Deja Vu All Over Again

This comic coda to season four was created, in part, to reassure the fans that despite their death in the previous episode (The Ides of March), Xena and Gabrielle lived on.

My personal quibble with this episode is that I wish it had focused a bit more on season four. Aside from a couple of shots in the final montage, there was only two season four clips shown -- from A Family Affair and In Sickness and In Hell.

Despite this minor issue, the basic plot (which in some ways turns the conventions of the uber-Xena genre on its ear while at the same time adds more to it) was a lot of fun, and I think is most effective when you are thoroughly familiar with Xena fandom in all its nutball glory.

The basic plot of this clip show revolves around Lucy Lawless as Annie, a woman who believes that she is the reincarnation of Xena. She visits a psychic, played by Renee O'Connor, who takes her through past life regressions that -- surprise, surprise -- feature clips from the series.

We learn that Annie, Renee's psychic, and Annie's husband Harry (played by Ted Raimi) are, in fact, reincarnations of Xena-era people. The twist is that Harry was Xena, and Annie was Joxer. Ares shows up as well, having been looking for Xena for some time.

Clips were shown from the episodes Callisto, Return of Callisto, Sacrifice II, A Family Affair, One Against an Army, The Quest, In Sickness and in Hell and one other battle scene that I must admit I did not recognize. There was also a final montage of shots from various episodes throughout the run of the show with a voice-over by Renee O'Connor.

The whole affair came across as a lot of fun. As usual in the comic episodes, some of the best parts are lines muttered under the breath as a 'throwaway'. Also included is a new version of the "Joxer Song" sung by Lucy as Annie.

My interest with this episode was aroused not by the episode itself but rather by wondering what the majority of the fandom would think about the aspects of the myth the producers played around with in what amounts to a glorious homage and parody of fandom.

The plot is fun, and has its most amusing (and ironic) moment when the flip-flop between Annie and Harry is revealed. Another moment, connected to this, is the kiss that finally happens between Xena and Gabrielle -- though many devotees of the show's lesbian subtext were upset that in this instance, Xena happened to be male.

This episode was the directorial debut of Renee O'Connor, and it is directed as such. Technically, it's solid, and is certainly made with love for the material (which is, in my opinion, a piece of the craft as important as sheer technical proficiency). The result, however, does lack a certain visual "punch". This is not meant as a criticism, merely an observation. I would have been nice to see Renee leave some kind of distinctive directorial mark on the episode.

All that aside, the episode is filled with visual gags -- from the costumed folks in the waiting room to Renee's own costume which seems to be a 1960s version of her look from Between the Lines. There really isn't much to complain about, aside from my sense that they were avoiding dealing with anything in season four.

Had it been up to me, I would have used the season 4 clip show to highlight Gabrielle and Xena's spiritual journey -- it was the central theme of the season, after all. In hindsight, though, avoiding this was probably wise, as the comic sensibilities of the episode would have suffered under the dramatic weight much of the season carried.

In the end, this is a typical Xena clip show, expanding the show's universe and letting the cast and crew have some fun, without doing too much damage to the internal consistency of the show's primary narrative.

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