PROMO TRANSCRIPTION
XENA'S GREATEST ENEMY RETURNS
Caesar: Divide and conquer!
Xena: Caesar wants that one great battle that will make him
part of history and we are going to give it to him
XENA'S GIVEN ONE CHANCE FOR REVENGE
Ares: Lead your army to victory and make me proud
BUT CAESAR'S HOLDING ALL THE CARDS
Caesar: You're a friend of Xena's [To Gabrielle]
Gabrielle: No.
Boadicea: You go up there, they will die.
BATTLE ON, XENA!
TV GUIDE PROMO
Xena, Gabrielle and the first priest of a monotheistic cult
head for Britannia to battle their common enemy Caesar -- who
promptly captures Gabrielle.
Xena and her former enemy Boadicea join forces to battle Caesar; Gabrielle must fight for her own life against evil spirit worshippers.
As Xena confronts Caesar in Britannia, Gabrielle uncovers disturbing
secrets about a mysterious cult that is battling the Romans.
Xena and Gabrielle battle Caesar and evil spirits and witness the
creation of Stonehenge.
TAKING a plunge into the mists of ancient British history this week,
Xena joins Boadicea in a battle against the armies of Caesar in northern Gaul.
Xena also gets embroiled with the blood-thirsty followers of Dahak. A woman's
work is never done. Evening Herald
AIRING AND RATING
INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 10-20-97
An AA average of 6.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES ranked 4th with 7.9
(2) XENA ranked 9th with 6.0
(3) HERCULES ranked 10th with 5.6 ("Web of Desire" 63/404)
(4) WALKER: TEXAS RANGER ranked 13th with 5.3
(5) STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE ranked 16th with 5.1 ("Behind the Lines" 128/604)
(6) EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT ranked unknown with 4.2 ("Truth" 02/102)
2nd RELEASE: 03/16/98
An AA average of 5.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES 8th with 5.6
(2) XENA/HERCULES 10th with 5.0
(3) STAR TREK DS9 14th with 4.6
(4) WALKER 19th with 3.9
SYNOPSIS :
This synopsis is by Bluesong.
The show opens with Ares and Discord
discussing a monotheistic temple. Ares tells Discord he is
handling it.
Xena and Gabrielle walk along talking.
They pass some Roman soldiers with prisoners. One of them
mentions Caesar's name, and Xena frees the prisoners. One of the
prisoners is called Khrafstar, First Priest of the Temple of One
God. Caesar has captured this temple in Brittania. Khrafstar has
been hiring mercenaries to help him recapture the temple. He is
being assisted by a warrior woman named Boadicea, who dislikes
Ceasar too.
Xena decides to join the man. Before
boarding a boat, Ares appears to Xena and tells her the temple
should be destroyed. On the boat, Khrafstar tells Gabrielle
about
his god, talking of love, friendship, and bringing his kingdom to
earth. When they they reach Brittania, they join up quickly with
Boadicea and have a very good fight with the Romans guarding the
beaches. During the fight, though, Gabrielle and Khrafstar are
captured and taken to Caesar.
Boadicea and Xena talk strategy and
then Xena realizes Gabrielle is missing. Boadicea had told her
Gabrielle was OK even though she knew differently. Xena draws her
sword on Boadicea. Gabrielle meets Caesar, who decides she
should be hung on a cross. During the evening Gabrielle and
Khrafstar talk more about faith and the concept of one god. Then
they are taken out the next morning and placed on crosses.
Caesar had ordered Gabrielle's legs be broken (it will mean
something to Xena). Xena suddenly pops out of hiding and saves
Gabrielle and Khrafstar. Xena defiantly tears Caesar's flag into
pieces, and Caesar, who has been watching some distance away,
picks up a javelin and hurls it at Xena. She throws her chakram
at it; it splinters and a large piece of wood goes into Caesar's
hand.
Xena and Boadicea determine their next
move. They want to split Caesar's army, so they attack his
strongholds. They start with the temple, and recover that. Xena
goes on to the next battle, leaving Gabrielle with Khrafstar at
the
temple. Ares appears to Xena and asks her to destroy the temple.
Xena wants to know why Ares fears this god. Ares says Xena must
trust him and destroy it. "We're not evil. This god is," Ares
says. Xena walks away.
Khrafstar and the other worshippers
want
to rededicate the temple. A woman tells Khrafstar that the
ceremony has changed some since he left, so she leads the prayer.
Suddenly she says there must be a blood sacrifice, a sacrifice of
an innocent, to the dark one, called Dahak. They grab Khrafstar
and
tie him to a flat stone altar; Gabrielle is held back.
As the woman prepares to stab
Khrafstar,
Gabrielle jerks free, rushes up, and pushes her away. She takes
a knife and cuts the rope holding Khrafstar. The woman returns
with a sword. Gabrielle turns and stabs the woman in the
stomach, killing her. Blood covers her hands. Khrafstar takes
the
knife from Gabrielle and thanks her for helping to bring Dahak
into the world. Dahak wanted her "purity and innocence of evil."
By killing, she just gave that to this evil god. Gabrielle
screams.
Xena stands with Boadicea at the
battle site. Legions of Romans are before her. She is ready to
ride off to find Caesar, to kill him herself. Then she sees dark
black clouds over the temple. "That's where Gabrielle is!" Xena
says, and rides off. She reaches the temple; it is empty. A
dead woman lies on the altar. Then Xena hears Gabrielle sobbing
in a corner, finds her, pulls her close. Xena asks what
happened, and Gabrielle says she killed the woman. Xena cannot
believe it. Then Khrafstar walks in and Gabrielle pulls away
from
Xena, almost into a fetal position. Xena draws her sword. "What
have you done to her, you bastard?" she growls. Khrafstar tells
Xena that Gabrielle is for Dahak, the one god. Xena realizes
this is not the one god of the Israelittes. Then Khrafstar
thanks
Xena for bringing Gabrielle to them. "Your hatred brought you
here," he says.
Khrafstar and Xena fight. Khrafstar
has
god-like powers and flings Xena away. Suddenly the altar bursts
into flames, and the flames chase Gabrielle. They come alive and
pull Gabrielle into the air, hoisting her above the altar. She
is engulfed in flames. Khrafstar changes into a devil-like
being,
and calls himself The Deliverer. He and Xena fight, and Xena
isn't winning. Xena keeps trying to get to Gabrielle as she
hangs suspended in the air, flames all over her body. Finally
Xena wounds Khrafstar and changes tactics. "You half-witted toady
to a third-rate god, come and get me," she says. She taunts him
and then when he attacks her, she throws him into the flames that
are beneath Gabrielle. She dives and catches Gabrielle as she
falls. They have no time for anything else; the temple explodes.
Xena and Gabrielle sit among the rocks,
with Xena holding Gabrielle. Gabrielle tells Xena that "it hurts
inside." Then she says "everything's changed. Everything."
The show closes with a shot of the
remaining rubble, which is Stonehenge.
COMMENTARY 1:
This commentary is by
Beth Gaynor.
Where Morpheus failed in DREAMWORKER
(#03), some unknown rookie of a god named Dahak succeeds. This
isn't just the end of Gabrielle's blood innocence, it's the end
of most of her innocence about people, too. She usually has a way
of reading folks, of spotting their best qualities and bringing
them out (or just avoiding the heck out of the ones who have no
good points to be found). But these priests played her like a
lyre, especially Khrafstar, the head priest, and Gabrielle never
had a clue. Before now, she could always rely on her instincts to
trust people, and in the long run, the loss of that may be more
devastating than the fact that she's now taken a life.
Speaking of being played like a lyre,
so were all of us by this episode - in some very nice
story-telling strokes. The story is set up as being about Xena's
pell-mell quest to find Boadicea and wreak her vengeance on
Caesar at last. Gabrielle's shove into the background, and taking
up with the happy-go-lightly priests, meanders in the background
as a side story. Until the moment she's taken to that altar.
Suddenly, the tables are completely turned, and what we thought
was a background tale becomes the focus of the episode and a crux
of two seasons of character development. Boadicea and Caesar are
dropped like hot potatoes, and in spite of what a great tale they
had been, they suddenly pale in comparison. Excellent, excellent
work by Steven Sears!
I just love being played by a good
story. Throw around a few "one god" phrases and talk of happy
love lights, and we think "Oh, Judeo-Christian followers. Like
ALTARED STATES, like ROYAL COUPLE OF THIEVES, like GIANT KILLER.
Seen it. Know where we're going." The story uses our assumptions
the same way the Dahak followers used Gabrielle and Xena's.
Xena's just one of us when she finally realizes "This is NOT the
one god of the Israelites!"
And speaking of which, for once, Ares
was on the level! Wow, whaddya know? Ares' assignment for this
episode is to read the tale about a boy who cried wolf.
For all the usual Xenaverse historical
liberties, that was some perfect portrayals of Roman fighting
tactics. Got a problem? Make like a turtle and box up!
Just as heart-rending as the pain
Gabrielle will be going through in the episodes to come is going
to be Xena's guilt. That Deliverer guy was dead-on when he
skewered Xena and told her that this was all her fault. Xena
peremptorily declared that she was going to fight Caesar, brought
Gabrielle along for the ride, and shoved her to the back of the
line with barely a glance, and no attention to Khrafstar other
than
a glare or two (she didn't even remember his name in the camp).
Even after Gabrielle had been put on the cross, Xena barely took
the time to get her down and check that she was OK before going
back to taunting Caesar. The bard even tries to apologize for
getting captured (yeesh!) and Xena brushes it off with a grilling
about what Caesar was up to. Xena is now living IS THERE A DOCTOR
IN THE HOUSE all over again, when she was scared that her pride
had killed Gabrielle. This time, it put Gabrielle through
crucifixion, murder, torture, and betrayal. Ouch. Xena will not
be letting herself live this down for quite some time.
One moment in Xena's defense: once she
saw the trouble at the temple, we didn't see her hesitate for a
moment. Caesar was finally forgotten, and Gabrielle became
priority #1 again. Better late than never.
I have mixed feelings about Boadicea.
I'm a Celt-phile, so I was sorry to see her story end up getting
short shrift and the Celts get represented by nothing more
interesting than some weird - and varying - accents and some
tartans and tattoos. But even given that, Boadicea was one
bodacious character. Her chariot ride and droll "your sword needs
polishing" was one of the best entrances I've seen on the show.
Fantastic outfit, great wild "Irish" mane of hair, and watch that
woman kick b*tt side-by-side with the Warrior Princess! And her
attitude toward Xena was brutally competent - no friendship, no
"it's all right in the end" smarminess, but a simple willingness
to put aside her own anger and vengeance to allow what was needed
for her people. A bit of a contrast to what Xena does.
Weakest moment and line in the episode:
Xena's taunting of the Deliverer-dude and his "You can't talk to
Dahak like that!" response. A bit too cheesy and way too flip,
especially with Gabrielle still dangling by fire above an evil
god's altar.
Gabrielle's words at the end of the
episode, "Everything's changed... everything" are exact
duplicates of what Xena told her waaayyy back in DREAMWORKER.
Xena: "And the moment you kill..."
Gabrielle: "The moment you kill...
what?"
Xena: "Everything changes.
Everything."
COMMENTARY 2:
This commentary is by
Carmen Carter.
FIRST THOUGHTS.
If you accept the basic series premise
that Xena and Gabrielle routinely stroll through temporal rifts
that shift them in time and space, then you won't have any
problem with our dynamic duo casually journeying to Gaul and
Britannia. This distortion of chronology and geography bothers
some people, but it doesn't even make me blink anymore. Although,
I have to admit that I would have loved a more leisurely set-up,
one in which Xena and Gabrielle spent a few episodes working
their way northward from Greece. Seems a lost opportunity for
some change of scenery and a few exotic plot devices.
These quibbles aside, THE DELIVERER
offers a solid, intriguing beginning to a longer dramatic story
arc. In typical fashion, Stephen Sears crafted a script in which
the action/adventure plot is driven by character dynamics, and in
which powerful themes of guilt, revenge and blood innocence play
a central role. Less typical, however, is the broad canvas that
he used for this particular morality play. The epic scope created
-- for me -- a sense of detachment and distance from the
characters...which was just as well given that Gabrielle was
turned into mincemeat (finely ground) by the final scene...and
Xena was looking a bit pale and wan, too. Without some distance,
the traumatic events of THE DELIVERER would have been
overwhelming.
The dynamic Boadicea was a wonderful
character in her own right, easily one of my favorite women (and
actors) in the series. In terms of the plot, she personifies
Xena's guilt; and the opportunity to help the woman she once
betrayed offers an all too convenient excuse for the warrior
princess to give in to her darker impulses. As others have
mentioned, Caesar is more of a straw dog than a real villain in
this episode. His purpose is to fuel Xena's thirst for revenge
and make her easier prey than usual for the machinations of Ares.
Giving in to temptation, Xena carries Gabrielle into danger and
is too distracted to notice what is happening to her companion.
The result is an incredible tragedy.
How can we destroy thee...let me count
the ways. In an amazingly short amount of time Gabrielle is:
crucified, lured into the clutches of a cult, betrayed, tricked
into losing her blood innocence, and then violently raped. In
other words, almost everything that has formed her character --
trust, innocence, purity, and a sanctity from harm -- was
shredded into little itsy bitsy pieces and then ground into dust.
However, unlike RETURN OF CALLISTO -- where Gabrielle's actions
seemed capricious and wildly out of character, thus undermining
the impact of the consequences -- everything that happened to
Gabrielle in THE DELIVERER arose naturally and inexorably from
who she is...or was.
More than most episodes, the impact of
these events also hinges on what will happen in later episodes.
The extent to which Gabrielle is permanently changed by her
trauma will determine the ultimate power of what we have seen.
Unfortunately, the lack of resolution
in a major plot thread weakened this episode needlessly. Since
there wasn't a "To be continued..." tag, the episode presumably
stands on its own. Yet, if that's the case, one has to wonder
just what the heck happened in the battle between Boadicea and
Caesar, and whether the outcome of that conflict was affected by
Xena's hasty departure to rescue Gabrielle from the temple. If
this detail is dealt with in GABRIELLE'S HOPE, then an overt tie
between the two episodes would signal viewers to suspend their
annoyance.
On the other hand, given the
importance of the character-driven narrative, this episode was
blessed with solid performances from the supporting actors, who
made the most of their brief appearances. And Renee O'Connor was
outstanding in the crucial closing scenes in which Gabrielle
undergoes her deconstruction.
Like the best of XWP episodes, THE
DELIVERER offers more food for thought and discussion than can be
encompassed in a single post. I'm still pondering my reactions to
Gabrielle losing her blood innocence, not to mention being raped.
I won't even try to broach those topics until I've seen the
episode at least one more time.
SECOND THOUGHTS.
We all have our individual and highly
personal reasons for watching and enjoying XWP. For me, one the
strongest attractions has been that the series presented stories
about women that I had rarely heard before. Xena -- as the
guilt-ridden hero -- wrestles with moral and ethical dilemmas
that have usually been reserved for men in our culture's
literature. And Gabrielle embarked on a coming-of-age adventure
story that is common for men but quite rare for women to
experience.
And it's for those reasons that I was
disappointed by certain creative decisions in the story arc
launched by THE DELIVERER. Having Gabrielle fall prey to rape,
even by a god, is a story I've heard before: woman as sexual
victim. In fact, I've heard it all my life. It's no news to any
woman that the possibility of being raped is a harsh reality of
our existence. It's a situation that we face every day. What was
*new* about XWP was seeing two women who were adventurers,
explorers, heroes -- whose lives where NOT circumscribed by that
particular fear. Watching Xena's chakram defy gravity is fun, but
watching Gabrielle defy the social conventions that have
repressed women lifted this show beyond breezy fantasy. Instead,
it approached a cultural revolution.
And now that unique and entrancing
world where women were free from the constant reminders of their
gender has been shattered. It's business as usual in the
Xenaverse -- women who step too far out line, who leave the
safety of their home, face the danger of being raped. Being
killed is a danger everyone faces, but being raped is a danger
that has extremely strong associations with being female. Yes,
men are sometimes raped, too, but the fear of rape is not one
which dominates their lives. And they don't face the same
consequences...such as unwanted pregnancy. That is a situation
that only women have to deal with, and with the advent of
Gabrielle's baby we are back to the familiar and depressing
stories that have dominated women's lives throughout history.
I especially regret that the
rape/pregnancy scenario overshadowed the issue of Gabrielle's
loss of blood innocence. For over two years XWP has developed the
importance of Gabrielle's refusal to shed blood. This was a truly
marvelous gender-neutral issue. Gabrielle's dedication to
pacifism was a fascinating aspect of her character, and involved
a choice fraught with contradictions and peril, given her
decision to travel with a warrior. Unfortunately, in THE
DELIVERER Gabrielle's traumatic loss of blood innocence simply
served as a plot device to introduce her rape and pregnancy. Thus
the unique gave way to the conventional.
Although I felt the scripting of
Gabrielle's rape was dramatically solid, it was not a storyline
that I welcomed. Not because it was emotionally shattering, not
because it was too dark, but because it was too easy and too
familiar. I know this story, and it's really irrelevant to me
whether Gabrielle is destroyed by her experience or emerges a
stronger and better person by the end. All those scenarios for
women, all those endings, have been explored over and over and
over again in our cultural literature. I'm not interested in
watching Gabrielle deal with the problems that come from having a
womb when I could be watching her struggle with other issues on
less traditional battlefields.
There is still much to appreciate in
X:WP -- good writing, good acting, good production values -- and
I'm not bowing out of the audience over one episode. But the
truly unique and novel twist that first sparked my interest XWP
is now gone. The show still features rifts in time and space,
gravity defying leaps and bounds, and peevish gods and goddesses,
but Gabrielle has been dragged out of that fantasy paradise and
into the mundane, unforgiving world of reality. And that's a damn
shame.
COMMENTARY 3:
This commentary is by
KSZoneW.
It made fans angry and sad. Some felt
ticked because of the way Gabrielle killed. Some hated the fact
that Caesar and Xena never fought. Personally, I loved this
episode. THE DELIVERER combined an adventure with personal
madness and the dawning of a new era in the ancient world of myth
and gods and heros. Dahak's rise to power will not only kill Zeus
and Hera at some time but may bring enemys such as Xena and Ares
and even Hercules and Hera together to fight off new cults and
gods who are born into the world that now belongs with Hera [Zeus
is like always with some other conquest instead of taking
control] and other gods such as Athena, Ares, and Hephaestus. The
main theme was Caesar and Xena fighting it out and that's all the
promo showed which made the killing and Dahak a surprise for many
fans getting up in the morning and watching the episode on there
satellite dish. That was a plus about the episode.
Who was the Deliverer? Was it the
Minotaur/Goat like creature who fought Xena to make sure Dahak
had time to plant his child in Gabrielle? Was it Boadicea,
because her job was to deliver Britan from Caesar? Was it
Khrafstar and his evil plans to bring Dahak to deliver a new
reign of terror to Greece and the world? Was it even someone we
did not see such as Christ, whose coming would send the other
below and protect the good people? That makes a question in
itself. I think the Deliverer is anybody in the episode who is
successful in completing there plan which would make Dahak the
one since he completed his work on creating a evil in Gabrielle
and also knew that the baby being evil would make Xena want to
kill it and Gabrielle wanting to save it, which in turn would
start a rift between the two and allow there hate to give him the
possible space to take down the Greek gods and reign his terror
over the world and possibly even kill Hercules, leaving few
immortal heroes or half mortal heroes a live.
The fight between Caesar and Xena must
be put on hold for a future episode. It's possible that it was
cut out since during a promo for The New Season of Xena on WGN,
they showed Xena kicking Caesar down and than Caesar giving a
cocky look which was not the same as the one in the actual
episode, where a piece of the javlin handle rips into Caesar's
skin. That remains a mystery but hopefully someone at Whoosh will
know or Ill look for more or ask around. I was upset they did not
have a war between Caesar and Boadicea or Xena but it allows
another episode to take place or even a Hercules encounter with
Caesar or possibly a crossover episode or even Caesar's takeover
of Greece to fufil Dahak's possible wish of conquering new lands.
The fight will be intense and possibly the most watched in the
entire series. Boadicea was played by a great actress in Jennifer
Ward-Lealand, who looked very diffrent than when she played a
attractive gambling palace owner in HTLJ episode "All That
Glitters" during HTLJ's second season.
Ares was reduced to a smaller roll and
was trying to help Xena or was he? It's possible that his wanting
Xena to destroy to temple was because he thought she would die
doing it? Why would he want to kill someone he kind of has the
hots for? Why not send the brother he hates [Hercules] and have
him face death from an immortal foe that may be able to kill half
gods? Probally because if Ares wanted Xena to die, he could bring
her back to life under his rules and ways. Meaning he would use
her for his own good meaning he did not care. If Xena did crash
the temple and Gabby did not get planted with evil, Ares wins
because Dahak's chance or hurting him and Olympus would die down
for a while, or at least untill another temple was born. But
could other temples exsist in other lands or other worlds?
Possibly he could not win either way.
Gabrielles loosing of her goodness to
not kill was done well. Gabrielle's character was being a saint
to those who where good and she felt that Khrafstar was all good
and someone who would bring evil gods and demons down. She
trusted him and had a bond of trust and friendship. He was going
to possibly fufill her destiny to do good but Meridian and her
cronies made a plan to have Gabrielle fall into there trap.
Gabrielle was forced to protect some innocent and good to her by
fighting Meridian. She stabbed the demon lady in a fight and did
so to save someone who could bring good to the world by killing
its evil. But evil won when Khrafstar declared the truth that
this was a plan to get Gabrielle to kill and give her innocence
to Dahak. Gabrielle killed because evil would of replaced good
but it ended up being wrong because good was replaced by evil
which made it hard on Gabrielle amd Xena. Xena's fight with
Khrafstar and her fight with the monster like Deliverer was VERY
intense in my opinion. Xena was p*ss*d because Khrafstar used
Gabrielle and forced her to kill. She proved she cared more about
Gabrielle than killing Caesar and proved she knew Boadicea could
handle the Romans, which was something Xena might of thought was
impossible when she saw Boadicea was torn between her lost
husband and a war to save Britain.
I have this episode a 5 out of 5 stars
rating. It was shocking and people talked about it more than many
other important episodes. This one is for any age except for
under 10 which might get scared of the fire and Deliverer
monster. It was intense and really turned out to be a adventure
episode with a dark theme and ending.
WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO
FAR:
03-06-00. Steve Sears, a former co-executive producer of XENA, appeared on the NetForum on or around February 2, 2000, under his Tyldus rubric, and shared the following:
Now, I will definitely answer your question. The question was whether the Dahak scene was considered a "rape" scene during its inception. I can't speak for the actors on the set or the director once he was on the set, but in the writing strage, no one thought of it that way. It wasn't until the rumor hit that we looked at it again to see if it could be read that way. And, by the way, so all will know, not everyone at RenPic agreed with my opinion either.
02-07-00. Steve Sears, a former co-executive producer of XENA, appeared on the NetForum on or around January 31, 2000, under his Tyldus Rubrick, and shared the following:
[Statement which he was responding to] I presume you mean with regard to the fan reaction, in that because you didn't change your stories to fit what fans wanted you
caught flack, yes?
Partly. Also because I would state an opinion or a reason and it was unacceptable to people. The whole Dahak/Gabrielle thing is a
good example (not dodging that one, am I?) When the rumor came out before the episode, I told people to wait and see. Don't make up
their minds before they saw it. The reason for this was that the information wasn't completely correct and because I had my own
opinion about the word "rape". After it aired, I stated that opinion. I said I could not equate the mystical impregnation by a godly
being while supported on a pillar a fire to a the forceful, violent, penetration and beating of another person at the hands of an
all too mortal and real person. Not once have I deviate from that opinion. But because I refused to change my mind on that, people
have decided I was avoiding the issue or "obfuscating" (a popular X-File term). If your opinion differs, so be it. Mine hasn't
changed. If I had written a rape scene the way I just described it, I certainly wouldn't hide behind words, I wouldn't need to. And
I wasn't this time. However, some have used it as a flash point of hatred. Misquoting me and taking things out of context to make
their points. Another time was when I said that Xena and Gabrielle hadn't had sex. I said that because no one had seen it, it was
never a part of the "mythos" of the series and was never implied, except by associative subtext (boy, does that sound obfuscated!)
But it was my later comment that you don't define love by a sexual act that seemed to draw the most fire. I guess I was raised
differently, but that's always been my feeling. And, even better, it left it all open to interpretation. But many thought I was
stating the latter to make up for the former. Not true. Anyway, it's that kind of stuff I was alluding to.
12-22-98. From the WHOOSH interview with XWP Script Co-ordinator Maggie Hickerson (02/98): "That was one thing in the episode where she went to England and she produced the toy from the SOLSTICE CAROL episode. I remember asking how can she produce this toy, we have to show her with a bag or something to carry it in. So they went back to the first episode where they were getting on the boat to go to England and we wrote in she had to have a bag with her but that scene had already been shot. So she did suddenly come up with this toy."
12-21-98. From R.J. Stewart's (the executive producer of XWP) RealHollywood 12-15-98 chat:
Truthseeker asks "The Dahak episodes of both Xena and Hercules are
among my favorites. How did the idea of Dahak come up and can you
give us any hints of any future plans for Dahak?"
R.J.Stewart says "Okay. Um .... That whole storyline of G's baby etc.
etc. .... G's hope .. is something that Rob and I beat out in this
room a few years ago in the broadest sense .. the basic direction of
where we wanted to go. We asked Steve Sears to come up with the setup
for that particular thing .. how is G impregnated with Hope. And,
then he started researching Zaroastrianism [sic]. And, it would be a
question probably addressed to Steve .. but that was the framework
in which he came up with it."
01-31-98. Liz Friedman at the Burbank II Con (01-18-98) addressed the "Was
Gabrielle raped or not" issue by taking a stand that Gabrielle was not raped. Her reasoning was that Dahak
was a force that impreganted Gabrielle, not a man. There was no man who got on top of her and there was
no sexualized violence. The theme of the episode apparently was that evil can enter the world only through
the corruption of good. This whole "Was it rape or not" debate has some interesting sociological and
emotional aspects which unfortunately I do not have the time to ponder right now. I am hoping that XMR
when it gets to the initial leak from Marilyn Beck's column to analyze what is going on. On one level of
course, rape does not require a man on top and nor sexualized violence (violence or threat of violence is
usually adequate). An important threshold issue of the characterization of how Gabrielle got pregnant (does
consent enter into it? How does analogy and metaphor affect it? ) is whether there was adequate ambiguity
in the scene where someone could reasonably convince themselves that a rape did or did not happen. Until
this is analyzed the heck out of, I doubt we will do much more than fraction off into "Yeah, it's rape", "No, it's
not", and "Maybe it is, maybe not" camps.
01-30-98. From an upcoming WHOOSH interview with Maggie Hickerson,
Script coordinator of XWP (tentatively March 1998): "HICKERSON: ... Another time when the script had
the characters going to England and they were near Stonehenge Steve Sears had them camped on the
hills around Stonehenge'. I kept telling him that Stonehenge is on Salisbury Plain and it's just that, a plain
with no hills. He said that at the end it didn't have to *be* Stonehenge just look *like* Stonehenge."
10-26-97. Karl Urban at WarriorCon
(09/13/97) said that he was in negoitations to bring back Caesar
after THE DELIVERER. Let's hope those talks were ended with them
writing Caesar back in. It would give them a chance to finish
this storyline in THE DELIVERER which was so rudely halted when
three quarters of the way through the show they decided it wasn't
about the big guy after all! And maybe also they can get Caesar
to use the word sensibility properly!!!
10-19-97. Looks like where Morpheus
failed, Dahak hits pay dirt! And now we know DEFINITIVELY where
Stonehenge came from...
10-13-97. Promotion shots show
Gabrielle crucified.
10-06-97. SFX (issue unknown) reported
that "Gabrielle returns to her Amazon sisters after being forced
to kill in self-defense - and giving birth to a demon child!"
Well, we know she gives birth in Gabrielle's Hope and that she is
impregnated in The Deliverer. The $10,000 question is where does
she find the time to off someone? Is it in Deliverer as well? It
must be! Unless she gets impregnanted and then on the way to
deliver she nails someone!
At last! We kick off the beginning of a
lot of stuff...rumor has it that this might be the beginning of
(1) the rift, (2) Gabrielle's child storyline, and (3) the path
of Gabrielle's loss of blood innocence. Heck! YOU NAME IT! It
looks like they are packing everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink
into this storyline. The thrust of the narrative is supposed to
happen over three episodes which everyone has been assuming will
be three consequtive shows (but those Renaissance Pictures people
are tricky), but the effects of the events in the trilogy will be
felt over six episodes. Very enigmatic, eh?
Here it is!!! The 50th episode of
XWP!!! The 100th will be in the middle of the fifth season. So,
until then, let's party hardy.
Reported in a magazine: Xena goes up
against Caesar in another brutal confrontation.
If this is, INDEED, the beginning of
the "Rift" trilogy, then we have been warned that the first
episode takes it time to get to its point, whereas the concluding
two episodes are mega-intense roller coaster rides.
Xena is in Celtic Britain
and she's still mad ten years later at Caesar, Julius Caesar for
toying with her affections. Rumor has it that this may be the
start of the Rift trilogy, but I am not personally convinced of
it yet. You can never go wrong with Xena and Stonehenge, though.
This might be THE episode to die for!
Another rumor says that Gabrielle is an
acting Amazon Queen in this one. I haven't been able to find any
type of confirmation for that, but if it is true: Woo-weee!
HIGHLIGHTS:
Highlights by
Beth Gaynor.
The acting work from both Lucy Lawless
and Renee O'Connor from the moment Gabrielle stabs the
priestess-wench until the fireworks start at the altar are just
astounding. Watch Gabrielle's reaction as she begins to fully
understand what she's just done and how well she's been played.
Watch the size of Xena's eyes as Gabrielle tells her that she
killed the woman on the altar. Anyone want to help me create a
"Give the Emmy Nominators a Clue" fund?
EDITS/CUTS ON THE USA/SCI-FI CHANNELS
03-06-00. From KSZoneW. Cut out Xena calling Khrafstar a b*st*rd.
MORE THINGS TO LOOK OUT
FOR
12-16-99. From Jody Stump.
The first time I watched this ep, I noticed that the scene where Boadicea
blows in on her chariot and battles with the romans was very dark. I was
unsure of whether this was intentional or not, but it was very noticable.
The second time I saw it,a recently obtained factoid "shed a new light" on
the scene. Boadicea (ca 60 AD) was known for her practice of washing
herself in blue dye before facing her enemy in battle. Sure enough, when I
saw this scene again there was a definite blue tint to it. From the point
where Xena flashes her sword to signal her arival the scene cuts to the
ship on the blue ocean with the blue sky and then cuts to the beach with
the Roman soldiers and everything appears washed in blue. This must be a
tribue to Boadicea's ritual.
Sources: Recent issue of Discover magazine(Feb or March) mentions Boadicea's
practice in an article about the blue dye she used being derived from the
woad plant. I watched this episode on 2 tvs the second time(one with captions and one
without-I'm a student, what can I say). I also taped this episode the
second time and viewed this particular scene a couple extra times to make
sure I was right. It was more noticable on the tv with better color but
still noticable on the bigger tv, especially after reading the above
mentioned article.
10-07-98. From KSZoneW.
Music from "The Deliver"'s Dahak sacrifice scene was used in HTLJ's "Armageddon Now".
10-07-98. From KSZoneW.
A clip from "The Deliver" was shown in the HTLJ's episode "Armageddon Now" during the time travel scenes of Iolaus.
10-07-98. From KSZoneW. The windows in the Temple can also be seen in XWP's "The Debt II" and HTLJ's "My Fair Cupcake".
01-31-98. From Nick Nayko: In THE DELIVERER, the show places Stonehenge
in a hilly area, when it real life, Stonehenge is located on a vast plain. In CALLISTO, the show portrays the
Oracle of Delphi in a walled town on the plains while the historical Oracle at Delphi was on a mountain and
not in a walled town. [Are we observing some Xenaverse law of the conservation of locations?]
From Beth: Xena's sword is back! DIRTY HALF DOZEN?
What DIRTY HALF DOZEN? While we're on the topic of swords, Ares
was sure loving his new toy, wasn't he? He mentioned giving it
out to a few folks: wonder if we'll be seeing it again? [Editor-
in-chief's note: Obviously this was the set up for DIRTY HALF
DOZEN. They are playing let's air the shows out of order again.]
From Beth: And speaking of "what DIRTY HALF
DOZEN?", we really didn't need to see the exact same exploding
castle footage from DOZEN again one week later, especially since
that castle is a different structure than the temple. Baaaad
timing, placing those two in back-to-back weeks.
From Beth: Blooper alert! During Khrafstar's
explanation to Gabrielle about faith (which becomes creepy once
you know where he's really coming from), watch Khrafstar's arms.
They change positions depending on the camera angle.
DAHAK...SCHMAY-HOCK!
From KSZoneW. Some Dahak information from "Persian Mythology" by John R. Hinnells:
Azhi Dahaka
The term Druj, Lie or Deceit, is often used as a designation for Angra Mainyn
or for a partictflar fiend, or again for a class of demons the most notorious
of whom is Azhi Dahaka, a figure we have met before (pp.37 43). Dahaka, with
his three heads, six eyes and three jaws, is painted in clearer and more
mythological colours than most of the demons. His body is full of lizards,
scorpions and other vile creatures so that if he were cut open the whole world would he filled with such creates. On one occasion he offered in sacrifice to Anahita a hundred horses, a thousand oxen and ten thousand lambs, praying that he might be allowed to depopulate the earth-his constant desire. On another occasion he approache d Vayu with sacrifice from his accursed palace with its golden beams, throne and canopy, but his destructive desires were scorned by both of the heavenly beings. Filled with the urge to destroy, this offspring of the Evil Spirit sought to extinguish the sacred flame, but was foiled by the hero Yima. He had his revenge, for he not only stole the daughters of the great ruler but also sawed Yima himself in two. The sweetness of his victory was short-lived however, for the hero Thraetaona liberated the maidens, and imprisoned Dahaka in Mount Demavend. Here he remains until the end ofhistory when he will again attack the world, devour one third ofits creatures and smite fire, water and vegetation until he is finally slain by the resurrected Keresaspa.
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of THE DELIVERER .
DISCLAIMER:
Gabrielle was slightly well-done during
the production of this motion picture. However, the producers
would like to recommend a zesty barbeque sauce to bring out the
full flavor of this episode.
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LINKS:
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