Season 1 episode 24 "Is There a Doctor in The House?"
Many eps ago... in my Prometheus" recap/review, I made this statement to Gabrielle.
Sweetie... you have NO idea how many times this chick (Xena) is going to die on you during this series. 
But don't you worry. 
You pay her back in kind! 
Oh, and Xena, darling... remember "The Greater Good"? Its true what they say. Payback IS a
bitch!
This is such an interesting season ender, especially coming directly after "Deathmask" the ep I damned with faint praise last night, for not being able to deliver fully on the emotional battlefront.
It showcased two siblings coming together for the first time in 10 years, but they might as well have been classmates for 1 season in grammar school for all the connection they seemed to possess.
"Is there a Doctor..." had connections
galore in the teaser alone. We see the banter between Xena and Gabrielle as the two try to sneak through the battle lines of Thessaly and Mitoa, using Xena's shortcut to Athens. We see it between The two women and their Amazonian friend Ephiny, as they mourn with her the death of her beloved Phantes. And finally, we see it between Xena and the Mitoan General, Marmax, as Xena watches him give his exhortation to the troops, then run down a soldier from Thessaly.
Xena sees someone she once was... a leader of an Army on the field of battle,
certain in his ability to see the
right and wield the might that only the force of
many men's arms gave him.
And as I'm sure you know already,
that's what this ep is all about.
Hubris: An exaggerated
pride or
self-confidence.
Xena once again takes the Prince and turns him into a pauper to teach him the error of his logic. To do that, she enlists the assistance of both Gabrielle and of Ephiny.
When Xena asked Gabrielle to change the General's bandage, I felt like she was aiming her bow at Marmax's heart, with Gabby the arrow on the string.
Bullseye !!! 
As
Gabrielle's innocence and love softened the old man up,
Ephiny's dignity and courage, along with her refusal to hate the leader of the men who murdered her husband knocked him senseless.
Ephiny: “My husband was ripped apart by Mitoan hunting dogs,while
your men
watched and laughed.”
Marmax: “This can’t be.”
Ephiny: “Phantes was once my
sworn enemy. Then
I learned forgiveness, and from that
I learned love. I just hope my child grows up to live in a world free from your blind hatred.”
Marmax: “You
despise me for this.”
Ephiny: “
I don’t despise you. But you’ve got to think of the children. Is bloodshed
all you want them to know?
(Labor pain hits) Ohhh!”
Hubris is exhibited in many ways during this ep. One is by the writers who purposefully (?) screwed up the name of Hippocrates teacher. Galen of Pergamon lived some 400-500 years
after Hippocrates, but this IS the
Xenaverse... so all bets are off.
But speaking of
Hubris, we easily see the hubris of the Physician in the High Priest of the Aesclepian Temple who is praying for enlightenment instead of looking at the problem and attempting a solution. Something Xena has obviously had plenty of opportunity to do with her years on the battlefield, and dealing with its aftermath. For Xena to know the precise angle to insert the reed into a dying soldier's chest, it means she put
several in at the wrong angle in
her day.
Galen's
hubris is broad and deep. Even when he sees her successes in his temple, he can only pray that his patients will live and his students will disbelieve the evidence of their eyes. When words do not sway the young men or Xena, he then resorts to violence and orders his guards to remove this false prophet. Little did he know, this pretender's
kicks are as vicious as her
biting words!
Galen: “We beseech you, and we trust to make this man..."
Xena: “The gods
don’t care if these men live or die.”
Galen: “Who is this woman?”
Xena: “I’ve spent a lot of time healing on the battlefield. And you could
help a lot more people if you spent
more time with them, and
less with your god.”
Galen: “Am I supposed to believe some harlot knows more about healing than the priests of Aesclepius?”
Uh, yeah. That about sums it up, Galen.
This ep also showcased the
many skills of
young Gabrielle, from extending the hand of sisterhood to her fellow Amazon in need, to sewing up a General's shoulder wound unsupervised by her mentor, in addition to her aleady well known speciality of telling stories with morals. We learn yet again of her growing skill with the fighting staff, bringing down her attacker but purposefully NOT killing him. We also see that her young heart
can't stay angry or dismissive for long. After dismissing a young man's "inappropriate" comment on her beauty during a patient's resuscitation, she comes to befriend him when he stops seeing a "girl" and instead comes to see a
fellow healer.
Democritus: “That was
wonderful.”
Gabrielle: “What?”
Democritus: “Well, the way
you relieved that man’s pain.”
Gabrielle: “It was the salve.”
Democritus: “No, it was
your voice and your smile-- You gave him a
sense of peace. You have a remarkable
gift for healing.”
Gabrielle: “No, that’s
Xena’s specialty.”
Democritus: “Well,
when a man’s in pain, his soul needs healing, just like his body. And that’s what you did. It was a beautiful thing to watch.”
Dear Democritus, its
not just a
man's soul that needs healing... and in fact what you witnessed
today has been going on
all year. The funny thing is...
this healer in her innocence, in her
humility,
never realized what she was doing.
Marmax: “She’s (
Gabrielle) a lovely young woman.”
Xena: “Yes, she is.”
Marmax: “She
shouldn’t be here.
Why would you bring her into a war zone?”
Xena: “Since when are you concerned with people’s welfare?”
Good question, Warrior Princess. I also notice, you
DIDN'T answer him.
Strangely enough, I have yet to comment on Hippocrates himself. I loved the fact that the young physician was not blinded by devotion to an out-dated philosophy, and that he was willing to learn at the feet of this
"healing woman.” I wonder if Xena allowed herself the barest of moments to
enjoy this title over her usual "Warrior Princess" one. I'd bet dinars to donuts that GABRIELLE did!
I also loved the fact that Hippocrates did as he was told, quickly turning from observer to practitioner, learning as any intern does at the side of his mentor. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it Gabrielle?) His refusal to desert his patients was laudable, and his willingness to tell this newest mentor that he would not desert her either was shocking and yet refreshing... both to me and to Xena.
Connections.
Every once in awhile... I've referenced Star Trek during these reviews. This time I'm going to quote directly, from STII: WOK.
After the funeral.
DAVID: Lieutenant Saavik was right.
You never have faced death.
KIRK: No, not like this. I haven't faced death.
I've cheated death.
I tricked my way out of death ...
and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. ...
I know nothing.
DAVID: You knew enough to tell Saavik that
how we face death is at least as important as how we face life.
KIRK: Just words.
DAVID: But good words. That's where ideas begin. Maybe you should listen to them.
A child was in danger. Xena was busy. There wasn't another option, as far as Gabrielle was concerned. Did her pride in her burgeoning fighting skills create her own hubris? Or was her heart too tender to leave a child alone in the woods, with a battle raging around him?
(Gabrielle is being brought in on a stretcher, covered anew in blood, gasping.)
Democritus: “I need help here! Somebody, help!”
Xena: “
Gabrielle! Set her down.
(Xena is immediately at her side, kneeling. One hand grasping Gabrielle's, the other smoothing her hair away from her forehead) Gabrielle. Relax, relax. (
prayerfully) You’re safe here... you’re safe.... You’re safe now.”
Xena and Democritus are now standing at Gabby's bedside. Xena is calmy sewing up her neck/chest(?) wound as Democritus looks on anxiously. Gabrielle's finger moves to rest against Xena's left hand while the sewing is going on.
Galen: (Regarding the other patient, Gabby's attacker)“She should have hit him an inch lower. She could have killed the monster.”
Xena: “She
knew that-- that’s
why he’s still alive.”
Marmax: “Are you telling me that she’d rather die, then take the life of a man she doesn’t even know?”
Xena: “Gabrielle lives by her own code. That code
doesn’t include killing.”
Marmax: “As I said before,
a girl like that should not be brought into a war zone.”
I notice... Xena... you
STILL haven't answered his original question!
Its hard... after being worshiped from
"a-near" for so many months... its hard
not to begin to believe your own publicity.
When you can catch arrows flying at you with both hands AND your teeth, when you can fight a platoon of soldiers with your bare hands, when you can defeat two soldiers using a flask as you are on your deathbed, when you can perform a tracheostomy without anesthesia or suction and the patient lives, when you can swim to Tartarus and trick Hades himself into freeing your lover for 48 hours, and then argue successfully for him to be moved to the Elysian fields... What CAN'T
YOU do???
Events ensue, and young Democritus, who has obviously fallen for young Gabrielle (no one
warned him about the curse of the bard) has taken an arrow to the chest while leading his patients to safety. Galen and the guards bring him back into the temple.
Galen: (
He's lost HIS Hubris as his acolyte lies on the altar to Asclepius with an arrow in his chest.) “What am I to do?
Please, you’ve got to help him. I-- I don’t know what to do.”
Xena: (Finishing her wiork on Gabrielle) “Move that soldier. Bring him over here-- quickly! Hippocrates?”
Hippocrates: “Yeah, I know, ah-- rags, cobwebs, and a knife.”
Democritus“What about Gabrielle?”
Xena: “Marmax, be ready with that cloth.”
Galen: “You’ve got to
save him.”
Xena: “I’ll try.”
Democritus: “Forget about me.
Help Gabrielle.”
Xena: “I’ve done all I can for her. It’s up to her from now on.”
Democritus: “Don’t let her die.”
Son, that's one entreaty you DIDN'T have to make to
this "Healing Woman."
Finally Xena can't stay away from Gabrielle's side any longer. After turning the "closure" of Democritus' wound over to HER newest acolyte, Hippocrates, she goes back to kneel at Gabrielle's side. Gabby's passed out.
Xena: “Gabrielle. You know, if I could do it all over again, I’d take the southern route. I’m
so sorry.”
(Marmax joins her)
Marmax: “She may well pull through.”
Xena: “
You were right,
I shouldn’t have brought her here.”
Marmax: “I guess we all make mistakes.”
(And Xena finally answers his original question)
Xena: “My pride may have killed
my best friend.”
But a Healer's work is never done, and the "Physician" is called away from her family once again, this time to deliver a breach centaur baby from an Amazon Queen. Not just deliver, but via C-section under a combination of self hypnosis and one would presume pressure point therapy. (And, I suspect with
not a little intervention from the "God Aesclepius" since that same Amazon
didn't bleed to death while waiting for someone to come back and stitch her up!)
Sigh.
I've read with interest differing interpretations of what happens next over at WHOOSH.... & I've got to say... that I respectfully disagree.
There's only one way a Warrior Princess can learn to do all the wonderful surgical techniques she showed us during this ep... It was because she had the willingness to try, and the presence of mind to think quickly during a crisis.
I
DON'T see her attempts to resuscitate as Xena being so emotionally
immature that she couldn't accept the death of her friend, just like I don't see Gabrielle as being MORE emotionally mature because she "did" accept the death of Xena in "The Greater Good".
Xena "died" because of Callisto's dart. She died long before Gabrielle arrived at her bedside. Gabrielle may know how to stitch up a wound (She undoubtedly gets lots of practice hanging around Xena!), but I don't see her trying any chest tubes, tracheostomies, or amputations on her own.
Gabrielle, the "battling" bard of Potadiea was in this war zone
because Xena brought her there.
Xena's hubris lead her to believe that she
could always protect Gabrielle, and if something got past her defense then Xena's skills as a healer would save her friend. Xena
never stopped to
consider the charge Gabrielle leveled at her in their last big adventure with Xena's brother, Toris.
Gabrielle: “Huh--
oh no.
No, no-- that’s your way of saying, ‘
It’s too dangerous to be around me right now, Gabrielle.’ Well, have you
ever considered
that there isn’t a safe time to be around you?" 
Hearing some distress from her young friend, Xena has left Ephiny and come back to Gabrielle's side.
Xena: “Gabrielle,
come on, you’re gonna be fine.”
(Gabrielle goes into a seizure, and then presumably a respiratory arrest.)
Marmax: “What’s happening?”
Xena: “I don’t know!
Gabrielle!”
Hippocrates: “She’s dead.”
As
tender and sweet was Gabrielle's visitation to Xena's deathbed, it was
nothing compared to the Warrior Princess
assailing the gates of death itself to rescue her friend from the consequences of Xena's own hubris.
Xena: “She is
not dead-- I wouldn’t let her. Come on, Gabrielle, wake up. Come on, wake up. Come on, wake up. You’re
scaring me. Wake up.
Wake up. Gabrielle, breathe. Come on.
Come on, breathe, breathe.
(Xena looks up at Hippocrates) Maybe she just needs air. I need to get some air in her lungs.
(She starts mouth to mouth.) Come on,
breathe!”
Xena cajoles, she pleads, she prays, she picks up her friend and cradles her, she does the mouth to mouth...
Hippocrates: “Please stop it. She’s dead, now. She’s in a much better place.”
(Her fellow physican comes to stand next to Xena to offer comfort. That's NOT what this Warrior wants or needs!)
Xena: (Pushing him away forcibly) “Get out of my way! You don’t know anything!
(To Gabrielle) Don’t you listen to him. Come on, I know you’re in there-- prove it. You can show him. Come on. Wake up and breathe. You never ran from anything in your whole life.
Come on, fight!”
Her
fellow Warrior reaches out to touch their connection to each other.
Marmax: “Xena.”
Xena: (She ignores him as she cries out to Gabrielle.) “Fight!”
Marmax: “Xena! It’s
time to stop now.
Let her cross over
peacefully.”
Xena: “
What do you know? You’ve killed
so many.”
Marmax: “
So have you. Let it go.”
Xena, the Warrior Princess is
not ashamed to cry, and not ashamed to
keep trying.
Xena: “No. No-- Come on, Gabrielle. Come on. Come on.
Don’t leave me.
Don’t you leave me!
Don’t leave
me! Don’t leave me! (She's beating Gabrielle's chest) Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”
Wait.
For I'll return,
defying every death.
And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky.
They will never understand that in the midst of death,
You with you waiting saved me.
Only you and I know how I survived.
It's because you waited,
as no one else did.
Loved the end.
Loved Xena's joy and how she rocked Gabrielle while laughing at Galen's contention she was the God Aesclepius come to Earth. Loved the shocked way Gabrielle looked, though not quite sure what shocked Gabrielle the most... just to be alive, to be crushed by the Warrior Princess's armor, or to be kissed by her crying friend.
Who cares.
Let's pick... "all of the above."
Loved Xena asking to hear Gabby's story of her dream of "the other side".
And loved Gabrielle's comment.... harking us back to "Death in Chains"... "and Talus was there, oh and he says 'hello' by the way."
The end of a season.
And to think, I didn't get to see it until this fall.
Oh well.... definately a case of "better late than never".
during her stint at the 2010 LA xena con when someone asked what she would do in a "real world" situation where someone was in danger.
