TV GUIDE PROMO
Xena is caught behind a rock and a hard place when she's
pitted against her old friend Goliath (Todd Rippon) in a battle
between the Israelites and the Philistines.
Gabrielle defends an Israelite named David; Xena proposes to fight Goliath.
AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 10-14-96
An AA average of 5.4
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) HERCULES 8th at 5.8
(2) STAR TREK DS9 9th at 5.7
(3) XENA 10th at 5.4
(4) BAYWATCH 14th at 4.4
2nd RELEASE: 06-02-97
An AA average of 5.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) XENA 9th at 5.0
(2) HERCULES 10th at 4.7
(3) STAR TREK DS9 11th at 4.3
(4) BAYWATCH/BABLYON 5 25th at 3.2
SYNOPSIS:
This synopsis is by Bluesong.
Xena and Gabrielle are walking around a graveyard; a giant's
graveyard. Gabrielle asks why they aren't buried. Xena says
that it's a sign of honor of death on the battlefield. Xena
fought with the giants against someone named Gareth, and 10 years
ago she made a pact with a friend to meet him back at this place.
Then Gabrielle says, Xena, there are more giants here than dead
ones. Xena says, Hello Goliath. "This is your friend?"
Gabrielle says. Xena nods. Gabrielle says she's going to take a
walk.
Gabrielle talks to the trees: you'd think she'd have told me her
friend was a giant, why doesn't she tell me these things? And
then she's confronted by an army, who has some people captive.
They go to take Gabrielle, and one of the slaves (David) tries to
protect her but is knocked down. Gabrielle says pick on somebody
who can defend themselves -- "Who you?" the man laughs, "No, me!"
Xena says, and a fight ensues. Gabrielle is getting good at this
fighting stuff, btw. Anyway, once the Philistines find out that
it is Xena they are fighting against, they stop, for they have
hired Goliath to help them defeat the Israelites, and Xena is
Goliath's friend. They invite Xena and Gabrielle to their camp.
The Israelites are put in a dungeon. The Israelites aren't fond
of Xena.
Xena and Gabrielle go dine with the commander; Gabrielle steals
food to take to the prisoners. Xena goes to talk to Goliath, to
tell him he's working for the wrong side. But Goliath only wants
revenge against Gareth, because Goliath's family was killed in
the fighting, and the money the Philistines are paying him will
help him find Gareth.
Gabrielle goes to the prisoners, gives them food, but they are
trying to dig their way out and they are found out. The guard
orders them killed. Gabrielle tries to talk him out of it. He
says he'll only kill one, and pulls out David. David is put on a
stump and Gabrielle throws herself over him to keep his head from
being chopped off, and the guard says OK, I'll chop your head off
too. The chakram comes flying, knocking the axe from the
head-chopper and setting free some captives, and Xena, astride
Argo, takes on the Philistines. Another fight; the Israelites
and Xena flee to the Israelite home/palace, back to King Saul.
The Philistines are on the march, however, and with Goliath the
Israelites have no hope. Xena proposes a winner-take-all, with
her fighting her friend Goliath, because she knows that giants
have a soft spot between the eyes that will kill them instantly,
and she only needs one shot.
Gabrielle goes to David, and they have a tender moment and almost
kiss, but then David's fiancee interrupts; Gabrielle departs
going "dumb, dumb, dumb," and smacking herself in the head. She
finds Xena alone, standing, watching the storm outside in the
darkness. "Is the thunder keeping you up?" Gabrielle slips an
arm around Xena. No. Xena explains how Goliath saved her life
and in so doing, lost his family. She is very sad about the
entire turn of events; Gabrielle takes Xena's right hand in her
left hand, and then covers her hand with her right; Xena returns
the hand hold, tenuously at first, but then with a tight grip.
The next morning the Philistines and Israelites meet; the
challenge has been accepted. Goliath goes after Xena, and the
Philistines attack the Israelites in a sneak play. Jonathan,
the elder son of King Saul, is killed, and the Israelites
retreat. Goliath has on a special helmet, and can't be killed,
so Xena finally throws salt in his eyes and runs with the
Israelites to a cave.
Xena tells Gabrielle that with Jonathan dead, the Israelites need
a leader, and if she kills Goliath they will not have anyone to
proclaim a hero. David has been thinking the same thing; he
tells Xena he has to be the one to kill the giant. Xena goes to
the graveyard again and finds Goliath; she could have killed him
then, but doesn't. They talk and part as friends, planning to
meet as enemies. Gabrielle sees David, tells him she was a
little upset by the financee' meeting, and David says they can be
friends; they talk a bit about monotheism because Gabrielle says
it is a new thing for her; a god greater than Zeus? a little
talk, then he recites a psalm (Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd)
and Gabrielle likes it.
Next morning, the Israelites have gold shields. The weather is
cloudy. David is praying; Xena tells him to ask "him" to do
something about the weather. The Philistines show up; Goliath
comes forward in his helmet, and David walks out to face him.
The Philistines laugh and call for Xena, at least, not a small
guy. Goliath tries to slice up David; then the sun breaks
forth, and Xena yells "now" and the soldiers shine their gold
shields so that the sun is reflected into Goliath's eyes and off
of his helmet. In anger, Goliath throws his helmet off and when
he does, David throws a rock and hits him between the eyes.
Goliath goes down; Xena looks pained. Xena walks over to the
dying Goliath, and tells him his battle is over. Later, Xena
walks through the giant graveyard, her thoughts heard out loud:
"Goliath, I know you can hear me, I hope you're with your family.
I'll always remember you as a loving husband, a great warrior,
and my friend."
COMMENTARY:
This commentary is by Carmen Carter.
Although GIANT KILLER probably ranks as my least favorite episode of the
series, it offers an interesting case study in creative self-sabotage. In
fact, analyzing the ways in which GK failed are altogether more interesting
than the episode itself.
The thematic focus of the story was on friendship and divided loyalties.
Xena was faced with a situation in which her loyalty to a friend was in
direct conflict with her loyalty to a cause. This is certainly an
intriguing premise, but it was one doomed to failure by the other elements
inserted into this plot.
Belief in Xena's friendship with Goliath was crucial to the success of this
story, but her relationship with the giant was undermined in many subtle
ways. The first is that mixing fictional and Biblical/historical characters
is by its very nature a contrived situation. Since the historical basis for
Goliath is very difficult to ignore, viewers need to try harder than usual
to suspend disbelief when inserting a fictional Xena into this "real"
scenario.
Secondly, the camera angles used to encompass both Xena and Goliath in the
same shot reduced the warrior princess to a small figure, thus creating yet
another degree of distance from her interaction with Goliath. By removing
all visual cues to emotional context, the unremarkable dialogue was
dangerously flattened. Further distractions were offered by the standard
"giant" voice distortion and the deliberately slow pacing of the giant's
physical actions. Unfortunately, the actor who played Goliath was not able
to project convincing emotion through all these filters. In the end, I
never really believed in the friendship between Xena and Goliath, and thus
was unmoved by its dissolution.
In ALTARED STATES, the Biblical allusions were indirect rather than
literal, allowing for some creative flexibility in the storyline. However,
rooting the events of GIANT KILLER in a literal historical context created
serious problems in terms of plot structuring. Since everyone knows the
story of David and Goliath, there was little suspense concerning the final
outcome: David would kill Goliath. So the fight scene between Xena and
Goliath in the middle of the episode was pre-determined to end without
resolution, just as we knew that somehow Xena would have to allow David to
take over. Given this foresight, it was difficult to be moved by Xena's
agonizing over whether to kill Goliath. Her subsequent, and inevitable,
decision to step aside so that David could be seen as a leader was a
contrived action to meet the plot requirement rather than a convincing
twist in the narrative's natural development.
Also, this fatal outcome for Goliath runs somewhat counter to Xena's usual
interventions, where she finds some clever way to keep the peace. Given the
historical contraints, this was never an option. At all times we as viewers
were aware that Xena's actions would never seriously change the outcome of
the story, thus rendering her attempts at involvement irrelevant.
Overall, this episode committed the worst sin in my book: it was
predictable and boring.
As a personal aside, I was discomfitted with the concept of King David as
yet another entry in the list of Gabrielle's sensitive young boys. Watching
Gabrielle get moony-eyed over a rather prominent Biblical figure was
jarring. And the immediate juxtaposition of this scene with one of Xena &
Gabrielle together gave the impression, perhaps inadvertent, that
Gabrielle's abortive pass at David was a counterbalance to her act of
holding Xena's hand.
And speaking of apparent counterbalances, the previews for next week's
episode revealed a comic, campy story with an obvious Satanic theme. The
pairing of these two episodes is an uncharacteristic lapse of subtlety for
X:WP.
WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO
FAR
12-16-98. At the Jauary Burbank Con II (January 1998), Brad Carpenter, the exiting Director of Merchanidising at RenPic gave a demonstration on how they do the Titan/Giant effects. It's done with camera work exploiting perspective, not special effects.
01-23-98. On July 5, 1998, Avicus (aka Robert Field, a film editor for XWP)
stated that A DAY IN THE LIFE took only 5 days to shoot because it used a lot of footage that was cut from
GIANT KILLER. Apparently GIANT KILLER shot the footage with Garek but cut it for later use, which was
DAY.
01-23-98. In STARLOG #245 (December 1997) Robert Tapert, executive
producer of XWP, stated, "I'll tell you an interesting thing that very few
people know; the entire fourth act in A Day In The Life', where
they battle the giant, was all footage left over from another
episode, The Giant Killer', our David and Goliath episode that
didn't quite work. Well, the cut was so long on it that we said,
'Let's just chop off the entire fourth act and bank it for
something else, and have this episode end with the death of
Goliath rather than them going and getting the giant'."
CHANGING TIMES
Changing Times is by Debbie White.
In GIANT KILLER (27/203) Xena
has to fight against a friend she owes her live to.
Gabrielle learns that her friendship to Xena will not always
keep her alive.
The Changing Xena
"Your war is over now."
-- Xena, GIANT KILLER
Xena has changed much in this episode. She
owes Goliath her life, because he saved her while his family
died. First Xena tries to talk him into fighting on the
right side. When he will not give up his revenge, Xena
stands against him, even though she owes him her life. As
she says, "I owe you my life, Goliath, not the lives of
others."
One interesting thing we see once again is
that when Xena chooses a side, it becomes the 'right side.'
This time she actually takes the time to talk and find out
the Philistines are trying to enslave people, which she does
not care for. Still, one day she might just jump in and
protect the wrong side.
Another thing is that Xena, yet again,
calmly takes over command of an army of people who hated her
mere moments ago. She manages to change their opinion and is
such a commander that people allow her to take over. Still,
Xena knows when someone else needs to get the glory to be
really helpful and is willing to hand it over.
Finally, despite the fact Xena owes Goliath
and came up with the plans that caused his death, she
refuses to take on his revenge debt. She has changed so much
that now she refuses to take the path of revenge, even for
someone she owes so much.
The Changing Gabrielle
"Stories are meant to be told. Stories tell us who we
are."
--Gabrielle, GIANT KILLER
Gabrielle is getting a rather overinflated
confidence. First, she challenges a group of soldiers to
take on "someone who can defend themselves", meaning
herself. Then she steals the guy's food right out in front
of him, then tries to talk the guy out of killing the
prisoners when he catches them with the food (and trying to
escape). When she nearly gets her head cut off trying to
stop the execution, she finds out Xena's friendship to her
and her innocence will not save her from a person with no
morals, though.
Gabrielle's fighting skills are getting
better. When Xena frees her hands when she is about to be
executed, Gabrielle flips over David, grabs the axe, and
frees David. She then manages to hold a soldier back without
slicing him until he drops his staff in favor of the axe.
Gabrielle, of course, takes the staff and beats him silly.
She also mounts up behind Xena pretty quickly. Either they
have been practicing that move or do it rather often.
Also, Gabrielle starts to fall for a gentle
story-teller with a brave heart. She seems to like anyone
who shares her passion for telling stories or shares her
code of only fighting to defend themselves.
It rather seems to go against Gabrielle's
code when she steals food. However, because David tried to
help her, she seems to have already decided his side is the
right side. It looks like stealing from the enemy is not
against her code.
Finally, Gabrielle has the art of comforting
down. When Xena is staring out into the stormy night,
feeling guilt over fighting her friend, Gabrielle just holds
her hand. Then again, fighting a friend who chooses the
wrong side is not against her code of honor. She stood up
to Xena in TIES THAT BIND (20/120). Still,
Gabrielle is getting better at supporting Xena when she
needs it.
The Changing Argo
Argo, she of many skills, shows off another
one. At Xena's whistle, she charges down soldiers and chases
them away from the fighting. She's done this in THE
GREATER GOOD (21/221), but she did it without the
whistle that time.
Timeline
Goliath left Xena's army ten years ago.
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of THE GIANT KILLER.
DISCLAIMER:
No Bible myths or icons were
irreparably mangled during the production of this motion
picture.
WHOOSH! ARTICLES:
The following WHOOSH! articles discuss this episode:
Coming soon
LINKS:
The following links discuss this episode:
Coming soon
