3-20 Vanishing Act

First air date Apr 27, 1998
The episode starts out with Gabrielle and Xena going in separate directions. Gabrielle
goes into a village that is celebrating 20 years of peace where a gold female statue called Pax
stands next to the docks. Gabrielle tells the mayor Xena will be there in the morning.

Then next day they discover the statue is missing (and the pedestal?). Xena guesses it
was stolen. She spies a suspicious old lady. When the old lady tries to get away, Xena kicks her
cane out from under her. And when she tries to scramble up a gangplank to a ship, Xena lassoes her
feet and drags her back down. It is Autolycus in disguise. He says it's because with his reputation
he has to or will be accused of thievery. He says he didn't steal the statue, but will let Xena
work with him to get it back.

They interrogate the wharf-master about who might have a ship. Xena uses the Pinch but
takes it off at Autolycus' insistence. They are told Tarses stole it and lives on an island. They
catch a ship to the island. Gabrielle is to pose as Myopia, a fence for stolen items. Tarses
decides to have the statue melted down.

Xena shows up disguised as Ezra, another fence. She insists on seeing the statue.
Autolycus is disguised as her manservant with an eye patch and a humpback. Autolycus turns over a
series of torches to allow Xena to use her Chakram to close (or open) some kind of lever on the
furnace, causing it to lose heat.

Tarses decides they will go back inside to wait for the furnace to get hot enough, but Xena needs
time for Autolycus to look around. She and Gabrielle start bidding on the gold after the statue is
melted down. Xena wins with a bid of 400,000 dinars and the Ring of Apollo. Autolycus has seen what
he needs to (a fake wall painted to look like a hallway) and has a plan.

Xena and Autolycus send Gabrielle to a party while they find supplies to implement Autolycus' plan.
Later they join the party. Tarses figures out who Autolycus is and reminds Autolycus he killed his
brother. Xena pretends everything was Autolycus' fault and she (Ezra) just fell in love with the
wrong man. They are taken away. Autolycus is chained with 20 feet of chain and 200 locks. Ezra is
tied to a chair.

Tarses tells Myopia she can bid again in the morning against a Silosian general who also wants the
statue.

Xena gets out of the chair and is back in her leathers, and Gabrielle is out of her disguise. Xena
goes to find Autolycus, but he has escaped. She tells Gabrielle he is going to kill Tarses for
killing his brother.

Autolycus finds Tarses and starts to kill him, but Xena talks him out of it, saying it's not what
Autolycus' brother would want him to do. Tarses' soldiers come in and Xena and Autolycus escape.

Outside they fight again, and Tarses' soldiers run away when the Silosian general shows up with
his soldiers. Tarses says they (Autolycus, Xena and Gabrielle ) are trying to get his gold. But
they are nowhere to be seen, nor is the statue. The general threatens Tarses' life about offering
goods he doesn't have. The statue has been hidden behind a panel painted to look like the wall it
was next to.

The next morning, the statue (and pedestal) is back in the village. Xena and Autolycus pay each
other compliments about being the best or second best thieves.

.........../

Not a particularly great episode. Many plot holes. But some things weren't so bad.

*First the good things ---

Anytime both Xena and Gabrielle are in disguise we know they are gong to have fun with it.
Gabrielle/Myopia was using her Marquessa accent. I always like to see Gabrielle wearing blue.

Xena/Ezra was kind of Meg-like with a New York accent and personality. Lucy sure knows how to put
on a show. Loved that huge mole that Myopia couldn't keep her eyes off of.

The two double flips with Xena and Autolycus was kind of cool.

And Autolycus was back to his old King-of-Thieves self, having fun with the 200 locks.

Kind of liked Gabrielle counting off the seconds while Xena and Autolycus argued about
interrogating the wharf-master.

Gabrielle and Xena trying to outbid each other for the gold with dinars they didn't have. Was that
amount of gold worth 400,000 dinars?

*Things I didn't care for/understand ---

The statue and the pedestal --- At first the statue seemed to be "as tall as a house" but at the
end, the pedestal was the tall item and not the statue - what happened? And where was the pedestal
all this time?

What was Autolycus doing in the village in the first place?

Gabrielle had her staff back. Since she was fiddling with it on the dock, maybe she made another
one and was just finishing it up?

How did they get the statue (and pedestal?) back to the village and get it put back in place in one
night?

*Also ---

During the interview for this episode, Andrew Merrifield (the director), Rob, Lucy and Renee all
agreed this was a stinker of an episode. Rob said there is bound to be a bad episode in every
season. He (or maybe the director) mentioned the different sizes of the pedestal/statue. Lucy
thought this was the worst one of the series, but Renee mentioned a fifth season episode involving
Eeyore (which I take to mean Lachrymose and the episode 'Punch Lines') as being the worst one she
remembered. (I don't remember too much about that one, unless it's the one where Argo and Gabrielle
are shrunk down very small. But more on it six or seven months from now.)

Even with all the fun Lucy and Renee were having in their disguises couldn't raise this one
higher than a 7 out of 10 rating.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

3-20 Vanishing Act 7

3-19 Tsunami 7

3-18 Fins, Femmes and Gems 8

3-17 Forget Me Not . 8

3-16 When In Rome . 8

3-15 King Con 6

3-14 Forgiven 8

3-13 One Against An Army 9.5

3-12 The Bitter Suite 9.5

3-11 Maternal Instincts 9.5

3-10 The Quill is Mightier. 8

3-09 Warrior-Priestess-Tramp 8

3-08 King of Assassins 6.5

3-07 The Debt II 9

3-06 The Debt 9.5

3-05 Gabrielle's Hope 9

3-04 The Deliverer 9

3-03 The Dirty Half Dozen 8

3-02 Been There, Done That 9

3-01 The Furies 6.5

Average score so far