6-09 The Return of the Valkyrie

First air date was Nov 27, 2000.

The episode starts out with scenes from "The Rheingold" and "The Ring."

It is one year later and Vikings are moving through the bog toward the Living Flame that
protects the sleeping Gabrielle. Beowulf and his young friend, Wiglaf, are chasing after them. They
catch up just as Lord Erick is about to go through the flame to rescue Gabrielle. Beowulf shows him
a burn-scarred hand where he tried and failed. He says only Gabrielle's soul mate can go through
the fire. Grindl appears and the Vikings fight and die. One has both his arms torn off. Beowulf
convinces Erick to call him men off. Then Erick jumps (or is thrown by Grindl, I didn't get a clear
shot of what happened) into the flame and is burned up. Beowulf says they are going to Denmark to
get help from an old friend, Hrothgar.

There is a celebration. Someone tells Beowulf Hrothgar is marrying Wealthea. She comes
riding out on a gussied up cow, and it is Xena. Beowulf calls her name but she ignores him. The
ceremony begins and the priest says they will exchange blades. They exchange rings instead, and
each time, Xena sees flashbacks of the Rheingold ring and Grindl, which startle her. She recovers
and says she's the luckiest woman in Denmark. Hrothgar kills the cow as a sacrifice to the goddess
Freya.

Although there were a few things to criticize (like the recycling of
Porcupine-boy!), all in all I liked the trilogy very much. The final scene
(despite the fact, as David mentioned, that it made no sense that Xena had
to swim to get to the pool yet Gabrielle merely walked there) is among my
all-time favorite moments in the six seasons. I love the music, the
expressions on their faces, the sentiment expressed - just wonderful!

Yuck!!!! Wouldn't you?????

That made no sense to me - if everything else about their appearances return
to "normal" why not Gabby's hair?

Ahroo wrote:

You're mistaken. There's a *huge* variability in growth rates, even in
an individual person's life. One girl I met not long ago (she had thick
hair down to her hips that was dyed black) showed me some strands of
hair that had grown down from her forehead. She told me they were
accidentally ripped out six weeks ago. Straightened out, they hung down
over her chin.

(The downside is that *all* her hair grows that fast, not just the hair
on her head. Yuck!)

I agree about the wig though, it looked really artificial. Still, it was
nice to see her with long hair again.

--

Florian
GGGHD, MWFA, HCNB

My music:

http://www.last.fm/user/florianblaschke

"Florian Blaschke" wrote in message
news:g875ru$6m9$00$1@news.t-online.com...

I think the average is six inches per year, faster in the summer and slower in the winter.
But that's just an average. Obviously there's a lot of variance depending on the person and their
state of health.

"Ahroo" hotmail.remove.com> wrote in message
news:i8Apk.17989$cW3.4117@nlpi064.nbdc.sbc.com...

Hell yes!