Xena Reviews: Season 4, Episode 13

Paradise Found – Director: Rob Tapert/Writer: Chris Manheim

This one starts with Xena and Gabi in the mountains near India (where Gabi’s going to pursue her ongoing spiritual quest), recuperating after a bandit attack. They discuss peace and violence, with Gabi pointing out how much Xena enjoyed fighting the bandits. (That shouldn’t really be a surprise to Gabi, as Xena’s always liked fighting.) They hear a noise and Gabi goes to check it out. When she falls into a deep hole, Xena jumps in after her and they find themselves in a peaceful garden populated by birds, a turtle, and a bunny rabbit. They have no clue where they are, but the wound on Xena’s leg is healed completely.

They explore the garden and find a nutty guy named Gar, who tells them to go find Aiden at the house. They check out the house, which has numerous lifelike blue stone statues scattered about, and meet Aiden. He’s a guru, who tells them he has found inner peace and can teach them how to achieve it too. That intrigues Gabi and she talks Xena into spending the night, even though Xena’s kinda jumpy about everything. Aiden teaches Gabi some yoga, while Xena practices her fighting moves (which I guess is her way of finding inner peace, since fighting makes her happy). The yoga brings up bad memories of Hope, but Aiden tells Gabi she can let go of all that negative energy and find peace. Gabi wonders if she could teach the technique to Xena, to help her deal with her guilt. Meanwhile, Xena’s not finding as much bliss as Gabi and goes a little wild in the garden.

Gabi feels more guilt over Hope (and Solan) and Aiden helps her deal with it, which bothers Xena. The wholesome nature of the place is driving Xena nuts, but Gabi’s loving it, comparing it to the inner peace Xena learned from Lao Ma. Xena points out that Lao Ma’s peace was freeing, while Aiden’s is just numbing, but since Gabi’s so enamoured of the place, Xena agrees to stay one more night. Xena meditates and re-opens her wound, but it immediately heals again; maybe Xena temporarily managed to overcome the illusory nature of the place, but Aiden’s mind reasserted itself? Aiden warns Gabi that Xena’s Darkness might make things hard for her and Gabi’s not so far gone that she isn’t worried. But Xena insists she’s fine, even as she’s having visions of hurting Gabi. (I’m not sure if the visions are a by-product of the environment, or if Aiden is sending them.)

Xena confronts Aiden, who tells her the visions will become reality if she doesn’t leave. Xena’s scared she might hurt Gabi (and has started spontaneously bleeding from her nose), so she’s prepared to take off. But Gabi’s back is sore, so Xena gives her a massage while talking to her about love (and trying not to bleed on her). The massage puts Gabi to sleep and Xena’s ready to take off, but realizes the blue statues have the same medallion as Gar, which means they were once human like him. Gar admits it, telling her how Aiden sucked all the goodness out of his fellow soldiers to make himself powerful and now he’s doing the same to Gabi (who has more goodness in her than most people). Gar warns Xena that Aiden can use any of her residual goodness against her, so Xena plans to purge herself of goodness before confronting him. Gar points out she might just slaughter everyone if she loses all her goodness, but she has a plan to deal with that. Meanwhile, Aiden is leeching all the goodness out of Gabi and she starts turning to stone.

Xena purges her goodness by killing the birds and rabbit (but not the turtle) in the garden, which turns her feral. Xena fights Aiden, but the power he’s drawn from Gabi makes him stronger and she gets her ass kicked. The fight uses up Aiden’s power, giving Xena a chance until he drains more goodness from Gabi. Xena goes right off the deep end and Gar comes in to stop her. She’s ready to impale him, which awakens Gabi from her stupor in time to bring Xena back to normal. She kills Aiden instead of Gar and the whole place dissolves around them, having been a figment of Aiden’s imagination. They find themselves back in the cave and Gar realizes he’s finally free of Aiden’s power. Xena points out that it was Gar’s madness that kept Aiden from leeching his goodness away and Gar heads out to find his family. Gabi admits that Xena’s Darkness saved them.

This is a pretty good episode (#61 on my all-time list) that’s kind of a prelude to the India Arc, where Gabi tries to figure out her true path in life. She wants to heal and bring peace, but finds herself fighting all the time (not to mention being in love with a consummate warrior). The contrast between Xena’s Darkness and Gabi’s Light has always been there, but it’s really highlighted this season. Gabi’s goodness is used against her here, with Aiden feeding off it to make himself powerful. What little Darkness Gabi has (mostly guilt about Hope) is purged, leaving her open to Aiden’s manipulations. On the other hand, Xena’s Darkness protects her from Aiden, as he can’t break through it to feed on her goodness. Good can’t exist without Evil, since it needs something to fight against; it’s all about balance (as illustrated by the Yin-Yang bed Gabi sleeps on) and we see once again that Xena and Gabi balance each other out, their Light and Darkness working together to make them whole. And in the end, Gabi admits that Xena’s Darkness is a necessary part of her, which I think is essential to moving their relationship forward.

One of the things I really like about this episode (and the entire India Arc) is that we get to see how much Xena and Gabi love each other, and how selfless that love is. Gabi wants to learn inner peace so she can help Xena get rid of her guilt, and Xena’s willing to stay at Aiden’s place even though her instincts are telling her it’s wrong. Some people (including Rob Tapert) thought Xena was jealous of Aiden when he was teaching yoga to Gabi. But I think it was more that he was helping Gabi deal with her guilt about Hope and Solan, something Xena couldn’t do for her because she’s part of the problem. So she was jealous in the sense that it bothered her Aiden could comfort Gabi when Xena couldn’t, but I don’t think she was ever really threatened by him romantically. In the big fight, Xena gambles that Gabi would come out of her trance to prevent Xena from taking an innocent life, and she’s right; it only takes a couple of words from Gabi to snap Xena out of her half-crazed state. Aiden says that the place brings out the essential nature of everyone in it, and we see that even when she’s purged all her goodness, Xena still loves Gabi, which says a lot about her essential nature.

Noticeable Things:

• Some fans think the mountain range they’re in is the Himalayas, but I think it’s the Hindu Kush since Gabi mentions the mountains being a holy place.
• The creators insisted that there was no symbolism to the animals in the garden, but I think Xena killing the rabbit showed her giving up her last vestige of goodness. I also think the turtle could represent Gabi, since it’s the one thing in the garden that Xena never harms.
• We get several massages in this episode and I can’t help wondering if they (and some in other episodes) are metaphors for sex. Xena’s massage right before she prepares to leave is very Tantric, with her drawing her hands down Gabi’s body and making a flinging motion, almost like she’s drawing the negative energy out and throwing it away.
• After Aiden’s place disappears and they end up back in the cave, Gabi is naked because the clothes Aiden provided were illusory like everything else.

Favourite Quotes:

• “Yeah, in that yucky ‘I’m in paradise’ kinda way.” Xena acknowledging the beauty of Aiden’s garden.
• “Yeah, what is it with you and holes, huh?” Xena chastising Gabi for falling in the hole, and probably referencing her plunge into the lava pit in Sacrifice II.
• “You wouldn’t like me when I’m mad.” Xena warning Gar with her best Hulk impression.
• “I sometimes talk about your Darkness like it’s some kind of disease, but without it neither one of us would be here.” Gabi admitting that Xena’s Dark side is an essential part of her.