Xena Reviews: Season 6, Episode 15

To Helicon and Back – Director: Michael Hurst/Writers: Liz Friedman, Vanessa Place

After the end of last episode, Gabi and Varia make peace and the Amazons have a celebration dance. Xena’s not invited, since she’s not an Amazon, so she camps out in the woods. But some party-crashers show up; a bunch of masked men sneak in and attack the Amazons. They fight back (with help from Xena), but the leader of the attackers knocks Varia out and takes off with her. His men follow, leaving many dead and injured Amazons behind.

Xena realizes the attackers came from Helicon and the Amazons are eager to rescue Varia and get some revenge. But they’ll only follow an Amazon queen into battle, so Gabi reluctantly has to assume leadership. She decides to attack by sea, since the land routes will be heavily guarded. Xena plans to sneak in and dispatch the leader, giving Gabi and the others a chance to sail up unnoticed. Gabi and the Amazons set sail under cover of darkness, but when Xena gets inside the castle, she finds their adversary is a demigod named Bellerophon. He reveals that his mother was Artemis and he wants to kill all the Amazons for turning away from worshipping her. (And of course he really hates Xena for killing Artemis.) Bellerophon also lets Xena know that he’s aware of the amphibious assault that the Amazons are trying, and Xena jumps out the window just as the Amazons’ boat out is blasted out of the water by flaming catapult shot.

Gabi knows they can’t stay in the water, so she orders the Amazons to swim for the beach. Bellerophon has fortifications set up, and kills a lot of Amazons with catapult shot and arrows. An Amazon named Trudis sacrifices herself so the others can get to cover behind some dunes, but many more Amazons die on the way. Xena emerges from the water and joins them, letting them know about Bellerophon and his motives. Gabi wants Xena to take command, but Xena knows the Amazons won’t follow her, so Gabi’s stuck with it. Xena blasts a catapult with its own ammunition, giving the Amazons another chance to gain ground. Varia comes out of the castle shackled and blindfolded. When she’s freed, she’s ready to leave but Gabi points out that Bellerophon will never stop hunting them down. Gabi considers leaving the wounded behind, but Xena and Varia talk her out of it. Gabi figures they can get into the castle by the path Varia was brought down on, but when she goes ahead to look for the path, Varia targets her with an arrow.

Xena stops Varia and warns Gabi, who has to dodge catapult shot to get back to safety. Varia admits Bellerophon offered her a deal: kill Gabi (which would devastate Xena) and he’ll let the Amazons go home. Xena points out that he never would’ve honoured that deal. Gabi is ready to leave Varia behind, but Xena talks her out of it. Gabi takes Varia’s queenship away and Xena toys with the idea of surrendering herself to Bellerophon. Gabi reminds her that he’d just go after the Amazons later anyway and Xena tells Gabi she’s going to have to motivate the demoralized Amazons, convincing them to go forward into almost certain death. They make rafts so they can take to the water again and flank Bellerophon’s defenses. A shark menaces them and Gabi tosses a dead Amazon in the water to keep it busy. Gabi’s afraid she’s losing more of herself with every decision she makes and it only gets worse when she has to give her motivational speech.

Gabi’s speech does rally the Amazons, but she feels guilty about it afterwards. When Xena tries to comfort her, Gabi won’t let her because she can’t afford to give in to her feelings for fear of completely losing it. Xena lures Bellerophon out of his castle and lets him knock her around a bit. (She’s rolling her eyes when her back is turned to Bellerophon, so I’m assuming she’s letting him “win”.) She takes off and Bellerophon and his men chase her … right into a trap. The Amazons attack and waste Bellerophon’s men while he and Xena fight. She wins and gives him one last chance, but he can’t let go of his hatred, so she kills him (which she can do because he’s half mortal). His surviving men take off, but Gabi is a little kill crazy and has to be brought back to reality by Xena. Gabi feels guilty again and struggles to say something to the remaining Amazons, but it probably doesn’t matter much since there are only about a dozen of them left.

This is a really good episode (#37 on my all-time list, but I think it might move up) with some incredible battle scenes; the beach assault is reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan or The Longest Day. The main theme of the episode is Gabi having to become a war leader and take the Amazons into a situation where a lot of them will die. Gabi has to go against her natural instincts and think like a general, becoming cold and ruthless so her feelings won’t cause her to make a mistake. Unfortunately, when she uses that “Amazon queen” part of herself, she loses some of her true self—her humanity. Wanting to leave the wounded behind (and Varia, after her betrayal), using the dead Amazon’s body to distract the shark, and rallying the Amazons to charge to their deaths are all things Gabi wouldn’t normally even consider, but she does them out of necessity. Luckily, Xena is there to keep her from going over the edge … or to pull her back, like at the end when Gabi lets her battle lust take over. It shows that their relationship has come full circle, with Xena now doing for Gabi what Gabi’s done for her countless times … helping her hold on to her humanity.

There’s a definite contrast between Gabi and Varia here; Gabi does become colder and even goes over the edge briefly, but Varia willingly betrays her to make a deal with the Amazons. By selling out a sister Amazon, Varia goes against everything the Amazons stand for. Despite her self-doubt and natural pacifism, at heart Gabi is actually more of an Amazon than Varia is. It’s telling that Gabi won’t let the other Amazons kill Varia, although she is ready to leave her behind until Xena talks her out of it. At the end, I assume Varia takes back the mantle of Queen, since Gabi will be moving on, but most of the Amazons have been wiped out so there’s not much to be Queen of anymore. This episode makes an interesting triple feature with A Good Day and Amphipolis Under Siege, showing Gabi’s progress over the last three seasons from reluctant battle leader, through competent general, to overeager Amazon warrior queen.

Noticeable Things:

• Apparently, the speech Gabi gives the Amazons isn’t the original one that was written. Renee didn’t like the original (it was too Pattonesque, apparently), so a new one was written. Renee’s great at speeches and delivers this one well, but I still prefer the one from Amphipolis Under Siege.
• There’s a solar eclipse during the Amazon ceremony at the beginning of the episode, but the next night there’s a full moon. As far as I know, solar eclipses can only happen at a new moon.
• Helicon is shown to be a fortress on the coast, but in reality it was a mountain in Boeotia. Maybe the fortress was just named after the mountain.
• One of the Amazons references Joxer’s fear at facing the Dryads, which means she must have read Gabi’s scrolls.
• I think I read an interview where Renee said she was pregnant during this episode, but you can’t tell by looking at her and it certainly didn’t slow her down any.

Favourite Quotes:

• “War’s tough on the soul, Gabrielle.” Xena letting Gabi know that making hard decisions comes with consequences.
• “That’s the thing about vengeance … you’re never really satisfied.” Xena speaking from experience about the price vengeance exacts from the soul.
• “To a strong Amazon nation.” Repeated at the beginning and end of the episode, a rallying cry in the first case but by the end, an ironic elegy for what remains of the Amazons.