episode 75, season 4 #7
"Locked Up and Tied Down"
Although there is a great set of interviews on the dvd, they haven't found their way to youtube yet.
Strangely enough, the deleted scenes/extended scenes HAVE made their way there, and can be found here.
And another 20 sec one here.
Although I usually prefer the televised version, the deleted scenes definately demonstrate how we go from A to C in the courtship of "Gabrielle and Thalasa".
Considering who's influence she's usually under (
Xena) who's trying to recruit her (
Thalassa) and who's coming NEXT week (
Najara), Gabrielle can be forgiven for feeling a little like the only game in town.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Great teaser... for "subtext", for comradeship, for foreshadowing...
Gabrielle: "I can't find it."
Xena: "
It's there."
Gabrielle: "I-- got it. I got it."
Xena: (Corrects Gently) "Gabrielle, stop searching with your
eyes."
Gabrielle: "All right-- no eyes.."
Xena: "Find it?
Ahhhh. You found it."
Gabrielle: "I learned from the best."
Xena: [Sighs]
Gabrielle: "What in Tartarus have you been carrying on these shoulders?"
Xena: "I wouldn't know. I try not to
overanalyze my life, like
some people."
Gabrielle: "Some people say the unexamined life is not worth living."
Xena: "Those people
haven't lived
my life."
Great set up for a great ep, and the teaser's barely half way through!
Xena & Gabby fight 6 men, and
win.
Or so they thought.
Gabrielle:
(Reading the parchment xena took off the leader) "This is an arrest warrant, for you."
Xena: "For
what?!"
Gabrielle: "Murder."
Xena: (Grabs for the warrant) "Give me that."
Messenger: "Does the name, `Thalassa', mean anything to you, Xena? Perhaps you've killed so many people since then. You don't remember."
Xena: "I
remember Thalassa."
Gabrielle: "Just because someone wrote that on a piece of parchment doesn't make it true. Tell him, Xena."
Xena: "I did it."
Gabrielle: "Well, she was crazed or, she was armed, right? There was some sort of mitigating circumstance."
Xena: "Gabrielle, she was innocent. She did nothing to me and I killed her because it suited my purposes. How's that for mitigating circumstances? Here."
(Xena tries to hand her Chakram to Gabrielle)
Gabrielle: (refuses to take it) "What are you doing?"
Xena: "I'm going back with them. You said yourself that I had the
weight of the world on my shoulders. Maybe it's the
weight of my guilt. This is my chance to do something about it.
(waves the weapon that defines her once again at Gabrielle) Take it! You know I'm right."
(finally hands the chakram off to her friend)
The sight of
Xena being put into shackles; wrists, ankles, and neck as she stood
without resisting was a freaking sight to behold.
Holy ....
Well, Callisto is dead, so the main reminder of all the horror Xena has done in her past is gone. And oh by the way, Gabrielle, in case you forgot
how Callisto was
"born"... it WAS from the ashes of the war brought upon innocents that stood between YOUR best friend and her goals.
2 years ago, in her naivete,
this was how Gabrielle described Xena to Solon.
Gabrielle: “You know, she’s a good person, too. She always does what’s right-- even when it hurts her. I forget that sometimes.”
Solon: “She’s not like I heard.”
Gabrielle: “You know, this is the only Xena I’ve ever known. I find it hard to understand the hatred that she gets sometimes, when we travel, from people who just don’t know her the way I know her. I guess they’re afraid of the old Xena.”
Surprising to see, after traveling with Xena for over 3 years now, Gabrielle is still just as naive AND as forgetful.
During her trial, I was struck by how Xena described Thalassa. She spoke in terms we've only heard her use to describe Gabrielle. "She had a light..."
And after Xena is convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, this is how she explains it to the battling bard.
Xena: "There's no defense for what I did, Gabrielle."
Gabrielle: "Xena, you could have argued the greater good. Come on! Surely, what you can do outside prison will outweigh... !"
Xena: "What?
Outweigh what? The pain that that young girl felt as she was being
eaten alive?"
(And the friend who once challenged Xena to "examine" her life, changes her mind.)
Gabrielle: "Don't."
Xena: "Gabrielle,
she was like you. She had your kind of spirit and I killed that. What can outweigh that?"
Gabrielle: "Xena, if you're looking for redemption, you're not gonna find it there."
Xena: "I'm
not looking for redemption
any more. Gabrielle, we're always talking about
your spiritual quest."
(Harkening back to "Family Affair") You say that you need something to make you feel complete. Well,
so do I."
Xena finally admits her deepest secret to Gabrielle. NOTHING I can do will ever atone for the evil I HAVE done, so I might as well take on all the guilt, and sacrifice my life to daily punishment.
The goodbye on the dock was heartbreaking in that the
one thing Gabrielle has always been able to do, nurture the humanity in her Warrior, she was unable to do. It was Xena's humanity that let herself be taken, it was her humanity that allowed her to kneel at the altar of justice and accept its decision. As far as Xena was concerned, she had 3+ years of freedom and 3+ years of friendship
more than she deserved. She seemed embarrassed when led away... but for what? For promising Gabrielle more than she could deliver? How long could a murderer get away with that?
3+ years.
Although I liked the deleted barroom scenes with Gabby and the healer, I prefered the televised version where we are left to assume what our bard does next. It harkens back to season 1's "Black Wolf" when Gabrielle learns Xena has been taken prisoner, and she gets herself arrested to bring the WP the tools of her trade, the whip and the
chakram.
How long did Xena play the good prisoner before she could stand it no longer? The next boat to shark island wasn't for a week, and it seemed that Xena went into the pit the day Gabby arrived so I'm guessing 6-7 days.
An eternity, for a Warrior Princess, I'm sure.
Then another eternity waiting for Gabby to
find her. The deleted scenes and the final one between Xena, Thalassa and Gabrielle suggests Gabby was there 2-4 days before she finally found Xena.
Days in which Xena could contemplate the
last words Thalassa said before she had Xena tossed into the pit to die.
Thalassa: "I've been watching you since you came here, Xena. At first, I couldn't figure out what you were up to,
helping people, building that
silly little shrine. And then I realized what I heard about you was true. You're trying to
make up for all the evil things you've done.
How pathetic. As if any of it could make up for what you did to me."
.....
Thalassa: "You know, Xena? The
thought of you has haunted me every moment of my life. Do you understand what that's like?"
Xena: "Yes, I do."....
.....
Thalassa: "
You finally have the punishment you sought, but it's for a murder you didn't even commit. Don't you just love the
irony?"
Time to think about what
Gabrielle said to her on the
dock, before Xena boarded the prison ship.
Gabrielle: "You could have said something in your defense."
Xena: "There's no defense for what I did, Gabrielle."
Gabrielle: "Xena, you could have argued
the greater good. Come on! Surely
, what you can do outside prison will outweigh... !"
Time to
think about what Gabrielle said
about her
in the courtroom...
Gabrielle: "This was a terrible waste of a life. But Xena, Xena
has changed."
Judge: "And you believe in her conversion?"
Gabrielle: "Yes."
Yes!
One simple affirmation that should have had great meaning to one Warrior Princess.
Season 3's "Forgiven".
Gabrielle: “Xena, if you can say with a straight face that you believe in her, that’ll go a long way with a confused kid like that. It did with me. It’s easier to believe in yourself after someone else has believed in you first.”
Xena may not be able to forgive herself, but eventually she can see the truth. There IS no defense for what she did, so its time to
stop hiding in the bowels of that prison, and do what she's best at. Righting a wrong, and defending the innocent.
Warden: (To the new inmates in the yard, before the gallows) "Welcome, ladies, to Shark Island prison. Everything you've heard is true. But keep your noses clean, obey the guards and your lives will be bearable, short, but bearable. Break the rules and suffer the ultimate punishment! This woman was caught trying to help a prisoner to escape.
Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk. For this action,
death! Whenever
you're ready, Commandant."
---
Xena: (Being creative with a rat, in the pit)
"Uh!"
---
Warden: (Outside in the yard) "We're waiting."
Thalassa: (Looking up to Gabrielle, her healer, on the gallows) "I can't."
Warden: "I can.
Do it!"
(And suddenly the MOST welcome sound of a chakram spinning through the air greets our ears, and slices through the rope attached to Gabrielle's neck. She falls clean through the open bottom of the gallows gate, hitting the ground hard.)
Women's Voices: "It's-- it's Xena!" "Oh!"
....
[Fight]
Xena: (
fights her way to Gabrielle's side) "Get out of my way! Gabrielle! Gabrielle."
Gabrielle: (Thankfully, as Xena cuts her bonds with the Chakram.) "Xena."
Then as always with X:WP,
when there's not a big dance number at the end of the show,
there's a big FIGHT "number" to get our juices going. Loved how Gabrielle took charge of the Commandant and took on ? how many? bad gals before their leader took her down.
Loved how Xena came flying in through the shutters, kicking and WP yelling as she flew, eventually kicking their leader OUT the 2nd floor window to finish their fight outside.
But I especially loved the end... between
Thalassa and Xena...
Thalassa: "Now, I owe my life to you. The gods certainly love playing with our fates, don't they?"
Xena: "Thalassa, I
can't ask your forgiveness.
I wronged you terribly. But there's one thing I know. When I met you, you were a wonderful, loving person. And if you continue to let that love be buried under bitterness and anger,
evil wins."
Thalassa: "What you say it's true. Your friend here, she helped me get back in touch with something these last few days, my soul. My ability to do good had been crippled. The evil Xena,
she did that to me.
Don't let her do it to you. Thank you, Gabrielle."
... and between
Xena and Gabrielle.
Gabrielle: "So, how about it?"
Xena: "How about what?"
Gabrielle: "Forgiving yourself."
Xena: "Gabrielle, that's not for me. But I won't let that
monster that I used to be-- the one that's
sleeping so close to my heart, destroy
all the good I can do now."
Gabrielle: (Hands back the chakram) "Not as long as I'm around."
Xena's heart:
I'll stand by you:
) when she did that.
)
"Tall, piercing blue eyes, beautiful, throws a mean right hook... looks like she's already thrown it..." 
)
from the show... ... 
