Why did TPTB choose to air this one AFTER Ides of March? It kinda messes up the continuity. I would have rather seen this one before Ides of March.
This is one of my least favorite episodes. It is nothing personal against Renee, who does a fine job considering what she has to work with. It's the script. Annie, like Xena, doesn't sleep under covers. She starts out by remembering the fight from Callisto. Love the battle of the eye colors during that…blue vs. green vs. brown. I suppose that's a wig they stuck Lucy in. So Annie's boyfriend is Harry, hmm. I love the standee Annie has in her room! Wish I had one of that kind! And I love her realistic looking sword too! Apparently, Annie is already obsessed. Why wouldn't Harry have guessed that? "Annie, you need a rubdown after a game of croquet." Hey! Annie grins just like Xena does! I wish they would have given Renee a more traditional episode to direct. Xena…with a purse? "Joan of Arc? Xena of Amphipolis". Classic! Harry doesn't even seem to pay attention to the sounds of the sword fight. Annie and Joan sound like they're fighting way far away. Annie has to admit, "Yeah, that's good, Joan. You've still got it." Check out Joan's line, "You're obviously a lover; not a fighter." Annie gets back with "Even rude for a French woman." Later, Annie demands, "What's the matter, you threatened by my old flames?" That cardboard scabbard is SO sad. Annie asks Harry, "Why do you have to be so mean all the time?" There are all those other people who were in the office first, and Annie gets to go first. Matty wants the breath to move through Annie's diaphragm. That earns a strange look from Annie. Heh heh. When Annie goes under, it's straight to the lava pit. Annie: I experienced the whole thing. It broke my heart. I am Xena. Matty was a reject from the 60's. I don't like Salmoneous as a creep. Patton's gone. Where did he go? Now, Custer is there. Harry is hysterical. He fakes a yawn, then does and Indian cry…Whoo whoo whoo whoo! And now, Custer's taking a nap on Harry! Next clip is from Intimate Strangers, where Joxer is left hanging. Annie, when she finds out she's actually Joxer, exclaims, "Ye gods, the horror!" Realizing she's Joxer makes her cry out during the whole commercial break! Annie is miserable: They never should have introduced his character in the first place! And then she calls Joxer "The stupid idiot." Matty told Harry…Woolly Bully…whoops sorry about that! I knew it was going to happen sooner or later! Actually, Matty tells Harry, "I don't think I like your tone, Sir." So now, it's Xena and Gabrielle that's dreaming. And it's In Sickness and In Hell. Matty gets in a great line: No, I don't watch that show. A bunch of chop socky crap." Then Marco (Salmoneous) adds, "You never know about that show. They're sneaky. They'll try anything." Matty is going on and on about the sights and sounds of her vision, and Marco continues: "One week it's melodrama…the next week it's the Three Stooges." Annie even turns on Matty. "Yeah, Doc, what are you afraid of?" Harry zaps into Xena's body in In Sickness. I think Annie reacted more strongly when she learned Harry was Matty. Speaking of which, it makes no sense the way the souls were all twisted around. Annie: Don't worry, I'm going to get us out of this mess." Then thud. She rolls off the couch and hits the floor. Matty sums it all up…"This is a karmic catastrophe." This time, they remember Dinsdale. And suddenly, Annie is convinced it's all a scam. Uh oh, now they're remembering The Quest. How fortuitous! I do really love the dream sequence in this one! Annie: Autolycus and you've both lost what's left of your spongy minds. Annie's crawling around on her knees with her hands tied behind her back. Alas she'd have to do is turn around and let Matty untie her. I can't believe Harry hauled off and hit her! Next up is Return of Callisto, the escape thing. Annie: How can you be Xena? You can't even stay awake during the teaser! Xena WOULD know what color wire it was. So Ares was in Marco's body? Ares needs a serious haircut! Joxer's Xena needs serious work. So Ares was responsible for Y2K? Figures, since it was a lot of hot air for nothing! Harry remembers The Reckoning. Ares: Are we gonna fight again?
A woman looking like Xena, in bed, dreams of the ladder fight in CALLISTO.
She awakens with a man looking like Joxer. These people are known as Annie
and Harry. Harry thinks Annie is having nightmares and suggests she get
professional help.
Since we know almost at once that Annie is really Joxer, why does 'she"
dream of Callisto?
Harry scoffs at the Internet chat rooms and the Xena poster Annie has....she
also has a sword and a Xena-like costume. She thinks that she is a vigilante
fighting crime, as the news reports twice.
Why didn't we see at least one scene where Annie does this heroic stuff?
How do Xena and Joxer have the other's spirits in a DNA-based genotype?
They go to Mattie's place..."Welcome to Who You Used to Be.". Mattie looks
just like Gabby except for darker hair. She also wears hippie-type clothes,
and is running a scam, which is never explained, with Salmoneous.
In the waiting room are a Joan of Arc character, a General Patton, an
American Indian woman, and Buffalo Bill. Annie, the last one to show up, is
taken in first. She had attempted a swordfight with Joan...pretty tame.
These people never speak.
Salmoneous is a desk clerk with nothing much to say or do. The waiting room
with Harry is just plain boring... too much time-lag and no real witty stuff
at all. Enter Mattie (Gabby): she wants to do a regression to previous lives
with Annie, so she does Regression 1: Annie must breathe and Mattie counts
to 10...1-2-3-....it is repeated ad nauseam thru this episode.
Annie sees visions of Hope and Gabby in Sacrifice 2. She said it is like
watching from the outside.
R 2: 1-2-3....(Who wrote this dialogue?)...she sees Joxer hanging from a
rope, and now knows she is really Joxer in spirit. She cries.
Note: On the radio, the vigilante is Joxer in the Xena-body.....how does he
get the skills Xena had? How does Harry look like Joxer, when in Xena
Scrolls, Joxer's descendant sells the Scrolls to Rob Tapert? Now, there is
another look-alike in Harry. Were they related? Annie says his character never should have been introduced in the first place.
R 3: Scenes from In Sickness and in Hell. Mattie says she experienced
something too that time. She also says she never watches the show because it
is so bad...how does she know this?
R 4: Joxer, Xena, and Gabby go back...1-2-3....In Sickness again.
Marco (Salmoneous) has a gun and ties the three up, then sets a bomb to go
off in ten minutes. Why not shoot them or cut their throats? Where are the
others in the waiting room? Annie rolls on the floor to get to the bomb. She
is kicked in the face by Harry, who doesn't want her near the bomb. Mattie
regrets running a scam...she calls it karma.
R 5: 1-2-3-....they are going back to Family Affair... a sad ending... they
think they all know who each is.
R 6: Back...1-2-3...Quest: The kiss between Auto/Xena and Gabby...How does
Joxer know about this? He was not there. Gabby looked her best as the Amazon Queen.
R 7: Return of Callisto: Joxer helps free Xena and Gabby...NOW they are sure
of their real spirits. Harry cuts the ropes with the Chakram, and "he" cuts
the blue wire on the bomb...stopping it at 2 seconds. He says "I have many
skills...."
Sal shows up again, saying he "knew" Xena could do it. He morphs into Ares,
who still wants Xena to join him because of Y2K, or Jan, 2000. The world
will be in chaos (it wasn't) and Xena says no. Ares says he got out of the
tomb, but not how.
R 8: Ares and Xena remember scenes from the Reckoning.
Fight scene: Harry, trying miserably to talk like Xena, fights Ares. Harry
has an umbrella while Ares has Xena's sword. Now, why does Ares want to kill
"her?" There is a clang of swords, while only one sword was used.
Of course, Harry/Xena wins and Ares, defeated as in FURIES, leaves.
Annie had hit him, too. He yells in pain...how can a god feel pain unless he
lost his godlike powers? He still had them.
Harry unties Mattie. Annie says that she and Harry are not made for each
other, and that Mattie is his/her soulmate. Why doesn't Xena know this?
R 9: Scenes from One Against an Army: "Even in death, I will never leave
you." Annie leaves, but not before seeing Xena and Gabby kiss. Annie sings a
variation of the Joxer Song..."Annie Bananie...she kicks fanny." She is
still thinking like a woman, tho she knows she is a man inside. She had
mentioned that she knew Harry was in her underwear drawer...oh, no! He was
in her drawers?!
R 10: Xena and Gabby sit, seeing scenes from Sins and Destiny, among others.
It didn't seem to fit...too disjointed.
Xena calls her 'friend' and they kiss...they know they are really two women,
despite their appearances.
Read the Body-Spirit opinion piece at Shana's site. It will show that you
are who you are INSIDE, despite your DNA, no matter how changed around it
was. Why does Annie think like a girl and Harry think like a man since the
spirit determines who and what you are?
Remember, in LINES, Gabby covers "her" naked chest even tho she was
reincarnated as a man, so her internal spirit is that of a woman. No matter
what she looks like outside, but in Deja Vu, this is scrapped by RenPics.
Xena appears inside Mel Pappas in Xena Scrolls and is a woman, so the
inconsistency and just disjointed writing made this a poor episode. It
should not have been the season-ender...IDES should have been. This demeaned
the whole series and I was surprised the series stumbled on for two more
years.
This is another "clip show" with Renee O'Connor's debut as a director. It
was uneven, and scenes dragged on as if the actors couldn't wait to pick up
their paychecks and go home. Most clips were in the wrong place and took away from the supposed 'action." It was just used as filler.
Gabby: "We never die because we never were born."
Huh?