Xena Reviews: Season 6, Episode 2

The Haunting of Amphipolis – Director: Garth Maxwell/Story: Edith Swensen, Joel Metzger/Teleplay: Joel Metzger

This one starts with the archangels Michael and Raphael (from Fallen Angel) watching Xena, Gabi, and Eve as they head for Amphipolis. The angels seem to think Xena is their last hope to defeat the evil of Mephistopheles. When Xena, Gabi, and Eve reach Amphipolis, they find the town practically deserted and Cyrene’s inn falling apart. Xena and Eve both have visions of Cyrene inside the devastated inn and Eve realizes that Cyrene is dead.

Eve says the inn is haunted by restless spirits (including Cyrene’s) and that Heaven and Hell are preparing for an epic battle. Xena goes to the mausoleum and finds burnt bones on top of Cyrene’s sarcophagus. Weird stuff starts happening inside the inn, with Gabi eating some fruit that’s suddenly infested with maggots and Eve finding more maggots crawling outside. Maggots start crawling out of Gabi’s skin and she’s so freaked out she claws the skin right off her hands. Eve prays to Eli and banishes the maggots, which returns Gabi’s skeletal hands to normal. In the mausoleum, Xena runs into a beggar who used to hang around the inn. He tells her that Mephistopheles put a curse on the inn and the townspeople blamed Cyrene, burning her as a witch. Inside the inn, Gabi finds a strange demon head carved into the floor and is pulled through the flagstone when she gets too close. Xena comes back and wonders where Gabi is.

Xena and Eve search for Gabi, who’s being tormented by undead in a pool of acid under the floor. Xena is drawn to the place (more evidence that she and Gabi have a soul-connection) and pulls Gabi out of the floor. Gabi’s skin is burning from the acid, so she takes a shower (with a little help from Xena) and tells them the spirits want Eli’s messenger … Eve. Xena tells them about Mephistopheles curse on the inn and Eve realizes it’s up to her to confront him. But Xena won’t let her fight the Ultimate Evil alone. Xena has a vision of herself mourning over Lyceus’s body and Cyrene blaming her for getting him killed (which I assume is a memory of something that really happened). Blood starts flowing up between the flagstones and Gabi’s shower turns to blood as well. Eve banishes the blood, but Gabi is already possessed by Mephistopheles. Xena subdues her (after a little naked wrestling) but he gives her another vision, this time of Cyrene being burnt at the stake.

Mephistopheles offers to free Cyrene’s soul if Eve opens a portal to Earth for him by spilling her blood. Eve banishes Mephistopheles from Gabi (and says she can’t be possessed again now that she’s been cleansed) and Gabi refuses to leave when Xena asks her to. Eve goes to pray some more and Xena and Gabi get fused together at the arms and legs. Eve frees them, but channelling Eli’s power is weakening her, so banishing Mephistopheles could actually kill her. Xena decides to confront Mephistopheles in the spirit realm and uses the Pinch to kill herself temporarily so she can face him there, teaching Gabi how to reverse it to bring her back. After having another vision of her mother, Xena fights Mephistopheles in the spirit realm, but learns he can’t be killed there, only in the real world. She also learns that if she kills him, she’ll have to take his place as ruler of Hell. As Gabi frantically tries to reverse the Pinch and revive Xena, Mephistopheles torments Eve with memories of the atrocities she committed as Livia, making her confront the restless souls of the people she killed (kinda like Xena did in Dreamworker). Eve is ready to die, but Xena tells her they should just give Mephistopheles exactly what he wants.

Xena convinces Eve (and Gabi) that summoning Mephistopheles to Earth so she can kill him is their best strategy. Eve spills her blood and Xena fights Mephistopheles when he shows up. He doesn’t think she’ll kill him for fear of having to replace him, but she wastes him. That breaks the curse on the inn and frees Cyrene’s soul, which meets the grown-up Eve and says goodbye to Xena and Gabi before moving on to the afterlife. Now that Mephistopheles has been killed, they wonder what’s going to happen next, especially since Xena is supposed to succeed him as ruler of Hell. We’ll see how that plays out next episode.

This isn’t really one of my favourites, which is why it’s way down at # 124 on my all-time list. It’s technically not a bad episode (and could probably move up a bit on my list), but I’ve never been a big horror fan and this is about as close to classic horror as the show gets. It makes sense to have a horror episode (considering Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi’s history with horror, I’m surprised it took them this long), but it’s just not a genre that I find all that compelling, so a lot of the trappings are wasted on me. The whole thing with Mephistopheles haunting the inn and taking Cyrene’s soul seems a bit muddled; Eve figures it’s because he knew she’d come to confront him eventually, but that means Mephistopheles has been anticipating this for a long time, and that he must’ve known he’d need Eve’s blood to manifest on Earth.

I’m not sure exactly when Cyrene died. Xena and Gabi have been gone for 25 years, but the guy in the tomb says Cyrene waited years for Xena to come back, but also that it took years for her to go mad from the curse before the villagers killed her. Judging by the state of the inn, I’d say it’s been empty for five to ten years. It’s nice that Cyrene’s spirit gets to meet her grown-up granddaughter and say goodbye to Xena and Gabi. All of them act like family here and Xena and Gabi definitely act like a couple … and like Eve’s parents. Xena’s worry over Eve and Gabi is palpable, and when Gabi worries about being able to reverse the Pinch, Xena says she trusts her with her life. Xena also tells Gabi (and Eve) about the consequences of her killing Mephistopheles, instead of holding back that info like the old Xena would have.

Noticeable Things:

• There are at least three sarcophagi in the mausoleum. If one is Lyceus’s and one is Cyrene’s, whose is the other one? Maybe Cyrene had one put in for Xena (or Xena and Gabi combined) when she accepted that they weren’t coming back.
• When Gabi is possessed, her hairdo is kinda wild, almost punkish. It looks good, as does the cute blue dress she wears after Eve casts Mephistopheles out of her. I don’t know where the dress came from (maybe it belonged to Cyrene?), but it suits Gabi really well (or it suits Renee, however you want to look at it).
• When Xena sees Cyrene in the spirit realm she’s holding the axe she used to kill Xena’s father. She refers to him as Orestes instead of Atreus.

Favourite Quotes:

• “I can’t believe you’re showing me this now.” Gabi wondering why Xena waited so long to teach her to reverse the Pinch.
• “I’m just a little distracted by your good looks.” Xena trash-talking Mephistopheles in the spirit realm.
• “My mother’s soul is trapped, my daughter is half dead, and the portal to Hell opened up in my backyard.” Xena summing up the shitty day she’s been having.