Aside #10.
I really like the
bookends found within this episode, some intended by the author, and some not.
Lets
first start with the
"not intended" bookend, namely
Neo AKA Joxer.
This character was NOT supposed to be our bumbling friend. He was just another Roman Centurion, albeit one who felt beholden to the Empress of Rome for saving his daughter.
Rob Tapert's intervention, his decision to offer the part to Ted EIGHT DAYS before priniciple photography began on the show was genius to me. Genius BECAUSE we know this man, in another life, is more than beholden to Gabrielle and Xena.
He's family.
He was called by his dreams to the foot of their crosses when they were crucified by Julius Caesar "so long ago". He crawled up the cross and caught Xena's body in his arms as it was released from the nails.
In this altered reality, he followed her out of the prison and stood by her side as she was nailed to the cross. He stayed there, out in the rain, as he watched her die on that cross. Was he praying for a quick death? Was he there, trying to lend her his strength?
We'll never know.
But the Empress knows that he was there, somewhere, and maybe somehow that gave her a modicum of solace since very few of us want to die "alone".
Second... The Assassination of Brutus. From the very beginning, we in the audience and Caesar in particular recall WHO orchestrated the orignal death of Caesar.
Et tu, Brutus?
We hear that speech tantalyze when Caesar faces his best friend in his office, after the wounding and jailing of the Empress of Rome.
"And what about you, Brutus?"
His fate was sealed the moment he showed even a morsel of compassion for the Warrior Empress. At least the bookend was symmetrical, as Caesar took it upon himself to kill his "good friend", rather than appoint some lackey or a gaggle of senators to do it for him.
Third... The Assassination of Caesar. Silly silly man. He thought by killing Brutus, and by crucifying Xena, he would escape his death at their hands/plans. But as the author says, his fate
WASN'T to die by Brutus' hand, but to die by the
UNEXPECTED hand. In this case... by
Alti.
Fourth... The Destruction of Alti. Silly, silly woman. She thought by killing Xena, she would escape her fate. In the other world, she saw Xena kill her... or so she thought. Sadly,
this Alti obviously didn't see the
whole vision from "Adventures in the Sin trade"...
Alti: “Tell me who she is! Tell me who the blonde one is! Tell me who she is!”
Xena: “She’s goodness and innocence, Alti. And she’ll live inside me forever. She frightens you ‘cause
she represents what can defeat you.”
Indeed, Xena, indeed.
Alti orchestrated the crucifixion of Empress Xena as much to protect herself as Caesar did to protect himself.
But what Alti
didn't understand, was that it
wasn't Xena who killed that "other" Alti in Siberia. It was the
LOVE Xena had for Gabrielle
that triumphed over Alti, just as it was the
confused love the Athenian Playwright had for a Roman Empress she'd never seen 4 days just before, that defeated this Alti.
Fifth... Love.
Empress Xena: "In the third act, you had your hero throw himself over the
cliff with no fear of dying... all for her.
Do you really believe that kind of love exists?"
Gabrielle: "That's what we all dream about, isn't it? Someone who looks so deeply into our soul that... they'd find
something worth dying for."
Rob Tapert brings up no less than three times throughout his commentary the fact that TPTB desperately wanted to impart this idea that the playwright's life was
UNfullfilled despite her great success.
We see, from their own conversation in the bedroom before and their actions after the balcony scene, that though there is affection between the Emperor and Empress, there
isn't any real
love.
Both women, highly successful in their chosen careers,
are yet unfullfilled without that singular emotion... love.
The episode's author, Katherine Fugate, seemed to suggest in her interview that her plans for the ep were to excuse the "Evil" Xena phase in OUR Xena's past. She felt Xena should stop beating herself up over the wrongs she'd committed, and accept that without her evil past she would have never become the Warrior Princess we know and love. Without that history, she would have never been able to recognize Gabrielle when the two crossed paths.
Neat idea, I just disagree with it. Disagree since Ms Fugate seems to have shown us in her wonderful play, that THESE TWO would ultimately recognize each other, no matter where they were, or who they were.
Gabrielle: "Xena... when I'm with you... this
emptiness that I have felt
my entire life
is gone. You have to tell me what's going on."
and later in that same prison cell...
Xena: "I'll
love you
forever."
Sixth. Unintended? You be the judge. Rob in the episode commentary noted that TPTB always looked at Caesar's crucifixion on the beach to be the
turning point for Evil Xena, the moment that "made" her. The Empress herself
tells the Playwright...
Empress Xena: "In the other world, my destiny was linked to Caesar and that cross and I hated them both... but now I realize that everything happens precisely as it should...
precisely."
But lets just think about that statement for a moment.
Evil Xena wasn't born when she was
TIED to that cross... she wasn't even born when her legs were broken by that Centurion. She was BORN the moment a young woman,
M'Lila, DIED to protect her worthless life.
Xena: (To the Roman kneeling before her) “You’ll be dead in thrity seconds. But know this... you won’t be the last.”
Xena: (To all the dead around her) “Tell Hades to prepare himself. A new Xena is born tonight...with a new purpose in life...”
Xena: “Death.”
If the final crucifixion was a bookend, then
what does it bookend? If not the beach crucifixion in season 2, is it the winter one in season 4?
But that doesn't make sense. Xena was crucified WITH Gabrielle, and she went to that death with joy in her heart, able to express one last time how she truly felt and hear the words she longed to hear one more time.
Xena: "Gabrielle... you were the best thing in my life."
Gabrielle: "I love you, Xena."
But THAT doesn't bookend THIS death. Gabrielle is
no where in sight, and although the Empress has
blurted out her newly discovered feelings for the playwright, Gabrielle is still just a
confused woman who's been sent away from Rome twice in two days by first the Empress of Rome and then by a prisoner of Rome. Even if both died somehow that day, there's no expectation that these two would find each other in the afterlife as they did once before.
So.
Where's the bookend?
Where does Xena die...
without Gabrielle by her side?
Hmmmm?
Remember what Alti the High Priestess said as she battled the Empress in the green pasture over the Playwright's soul?
Alti: "Oh, yes it is! It's
all about me... and what
I know! Your story will end with your
playwright unable to save her `Fallen Angel'."
Foreshadow alert.
GODS DAMN you, Alti!
GODS DAMN YOU to the depths of
HELL!
"scandalized" by others. 
