The Ides of March

This episode is incredible. Aside from a couple of minor problems, one of which is excusable, and the other which only makes sense in hindsight, there is tight writing, excellent performances, and a cliff-hanger to end all cliff hangers.

The story opens with the return of an old friend -- none other than Callisto, erstwhile Goddess of Destruction, and perpetual thorn in the side of Xena (at least until Xena stabbed her with the Hind's Blood Dagger in Sacrifice II at the end of Season Three).

With the return of Callisto we are given another layer to the melange that is the metaphysics of Xena: Warrior Princess. Years ago, we were presented with the classical Greco-Roman afterlife of Tarterus and the Elysian Fields. During the India arc, we learn there is also a karmic cycle. This time we are shown something that is clearly inspired by Dante's Inferno. While the ruler of this realm is never named outright (that would have to wait until season six's The Haunting of Amphipolis), he is clearly intended to be the Devil. He has offered Callisto a deal; she can return to torment Xena, trying to make her forsake her Warrior Path. If successful she buys freedom for herself, and delivers the soul of the Warrior Princess into the hands of Prince of Darkness.

This new cosmological layer does two things. First, and probably most important from a purely narrative standpoint, it allows the producers to bring Callisto back without having to resort to a convoluted explanation of why the Hind's Blood Dagger didn't finish her off for good. It is always a joy to have Callisto around, and she is in peak form here. No other villain in the history of the show would have worked.

Secondly, this new level makes sense on a grander mythic scale. With a sufficiently wide view, all cosmologies are valid, all belief systems boil down in the end to the struggle between the good and evil in man. Myths and religions are just metaphors for these ultimate truths that all people feel at some deep level. Taken in this way, Xena and Gabrielle, as well as Callisto have been taken beyond the limitations of the mythology that originally inspired them.

It is a bold move on the part of the producers, and an interesting addition to the cosmology of the Xenaverse. After all, when Ulysses, Lao-tse and Julius Caesar all exist within a decade of each other, why should there only be one cosmology?

Back to our unfolding story, however. Xena attempts to kill Caesar, but Callisto grabs the chakram at the last moment, saving his life (this echoes her first meeting with the Warrior Princess from Callisto when she does the same thing). Callisto tells Xena that Gabrielle has been captured, and rides off to find Brutus, who she warns of Caesar's ambition.

The story borrowed from Dante, now it borrows from Shakespeare. Xena utters the famous line, "Beware the ides of March" to Brutus. In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (Act 1, scene 2) a soothsayer utters this line to Caesar twice. Another line from Shakespeare's play is used when Caesar is killed; in Act 3 scene 1, his last words are "Et tu, Brute?" -- Latin, of course, which translates to "And you, Brutus?"

Indeed, history plays itself out more or less straight in that scene. Caesar was killed by a conspiracy of senators who feared he would declare himself emperor. Xena's role in things was merely to alert Brutus of the truth, and things went off on their own. It was nicely done, and a somewhat surprising change given the show's predilection for tweaking the nose of history.

Meanwhile, Xena goes to break Gabrielle out of prison. During the fight to escape, Callisto gets annoyed with Xena and throws the chakram (which she held since she caught it in the opening scenes of the show). The chakram breaks in two, as does Xena's spine. The Warrior Princess is unable to fight.

That was shock number one. Shock number two arrives moments later when Gabrielle, to save Xena's life, kills a Roman soldier with a thrown spear. Even more shocking is when she grabs a sword, and starts cutting down Roman soldiers left and right, trying to save her friend. This scene was foreshadowed earlier in the episode when Gabrielle took action to save Amarice, although in her case it didn't result in death for the mercenary that was after her.

Despite this foreshadowing, the shock of watching Gabrielle go on a murderous rampage (dubbed "the Gabspaz") left many fans stunned and saddened, feeling that in some ways the producers had betrayed the character, and by extension, the fans. Gabrielle's spiritual quest, her obsession with finding a way to break the cycle of violence, is cast aside in a moment of passion.

I never agreed with this assessment. In many of the debates that raged at the time, I felt that the Gabspaz supported the idea that Gabrielle was a warrior, and it also supported the paradoxical theme of fighting for peace and love. As Gabrielle says to Xena, she made a choice, and does not regret it -- though it has cost them their lives and their freedom.

Then we have the crucifixion, the vision that plagued Xena (and to a lesser extent, Gabrielle) all season has come to pass -- through the choices and actions of Xena and Gabrielle themselves. There is a very chilling scene when the procession moves past Callisto, who stands there and tries to catch snowflakes on her tongue. There is a look of childish glee on her face as Xena and Gabrielle are led away in chains behind her. It is one of the finest images in an episode full of fine images.

The editing of the final sequence is a beautiful intercut of Caesar's assassination and the agony of Xena and Gabrielle as the nails are driven in and the pair are raised for crucifixion. Xena's spirit leaves her body, as does Gabrielle's, and the two vanish in a flash of white light.

Fortunately, as Callisto herself showed us several times, death is hardly the end on this show.

With this episode, Gabrielle's spiritual quest came to an end. She had a choice, and she made it. When push came to shove, her love for Xena was greater than anything else; her reverence for life, her adherence to Eli's philosophy -- it all fell by the wayside when she saw her friend in danger. In fact, her death is appropriate (despite how painful it may have been to watch at the time). In the mythic cycle, the hero must die (literally or symbolically) before he can truly fulfill his destiny.

Despite the stance the show typically takes on fate and destiny, the role of the hero is fated. Perhaps not in the details, but the path the hero treads is laid out stone by stone. It is a descent, discovery and rebirth. Xena and Gabrielle have walked that path together, and now they are ready to fulfill their destiny.

At the start of this review, I mentioned there were two minor problems that stood out for me.

In the first, Amarice refers to every killer "in Europe." Europe had never existed as a concept in the Xenaverse until that moment. In fact, I'm pretty sure Europe didn't exist as a concept until well after the historical scope covered by this show (as flexible as it might be). Every killer in the known world, perhaps. This error is a minor complaint, though, as it has little to no bearing on the storyline itself.

The second item is really more of a question. When Brutus arrives to round up Gabrielle, he says he also has to arrest Eli and his followers. Why? What possible reason could there be for this? Perhaps it serves as an indicator to Brutus of the control Caesar wants to exert over Roman territory. Maybe it is a reference to the threat Eli and his pacifist followers represent to the conquest-hungry general. Also springing to mind is the historical parallel that can be drawn between Eli and his followers and the early Christian church -- a group that was likewise persecuted by the Romans for beliefs that threatened the social order of the day. Perhaps it is some combination of these reasons.

Still, the reason is never explained. The story arc was originally supposed to span three episodes instead of two, so perhaps some plot got lost along the way. It seems superfluous to have Eli in this episode. Gabrielle could have done very nicely playing counter to Amarice's enthusiasm without him around.

Season five's opening, however, may provide some insight into the reason (at least, looking at it in hindsight). Eli is needed to bring the pair back from the dead at the end of Fallen Angel, and continuity for that episode requires his presence here.

Despite these concerns, this is an excellent episode -- one of the finest of the series.

As a final note, some question was raised at the time this episode first aired about the broken chakram. It appeared, intact, in The Xena Scrolls centuries later (in the Xenaverse time line, anyway). Fans wondered how it was reforged. That mystery would remain unsolved until season five's Chakram, but the solution itself would raise other, related questions.

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