Xena and Gabrielle, now mortal enemies, tumble over a cliff while fighting and land in a tarot-card dream world called Illusia in this musical-fantasy episode.
The conflict between Xena and Gabrielle comes to a head in this lavish musical-fantasy episode set in a tarot-card dreamworld called Illusia.
Gabrielle is staying with the Ephiny and the Amazons. She is in a purging hut, trying to heal the emotional wounds created in Maternal Instincts. A concerned Joxer (Ted Raimi) is also there. He is speaking to Ephiny (Danielle Cormack) about the fact that Gabrielle has been in the hut for over three days. Joxer wants her out of the hut. Gabrielle has a vision of Callisto (Hudson Leick), who tells Gabrielle that everything is Xena’s fault because she created both of them. Gabrielle screams, “No!” and Joxer goes into the hut.
Next, we see Xena standing alone on a snow-covered mountain. Ares (Kevin Smith) shows up and tells her everything is Gabrielle’s fault. Also, the path of her atonement for past sins is useless. She must go back to her old ways. Xena rides to the Amazon village bent on revenge. Ephiny and other Amazon warriors try to stop her. Joxer tries to help, but Xena pulls out her whip and lashes it around Gabrielle’s ankles. She pulls Gabrielle’s feet from under her and proceeds to drag her to the edge of a cliff. This disgraceful action will forever be known as the ‘Gab drag’.
Xena then picks up a now unconscious Gabrielle with the intention of throwing her off the cliff but Bard wakens and kicks Xena in the face with her heel. Xena falls backwards. Gabrielle stands up and looks at Xena. “I hate you!” she screams. She runs at Xena and they both go over the cliff into the land of Illusia. Queue music.
I previously stated that this episode didn’t cure the rift for me, after making the Tarot connections, it does help.
When asked why the conflict resolution was played out through a musical, co-executive producer Rob Tapert had this to say: “It allowed us to express emotions that were best said in this way. And those emotions are raw: in last week’s episode, Gabrielle’s evil daughter Hope killed Xena’s son Solan, and Xena blames Gabrielle. “Xena really wants to kill Gabrielle,” Tapert notes. Their parallel, phantasmagorical journeys dominate the storyline, which won’t die completely as long as Hope is alive.
Disclaimer: The musical genre was not harmed during the production of this motion picture. In fact, the Producers sincerely hope you were A-MUSE-D by this episode.
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