle. Don't you know that? I love you, Gabrielle.
Gabrielle: I love you, Xena.
Xena: Till the other side then…we'll be together.
Gabrielle: Till then.
Xena's fight is amazing. The Persians just keep coming and coming.
She's played some home alone in the armory, but most of it is just her.
Gotta love it when the Warrior Princess music kicks in! And Xena gets new strength!
It looks like Xena has blood spilling down her face when she sees Dorian, but it's gone a second later.
She grabs that arrow out of nowhere.
She looks like an animal sniffing that arrow before she plunges it into Dorian. I'm use to her feral looks, but somehow, this one is different.
She has a good time taunting Dorian!
I'd really be afraid there would be more Persians lurking around the armory.
The ending is absolutely perfect:
Gabrielle: Xena?
Xena: Hmm?
Gabrielle: When we get to Thessaly, you still owe me a new pair of boots.
Xena doesn't even blink at that…guess she was expecting it.
This heart warming episode made a lot of progress in reasserting the true friendship that Xena and Gabrielle share.
The dialogue and acting make it a standout among the entire series.
Gary has a few things to say on this one:
This used to be my favorite episode for a lot of reasons, and I will explain
that later.
The story opens with a bored Xena watching a know-it-all Gabby trying to
"the Flip" that Xena does. Gabby has made a Xena-figure to demonstrate how
the flip is done. Xena asks what foot she starts off with, but Gabby makes
fun of the fact that it took Xena 300 attempts to accomplish the flip...Gabby
needs only one shot at it. She wants to do it without the staff, and as she tries it, she really gets off on the wrong foot, falls, and sprains her ankle. This act figures in with why they both cannot stop the Persians the way they wanted later in the show.
Gabby had her typical cute smile and flying long hair in this ep. and I miss
it. She limps along while Xena says she won't remind Gabby that she shouldn't
have tried the flip. Gabby:" You'll work it in."
At a pool of water, the girls see a guy running to them warning them of the
Persians attacking. Xena hears of the defeat of the Spartans, which really
occurred in 480 BC, hundreds of years in the past. The Marathon city-state
was used as the Marathon run, which in 490 BC was to announce the Greek
victory over the Persians. There is a lot of poetic license of a sort in this series.
Xena tells of the pass at Thermopylae(where the Spartans were in 480 BC) and
says she will start a landslide there, forcing the Persian army to go around
it into a trap she will set at Tripolis, which has a militia. This seems
unreal, considering the town looked pretty small and was burned down by the
militia to prevent the Persians from using it. The militia seemed to forget
to burn down the grain barn which had a lot of food an invading army could
use, plus the fact that Xena had weapons there in case she had another army.
She placed the stuff there three years' previously.
Gabby asks if Xena could summon the power she had in China...Xena says she
had a purity of essence then and can't bring it back. What purity? She was a
kidnapper and murderess back then.
Enter Dorian: he is a Persian spy that Xena spots at once, but does not let
on. He tries to steal Argo, but Xena flips up and disarms him. Gabby takes
note of the Flip.
Dorian says the Persians killed the Greeks and he is running for help, but
admits he lied at once. Xena traps him by describing a waterfall where he is
supposed to be from, and he lies about it. She later tells Gabby this.
The girls are ambushed by six Persian scouts, and Xena fights them all while
Dorian stands around. Gabby, on Argo, wanted to fight, but Xena told her to
stay back. Gabby tries to get Dorian to fight and she is hit in the back by
an arrow, which we see later, is poisoned.
Xena takes the arrow out and smells the poison, and knows it is bad...Gabby
needs the antidote in Tripolis. She sends Dorian away to warn Tripolis that she is coming, knowing he will run to the Persians and tell them that Xena will be blocking the pass with a landslide, so the girls don't have to go there and do it as long as the Persians believe it is already done. I think they would have sent scouts to make sure.
The scene where Xena removes the arrow is a good one, played well by
Renee...her screams, while still being brave, made me like her more. This is
one of the first eps. I ever saw, and I admired her for it. The burning stick to seal the wound and slow the poison was pretty gory, and Renee did the scene just right.
We never see the arrow scars on her front or back in future eps.
At Tripolis, the girls see it burned, and the antidote is gone, too. Gabby now
realizes her time is limited. She starts coughing and she gradually appears
more worn and haggard. She tells Xena to go ahead because she is slowing
Xena down. If not for the ankle, they would not have been in the bad
situation.
Note: Why couldn't they both have ridden Argo, since the fate of Greece
depended on them? What is the life of a horse compared to a country?
Gabby wants to stand and fight, and this argument goes on thru the
show...Xena wants to get her to safety and the antidote at another place.
The grainery, unbelievably left standing by the militia, is where they will
make their stand. I would have thought that the Persians would do what the United States did in WW2...island-hop...just bypass one building and go to Athens without
wasting troops and time with one building(or island).
There are good interior shots...the place is filled with grain sacks, and
Xena pries up some boards to get the weapons she put there three years
before...it did not look as if there were enough to equip an army.
Again, Gabby tries to tell Xena to save herself. An angry Xena won't hear of
it. There is a good scene at night when Xena goes outside on the hill to see
about 40 campfires, which Gabby estimates to have at least ten men to a
fire, which makes it about 400 tough guys to fight.
Gabby gets worse...the makeup is great, and her cough is worse, too.She
reminds Xena again about her boots. Xena had tossed the Chakram at Gabby in
a ruse to open the boot so her sprained ankle would be treatable.
It was a bit absurd to do that...why not just say," Take off your boot and
let me look at your ankle."?
Xena makes a litter, which makes Gabby angry...she says to Xena, "you're the
only one" to save Greece. Also,that the first thing is "the greater good."
Xena prepares the weapons for the attack, including some traps when the
Persians invade the barn. She makes deadfalls, and has boiling oil, as well
as arrow traps.
Xena takes a moment to try the China thing with the bottle,fails,and kicks
it as in the Debt. This awakens Gabby, who is delerious,and is thinking that
she is meeting Xena for the first time by asking her to take her with
her...she has studied the stars, spoken with philosophers, and has the gift of
prophecy. When does Gabby ever use that gift in future eps.?
Gabby :I want to be like you...Xena's want to be like YOU.
Gabby has a dream in which the battle has begun, and sees Xena's throat cut
by a guy who jumps thru the roof. She awakens and takes a lock of Xena's
hair in her fingers...Xena is sleeping...it was a touching scene, and
sometimes less is more with just the wistful and sad look by Gabby.
Xena still argues: she says there must be another way to fight the Persians
and save Gabby...she is done paying for her past mistakes...
NOTE: if that is so, why does she have to pay for Japan? She had to stay dead
there to pay for the souls' release. Why be loyal to Japanese
gods, especially when she killed most of the Greek ones?
Gabby says she knew that being with Xena might cause her own death some
day...Xena finally agrees to fight there. She says," even in death,Gabrielle,I will never leave you."
That was a great line, tossed away in Friend in Need, where she does leave her for good.
The leaving-Argo scene was good...Xena knows she will die and wants her
horse free and out of danger. The sun and loneliness of the place made for a
good short scene.
Why does the boiling oil stay so hot well after Xena takes it off the fire?
How does she get it up to the loft? It is heavy, and there didn't appear to
be a pulley...she carries Gabby up the ladder.
Xena:'You're my source" Gabby warns Xena about a guy with a double-edge sword, which I believe
would cover about every sword the show ever had. Xena tells Gabby to dump the oil down the ladder at her signal.
Xena:"You're always looking out for me, huh?"
Gabby:" Always."
Gabby says she didn't mean to hurt Xena in China...Xena forgives her. Xena says Gabby is her best friend and her family....'till the other side, then..." They both know this is the last battle.
The Persians arrive and there are about seven minutes of total action which
follows. Xena gives he battle-cry to get their attention. They fire arrows
at her as she bars the doors. They then burst in and it begins. Xena fights with the Chakram at first, then uses her sword or anyone else's she can grab.
She blows fire on the first ones thru, and then tosses the Chakram at the
window. The sharp points on the trap are shown in one scene to come down on
the bad guys, but then we see it coming UP onto them.
She then uses a mace and chain, and swings it in an arc...then sticks it in
the ceiling, and climbs up, yelling for Gabby to dump the oil.
Note: Why didn't the archers kill her in this vulnerable position?
The oil comes down, and Xena does an unbelievable flip onto the roof to fight
up there. It was a good scene, and Xena's sweaty hair flying, plus her war
cries were great. She sees Dorian trying to stab Gabby, and she jumps down, knocking him to the floor below. She then fights like a berserker, and it was exciting, with the Warrior Princess music, as well as other great music. She is hit from behind
deliberately...not killed. Why?
She jumps up again...the arrow-traps work, killing some Persians, and the
grain sacks knock some out. She uses a spear as a spring, and bounces around
as the attackers look on. I felt that this was a silly scene, considering
that she can do no real damage like this. She grabs an arrow fired at her and sticks it into Dorian...it is poisoned...he scrambles for the antidote and Xena gets it from him. He dies
as a Persian stabs him accidentally.
Xena stops a couple times during the fight to say something, and nobody seems
to attack her with her back turned.
Best line...Xena: "Go home! There are thousands more like me!"
The Persians leave, apparently believing she is a witch or protected by the
gods. She goes to the loft to give Gabby the antidote, and punches out a couple
more Persians. Gabby drinks the antidote, and Xena lies down beside her, exhausted.
Gabby says that she thought the Persians were tough...Xena says she must have caught them on an off-day.
Gabby reminds Xena that she owes her a new pair of boots.
This episode was my favorite, but when Friend in Need came out, it negated all
the great things said and done in One Against an Army. I felt that the show
itself was the best, but knowing it is all false at the end of the series, my
favorite now is Paradise Found.
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