Well! Where do I even start with this ep?
It doesn't help that the controversy about it is now distracting from the ep itself. Various Hindu groups have protested about the ep, and the ep was pulled from the air by the main station showing it in my local market (Toronto, Canada) on the grounds that its excessive violence was not suitable for the Saturday afternoon slot in which they air the show. The ep *is* probably the most gory the show has ever seen. I don't think the complaints of the Hindu groups against the ep are particularly justified - if they want to speak up, they are of course entitled to do so... but there are in my opinion no grounds at all for attempting to suppress the broadcast of the ep. I think I will leave it at that for discussion of the controversy here - this commentary is not really the place for a detailed discussion of the controversy... which doesn't really have much light to shed on the actual content of the ep.
So, apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln...
There's so much going on in this ep that it's hard to have a single reaction to it, especially since different aspects of it pull me in violently different directions. I think that it was a remarkably ambitious piece of television (almost unbelievably ambitious), and that in large measure it was successful in what it attempted. So I have considerable admiration for it. I was fascinated by it, and deeply moved at times. And yet when it was over it left me disquieted and depressed. Why? Essentially because of where it left Gabrielle, and Xena and Gabrielle's relationship. I was left feeling that the Gabrielle I knew was dead, that the relationship I knew was gone, and that perhaps the show I knew was gone as well... at best its future looks very uncertain. One of TPTB (I think it was Rob Tapert) was quoted, in one of the Xena mags, I believe it was, as saying something about how certain species of shark die if they don't keep constantly moving, and how a television show was like that, in that it had to constantly change or die. And I think we're certainly seeing that in action - they seem truly determined, one way or another, to dismantle everything that they've made. We've seen it already, in the rift, in the death of Iolaus on HTLJ... and we're seeing it again here, I feel, as they remake Gab almost entirely, and remake her relationship with Xena and the whole fabric of the show in the process. And whilst I don't want to sound like a reactionary stick-in-the-mud, I still find it hard to be happy about it. I feel about Gab's 'conversion' rather the way I'd feel (have felt) about the conversion of a close friend to a new 'way' - I hope it's the right thing for them and will make them happy, but I can't help feeling that somehow they've turned off part of their humanity, and that the person I knew just isn't there any more. Frankly "The Warrior and the Flying Nun" just doesn't appeal to me as an idea. I don't see it working well as a basis for future eps at all. And dammit yes, what bothers me most is that they seem to have deconstructed the relationship! I don't know that I can bear to go on watching Xena and Gab if the human closeness between them is lost...
However, let's turn back from these sorry and painful feelings to the rest of this ep. The themes and borrowings being thrown around in this ep have so much background that I think I'd better try and go over the basic elements first, before we attempt the usual wander through the ep itself. This ep borrows essential elements from two major religious epics, and then throws in substantial elements from another religious tradition entirely, and echoes of the teaching of another 'great soul' as if that weren't enough! One thing the people who make this show certainly don't lack is ambition!
The story essentially utilizes central elements from the Bhagvad Gita and the Ramayana. It then throws in a figure who we are presumably supposed to identify with Jesus, and teachings which sound more than anything else like those of Mohandas Ghandi. So let's attempt to run through these in order, noting briefly the nature of the original, and the place of the borrowed elements in the ep.
The Bhagvad Gita I did discuss somewhat last week when writing about Between The Lines, since I felt it was obliquely relevant there. This week however, rather than its being obliquely relevant, very substantial elements of the ep are taken more or less directly from the Bhagvad Gita. The Bhagvad Gita actually exists within the context of a much larger Hindu epic called the Mahabharata, which essentially tells a (*very* long) story of a war between two branches of a family... I saw a film some years ago which retold the story of the Mahabharata as a modern story in terms of industrialists and gangsters (a bit like that film with John Turturro and Peter Boyle that redid Macbeth as gangster story) - I believe the film was called Kalyug... but I guess it was made in Hindi, and I'm not sure if an English version is available. There was also a version of parts of the Mahabharata available on videotape, I believe, based on a stage adaption done by a famous English theatre director. And there's an endless serial version done for Indian TV. In any case, I digress. The focus of the Bhagvad Gita itself is on a warrior called Arjuna and his charioteer, who is the god Krishna, incognito. Arjuna questions whether he should continue to fight, especially given that the enemy he will be fighting against are his kinsmen, and Krishna convinces him that he *should* fight, because that is his dharma for this life, that is his 'way'. Well... you can see what they did with this - basically they retold the core of it with Xena as Arjuna, and Krishna as himself (although no longer actually incarnated on earth and no longer incognito). However instead of setting the doubts and the god's advice within the context of a war between kinsmen, they set them in the context of an entirely different story, taken, basically, from the Ramayana.
Now we've already heard about the Ramayana. Tataka, the demon who possessed Gabrielle, was in fact a she-demon who was defeated (and killed) by Rama fairly early on in the Ramayana. The Ramayana is the epic which tells the story of the life of the god Rama. Now both Rama and Krishna are avatars (forms, presences in the world) of the god Vishnu, the Preserver. Vishnu is one of the three "great movers" of Hinduism: Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Shiva, the Destroyer. These three represent, in a sense, the central principles of Hinduism - to some extent Brahma is like yang, Shiva is like yin, and Vishnu is kind of a third principle in between, which sustains. Vishnu is generally supposed to have ten 'avatars' during this world... the last, who is yet to come, will be Kalki, who will bring about the end of this world, whereupon Brahma will create a new one. Rama was an earlier avatar of Vishnu than Krishna. Various events are recounted and discussed in the Ramayana, but one central episode recounts how Rama's consort Sita is kidnapped and taken to Lanka by the demon Ravana. Rama, aided by the monkey god Hanuman (and an entire army of monkey soldiers, actually), then journeys to Lanka and wages war upon Ravana and his demons. Ravana is aided in this war by his son Indrajit, who serves as his chief lieutenant. Rama and Hanuman and the monkey army suffer many setbacks, but ultimately they triumph, killing first Indrajit and then Ravana himself, and rescuing Sita. Clearly then, a substantial element of the plot of The Way is taken from the Ramayana, with Xena (with Krishna's help) playing the role of Rama, Gabrielle (and Eli) playing the role of Sita, and Indrajit playing the role of his father Ravana (which is a bit odd, since he actually gets killed in the original story - I guess they like borrowing dead characters from the Ramayana, since Tataka fell into this same category). Hanuman plays his own role in this part of the story, and the monkey army was omitted (well, I guess special effects budgets only go so far...)
Now the third important element in the plot of the ep is the 'avatar' Eli. As we already mentioned, an avatar is a form or physical presence of a god in the world. It seems fairly clear that Eli is intended to be the 'avatar' generally referred to as Jesus Christ. 'Christ', of course, is not a name at all, but comes from the Greek word meaning 'anointed'. 'Jesus' *is* a name, although 'Yeheshevah' is probably a closer approximation to what might have been recognisable in the man's own time and tongue... on the whole I prefer to use 'Yeheshevah Bin Yusef of Nazareth' when attempting to refer to the historical personage, and reserve 'Jesus Christ' for the cultural construct. However, let's compromise and use 'Jesus' here, to avoid confusion. I don't think there is much doubt that the ep was deliberately written so that we would conclude that Eli was Jesus, although they did take care to avoid committing themselves on the issue. Still, apart from anything else, if you're looking for an 'avatar' around that period, there isn't really much competition. The only other possible candidate I can think of is Gautama, the Buddha, who lived around 500 BCE. Datewise, this certainly doesn't rule him out, since we've seen events on X:WP which took place earlier than this (Altared States was *way* earlier, if you assume that it was about Abraham and Isaac, and Giant Killer would have been several hundred years BCE as well). The Hindus generally consider Gautama to have been, like Rama and Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu. However there are distinct problems with trying to equate Eli to Gautama, notably that his life story doesn't seem to match at all - Gautama was an Indian prince, who turned away from his princely life, and ultimately achieved enlightenment through meditation. Eli, OTOH, appears not to be Indian, and never to have been a prince. Also the Buddha would presumably have been known as Gautama or Siddhartha, whereas Eli seems at least a halfway reasonable name for a Jew in exile. And Eli said that he was taking a ship back across the sea to bring his message to his 'own people' who he thought would be 'most receptive'.
However Eli's message doesn't really seem to correspond very exactly with that of Jesus (basing our sense of Jesus' message on the gospels, which is pretty much all we have to go on, even if they were all written some time after his death). It's true that Jesus spoke of turning the other cheek if one was struck, and it's also true that when Peter drew a sword to defend him and struck off the ear of the High Priest's servant, Jesus told him to put up his sword for 'those who live by the sword, die by the sword'. However Jesus' main message does not appear from the gospels to have been one of absolute non-violence. And the churches founded in his name have certainly, for the most part, followed policies very far from that. Even Jesus himself, according to the gospels, showed violence on occasions, for example, taking up a scourge to drive the money-lenders out of the temple. It's true that Jesus said 'Love thy neighbour as thyself'... but this was the *second* part of his 'new commandment', the *first* part of which was 'love the lord thy god with all thy heart'. Eli, OTOH, whilst preaching the 'way of love', seemed conspicuously silent about the need to love a single 'father god'.
Despite his obvious association with Jesus, Eli's message seemed rather closer to that of Mohandas Ghandi, who was known as the Mahatma (meaning 'great soul'). Ghandi started life as a British-educated lawyer, working for a while in South Africa. However on returning to India he became increasingly committed to following and preaching the 'way' that he had found. The word most commonly associated with Ghandi's 'way' is 'ahimsa' which is usually translated into English as non-violence (although it could arguably almost be translated 'non-action'). However, whilst Ghandi preached, as Eli did, *complete* non-violence, *never* under any circumstances use violence, no matter what the circumstances or the provocation, he certainly did not advocate lack of action. Rather he wished to campaign against injustice through passive resistance and disobedience. He is, of course, primarily identified with the struggle for Indian independence from British Imperial rule - a struggle which was ultimately successful, although only at the cost of the country being torn violently in two, with the accompanying deaths of many, many thousands of people. Ghandi was deeply saddened by all this violence, and campaigned strongly to try to bring an end to it. He was himself assassinated by a militant Hindu not long after Indian independence. Ghandi was a Hindu, and a promoter of the Hindu faith. However, he was also a reformer, preaching against the injustices practised in the name of Hinduism... he especially campaigned for the betterment of the 'untouchables', those most severely victimised by the caste system, and it was he who attempted to change the perception of them by dubbing them "Harijans" (meaning god's children).
You can of course, take it how you like, but it rather felt to me that Eli represented an attempt to graft something of Ghandi's teaching onto a figure nominally associated with Jesus.
Oh well, enough of background (perhaps too much...) Let's take our wander through the ep.
***
The opening music that we hear, over the shot of the snowy mountain top, sounds like the introduction to a ghazal. The ghazal is actually originally a Persian poetic form, subsequently also used in Urdu, the principle language of Muslim India. In India the tradition was developed of singing ghazals accompanied by music based on the Indian classical tradition. For me this is one of those wonderfully fruitful blendings that sometimes happen between cultures, and the result, the sung Urdu ghazal, is one of my absolutely favourite art forms, combining a subtle and rich poetry with amazingly deep and resonant music. A ghazal consists of couplets, and most of a ghazal will be sung one couplet at a time, usually with repetition, to rhythmic music based upon a raag; however the singing of a ghazal is usually introduced, as the singing of a raag is usually introduced, by a kind of alaap, a section sung in free style, without fixed rhythm or accompaniment by drums. The verses sung in the introductory section in fact quite often are from an entirely different poem to the main ghazal which they introduce. What we hear at the start of this ep sounds like such an introduction to a ghazal. The words we hear sung are:
Maut mujhko gawara hai lehkin
Kya karun dam nikulta nahi hai.
Taal do apne aajal(?)
And I couldn't hear the rest, because the sound of the waterfall becomes too loud, and then they talk over it. These words mean, approximately: Death would be preferable to be, but / What can I do, the breath is not out of me? / Postpone (your or my action, possibly... this isn't clear). After due consideration, I don't think this really has anything much to do with the content of the ep...
*
'There's a certain inevitability to a river - nothing stops it from finding it's way" "Ever hear of a damn? Beavers?" "Why do you do that?" "What?" "You shoot me down when I'm doing my philosophical stuff..." Now I'm sorry, but this leaves me really p**ed off with Gab. What? It's ok for her to rabbit on, but Xena isn't supposed to say anything? And what kind of "philosophy" is resistant to dialogue, debate, enquiry? Gab's idea sounds more like totalitarian dogma than philosophy to me! And on a purely personal level this "Stop being you, because it's interfering with my scope to be me" attitude is just about the *worst* possible one for anyone in a close relationship to take... unless the other person is an absolute masochistic doormat, it pretty much inevitably spells the doom of the relationship, so far as I can see. I mean, if you can't tolerate any response, any independent thought, from the other person, why the heck are you talking to them in the first place? Why the heck are you with them?
*
"Maybe being a warrior isn't the right karma for you. Maybe you should look to peace..." (*Total* misuse of the word 'karma' here again - but we went into that at length last week...) "Maybe violence isn't the answer to anything... YEEARGH!" I've got to say, I like that. In fact I'm severely tempted to give it a place as one of my Windows sounds - maybe 'critical stop'... Your program has encountered a fatal exception. "Maybe violence isn't the answer to anything... YEEARGH!"
*
And that fish / demon that Xena speared was really *very* forthcoming, wasn't he? He seemed positively anxious to explain what he was up to and who his master was!
*
Gab's first action when the demon grabs her is to yell "Xena!" But since Xena is otherwise occupied, she has to fight it herself. So what's she going to do if this happens in the next ep - just fold her hands and let the demon kill her? This could make for a *very* short career, given the kind of people and creatures they tend to run into...
*
I notice that Gab's still wearing the Mehndi (which looks way too dark for real mehndi) - but it didn't show any signs of having any 'power' in this ep. How come?
*
I'm not at all wild about Xena's new hairstyle - if this is permanent, I shall mourn the loss of the bangs. It reminds me of a seedy pool shark or a stressed out nicotine addict or something!
*
That demon that came up behind Gab at the end of the fight was sort of doing its own version of Xena's warcry, wasn't it? Although perhaps it was bit closer to yodelling. (Maybe these were "Swiss demons", sort of working for Indrajit on a mercenary basis, like the Swiss Guards in the Vatican...)
*
How come when Xena gets wounded, it's almost *always* on the upper left arm? I suppose it would be an obvious point of exposure to a right handed opponent...
*
I had to laugh at Xena's squashing of the bug after the end of the fight. Well who could blame her? I'd take a pretty tough line on bugs too if they started turning into demons and attacking me!
*
Incidentally, I wonder how people took to these 'demons'? Personally I have no problem at all with accepting guys in scary masks as 'demons'. And I really liked the masks themselves. I believe they were ultimately based on designs from the Indian Kathakali theatre, which is a highly stylised form of theatre using masks and elaborate costumes to present mythological stories. Such masks are also used in mythological Indian movies, and similar effects are seen in statues and illustrations. I thought the masked 'demons' made a pleasant change from the regular thugs and CGI monsters, and connected the show with Indian traditions.
*
"We've got to beat Indrajit to this avatar, whatever that is..." One thing about Xena, she's certainly game for a challenge - all it takes is a few demons trying to stop her doing something (which she'd never thought of doing in the first place), and she's "got to" do it!
*
And Xena explains her doubts about her role and her hesitation in the fight with the demon: '...but either way, a warrior cannot ask these questions in the heat of battle - when the kill is there, you have to take it! If I can't do that... I can't be a warrior any more." As soon as I heard this speech, I just *knew* we were going to get a reprise of the Bhagvad Gita in this ep! Which I must say, I was very pleased about, since it's *so* appropriate to the show, and of course, tremendous material. What *didn't* occur to me at this point was that they wouldn't be content with 'merely' trying to adapt the essence of the Bhagvad Gita to a 40 minute TV ep, but would also throw in a large chunk of the Ramayana, and the whole 'avatar of ahimsa' thing!
*
So, Eli is now not a 'devi' but an avatar... And is wandering around preaching that people must cast all hate and violence from their hearts, and 'turn the other cheek' etc. He seems to have progressed real fast in the two weeks since we last saw him.
*
"Have you treated her with the proper herbs?" "I... I have done all that I can." This sounded a bit of an odd question for an avatar - as if he was going to disqualify the guy or something if he said no. And the guy's response had something of the "I'm dying, and he asks me riddles" tone about it.
*
Still, there's no denying the terrible sadness of the sickness of a child, and the poignancy of the healing of a child... especially enacted lyrically and accompanied by beautiful classical Indian vocals, as this was. It was a very effective way of establishing Eli in his role as the avatar of peace. (Although I thought Xena's "Come on Eli" broke the mood somewhat...)
*
Interestingly, after the girl is healed, whilst the Indian vocals continue, faded slightly into the background, the new music which comes in is *not* Indian, but uses conventional western orchestral instruments (strings, clarinet...)
*
So, since we met him last, Eli has seen the Truth. Is this the same Truth that is "in the Mehndi"? Or are there multiple Truths?
*
Eli gives his speech about how having the power to give people hope terrifies him - I never did quite understand why? The way he was talking, it almost sounded as if he was leading up to saying that the Truth was that the world was doomed to a horrible fate or something... But then the rest of the ep didn't seem to justify this at all - indeed he just seemed to dump this sense of foreboding and become quite serene later on. So what was with the mood in this scene? Why introduce this stuff about being terrified by giving people hope?
*
Anyhow, Xena wasn't listening to him at all, because we got some sitar music and a couple of whooshes, and her 'super senses' picked up that something was following and watching them. Not only that, but she could tell that the 'something' wasn't human! How does she do that? Just sort of another version of her old 'Ares radar', I guess. Still - a very useful skill to have.
*
I still quite liked Timothy Omundson as Eli in this ep - he seemed natural and convincing in the role, and had an engaging manner... for example the way he smiled and shrugged and said "Come on then" when Xena insisted on going with him, and asked how he was going to stop them. For me he managed to make his transition to an avatar fairly believable and acceptable, without being stiff or portentous about it.
*
Xena really should study the local culture a bit before she starts punching people in the nose! And you'd have thought Eli would know better, having been in India for some time, and seeming quite familiar with the cast of characters (to say nothing of being an avatar...) I recognised Hanuman, the monkey god, as soon as he appeared - from Hindu pictures and mythological movies... so I was busily yelling, sotto voce, "Slow down, slow down Xena!" And then poor old Hanuman gets a hold on her and regards her seriously... And what does she do? She nuts him! (Or gives him the 'Glasgow kiss' as it's known in some parts...) Talk about 'respecting the gods'!
*
"I don't need any help." "Most young avatars say that." "You've known others?" "Only one." Er... excuse me... how do you get to "most" from a sample of two?
*
I liked Hanuman actually - I thought they did him very well. And the actor himself did a fine job... He came across as dignified, believable and likeable, completing avoiding, for me, seeming freakish, grotesque or absurd, as he could so easily have done.
*
However I really objected to them having him say that Krishna was the "supreme personality of the godhood" - this is simply incorrect and confusing (assuming we're talking Hinduism here, which apparently we are). Krishna was an avatar, just like Rama, the other avatar Hanuman mentioned... indeed they were both avatars of the *same* god, Vishnu, the Preserver, and so, in a sense, just different forms of the same essence. This "supreme personality of godhood" stuff sounds more like ISKCON (the International Society For Krishna Consciousness, perhaps more commonly known as the "Hare Krishna" movement) than mainstream Hinduism... well I suppose TPTB can't really be blamed if they want to take part of their version from ISKCON.
*
The shot they used for the sun rising (after the night during which Hanuman appeared) was just the same shot they used earlier for the sun setting (after the initial fight with the demons) played backwards and zoomed in. This is astronomically incorrect, since if the sun sets in the evening descending diagonally towards the horizon from upper left to lower right, it can't rise in the morning, in the same general area, from lower right to upper left - not unless the earth has reversed its direction of spin between the setting and the rising!
*
I loved the bit where Hanuman and Xena both do gravity defying leaps into the tree, and Hanuman says "How wonderful! You can climb trees just like one of us! You must have learnt from monkeys." Not that I've ever seen a monkey climb a tree at all like that. When he first said "one of us" I thought he meant gods, not monkeys. And Xena attributes her tree leaping skills to the Amazons? I thought they, more prosaically, used ropes...
*
"I assisted Rama when Rama killed Indrajit's father." Well yes. But according to the Ramayana, Indrajit got killed himself *before* his father Ravana was killed. Which makes his appearance as the villain in this ep a little odd...
*
"To bring peace to this world I have to teach mankind a reverence for life." "So... if someone were to walk up to you, and knock you down...?" Huh? Excuse me? He said "a reverence for life" - so why is she babbling on about knocking people down? If he'd have said that to me, my first question would have been more along the lines of "So should people not eat meat, or kill bugs?" How do you get from "reverence for life" to "what if someone knocks you down" for Zeus' sake?
*
Anyway... now we segue into a doctrine of complete non-violence: "Under no circumstances would I fight back". This, as I said in my introduction, sounds more like Gandhi than anything else to me. The principle of ahimsa and non-violent resistance worked against the British in India (ultimately). How well it would work against an enemy who was prepared to just kill the non-violent resisters without question is another matter. Of course, if it's a spiritual principle, I suppose it doesn't have to "work" in the sense of achieving practical ends. Although if it's going to "redeem the world" it kind of needs to catch on, rather than just getting its believers killed. One thing's for certain, if Eli was trying to redeem the world by bringing it the message of complete non-violence, avatar or not, he most definitely failed totally and miserably. Indeed if you do identify him with Jesus, then that failure is particularly extreme and ironic, since more people have probably killed and died in wars believing that their cause was that of the Christian god than in any other belief, and people continue to kill and maim in the name of Christianity throughout the world today. I guess the message didn't get through...
*
"For each person there can only be one way." This is very much the concept of being true to one's dharma which I discussed when I was writing about Between The Lines. This serves to move along again the thread of the ep which is taken from the Bhagvad Gita, with Xena as Arjuna questioning her destiny and how she should rightly act.
*
When they arrive at the temple, the crowd all run up saying "It's the avatar!" How do they know? I mean, it's not as if they'd have seen his picture on the TV news. Or is the *same* crowd that they were with before? But then how did the crowd get to the temple before them, if they were hurrying through the woods? Oh well, perhaps they doubled back or something...
*
Lovely vocals again for the crowd scene. I'm certainly going to miss this music when they leave India! But still, I've always admired Loduca's music for X:WP anyhow... I think the atmosphere he creates contributes a lot to the show.
*
"The only reason I've been able to help you is that because in your hearts you're as innocent as children." I must say this struck me as a rather pompous and asinine comment... this random crowd have all gone through their lives never growing up or fighting for anything - is that what he's saying? And people who do grow up, who aren't innocent as children, can't be helped? Or aren't worthwhile? Or worthy? (And the "that because" in the middle of the wording is redundant...)
*
How come all the extras in this ep wear nothing but brown? Pretty odd really - Indians are usually more colourful!
*
And Hanuman says yet *again* that Krishna is "the ultimate manifestation of the supreme deity" - which is *plumb* *wrong*, assuming we're talking standard Hinduism. Krishna is *an* avatar of Vishnu, just as Rama was. He isn't the "ultimate" avatar of Vishnu (that would be Kalki). And Vishnu isn't "the supreme deity" anyway... although he is one of the primary triad. But still... I guess Hinduism isn't exactly doctrinally unified about this kind of thing, and plenty of people who call themselves Hindus would probably accept this wording quite cheerfully.
*
"His way is the ultimate way - few can follow it. Those that do, truly walk with the spirit." So now we have an official declaration from a trustworthy seeming god that absolute non-violence is the ultimate way. Not a way, interestingly, that Hanuman himself seemed to have adhered to, since, according to legend, he spent much of his time fighting.
*
It seemed a bit unreasonable to me that the healed girl's father changed into a demon. Was the demon supposed to have taken over the actual father, or what? (I mean, the guy's idea of acting was pretty strange - but this seemed a bit thick...)
*
And how come these demons got the drop on Xena so easily? She seemed to deal with the first lot ok.
*
Why did Eli run out of the temple when he sensed that Xena was in trouble - since he won't, according to his principles, do anything about it anyway?
*
So when Indrajit did his diving flying-carpet attack, was that him doing the warcry? But it didn't really seem to go with the chuckle he did next...
*
And why were Eli and Gab having a tug of war? He was saying "Let go!" to her... which of them was trying to do what to the other? It sort of looked as if she was trying to stop him running towards Xena, but I don't see what sense that makes...
*
Where the heck was Gab running when Indrajit came after her? I thought she was standing just by the temple doors and that the temple was supposed to be safe from Indrajit - so why didn't she just go inside, rather than charging all over the place?
*
BTW, the final vowel in Indrajit's name is long, as in "feet", not short, as in "fit", which was the way Xena insisted on pronouncing it throughout the ep, for some reason...
*
So anyway, Indrajit kidnaps Eli and Gab, and takes them off to Lanka, like Sita before them...
*
"What Krishna needs is for someone to call upon him who doesn't respect gods, doesn't trust them, doesn't like them." Err... *why* does Krishna 'need' this? Sounds a bit arbitrarily contrary to me...
*
I still haven't quite figured out how they did the effect of Eli and Gab rolling out of the carpet. My guess is that they somehow blue-screened Eli and Gab rolling and then combined that with the shot of the 'demons' unfurling the carpet. One thing you'll notice, if you take your eyes off Gab's legs, is that her staff bends and then straightens again during the roll - I guess they must have used a rubber one or something (which makes sense... you wouldn't get me rolling around at high speed nursing a hard wooden staff!)
*
Hanuman's mutterings about Krishna as some sort of omnipresent spirit who 'is not like other gods', but is in every living being seemed like... I don't know, an attempt to take Krishna and graft onto him some concept of 'god' from a different tradition entirely. Krishna is in many ways the most 'personal' of the Hindu gods, and his followers have emphasised a sense of relationship with the god, and also the idea of love as a path to enlightenment... so comparisons between Krishna and Jesus, for example, would not be unprecedented. But they might still be misguided, if taken too far...
*
Getting at people by threatening to hurt others they care for has always seemed to me about the most cowardly and despicable thing that can be done. Of course, I suppose Indrajit *is* supposed to be the ultimate evil (when it isn't Dahak - maybe they sort of take it in shifts)... Still, I'm certainly glad they didn't take the 'torturing Gab' thing too far. And is standing by non-violently and doing nothing whilst others suffer *really* that morally superior to trying to do something about it? As you can presumably tell, I'm not at all convinced. Which is why I didn't really accept is as valid to say that Gab had 'failed' because she tried to go to the aid of Xena in pain - in that case, give me failures, I say!
*
So Xena's first action with Krishna is to pull a sword on him - a real diplomatic manner this woman has, eh?
*
Krishna seemed slightly effeminate, which is wholly appropriate. He is usually described this way. There is even a tradition (although it is not exactly the 'mainstream') that relates Krishna and Kali, the black mother goddess, as alternate forms of each other...
*
Anyway, on the whole, I thought the portrayal of Krishna, a *very* tricky thing to pull off, was quite successful.
*
Xena has "heard about the way in Greece, Chin, Anatolia and now India". Anatolia is part of modern Turkey right? Which eps were supposed to have taken place there? Or is she referring to events we haven't seen in eps? Were the Ewokzons supposed to be Anatolia? (For some reason, I got the idea that they were supposed to be in Siberia, although I don't think it was ever said explicitly *where* they were...)
*
"I'm just an angry, butt-kicking.." "Warrior" This got to me! The first time I watched this scene I think I laughed, or at least smiled, at that line. The second time, taking it more slowly, and riding more closely with Xena's feelings, I cried. It's a bit hard to say why, exactly. Xena's feelings about herself are so real... she knows her own dark heart, and it's dangers, and although she's well aware of her own many skills, it's hard for her to see much admirable about herself. Which is why I think Hanuman was slightly wrong when he said she was 'proud' - it's not so much 'pride', as a stubborn isolation in dealing with things that are hers alone to deal with...
*
And Krishna's answer is essentially taken directly from his answer to Arjuna in the Bhagvad Gita (although massively shortened and simplified)... the individual should aspire to perfectly follow the 'way' that is appropriate to them in each life, their dharma. If it's your destiny to be a fighter, then do it properly. Here Krishna says to Xena "You *must* not be hesitant to fight in a just cause." Actually I think in the Bhagvad Gita the message is a little more complex than this - since I believe it is accepted that soldiers fighting on opposite sides in the same battle can *both* be properly following their dharma... so it's not just a question of picking the right side in your fights - it's more a question of doing what you must, your fate, your duty, and doing it wholeheartedly and well. "When you ride into combat, act without attachment, and carry with you the confidence that you are fulfilling your calling in this life... Then you will know the way." This is taken almost verbatim from the Bhagvad Gita... and it has always given me the chills. I must say, it seems supremely appropriate to hear Krishna saying it to Xena.
"All is clouded by desire, Arjun: as
fire by smoke, as a mirror by dust."
Desire clouds everything,
said Krishna to Arjun
on the battlefield,
and you must act
but act between it,
like a swimmer poised
between the
ebb tide and the flood,
moving neither
in nor out....
... and after all
he is alone
on his chariot,
the battle
raged and gone, the
fire burnt out, the
mirror cracked and
tarnished.
He calls out to that
mad, blue boy to
come and answer him
But none returns.
The chariot is
solitary on the plain
over which
the wind moves
ceaselessly.
*
Isn't the voice of the singer we hear when we cut back to Eli and Gab in contemplation in Lanka just tremendous? A great Indian singer like that seems to be able to do something with their voice where is has a depth and resonance to it that seems almost beyond what you'd believe any single human voice could achieve...
*
However, I've already commented to the effect that I thought the 'temptation' of Gab scene which followed was stupid, and I flatly reject the conclusions and values it projects.
*
There seemed to be something distinctly "English upper crust" about Indrajit's diction - I think he must have gone to a 'good school' in England or something...
*
For a Demon King, he seemed *very* upset about having his hand chakramed off!
*
The music for the big fight was interesting - sort of a variant on the basic Xena warrior themes incorporating the shehnai (double-reed pipe) which, as I pointed out last week, Loduca *definitely* seems to associate with warriors and danger.
*
Seeing Xena get her arms cut off was *really* disgusting! I think it's definitely the nastiest thing they've ever shown. Medically speaking though, I noticed when we got a close-up of Xena's face afterwards that she still seemed to have a good colour... which is surprising, since you'd have expected her to go into shock.
*
Incidentally, why did Xena wait until *after* her arms had been chopped off to call on Krishna?
*
And Gab dropped her non-violence again after Xena fell, to have a go at Indrajit. Was anybody blaming her?
*
I thought blue, six-armed Xena looked *most* impressive myself (even if the extra arms did look a bit fake at times - hey, they were way better than most efforts at this kind of thing that I've seen). I loved her face with the dark makeup and the nose ring. And *nobody* can glower like Lucy!
*
OTOH, I thought the fight itself arguably went on a bit too long. And even apart from the preliminary amputations, I think it would still have to take the prize as the *nastiest* fight in the Xenaverse - gouging, biting, and a very emphatic concluding decapitation. I was thinking when I watched it "I bet that gets trimmed a bit, when it gets onto UK TV, for example!" Little did I think that one of my own local stations would decide not air the ep at all, "because of the violence". I must say, I sort of suspect they used the excuse of the violence to pull the ep in light of the controversy generated by the complaints from Hindu groups - after all, if the violence was their only concern, they could have always done what is done in the UK, and edited out the more explicitly gory shots.
*
Eli's speech at the end seemed a bit inconsistent - he starts out by saying to Gab that the way of love is hard and 'may not be for you'... and then he goes on to tell her to stick with it, and concludes 'in the end, we'll redeem the world'.
*
And Eli is going 'home' on a ship to take the message to his 'own people' who he believes will be 'more receptive'. It really does seem that they want us to believe that he's Jesus, although they carefully avoid committing themselves (and his message seems more Gandhi than gospel).
*
I was *MOST* unhappy to see Gab toss away her staff. And I found this whole conversation between Xena and Gab very disturbing. They sound almost like strangers, I just don't get any feeling of intimacy between them at all. And Xena *looked* awful as well. I don't like this new hair whatsoever - it looks sort of seedy and doesn't flatter her face at all... And then she was looking sort of miserable and blotchy. I felt like putting my arms around her and giving her a good hug - which Gab conspicuously failed to do!
*
So... this whole scene left me with the feeling that the Gab I know is dead, the relationship I know is dead, and so presumably the show I know is dead. Ambitious and wonderful as this ep was, it just left me depressed. They seem to have dismantled the show's human core. And for me piety is a poor substitute for humanity. I just don't see where they're going to go from here, and I find it hard to imagine it as at all a happy journey...
***
So who was who in The Way?
Timothy Omundson, who, as Eli, moved up to playing an avatar in this ep, can be seen in Starship Troopers (a dreadful movie, I thought - the sort of thing that gets Science Fiction a bad name...), playing a Psychic. He also appeared in the Frasier ep Good Grief as the Director (he didn't direct the ep - he played a director in it). Timothy is an American, born in Missouri and raised in Seattle. He was featured in a Fox series called Medicine Ball (I mistakenly identified this as forthcoming previously, based on an undated release, but apparently it has been and gone). He played the recurring role of Dr. Joshua Levin on Seaquest, and has also done guest spots on Seinfeld (don't know which ep) and Legacy (in the ep Search Party).
Rajiv Varma, who played Krishna, can been seen in the 1998 NZ movie Flatmates, which also features Catherine Boniface (Meridian, Satrina) and Kevin Smith (haven't seen it, so I can't say how good it is - but it certainly sounds worth a look... but I think it was made for TV, so I don't know if it is or will be available outside NZ).
Jake McKinnon, who was the man inside the suit, playing Hanuman, the monkey god, hasn't appeared in the Xenaverse before, but he can be seen (well sort of...) playing similar types of roles in Wes Craven's Wishmaster (Skeleton Man), From Dusk Till Dawn (Monster), and Invisible: The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight (Mandroid). He is also credited as a 'creature effects technician' on the 1998 movie Talos the Mummy.
Perhaps the most interesting reappearance in this ep was one I don't believe anybody could have spotted... the "Demon" (presumably the talkative one) was played by Slade Leef - which is rather a come down for him, since his last appearance in the Xenaverse was as Sitacles (the chieftain who gets Xena) in Destiny. He also played Caputius in Remember Nothing.
I couldn't find out anything about Rajneel Singh, who played Indrajit, the demon king, or George Sabbage, who played "Man" (presumably the father of the girl who was healed).
The writer was R.J. Stewart, who holds the record as the most credited writer for X:WP... he wrote The Titans, Prometheus, ACAOTPB, AFOD, MB, Callisto, RoC, Warrior...Princess...Tramp, ADITL, Ulysses, The Furies, Gabrielle's Hope, Forgiven, and Crusader, plus being credited as Teleplay Writer for SOTP, Destiny, The Debt 1 & 2, and AITST 1 & 2, and as Story Writer for The Quest, both Debts and both parts of AITST.
The ep was directed by John Fawcett, who is new to the Xenaverse.
***
The disclaimer was:
Any similarities between Hanuman and a major character in the motion picture classic "Planet of the Apes" is purely coincidental.
***
And what about the Herc ep, We'll Always Have Cyprus
Actually I thought this was one of the best HTLJ eps ever (well one of the best I've even seen, anyhow - I've seen all of X:WP, but I haven't seen all of HTLJ). It left me in tears, but it didn't leave me depressed, as The Way did.
I'm sorry that Morrigan's gone, but I'm not really surprised (I couldn't really see them making it The Adventures Of Morrigan And Herc, and she was hardly sidekick material...) And at least they gave her a good send off, a proper reason to go back to Ireland, and some sensible discussion of it for once.
The title, of course, refers to the movie Casablanca, where the characters played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman will "always have Paris" even though they can't be together now, because they have to do the nobler thing. Casablanca is a terrific flick, which every bit deserves its enormous reputation, and anyone who hasn't seen it, certainly should. And this ep, whilst, I'm sure, not destined to be a timeless classic like Casablanca, was a worthy imitator. And none too slavish an imitator either - all it really took from the movie was the idea of the two lovers parting because of things bigger than themselves, despite their feelings about each other.
The other plot in the ep, about the super-zombie ex-oracle-priestess, wasn't a great story, but it was a solid quasi-mythological plot, with a good human and moral core - really precisely the sort of blending of the crude strengths of old myths with humanistic message bringing which has always been the basic strength of the show. And putting it together with the story of Herc and Morrigan's parting added that extra alchemy which lifted the ep to another level.
I did think that whole theme of the oracle, and what's implied by trying to foretell the future was very worthwhile in its own right. I liked the way they wove both stories around it. And yes, I was impressed with the Oracle's final line "What place is there for a prophet in a world of infinite possibility?" I'm a sucker for this sort of thing... I thought on the one hand having her give up being an oracle and on the other hand Herc and Morrigan parting because "you belong to your people as much as I belong to mine" was a great ending for the ep, and a fitting and worthy final chapter to Morrigan's role on the show (although I suppose she just *might* appear again in a future ep).
A couple of minor points:
How come they made Cyprus into a town on the mainland of Greece (apparently)? I found this *very* confusing. Cyprus is an island, in the middle of the Mediterranean, and always has been, so far as I know... I'm fairly sure this was so, even in classical times. Aphrodite was called Cyprian because she was born of the foam of the waves near Cyprus (actually after the severed tackle of some god or Titan whose name I forget had landed in said waves). So what's with this 'walking to Cyprus' business?
And Morrigan and Herc were in Cyprus "last fall"? I find the timeline on these shows really hard to get a handle on. I mean we last saw Morrigan in Redemption, which aired five weeks ago, and the original Cyprus trip was meant to be after that...
And what about the sort of 'tinted black-and-white' effect they used for the flashbacks? I quite liked it actually. And it certainly helped to integrate the flashbacks which we knew were flashbacks because we'd seen them before with the scenes that were meant to be flashbacks, but which were actually new to us.
And we actually got a semi-explicit scene of Herc and Morrigan making love. And why not? I certainly don't begrudge them. Although of course, there are certain other couples...
One thing that did bother me a tiny bit about the plot was how come the woman who got killed got to come back as a super-zombie, who could fly, shake entire mountains by stamping her feet, throw giant pillars around etc? I mean if every p**ed-off dead person got to come back like that, the world would be a wreck in no time! A 'restless soul' is one thing - but this was *not* your average ghost!
Still, a fine ep, and a fine farewell to one of the show's most rewarding guests.
Now I just want to know what's happened to Nebula and Iolaus 2. I wish they wouldn't just sort of switch characters on and off from week to week without explanation...
***
And who was who in We'll Always Have Cyprus?
Tamara Gorski, who played Morrigan, was in the 1997 movie Murder at 1600 (but just as a woman in a bar). She also played a woman in a bar in the 1995 movie To Die For. On a different note, she appeared as Jenny Nielson in the movies The Lost World and Return To The Lost World (not the Jurassic park sequel...) She was featured in the TV series Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal as Dr. Alexandra Corliss, and she appeared in the TV movie of Danielle Steel's A Perfect Stranger as Sarah. She has also appeared on eps of Forever Knight (playing "Claire Gibson" in episode: "Black Buddha"), Highlander (playing "Peggy McCall" in episode: "Vendetta"), My Secret Identity (in episode: "Trading Places"), and Dracula: The Series (playing "Alexa Singleton" in episodes: "My Girlfriend is Back" and "Sophie, Queen of the Night"). Despite her Irish persona on HTLJ, Tamara is in fact another example of the Canadian conspiracy to take over the entertainment industry, born in sunny Winnipeg, Manitoba. I hear rumours that she's signed up to star in a new series, but I'm afraid I don't have any details of a title at the moment.
We're very used to seeing Jeffrey Thomas as Jason now - but he first appeared on HTLJ as Bellicus in the ep Gladiator. However I didn't realise myself until it was pointed out to me (by Danielle Walther) that he first appeared in the Xenaverse in the X:WP ep Chariots Of War... he's credited as Jeff Thomas, and he plays Cycnus, the evil warlord... just shows what a few fake scars, a wig, and some character acting can do!
Simone Kessell, who played the super-zombie, Havetia, was quite a regular in the very early days of Herc's adventures, but we haven't seen her for a long while. She played Jana in *Hercules and the Amazon Women, "Girl/Hag" in Hercules and the Circle of Fire, a "Worshipper" in Hercules in the Underworld, and Rena in What's in A Name? and The Wedding of Alcmene (seems like she specialises a bit in roles that call for appearing sweet and turning nasty). She also appeared on the series High Tide, playing a Young Tennis Star in the episode: "Match Point".
Aaron Devitt, who played Havetia's rather sickly sweet lover Drayus, probably looked familiar to you if you're a Xena fan - he played Lyceus, Xena's younger brother in the ep Remember Nothing.
Marcel Kalma, who played the second thug, has previously appeared as Hargus in War Brides, and as Sadus in the X:WP ep Ten Little Warlords. And John Pemberton, who played the third thug, has never appeared on HTLJ, but was seen as the Arresting Guard in the X:WP ep The Black Wolf. Their head honcho, the first thug, was played by Des Wallace, about whom I could find nothing.
The Gravedigger in the teaser was played by Gary Elliott, who seems to make something of a speciality of rustics - he previously played the Shepherd in Genies and Grecians and Geeks, Oh My, and Peasant #1 in Stranger And Stranger.
Amanda Rees, who played Marpessa (one of the priestesses), was seen before as Mina in The Sword of Veracity.
For the rest of the cast, Alison Quigan as the Oracle, Shena Sanders as Raina, Vanessa Guy as a Priestess, and George Setefano as Valtel, I couldn't turn up anything. (And I can't actually figure out who 'Valtel' was...?)
The teleplay for the ep was written by the team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who immortalised themselves as geeks when they put themselves as characters into the ep Yes Virginia, There is A Hercules. They also wrote the eps A Rock and a Hard Place, Atlantis, ...And Fancy Free, Medea Culpa (teleplay), Men in Pink, Porkules, Twilight (with Gene O'Neill & Noreen Tobin), Reunions, Faith, Resurrection, and For Those of You Just Joining Us.
The story for this ep was created by Stephanie C. Meyer, who is new to us.
The ep's director was Garth Maxwell, who previously directed Gladiator, All That Glitters, and The Sword of Veracity. He also directed the X:WP eps Mortal Beloved, The Execution, Lost Mariner, Forgiven, Past Imperfect, and Devi.
***
The disclaimer was:
The Oracle affectionately known as "Mrs. Potato Head" was not harmed during the production of this motion picture.
