Xena Season 6 Overview

Welcome to my overview of Season 6 of Xena, where I try to touch on some of the themes running through not only this season, but the entire series. (I won’t link to individual episodes, since they can be accessed in the Tag Cloud under “Xena Season 6”). The main theme of this season was that of tying up loose ends, saying farewell to various characters (including Xena, unfortunately), and finishing off Xena and Gabrielle’s character arcs that started way back in Sins of the Past.

The creators actually did manage to bring back most of our favourite characters so we can say goodbye to them. Ares, Aphrodite, Eve, Virgil, Meg, Lila, Cyrene, and Alti all showed up (and we even got to see dead characters like Joxer, Ephiny, and Caesar one last time). Eve and Virgil didn’t really get proper goodbyes; the creators were apparently planning to bring them back a some point, but things didn’t work out. The only characters we didn’t get to see were Callisto (now an angel), Eli (basically in charge of the angels), Amarice (who was killed ignominiously off-screen), and Autolycus. It would’ve been nice to see Bruce Campbell one last time, but overall it’s amazing how many characters they managed to bring back.

But we don’t just say farewell to the characters, it’s almost like the curtain is falling on the whole premise of the show. The Amazons and Centaurs are practically wiped out, the Greek gods are (mostly) dead, and in the end, Xena is gone too. The old order is fading, paving the way for something new, just as Xena’s passing paves the way for Gabi to become a hero in her own right, instead of Xena’s apprentice. It seems as though the old world of myths and legends is being supplanted by a less magical world, which is symbolized by Gabi’s intentions to leave Greece for Egypt in the final episode; Gabi no longer feels at home in a Greece without Amazons or Centaurs … or Xena. And Xena and Gabi’s romantic life is at the forefront of this season; with episodes like The Ring, When Fates Collide, and Many Happy Returns the creators weren’t even trying to hide it anymore. As Lucy said after seeing the finale, Xena and Gabi are definitely a married couple. That’s probably been the case for a while now, but it’s nice to see it acknowledged on-screen.

I’ve spoken in previous overviews (Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5) about how I think Xena and Gabi’s relationship is like a teeter-totter (or the ladders in Callisto) with them trying to find a balance over the years. In this season, they’ve achieved the ultimate balance; they no longer have to struggle to keep centred, it’s their natural state. That doesn’t mean one of them might not lose some balance (like Gabi does in Who’s Gurkhan? or To Helicon and Back), but the other one is always there to steady her and pull her back to the centre. Basically, Xena and Gabi are one soul in two bodies (or maybe two souls in one body after the finale), just like Gabi’s story in Prometheus. The finale (as shitty and unfair as it is) represents the culmination of their journey together: Xena finally finds her redemption (something she thought impossible) and Gabi inherits Xena’s mantle as a hero, though with a different approach. Xena taught Gabi everything she knows, but it sees like she learned as much (or more) from Gabi, which led to her finally being able to forgive herself for all her sins.

In Campbellian terms, the series was more about Gabi’s Hero’s Journey than Xena’s, and we finally see Gabi become the Hero. In a way, she’s kinda like Xena in Sins of the Past, except with a less tragic backstory. Gabi has seen her share of tragedy and made her share of mistakes, but she hasn’t let them define her the way Xena did, so I think Gabi will be a different sort of Hero than Xena was, kind of a combination of the best parts of both of them. Gabi’s changes and attitudes have mostly been shaped by love, and the changes in Xena that led to her ultimate redemption were also shaped by love (which she learned from Gabi). So, I think we can say that the overall theme of the series is love, and how it can change people, redeem them, and bring out the best even when things look the worst. I’d say that’s a pretty good legacy for the show and everyone involved.

Well, that’s it for my Xena reviews. I’m sad that there are no more episodes to watch, and if they ever do a reboot you better believe I’ll be reviewing it. Tomorrow I’ll be putting up my last Geography/Timeline post; if you’re not into dissecting the minutiae of when and where the episodes took place, feel free to skip that post and come back next Wednesday for my final Xena post. I’ll do a quick overview of the entire series and put up a revised list of my favourite episodes. I’ll also announce what show I’m reviewing next, so don’t miss it.