Xena Reviews: Season 4, Episode 19

Takes One to Know One – Director: Christopher Graves/Writer: Jeff Vlaming

Xena comes to Amphipolis on a stormy night to find her friends and family (Cyrene, Joxer, Lila, Minya, and even Autolycus) have organized a surprise party for Gabi. Gabi’s not showing up until the next day, so the festivities are put on hold. Xena notices a suspicious-looking woman (Ravenica) in the tavern, who seems to know Autolycus. Xena’s even more surprised when her mom says she’ll be sleeping in the room next to hers tonight, instead of her usual one. Xena wakes later to see someone in the courtyard and when she hears a suspicious noise, she goes to check on her mom, who isn’t in bed. Xena busts into Ravenica’s room and finds her dead with a dagger in her chest. Discord shows up to tell Xena she’s now the Goddess of Retribution and that Xena has until sunrise to figure out who killed Ravenica … or Discord will take one of her friends.

Xena tells the others about Discord and they go through Ravenica’s stuff, finding out she’s a bounty hunter. Xena wonders if Cyrene could’ve killed Ravenica to protect her, if she knew Ravenica was looking for her. They find a lockbox full of stones and Minya mentions how Ravenica liked to hamstring her targets’ horses to slow them down. Gabi shows up to warn Xena about Ravenica and finds out what’s going on. Autolycus accuses Cyrene of killing Ravenica and Discord shows up to take her.

Xena convinces Discord to give her more time and Gabi finds diamonds in Autolycus’s stuff; he obviously stole them from Ravenica’s lockbox and left the stones there. When they find a bounty scroll for Xena in Ravenica’s stuff, Xena realizes there’s a scroll missing, since there’s an empty scroll case. Xena notices the smell of lavender on Ravenica’s stuff, but the only one who wears lavender is Lila. Xena and Gabi discuss the murder and notice a couple of things (a piece of kindling and an extra candle) in Ravenica’s room that don’t belong. They find a rash on Ravenica’s neck, a bump on the back of her head, and ink in her hair. They determine that the dagger in Ravenica’s chest actually belongs to Minya, but Gabi declares that she’s the one responsible for Ravenica’s death.

Gabi explains that she knew about the bounty on Xena and put Joxer’s gravy into Ravenica’s waterskin, hoping to give her the shits and slow her down. But if she was allergic (as the rash seems to indicate), then it’s Gabi’s fault she’s dead. When Discord shows up to claim Gabi, Xena points out that the waterskin is still full, so Ravenica couldn’t have died from the gravy. Discord gets pissed off and moves up the deadline for finding the killer. Xena confronts Joxer about a torn note in Ravenica’s stuff and he admits Lila wrote him a love note (which explains the lavender smell). He was composing a reply when Ravenica threatened him, mistaking him for his assassin brother, Jett. Joxer accidentally splashed ink on Ravenica’s neck (which I guess must’ve caused the rash) and admits he went to her room to steal her bounty scroll for Jett. Joxer tells how he hid outside the window and heard Autolycus arguing with Ravenica about the diamonds he stole and warning her to stay away from Xena. Autolycus admits that’s true and Discord shows up to take him.

Xena talks her out of taking Autolycus, but Discord says next time she appears, she’ll take everyone if she’s not given the true killer. Minya and Lila admit they tried to help Xena by cutting Ravenica’s horse loose, but she caught Lila and took Minya’s dagger from her. Minya distracted Ravenica by making her think someone was in her room (hence the extra candle). Everyone starts accusing each other (funny that Discord is the Goddess of Retribution, but she’s actually causing discord among everyone) and Discord shows up with her thugs, starting a big fight. Xena realizes who the killer is and stops the fight. She explains that Ravenica was going to hamstring Argo (using the kindling to prop the window open) and Argo kicked her, knocking her back so she hit her head on the swinging light fixture. The dagger ended up in her chest and was driven in farther when the light hit her on the backswing and knocked her forward. Discord can’t take retribution on a horse, so she leaves. Everyone apologizes for suspecting each other and they finally celebrate Gabi’s birthday.

This episode isn’t great, but it has some good moments. I put it at #62 on my all-time list because I think it has a lot of potential, which unfortunately is kind of wasted. It’s great seeing Xena and Gabi’s friends and family together like this and I think they could’ve made a great episode if they’d just forgotten about the fighting and just concentrated on the characters. The “drawing room mystery” theme is interesting, but some of the characters are really off. The writer was a freelancer, so he probably wasn’t too familiar with the characters … and it shows. Joxer is written as extra stupid, and Gabi might as well not even be there for all she gets to contribute. When she does have something to say it’s either really weird (like suggesting Ravenica could’ve been stabbed through the keyhole), or it’s really passive-aggressive, like when she starts accusing everyone of being the killer. I get the feeling someone told the writer that Gabi couldn’t fight and he took that to mean she was completely useless. But Gabi’s smart; she should’ve been helping Xena solve the mystery, not fading into the background.

But it is still cool seeing everyone together like this. Gabi points out at the end that everyone running around and covering stuff up was all done out of love, because they care for Xena and didn’t want Ravenica messing with her. Even Lila seems to like Xena quite a bit, which is a change from the last time they were together. There are some nice character moments too: Lila’s crush on Joxer; Autolycus giving Cyrene a couple of diamonds at the end (which she’ll need to fix the place up after the fight); Gabi bluffing Minya into admitting her dagger was the one that killed Ravenica by making up some bullshit about matching the dagger to the sheath like some kind of ancient forensics; Cyrene slapping Xena’s hand in the kitchen when she reaches for some food; the budding friendship between Lila and Minya; and the recurring CLUE joke that Joxer drives into the ground. I just wish they’d done more. In the end, my liking for this episode has more to do with what it could have been than what it actually is.

Noticeable Things:

• I’m not sure what happened to Paulina; at the end of The Play’s the Thing, she and Minya ran off together to be “thespians”, but there’s no mention of her here.
• Nobody comments on Gabi’s new look, which only Joxer has seen.
• I kind of assumed Cyrene knew about Xena and Gabi’s relationship by this time (and was cool with it), but as we’ll see next season, that doesn’t seem to be the case. This would’ve been a great opportunity to let her know, maybe with Xena hemming and hawing and Cyrene finally confessing that she’d already figured it out. Another missed opportunity.
• Some enterprising fan actually counted the candles on Gabi’s cake and said there are 22 of them, which fits with her being 18 when the show started (if we assume she turned 19 later in the first season).

Favourite Quotes:

• “Maybe she liked her pears bruised.” Cyrene’s weird attempt at a joke, to which Gabi replies to Xena: “She’s your mother.”
• “That’s inhuman.” Xena’s response when she finds out Gabi put Joxer’s gravy in Ravenica’s waterskin.
• “Aw, you might be good in bed, but you’re hopeless in a fight.” Discord chastising her men for getting their asses kicked by Xena.
• “That’s not what I heard.” Minya’s remark when Discord says she doesn’t do animals.