5-04 Animal Attraction

First air date was Oct 19, 1999.

The story starts out with Xena riding Argo, with Gabrielle, Amarice and Joxer walking.
Joxer keeps looking back at Gabrielle and Gabrielle tries to talk to Xena about it, but Xena keeps
dozing off.

Xena hears something ahead and rides off to see what it is. The rest of them run after
her. Xena sees a horse with its foot in a trap. She lassos the horse and ties the end to her
saddle. When the others run up, the horse sees Gabrielle and calms down. Xena tells Gabrielle to
talk to the horse so she can get the trap off its foot.

They lead the horse to the town of Spamona, which is famous for its hot springs.
Gabrielle gets the horse to go into a stall. The stable guy tells them the town has a law against
carrying weapons. Amarice asks who's got the guts to take Xena's. A woman steps up and says she
does. She and Xena sword fight. Xena knocks her feet out from under her. When she helps her up,
they hug. Xena tells them she and Talia used to ride together.

Xena is hungry for raspberry jelly and raw fish. No one is hungry so Xena and Talia go
off to eat. They are in a saloon looking tavern and a man tells Talia, who is the local sheriff, a
man named Darkon is coming, and he resigns as deputy. Xena offers to help, but Talia makes her
promise not to.

The way I remember it is that this episode was the first one to truly
drive home what a disaster it was to put Season 5 in the hands of
the Hercules crew while Tapert concentrated on launching Jack & Cleo.
The hokiness of the setting and the writing play *totally* like a
Hercules episode, and while Hercules wasn't a *bad* series, the new
crew seems not to have grasped that "Xena" had long since outgrown
being a distaff clone of that show..

Ted

I really disliked this episode (notice I did not use the words "hate" or
"despise" - I'm saving those for some upcoming season 5 episodes that are
even worse!). I admit that I did not rewatch this episode and so I'm relying
on memory and David's summary for my comments.

If it was supposed to be a comedy it failed - it was just plain stupid.
Amarice was as irritating as any character has been on this show. And the
way they handled the announcement of Xena's pregnancy was bothersome to me.
Believing, as I do, that the nature of X&G's relationship is more than just
platonic friendship, this would be a MAJOR event and issue in their lives.
To just blurt it out in that manner, while intended to be funny, just felt
totally inappropriate and out of character.

I'm giving it a 3!

Laura

"Ahroo" hotmail.remove.com> wrote in message
news:6cFqj.9535$Ej5.1884@newssvr29.news.prodigy.net...

After posting my mini-rant, I went over to the Whoosh site to read the
reviews of the episode from when it originally aired. To my surprise, most
of the comments were very favorable about this episode! They LIKED the way
the pregnancy announcement was handled, liked Gabrielle's reaction, liked
the many plot lines happening, liked the "comedy" - so I guess I am in the
minority on this one. But that's what makes the world interesting!

Laura

"Ahroo" hotmail.remove.com> wrote in message
news:ZD_qj.6467$0w.2185@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...

I noticed that too. Almost everyone seemed to like it. I thought Gabrielle's reaction was
right on. Even before I read Whoosh's take on it, I could see the concern on her face about this
"immaculate conception". Being with Xena constantly, she couldn't help but wonder how it happened,
and if it was good thing, or evil, wicked, mean., bad and nasty. ...