Motherhood

What does Gary have to say?:

 

Xena and Gabby watch a wretched and barefoot Eve stumble thru the desert. Since Eve/Livia killed Joxer, Gabby is not so sure Eve can be helped. Xena says Eve was as lost as she was, but Xena got cured because she had Gabby to

help her.

 

In Olympus, Ares says Livia is Eve. Also present are Discord, Aphrodite, Artemis, and Athena. Athena says the way to Eve is thru Xena. Her plan is to use the Furies to corrupt Gabby to kill Eve. Xena will not suspect her friend. Aphrodite doesn’t want Gabby hurt because she likes the “Little One.”

 

Nomads attack Eve, and Xena’s Chakram splits up and cuts a spear in three pieces. Xena and Gabby run to help Eve, but they are outnumbered. The girls kill a lot of  these guys, who are after Eve for her slaughtering their families. Xena again judges all, even tho she said Najara was wrong doing this. Najara killed evil people. Xena kills the victims’ surviving families.

 

Eve is now dragged behind a horse, just like she did to Xena a while ago. Xena throws the Chakram, which Eve catches, in an attempt to cut her from the net. Now Xena gets on a horse and gives chase. Gabby does the same thing and follows. Xena stops the horse and lets Eve loose. Eve says she wants to die for her past crimes. Xena says “never!”

 

Now the three Furies start nagging Gabby , saying Xena likes Eve better, and how can Xena save a killer like her? Xena will break Gabby’s heart (or her head, as we will see). The Furies enter Gabby’s head. They want to make Gabby jealous of Eve.

 

An old woman offers the three her home for the night. She is an Eli defender. Xena has her doubts if Eve can really be saved. The Furies still nag Gabby.

 

The woman mentions a ceremony of cleansing by a guy they call “the Baptist.” This is a lot like John the Baptist in the Bible.  The next day, they go to the ocean where the baptisms are taking place. It looked a lot like the Urn of Apollo ceremony. Eve goes to the water and is dunked, becoming clean again. She is reborn into the way of love. Why doesn’t Xena go thru this

ceremony? She didn’t want to in Forgiven, so a good scene would have been for her to go thru with it with her daughter.

 

At that moment, a flame column with a face on it comes to Xena. Xena says ‘okay…if that’s the way it must be, then I’m ready.”  The Furies continue their nag.

 

Now Poseidon erupts from the sea, growling. Five Greek gods appear a distance from Xena and her group. They are there to kill Eve. NOTE: Since all gods can shoot fireballs while invisible, why didn’t they all crowd around Eve and kill her at once in that way?

 

The gods all toss fireballs and miss Xena. What poor shots, all thru the series. Xena deflects one fireball and it hits Poseidon, killing him. NOW WAIT A MINUTE! This god is made of WATER and the flame should have been put out. We have seen Ares hit with a fireball by Hera and Callisto, with no killing effect. This is a gross error in the show.

 

Dumb old Discord attacks with her sword, and Xena cuts the woman’s head off. Athena, on her throne, feels a shaking as each god dies. A different-looking Hephestas throws his ax at Xena, who throws it back, killing him easily. Now Athena appears, saying she knows Xena can now kill gods, but does not ask HOW. Xena scoops up the chains of Hephestas, in some nebulous plan. Xena tells them to back off or she will kill them all.

 

Athena scolds the other gods, saying they should have let the Furies do their work and no other gods would have had to die.

Gabby asks Xena how she can kill gods now. Xena says a spirit sent by Michael the Archangel sent it so that Eve could prepare the way for the rule of GOD THE FATHER. This has to be a Christian reference. As long as Eve lives, Xena has the power.

 

They go back to the village where Joxer’s place is. Virgil is there and sees Eve. He tries to kill her but Xena stops him. He says Meg was in real  pain with Joxer’s death, and took Virgil’s brothers and sisters away to see relatives. He has to have at least two brothers and two sisters. Meg couldn’t have kids, remember, so this has to be a five-time miracle.

 

Virgil says his dad brought joy to everyone he met. Well, not everyone…he was boring and obnoxious, but did save the girls in return of Callisto. Xena understands Virgil’s hatred of Eve. Virgil will leave to go to Athens to be with his mom. He hugs Gabby goodbye and goes.

 

There is a storm. Eve reads the scrolls Gabby showed her. She thanks Gabby for writing down Xena’s exploits. Xena looks out a window to see Ares standing in the rain looking at her.  Xena tells Gabby to watch the back door so Xena can ask what Ares wants this time. Joxer’s ghost suddenly appears to Gabby. He falls as usual and looks young again. We never know WHY or HOW he is there. He said he is dead and Gabby “let” Livia kill him. She is about to protest this when the Furies, along with Hope appear and all work on Gabby, trying to get her to kill Eve while Ares distracts Xena. Hope is wearing a hideous rayon wig, not looking good as when her hair was real.

 

Outside, Ares says he will not kill Xena…he loves her. Joxer leaves (why have him there anyway?)  and Hope and the Furies all goad Gabby into killing Eve. Hope had chanted “do it, mother…do it for Xena.”

 

Xena realizes something is wrong because Ares leaves. She runs into the tavern and sees Gabby about to stab Eve from behind with a sais. Gabby stabs her just before Xena’s Chakram cuts Gabby’s head badly. The woman falls to the floor as Eve cries out in pain. Xena goes to EVE first, then to Gabby. Both are dying. The Furies left Gabby’s head after the incident. Somehow Xena guesses it was the Furies behind this. How can she guess this?

 

Xena tries to cure both victims and Eve is real pain and is losing a lot of blood. Gabby  is out cold. NOTE: Couldn’t Xena have just knocked the sais out of Gabby’s hand as we have seen her do to countless others in the series?

 

At Olympus, Athena says Xena is just distracted. She now orders a full-scale attack. The gods want to kill  Eve in a four-to-one attack against Xena. The Olympus scene showed at least thirty more gods and goddesses before. The gods throw the useless fireballs at Xena, Gabby, and Eve. They all miss, and Xena’s Chakram bounces all over the place, keeping the gods off balance. I wish we knew how it never loses momentum and can bounce off something or kill it in any given scene.

 

Aphrodite appears and wants to help Gabby, her favorite. Aph takes Gabby to another part of the burning building….why not to some convenient cave (they  are in so many episodes) and come back for Xena and Eve?  She could have taken all three, as we will see.

 

Hades tosses fireballs and Xena deflects one with her shield. Hades advances on Xena, who drinks some booze and spits it at Hades, lighting the stuff on fire. He dies horribly. Why not just disappear? Athena could have cured all the wounded or slain gods. Ares did in Reckoning with the three farmers he murdered.

 

Aph tries to help Eve as Xena goes out for round two. Artemis hits Xena in the stomach with her arrow, but Xena pulls it our as if nothing has happened. HOW? SHE JUST CAN’T DO THAT! She is not even slowed down. In

Chariots of War, she is hit with an arrow and is knocked down and out.

 

Ares now is there and sees Eve. He draws his sword to kill her. A wagon blows up and kills another god. Athena disappears. Xena throws the Chakram, knocking his sword away. NOTE; As we have seen in Ten Little warlords, when Ares is deprived of his sword, HE LOSES HIS GODLIKE POWERS. Ares gets a cut on his arm by the Chakram. He and Aph disappear.

 

As the building burns in the rainstorm, Xena drags Gabby out  by her arm thru the mud. Xena is helping Eve to walk. Xena calls Gabby the most pure thing in her life and calls Eve” my great hope.” Hope, huh? Gabby had “Hope” too.

 

Aphrodite appears in the rain and says she can’t cure the girls without Athena’s blessing---nobody can. Xena asks the goddess to take them all to Olympus to make a deal. Aph agrees and they are in Olympus at once.

 

Xena looks ridiculous in this scene. She is still dragging the dying Gabby by her arm on the ground, and is holding up Eve. She also carries the chains of Hephestas, and has her Chakram, sword, and somehow can hold a crossbow. Aph says ‘bye, Little One” to Gabby as she leaves at Xena’s request. Eve calls Xena “mother” for the first time. She says she likes spiders, as Xena

says she likes them, too. This was a weird exchange at a bad time.

 

Ares is there and says “you’ve got quite a load.” No kidding. He says he will make Xena a god and save Gabby, but Eve still has to die. Xena responds by shooting him in the leg with the crossbow. He yelps that NOBODY does that to the God of War. Xena then tosses the chains of Hes. around him and REALLY has a handful to take care of.

 

Athena sees this scene and looks bored and amused at the same time. Artemis is hiding in the wings with her bow and arrows.

 

Xena’s deal to Athena: cure the girls and she will leave the gods alone. Artemis shoots two arrows at Xena, who catches them and throws them at her, killing her. IMPOSSIBLE! A hand-thrown arrow at that distance can’t have enough velocity and mass to kill. Why does Atremis die when Xena didn’t, from the same kind of arrow?

 

Athena throws fireballs (boring) as Eve dies. Athena and Xena fight with swords and Xena stabs Athena, who is unaffected. This is because Eve is dead and Xena’s power to kill gods is gone. Ares crawls in chains to put his hands on the dead Eve and Dying Gabby. A glow appears and they girls are cured. This resembled what Eli and Callisto did in Fallen Angel.Doesn’t the chain stop the god’s powers? We saw that in Looking Death in the Eye.

 

Xena stabs Athena again, this time wounding her. The dying Athena condemns Ares for healing without her permission. He says he has ‘a thing” for Xena. I’ll bet. He gave up his immortality to heal them and he loves Xena. Athena dies.

Note: In Reckoning, Ares had to resurrect the three farmers he murdered in an instant. He did not ask Athena for her blessing and did not lose his immortality. What a screw-up in the story-line. Ares does not seem to mind that he helped kill off his own family. Xena thanks him.

 

At the end, Gabby, Eve, and Xena watch a spider run around in Eve’s hand. It runs onto Xena’s hand, too. Xena loves spiders. Remember in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun when she stabbed one with a dagger? She LOVED that one!

Eve apologizes for Joxer’s death….Gabby just says he is at peace now. Well, why was he at the tavern accusing Gabby?

 

Gabby says “you got your daughter back.”

Xena says “we got OUR daughter back.”

 

End of Season 5.

 

Comments: Xena should not have been able to be hit with Artemis’ arrow and pulled it out, let alone live. Hope was wasted, and we should have seen her in a more important role. Did she work with the Greek gods? Her dad, Dahak, was going to kill the Greek gods, so why was she helping them? Also, Gabby’s being dragged thru the mud like a sack was demeaning.