Xena Reviews: Season 2, Episode 13

The Quest – Director: Michael Levine/Story: Chris Manheim, R.J. Stewart, Steven L. Sears/Teleplay: Steven L. Sears

This one starts with Gabi heading for Amphipolis with Xena’s body. Gabi’s having a hard time accepting that Xena’s dead and keeps having nightmares about it. Some thugs show up, having heard about Xena’s death and knowing her corpse will fetch a good reward from Xena’s enemies. Gabi kicks their asses, with a little help from Iolaus, who hasn’t heard the news about Xena’s death yet.

Gabi tells Iolaus about Xena and he helps her work through her grief (and anger). Iolaus leaves to tell Hercules the bad news and Gabi heads for Amphipolis, passing through Amazon territory on the way. She runs into some Amazons (including Ephiny), who pay homage to Xena. Gabi finds out Melosa is dead and meets the new (temporary) Queen, Velasca. Ephiny doesn’t seem all that thrilled with Velasca being in charge and urges Gabi to come to the Amazon village, at least for the night. Gabi agrees, probably needing to be around friends in her time of grief. Elsewhere, Autolycus uses subterfuge in the Temple of Helios to steal a sacred dagger (the Dagger of Helios, appropriately enough). But something—or someone—else is controlling Autolycus; he doesn’t know who it is, but a familiar war cry (and the ending of the previous episode) tell us that it’s Xena, using Autolycus’s body as a conduit. She forces him to steal an old book from inside a statue before making his escape. In the Amazon village, Ephiny tells Gabi that Velasca is Melosa’s adopted daughter, who left after an unsuccessful challenge. She returned to challenge Melosa again and won this time (although Ephiny hints things might not have been done properly). Velasca is a throwback, wanting the Amazons to be more warlike, starting with attacking the Centaurs (which would put Ephiny in a delicate situation, since she was married to a Centaur and bore his son). Since Gabi is technically Melosa’s heir, Ephiny urges her to stay and become Queen, saying that might help her let go of her sadness over losing Xena. Gabi is torn, but a conversation with Velasca (who exudes false courtesy but can’t conceal her sense of entitlement) makes her wonder if Ephiny might be right. Autolycus thinks he’s losing his mind, but Xena manages to communicate with him and admits she needs his body … to steal her corpse from the Amazons.

Xena tells Autolycus she needs ambrosia to bring her back to life, which is why she made him steal the book (which has a map to the ambrosia cave) and the Dagger of Helios (which is the key to open the hiding place). Autolycus is still freaked out having Xena’s spirit inside him, but agrees to help her. In the Amazon village, Gabi decides to give Xena an Amazon funeral and take her ashes to Amphipolis before returning to rule the Amazons. Autolycus sneaks into the village (dressed as the world’s least sexy Amazon) and figures out where Xena’s body is being kept. During the coronation ceremony, Gabi tries to put on the Queen’s headdress, which makes Velasca freak out. She throws a dagger, impaling the headdress, and gets into an argument with Ephiny. It seems like Velasca’s warlike approach does have a lot of support among the Amazons … maybe that’s why Ephiny is so invested in having Gabi as Queen, to counter the warmongers. Gabi offers Velasca the headdress and the dagger and when Velasca chooses the dagger, Gabi knows what she has to do: she becomes Queen and later says goodbye to Xena. Autolycus sneaks in, but before he can abscond with Xena’s body, Gabi catches him and assumes he wants the body for profit. Gabi doesn’t believe Autolycus when he tells her Xena’s spirit is inside him, so she has him tossed in a prison cell. Naturally, Autolycus breaks out within minutes … just in time to see the Amazons lighting Xena’s funeral pyre.

Xena takes Autolycus over completely and saves her body from the pyre. Gabi realizes Xena is inside Autolycus (after seeing him use Xena’s war cry, chakram, flips, and Argo whistle) and hitches a ride on the sarcophagus when he drags it away. Ephiny volunteers to bring them back, but Velasca freaks and convinces most of the Amazons that Gabi is a traitor and needs to die. Ephiny and her handful of followers are thrown in prison. Xena uses Autolycus to communicate with Gabi, and uses her connection to Gabi to bring her to the netherworld where Xena is currently trapped. Xena tells Gabi they don’t have much time and kisses her, much to Gabi’s (and Autolycus’s) surprise. Gabi suggests they float Xena’s sarcophagus down the river to keep it safe while they go after the ambrosia. They get to the cave, which looks like something out of Super Mario, with ropes hanging over a pit full of spikes and flames. Before they can get the ambrosia, Velasca and her minions show up and capture them.

Velasca interrogates Autolycus (with a weird pseudo-sexual vibe), breaking his arm. He doesn’t talk, but she notices the Dagger of Helios and figures out it’s the key to the ambrosia. Autolycus is thrown in a cell with Gabi and the others and Ephiny thinks they’re finished, since Velasca will become a god once she eats the ambrosia … and a very bellicose one. Gabi tells them they’re not done yet and has Autolycus pick the lock (with a piece from Solari’s bra). They get to the cave to find Velasca halfway up, but Autolycus can’t climb with his broken arm, so Xena switches over to Gabi’s body. They fight on the ropes and Velasca makes it to the ambrosia, but Gabi (or Xena, I guess) yanks the rope and Velasca drops her prize. The ambrosia bounces off Gabi and falls into the fire. Velasca freaks, but Gabi (or Xena) slices her rope, sending her onto the spikes below. Ephiny shows up with Xena’s body and Autolycus thinks it’s too late. But a small piece of ambrosia got lodged in Gabi’s top when it hit her and she uses that to revive Xena. We see Velasca is still alive and when another errant piece of ambrosia falls from the edge of the pit, she reaches out for it. Later, Xena and Gabi thank Autolycus and Xena says she owes him one (a promise he’ll collect on in a future episode). Xena thanks Gabi and promises she’ll never die on her again … unfortunately, that’s a promise she won’t keep.

This is a great episode and one of my favourites (it’s #18 on my all-time list), even though it was done as a result of Lucy’s accident; originally, Xena was supposed to wake up at the end of last episode. I like this one better than the two episodes that bracket it because this is essentially a Gabi episode; Gabi has to deal with losing Xena and figure out how to live her life without Xena’s influence and friendship. Ruling the Amazons is a good choice and I think Gabi would’ve made a great Queen, but obviously with Xena back, she won’t want to settle down. Technically, Gabi is still Queen, but she leaves Ephiny as her Regent (and we’ll see more on that next episode). The one thing I don’t like about this episode is Velasca; she doesn’t seem to have any real motivation, other than wanting power for its own sake. I guess that could make sense, but she’s so over the top she comes off as some kind of nutcase. Like when Autolycus steals Xena’s body and Gabi goes along for the ride, Velasca totally loses her shit. She’s ranting about how Gabi is a traitor and has to be killed, but why would the Amazons care if Gabi takes Xena’s body? Xena’s not even an Amazon, and Gabi has been absent for so long, so why would they give a damn? Obviously Velasca is using it as a pretext to assert her authority, but her logic is pretty fucked-up. (And most of the Amazons are swayed by it, which doesn’t say much for their reasoning powers.) Steve Sears said that Velasca’s challenge and defeat of Melosa wasn’t entirely above board, but they ran out time to explain all that, so it’s only hinted at when Ephiny tells Gabi about Velasca becoming Queen.

Seeing Autolycus “possessed” by Xena was great; Bruce Campbell was obviously having a lot of fun with it. I’m not sure why Xena didn’t want him to tell Gabi about Xena’s spirit being inside him. Maybe she thought Gabi wouldn’t believe it (which she didn’t, at first), or maybe she didn’t want to give Gabi false hope in case things didn’t work out. Losing Xena once was bad enough, but thinking she might get her back only to lose her again would’ve devastated Gabi. Some fans wonder why Xena didn’t just inhabit Gabi’s body and explain things to her. But I think Xena needed Autolycus’s expertise as the King of Thieves, first to get the Dagger and the map, and later to climb the ropes over the fire pit and retrieve the ambrosia. Autolycus could do stuff like that easily, so Xena wouldn’t even have to control him. And maybe Xena didn’t want to risk Gabi over the spikes and fire; it was only after Autolycus’s arm was broken and he couldn’t climb that Xena switched over to inhabit Gabi.

Speaking of which, this episode really highlights the connection between Xena and Gabi. Gabi is determined to bring Xena’s body back to Amphipolis (as she promised to do in The Greater Good). Gabi does change her mind, saying that she’s been thinking of Xena as her home but now she can make a new home with the Amazons. That theme of Xena and Gabi being a home for each other will be revisited in future episodes. I think Gabi’s anger at Xena isn’t because she died, it’s because she gave up and stopped fighting to live. Xena was out of it, confusing who she used to be with who she is now, and it took M’lila  and (especially) Gabi to remind her of that. The bond between Xena and Gabi is so strong in this episode, that Xena manages to bring Gabi’s spirit (or soul) to the netherverse to talk to her face to face. And of course that leads us to the kiss. I don’t care what anyone says, that was definitely a romantic kiss, not just a friendly one. (Seriously, would you kiss one of your friends like that?) I think the kiss is Xena’s way of letting Gabi know that she has romantic feelings for her. (We know Xena prefers to act, not react.) Gabi is surprised, partly because she’s kissing Autolycus when she opens her eyes, but partly because she realizes Xena feels something more than friendship for her. Of course, Gabi being Gabi she has to ruminate over that and consider her own feelings before figuring out what she wants to do. We’ll see more of that in upcoming episodes, but for me this is where Xena and Gabi’s romance really takes off.

Noticeable Things:

• Where did Gabi get the coffin for Xena? Presumably she stopped in some town—possibly the same town where she got the winter clothes before heading into the mountains last episode. That could explain how news of Xena’s death spread so fast … it would be impossible to keep the coffin-maker (and other townsfolk) from talking about it.
• I guess Xena killing Velasca while inhabiting Gabi’s body doesn’t affect Gabi’s blood innocence? Kind of a technicality, but it turns out Velasca’s not really dead anyway, so it doesn’t matter in the end.
• We’ll see the Dagger of Helios in future episodes, but its look will change (because they end up using a different prop).
• Originally, there was talk of Gabi placing the ambrosia in her mouth and kissing Xena to bring her back to life. That would’ve been interesting, but I can’t think of a logical reason for Gabi to do it that way, which is probably why it wasn’t used.
• The scene with Autolycus taking the makeshift lockpick out of Solari’s bra is hilarious.
• Apparently this episode ran long and bits and pieces ended up being cut, including a scene with Autolycus in a bath house surrounded by naked Amazons.

Favourite Quotes:

• “I would’ve told her how empty my life was before she came, and all the lessons I learned, and that I love her.” Gabi answering Iolaus’s question about what she’d say to Xena if she could. It’s been established that the dead can hear it when the living think about them, so Xena probably knows everything Gabi says (or thinks) about her in this episode.
• “Hey, I paid for an hour!” Autolycus when Velasca walks away from her S&M interrogation of him.
• “Autolycus … get your hand off my butt.” Gabi, right after recovering from her kiss with Xena. Some people might say Xena was the one who grabbed Gabi’s ass, since she was in control of Autolycus at the time, but Xena made Autolycus punch himself in the face as punishment, so it was probably his idea. Or maybe Xena was just covering …
• “You know, there are two kinds of tears; tears for those who leave you, and tears for those who you never let go. And I won’t say goodbye to you Xena, because I know we’ll be together again … someday.” Gabi saying farewell to Xena, but not goodbye.