Never afraid to go a little meta, Xena: Warrior Princess saw one of its strangest — and most hilarious — episodes in “You Are There.” The premise of the episode is that a modern day reporter ends up in Xena’s time to find out the truth behind the woman and her legendary adventures
Michael Hurst (yes, Iolaus himself) guest stars as Nigel, the award-winning investigative journalist sent to discover the truth about the warrior princess.
The episode “Intimate Strangers,” where Xena switches bodies with Callisto, was written because Lucy Lawless had shattered her pelvis falling from a horse and couldn’t perform her regular duties. |
Nigel speaks to nearly everyone that’s a major player in Xena’s life, including her friends, her foes, and various gods and goddesses from Mount Olympus. Nigel goes as far as to speak to archangel Michael and even Lucifer himself, trying to get the answers to his questions.
Over the course of the episode, which does have am actual plot, believe it or not, Nigel learns who the real Xena is. But it isn’t until the end that he really touches on what everyone wants to know: Are Xena and Gabrielle lovers? Unfortunately, just as Xena is about to answer, the batteries in the camera go dead and the shot fades to black.
The most emotional moment of Xena: Warrior Princess comes at the very end of the final episode, “Friend in Need, Part 2.” Xena had to be dead in order to fight and defeat Yodoshi, and that’s exactly what she did. The battle at the end is one of the biggest (and most fiery) in the series, but the moment that really brought tears to our eyes was the quiet exchange between Gabrielle and Xena afterward.
After Xena defeated Yodoshi, Gabrielle tries to bring her back to life with a ceremony involving Xena’s ashes and the Fountain of Strength. Before she does that, however, Xena stops her. The souls she saved will only stay that way if Xena remains dead. While Gabrielle says she doesn’t care, in her heart she knows what must happen — Xena must not be resurrected, and Gabrielle must continue their adventures without her.
“I’ll always be with you, Gabrielle. Always.” -Xena |
But all is not lost. Even though Xena is no longer with Gabrielle in her physical body, she remains with her in spirit. Gabrielle seems happy — as much as she can be, at least, given the circumstances — and talks about heading to Egypt in order to help the people of that land. “I hear they need a girl with a chakram.”
There were quite a few big twists over the course of the series, but one of the most shocking ones was the end of “The Deliverer.” During this episode, Xena is still hunting Caesar, and she would do anything to get to him. Her lust for his destruction blinded her in many ways, and perhaps if she had been more cool-headed, she would have listened to Ares, who was actually the voice of reason for once.
Instead, Xena turns her attention on Caesar and doesn’t realize until it’s too late that Gabrielle is in danger. Having been tricked by Krafstar into believing that he belongs to the religion of the One God, it isn’t until she stabs a worshipper in self defense that everything is revealed to her. And the consequences of this one moment change Gabrielle forever.
Most of the extras were Kiwis, since the show was shot in New Zealand. They all had a dialect coach to teach them to speak with American accents, with “Southern California” being their dialect goal. |
Having killed the woman who was worshipping a demon god (and not the One God as Krafstar led them to believe), Gabrielle loses her innocence. This is the first time she has killed someone, and as she says at the end of the episode, “Everything has changed.” While this is true, Gabrielle doesn’t yet understand the true significance of those words, though she will be the next episode.
All six seasons of Xena: Warrior Princess can be found on Netflix and Hulu Plus. You can also pick up the DVDs, though it doesn’t appear that they have any cool special features to go along with the episodes.
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