Ok first things first...even though this was a great episode, it was trippy
as hell...I kept/keep wondering what the writers/PTB were smoking.

Now onto the ep itself...the acting in this episode excelled Maternal
Instincts quite a bit. Very subtle acting by Lucy. Even though she's
determined to wreak vengeance on Gabrielle, you can tell she's not in full
hate mode, and that she still loves her, she's just grieving and feeling
betrayed by her. Her raged expression breaks a few times just for a split
second, once when Ephiny says her name with some compassion knowing Xena
lost her son, but also as a warning to calm her down(of course Xena doesn't
appreciate it, in a way it's like Willow attacking Xander when he keeps
telling he loves her in the S6 finale, she doesn't want to be loved because
she can't handle it at the moment because caring means pain).

The other times are just after the Gab-drag when Xena dismounts and she
looks at the beaten/bloody unconscious body of Gabrielle, and her expression
is momentarily concerned for Gabrielle(side note, Xena didn't use Argo for
this, and I'm guessing the reason is Argo wouldn't have let Xena do that to
Gabrielle, and also because of what that would do to Xena herself when as
Illusia Callisto mentioned, killing Gabrielle doesn't do anything but hurt
Xena more), and then when Illusia Callisto shows Xena an image of Gabrielle
looking all angelic, the way Xena says her name, you can tell she still
loves her.

And when Gabrielle knocks them off the cliff which sends them to Illusia, I
always had a thought in my head that if Gabrielle had just walked away after
she kicked Xena in the head, Xena might have just let her go. Kinda like in
The Debt 2 ending where Ming T'ien seals his fate by mouthing off 'bout
killing Lao Ma when Xena was all set to walk away. Though it was Gabrielle
who didn't just walk away here...she tells Xena she hates her then tackles
her off the cliff. That was brilliant. Then we get the intro to Illusia.

I guess not much scares Xena anymore, but Illusia's introduction with
Callisto acting all cheery even though she's saying nasty stuff
occassionally, and all the talking animals and other weird effects, I would
have just started screaming or something. Oh well. It was still cool...when
Callisto's inside the wheel of fate, her line "Follow your fate" just made
me think of Ursula's intro song to Ariel in Disney's Little Mermaid. I know
there is a bunch of Tarot stuff in this ep, but I don't know much about
Tarot right now(hope to fix that though), but what was the meaning of the
lion and bull and eagle and snake? And Callisto's line 'bout 'lies may be
truth and truth may be lies' cuts right to the heart of the matter, since
betrayal is what started the 'rift'. And as mentioned, when Callisto shows
her the picture of Gabrielle, the way Xena says her name just...there's so
much love and pain mixed together. So there is hope(bad pun, sorry) that
Xena can forgive her. She

Gabrielle's intro to Illusia...I really wish they wouldn't have had Joxer be
'silly' for his song, because this is not really him. His giggling and
tripping over things and such when they have him be somewhat sauve as well
was just annoying. They have Callisto not being violent at all, why can't
they have Joxer not be clumsy? The guides make perfect sense though,
Callisto for Xena as a reminder of the price of her warlord days as well as
how vengeance fails, and Joxer for Gabrielle since he's still 'pure' in that
he's not a warrior at all, he's never killed anyone, etc. He's kind of a
reminder of what Gabrielle wishes she could go back to. And I don't like her
being mean to him...her "So much for the Elysian Fields theory" line when
she realizes Joxer is there pisses me off. First off, Joxer may not have any
aptitude towards being a warrior, but he's done some very heroic things. He
charged into Callisto's lair to rescue X/G in Return of Callisto, tried to
protect Argo from Callisto(even though they had switched bodies and it was
Xena, not Callisto, but Joxer didn't know that), and just tried to protect
Gabrielle from a crazed Xena. Granted in each case it was like a lamb to the
slaughter pretty much, but the thing is, Joxer KNEW that, but still wanted
to save his friends. So Gabrielle, get a clue and give Joxer some respect.
He's always been there when it comes down to it. Xena treats him better than
you do. Back to Gabrielle's intro to Illusia...her thoughts that this is the
Elysian Fields and saying only heroes wind up here and her confusion about
being there, proves she's not feeling that good about herself right now,
thanks to all the events of the last few months having caught up to her in a
most horrible way. And her not wanting Joxer to see her naked, were the 3
naked dancing clones of her in Quill is Mightier not anatomically correct?

And now we have Ares' intro, and what an intro it is. He doesn't hesitate
for one moment to let Xena know that he wants her back in the worst way.
Talking about being hard up...for the record, Xena gets to get nekked twice
in this ep, Gabrielle only once. Sorry bard, guess you got your nekked quota
fill in Quill is Mightier. Interesting note, for her 'warrior' outfit that
Ares has for her, it's kinda like her one from the days with Borias. The
hair is even similar. I felt the song was kind of annoying...not Ares' part
though, just some of the thugs' lines. Saying Xena's looks(as in glares and
such, not her appeal) can curdle milk...that's classy...blech. Though it was
interesting to have them sing that Xena's back where friends are true. Um,
what friends? She really didn't have any friends in her warlord days.

Gabrielle in the Illusian version of Potedaia...a typical version of how
Utopia is a fallacy, because it's not as good at it seems. They don't
hesitate to say that Xena destroyed Gabrielle and she needs to kill her as a
mercy thing. All while talking about how peaceful and BORING village life
is. Of course this totally ignores that Gabrielle left Potedaia in the first
place because she didn't fit in there...she wanted adventure, and to learn
how to be a warrior. Though Gabrielle was a bit innocent of what that meant.
She only saw the heroics, not the bloodshed part. Was nice to see Lilla,
even if she was nasty. Would have been nice to see Willa O'Neal play a bad
guy.

When it comes to the climax, Xena/Gabrielle's different backgrounds, it was
cool but also confusing with the back and forth-ness. And Gabrielle was
stupid to think she could kill Xena. And Xena finally kills her. And again,
we have the slight break in Xena's facade of anger/rage. Then Ares proves
again how much he's hard up for Xena. That was quite a dance. I really liked
Xena's dress. And he doesn't hestitate to show his distaste(to put it
mildly) of Gabrielle. And Callisto's right there to remind Xena that killing
Gabrielle didn't accomplish anything. At least it wasn't really
Gabrielle(how did that get accomplished?). And even though this was a 'dark'
ep when you get down to it, it was rather amusing to see Xena
so...discomfited?...when the real Gabrielle shows up and is upset that Xena
killed her(some people are just SO picky!). Xena starts fidgeting and
looking elsewhere and crap. 'Twas cute.

At least X/G are now at the point where they can talk. Granted it still
dissolves into a blaming/shouting match. But it's a start, because now
they're getting to the reasons for their estrangement. Though I really am
not happy with Gabrielle for saying it's all Xena's fault, because she
abandoned Gabrielle in Brittania. That's crap. X/G both got played by
Khfrastar/Dahak. Xena would NEVER have done anything to put Gabrielle
through that if she knew. I think they should have focused on their
blindness about Hope, Gabrielle believing without a doubt a good, and Xena
having no doubts that Hope's evil. They refused to compromise on
that...granted it was proven that Xena was right, but Solan might be still
alive if either of then had been willing to concede the other might be
right, and to find a way to know for sure what Hope's future was(a seer
maybe...Hope would be stuck, because if she killed the seer before the seer
could reveal Hope was evil, well there ya go, that's proof too). They both
screwed up when it came to Hope, so I'd say they are about equally to blame
for that. Almost. Gabrielle is a bit more to blame, like 60%% to Xena's 40%%.
Because she did willingly betray Xena. In Gabrielle's Hope, Xena ends up
meaning nothing to Gabrielle when it comes to her daughter. She even told
Xena that Hope was her daughter and that Xena better not come between them.

Now we get to the hatred bit of the episode. As I've said before, Xena's
hatred of Caesar did NOT lead to Gabrielle's torture(torture is not always
physical) at the hands of Dahak's cult. Maybe her hatred of Ares...because
he did tell her that Dahak was evil, she just refused to believe him, which
is understandable since he has proven himself untrustworthy. But it doesn't
change the fact that he did warn her and she ignored it. That was her only
fault in the whole mess. No one FORCED Gabrielle to go to Brittania...as
mentioned already, X/G both got played by Dahak and Co. That shouldn't be
the issue of the 'rift, at least to me, the issue should be the whole
aftermath, with Hope and Chin and crap. But I guess Gabrielle is still in
serious denial about it all, and is trying to find anything to assuage her
guilt. It's interesting that Gabrielle's lie was that she killed somebody,
and Xena's lie was that she didn't. That's a change of pace.

Yay, X/G are willing to forgive and move on! Funny how nearly being
crucified will do that to a person...get them to want to make peace that is.

Solan made Illusia? Gabrielle seems to think so. And I thought *I* had a
messed up imagination...well this is just one more thing that can be
construed as evidence to my theory that Hades might be Xena's real father.
Hades definitely could arrange this, with the help of his sister Celesta,
just for his daughter at the request of his grandson.

Now Xena finally admits she killed Ming T'ien. This was not such a big deal
at least, considering what just happened in Maternal Instincts, so Gabrielle
doesn't hesitate to forgive Xena for it. Just one issue though...Xena when
she starts singing to Solan, what was the point when she goes on about "do
good for those who hate" and such...a little life lesson for a son who's
already DEAD? Made no sense. And gotta hand it to Gabrielle, it must have
killed her to see Xena/Solan reunited knowing that her own daughter is dead
by her own hand, but she just smiles with happiness for Xena.

Wow...they end up on the beach perfectly fine, and Gabrielle is healed and
back in her regular outfit. And X/G enjoy a little water sporting. But
um...one thing...Xena, bit of advice, rolling around in salt water when
you're wearing leather, REALLY BAD IDEA!