Xena Reviews: Season 3, Episode 6

The Debt – Director: Oley Sassone/Story: Rob Tapert, R.J. Stewart/Teleplay: R.J. Stewart

While Xena and Gabi are out in the woods, Gabi is restless (probably feeling guilty for lying about Hope last episode). A half-dead Chinese guy shows up, followed by a bunch of ninja types. Xena pounds the ninjas and the guy gives her a raven-shaped hairpin and a message that the Green Dragon has become large and must be made small. Xena tells Gabi she’s heading east to Chin and doesn’t want Gabi to come with her because she’s going to Chin to kill someone.

As she prepares for her journey, Xena tells Gabi about her past. We get flashbacks of Xena after her first encounter with Caesar and the death of M’lila. Xena dedicated herself to mayhem, following her most destructive urges and hooking up with Borias to lead an army east into Chin, waging war on all humankind. Borias wants to make an alliance with one of the two big ruling families (Ming and Lao) in order to keep the two families from allying against them. But Xena preferred to just waste everyone and let fear work for them. When Borias tries to make an alliance with Ming Tsu (who brings his young son, Ming Tien to the meeting), Xena insults Ming Tsu and screws things up. Borias gives her shit, but Xena doesn’t care. Borias meets with Lao Ma and tries to leave Xena out of the negotiations, but she shows up anyway. Xena gets jealous of Lao Ma—not because she loves Borias, but because she’s worried Lao Ma might civilize him and Xena prefers him wild. So Xena ends up trying to kill Lao Ma.

Xena’s legs are still fucked up from being broken by Caesar’s men, so Lao Ma kicks Xena’s ass easily, using some kind of telekinesis to pound her. That puts an end to the negotiations and Borias is so sick of Xena’s crap he tells her to leave or he’ll kill her himself. Xena decides to take matters into her own hands and kidnaps Ming Tien, telling Borias she’ll cut him in for 5% if he arranges a deal with Ming Tsu. Borias agrees but ends up betraying Xena, taking the ransom in exchange for handing her over to Ming Tsu after she returns Ming Tien. In the present, Xena reaches a port and prepares to take a ship that’ll get her close to Chin. (I think she may be crossing the Caspian Sea here, since an ocean voyage would take way longer and Ming Tien’s kingdom seems to be in the middle of Chin.) Gabi begs her not to go (and not to commit cold-blooded murder), but Xena is adamant and Gabi refuses to go with her.

On the ship, Xena thinks about the past and we get more flashbacks. Ming Tsu has Xena in a cage and is taking her into the woods to hunt her like an animal. They run into Lao Ma, who tries to give Ming Tien a flag with a green dragon on it, but he tosses it aside without even looking at it. Lao Ma tells Ming Tsu he can use her lands to hunt Xena, but during the hunt Lao Ma helps Xena, scaring away the dogs and taking Xena back to her palace.

When Ming Tsu shows up at the palace looking for Xena, Lao Ma hides her in a hot tub (and when she’s running out of air, gives her some from her own mouth in a half kiss, half CPR move). Lao Ma lies to Ming Tsu about knowing where Xena is and after he leaves she cleans Xena up and makes her a lady-in-waiting, giving her an ebony hairpin shaped like a raven’s head. In the present, Xena smears herself with mud and sneaks into Ming Tien’s palace. She remembers Gabi’s pleas and almost relents, but ends up going ahead with her plan. She slips into Ming Tien’s chamber and is about to kill him, but when she pulls the covers back … Gabi is in the bed instead of Ming. Ming and his men jump out and grab Xena, who’s so stunned by Gabi’s betrayal she can’t even speak.

I know I’m in the minority here, but this really isn’t one of my favourites (nor is the second part), which is why it’s only #100 on my all-time list. Objectively, I can see that it’s a very well-made episode and it reveals a lot about Xena’s past and how she became who she is today. But subjectively it just doesn’t thrill me all that much, probably because Gabi is absent from the flashbacks (which is a problem I have with all flashback episodes). Whenever Xena and Gabi are together on screen, it’s magic, but this episode just has a few travel montage shots with a bit on conversation as Xena tells Gabi about her past. That makes the flashback stuff drag for me and I find myself waiting to see the present scenes so I can see Xena and Gabi together again. Also, I’m not really a big fan of Borias; he and Xena are just toxic together and I find him annoying. As I said, this is really well-made; you can tell they went all-out on the budget and it’s quite cinematic. Apparently, this was meant to be a Xena movie but they couldn’t find a distributor, so they ended up making it into two regular episodes.

We do learn a lot about Xena’s past here, getting our first look at two people who would (for better or worse) shape the person Xena would become. Lao Ma tells Xena she can see inside other people’s souls and says Xena is destined for greatness. At this point in her life, Xena is basically just a walking id, nothing but emotionless Will; she does whatever she wants, acting on her basest impulses like an animal and not caring about anyone else. She tells Gabi she and Borias weren’t in love, they were just using each other, but she also says she didn’t want Lao Ma civilizing Borias. And she didn’t see Borias’s betrayal coming (just as she didn’t see Gabi’s betrayal coming either), so maybe there was some emotion there after all. Borias does seem a bit more civilized than Xena at this point, although he’s still a bloodthirsty asshole. He does recognize the value of diplomacy and even displays a sense of honour, two things Xena is definitely lacking at this point in her life. We even see her killing prisoners who surrendered, something Marcus claimed she never did; but Marcus must’ve known her before Caesar, so that was a different Xena he was talking about.

This episode also has a big impact on Xena’s relationship with Gabi, despite the lack of time spent together. At the beginning, Gabi says she hopes she never disappoints Xena and Xena says she never could. That’s not just Gabi feeling guilty for lying about Hope, it also foreshadows Gabi’s betrayal at the end of the episode. Gabi’s mad that Xena is ready to throw everything away and just go off and kill someone and that anger could have two meanings as well. Gabi is talking about Xena throwing away the progress she’s made toward her redemption, but she’s also jealous that Lao Ma means so much to Xena that she’s willing to kill for her. Gabi knows Xena’s in love with her, but now this woman she hasn’t seen for a decade sends her a cryptic message and Xena’s ready to go halfway across the world and commit murder for her, even over Gabi’s objections. Her jealousy is understandable, but I get the feeling she might not even realize how jealous she is, convincing herself she’s only concerned about Xena’s redemption. (That view will be borne out in Forget Me Not, later this season.) I think Gabi’s big mistake isn’t that she gives up on Xena when she refuses to accompany her to Chin, but that she doesn’t put enough faith in herself. We see that Xena is having doubts as she sneaks into Ming Tien’s palace, so I think if Gabi had stayed with her all the way to Chin and kept trying to change Xena’s mind, she would’ve gotten through to her. Gabi should’ve trusted the strength of her own bond with Xena instead of giving up so easily, but I guess Gabi’s jealousy made her lose faith in their relationship.

Noticeable Things:

• There’s a sweet little scene right at the beginning of the episode where Xena rolls over in her sleep and reaches for Gabi, waking up when she’s not there. Does that mean they’re intimate at this point? It’s possible, but my gut tells me they don’t become intimate until after The Rift. Gabi’s guilt over lying about killing Hope (and Xena’s guilt over supposedly forcing Gabi to kill her child) might be enough to keep them at a distance, emotionally and physically.
• If you’re wondering how Gabi managed to beat Xena to Chin … well, she had a little help. We’ll find out more about that too in Forget Me Not.
• When Xena’s fighting the ninjas, one guy starts whipping his swords around like crazy and Xena just pulls out her chakram and kills him, kinda like Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark when he shoots the swordsman with the fancy moves.
• We get to see Gabi’s bargaining skills again, as she gets a good price for clothing before she and Xena head east.
• While Borias negotiates with Lao Ma, we see Xena smoking opium from a pipe.
• We get shots of the Great Wall of China, which was first built in the 200s BCE, but the current Wall dates from much later.
• When Xena’s having second thoughts about killing Ming Tien, we get flashbacks of her and Gabi from Is There a Doctor in the House?, Return of Callisto, Callisto, The Price, and Ties That Bind.

Favourite Quotes:

• “Fill yourself with desire and see only illusion; empty yourself of desire and understand the great mystery of things.” Lao Ma’s advice to Xena after beating the crap out of her.
• “I don’t eat meat.” Lao Ma’s response to Xena telling her to keep her hands off Xena’s piece of meat (by which she means Borias). Lao Ma’s response can be taken two ways, as we’ll see next episode.
• “You owe someone so much you could just throw away these last few years?” Gabi’s double-edged question to Xena.