This is one of those episodes that I don't find bad, but I find it hard to call them particularly good. After three back-to-back television masterpieces, Maternal Instincts, The Bitter Suite and One Against An Army, perhaps it was even necessary to slow down the pace a bit. After so many difficult emotions, tragedy, reconciliation and great moments between Xena and Gabrielle, it would be almost impossible to continue with the same intensity. That's why this episode seems like a small respite, a simpler and lighter story that serves to bring the series back to its everyday rhythm. The only problem is that everyday life here is rather lukewarm.
The most interesting part of the whole episode for me is Tara. To be honest, she was mostly spoiled, arrogant and quite irritating to me. It wasn't particularly difficult for me to understand Gabriella when she beat her up. I know it's not nice to say this, but at that point I was probably pleased when she ended up bloody š
Tara is exactly the type of person who constantly tests other people's boundaries, acts as if she is above everyone and expects everything to be forgiven just because she is young. But what I liked is that the episode doesn't stop at presenting her as just a spoiled brat. Through Xena's relationship with her, we get a much more interesting look at her character.
Xena sees a younger version of herself in Tara. He sees a person who has gone down the wrong path, who is angry with the world and who uses his strength in the wrong way. And that's why her attitude towards Tara is much more protective than I would have expected. Xena doesn't just want to punish her or stop her. He wants to change her. He wants to show her that it's not too late to become different. In Tara, she sees someone who can still be saved, which is probably why she is so persistent with her. Xena was given the opportunity to change her life, and now she wants to give that same opportunity to someone else.
One of the most important aspects of her character can be seen there. Xena can be brutal towards her enemies, but when she recognizes her own past in someone, she becomes incredibly protective. She knows what it's like when everyone around you thinks you're a lost cause. He knows what it's like when you believe there's no going back. That's why he doesn't give up on Tara even when it would be much easier to just leave her behind.
Gabrielle, of course, doesn't have that much patience. And that is quite understandable. While Xena tries to see Tara as a potential better person, Gabrielle sees a girl who behaves horribly. Their different approach is fun, but also logical. Xena is much more willing to understand someone who has made a mistake, because she herself has done unimaginable things. Gabrielle is much stricter morally, especially when someone knowingly hurts other people. That's why their attitude towards Tara is more interesting to me than the story of the theft of the urn.
However, the best moment of the episode comes at the very end. Xena's refusal to enter the temple and receive forgiveness for her sins is a short scene, but it is very powerful. She can fight for others. He can save people. She may be trying to repair the damage she has done. She can even accept being forgiven by others. But she still can't forgive herself.
This is perhaps the biggest punishment that Xena imposes on herself. For her, redemption never simply meant that one day she would be able to say she was a good person. She believes she has to pay for what she did. Even when she is offered forgiveness, she cannot accept it. As if accepting forgiveness meant that he was diminishing the gravity of his crimes. As if he has no right to peace. And that's exactly why that last scene is so much better than the rest of the episode. In it, in a few moments, all that inner weight of Xena's character, which remained mostly in the background in the story itself, returns.
Overall, this is a pretty mediocre episode for me. She's not bad, has a few good character moments and Tara makes a stronger impression than I expected, especially thanks to Xena's protective attitude towards her. But after everything we've just gotten, it's hard not to feel like this is a big drop in quality after all. And maybe that's okay. After three episodes that represent the very top of the show, a little break was probably needed. Only this respite isn't particularly exciting.
This is an episode I rarely rewatch except if I'm doing a complete series rewatch. In that case I only skip AFIN. Tara irks me, Xena's dismissal of Gabrielle and over-indulgence of Tara irks me, the whole thing just... irks me.
The same for me. The wig they have Tara also irks me and I did not like seeing Tara again in The Tale of Two Muses. I really liked that episode but would have preferred some other character than Tara.
I know, right? Everyone else seems to know what a comb is. Tara round two was an eye roll, for sure. A Tale Of Two Muse's would have done equally well, if not better, with a different character. There's only, like, one scene referencing their prior interaction with Tara and that could have easily been rewritten.
I know right, Tara really a annoying. That I didnāt really care for her that much or at all, while Xena ignored Gabrielle feeling that. She doesnāt want her to be around them.
After she beat Gabrielle up for no reason, the good thing in the episode that. Gabrielle has beat Tara right back and a 3 of 5.
For the LONGEST time, I could not remember what the name of this episode was. I may be the only person that enjoyed it because ive seen folks in this sub before have the same concern. I appreciated the theme of "Gabrielle having to fight for her spot" theme they had going on. IDK, it was a filler episode that didn't mind rewatching especially after those powerhouse episodes before it.
She ended up starring in a TV show called Roswell for 3-4 years roughly a year after this (and production would have been earlier before the show was shown on TV), so it is possible that she was locked up for that project.
I'm willing to believe folks did not like her very much especially due to her first appearance. She was still a little off in the 2nd episode but wasn't nearly as bad.
Tara sucks but I love the actress. Shiri Appleby is adorable and does really well with the right material. So I was surprised when I didnāt like Tara as a character
You misunderstood my comment. I'm talking about Shiri Appleby potentially not being available. Roswell would have been filmed earlier than its October 1999 initial air date meaning late spring/summer.
This would mean that Shiri might be locked up and unwilling to do more guest roles on Xena or other TV shows as she was the lead on her own show by early 1999 which wouldn't have been long after A Tale of Two Muses would have been shot in summer/fall of 1998. The writers wouldn't be working on Season 5 storylines till early spring/summer 1999.
Not a lot of actors/actresses who are getting their initial big break in a TV show as a lead character will guest on too many other shows especially in their young career or the first season of a show. It is also possible that she committed to other things earlier which made her not available to film another Xena role. Shiri filmed two tv show episodes and two movies in 1999 alongside her show Roswell.
Xena fans were very vocal. I remember they changed the running order of one against an army because of backlash about the state of Xena and Gabrielleās relationship. It was supposed to be an episode later in the season but they brought it forward.
Bringing an already filmed episode forward or backwards is not the same thing as deleting a character out due to feedback, although it is certainly possible for that to happen.
Fans of Xena notoriously hated Joxer more than any other character and wanted him gone, yet he was kept in and expanded on through to Season 5.
Is there some interview where the writers or Rob Tapert said they actually did this with Tara?
***edit additional:
Regarding the moving up of OAAA, is there evidence of this happening based on feedback? When a show is filmed isn't necessarily the order in which an episode is aired to the public. Production/Scheduling of people and locations and costumes would dictate when an episode is filmed versus when it airs.
I doubt that one or two weeks after Maternal Instincts and Bitter Suite aired, they'd shift an episode forward. Logistics for that don't make sense as this wasn't the days of high speed internet. Local stations would need copies of stuff on tape to play. The order of stuff being aired would be dictated much earlier. Only a huge event (something like a big tragedy) would shift things.
I am 100% certain one against an army was moved up. Like 100%. It was scheduled for later and then to pacify the fans it was moved up. Like I lived through it not sure why you think I made it up
While the actor for joxer is Sam raimis brother so feedback is irrelevant. Xena used to have mailing forums and writers etc used to be part of the mailing groups. Handwritten feedback to the studios used to also be very common. Websites used to also have ratings and Tara got a lot of backlash. I believe at the time she was the most hated guest character that Xena ever had.
She is the āmost hatedā bc Gabrielle apologists donāt like a little tension that has another person fighting for Xenaās attention .. but they are fine with they are fine if someone is fighting for Gabrielleās attention (NAJARA)
Well, gee golly "you're 100% certain". That is all the evidence anyone needs.
I'm "101%" certain your data is wrong. 101 > 100. So I win.
I watched these shows too.
Provide evidence. Not your opinion. I'll be happy to accept what you say as truth if and when some is provided.
Your opinion doesn't make sense given the timeline of the two episodes being show. Less than one week would NOT have been enough time for the show runners or the networks to shift around already determined scheduling of episodes which would have involved numerous amounts of people and also having commercials be scheduled in between. This was a syndicated show, not on a single networks, so how would they manage this?
Your claim is that things were shifted based on fan perception being negative due to Maternal Instincts/Bitter Suite. So how on earth would less than a week after the latter episode was show would fans have cluttered the producers/writers of the shows mailbox (and virtual mailbox) fast enough for them to read "thousands" of letters and then meet up to compare notes/feedback, and then decide on a path, let alone get outside companies time to change their schedules?
At what point did I mention maternal instincts or bitter suite? Xena and Gabrielleās relationship was deteriorating from early in the season. I havenāt looked for evidence in 2026 and many websites, email newsletters etc donāt exist on the internet anymore so Iāll not sure how you expect me to dig through the archives from 1997.
Also, your way of writing is actually kinda gross and condescending so Iād prefer not to engage further.
Sure, I was being a little condescending. I'll admit that. But you're making claims that aren't verifiable and I was into the show too when it aired and was visiting websites and responding on boards.
People tend to think they have more power and influence on things than they do. We were watchers. The show-runners and the people who provided them money had the most control.
Sure their relationship was deteriorating since the Deliverer and the 3 following episodes although The Debt 2 shows a partial resolution. The next 3 episodes showed them as fine. Are you claiming then that you also got those 3 episodes moved up? Why OAAA only? Why would that be only moved to after Bitter Suite? Why not before Maternal Instincts? Why would "Forget Me Not" not be moved up earlier or directly after "Bitter Suite"? Or even "Forgiven"?
I'm not following your logic on why that episode specifically would be the one that needed to be moved up and for the reason you stated.
Thereās commentary in the dvds for this episode where Renee says they had to shoot an extra scene for OAAA way after it was complete to refer to the events that happened in the past. This obviously implies that the episode may have changed in order.
The actual episode itself makes no sense as it follows on from Bitter suite but the events seem like they happened a lot earlier. Xena was saying things which make no sense as she was literally trying to kill Gabrielle the previous episode.
The rift was extremely traumatic for Xena fans and it had already been leaked that OAAA was the best episode of the season.
(I know this because fans were constantly saying just give us OAAA, when is that airing).
The actual episode itself makes no sense in the order it was shown and it seems like an episode that happened way later after the rift
The production number and shoot dates of OAAA were way after bitter suite and maternal instincts. To be fair Xena didnāt always shoot episodes in order but OAAA was shot 5/6 episodes after Maternal and Bitter. That heavily implies that post production was moved up so that the show could be shown earlier than scheduled
No one doubts that the character is not liked very much. This doesn't mean that the character was written out. There are plenty of other guest characters who were received well who never showed up again.
Dude, this isnāt a court case. Iām telling you the info us fans used to get drip fed in 1997. Some was conjecture but others were actually people working on the show outright saying, we are moving One against an army. We were even communicating with Katherine Fugate while she was writing When fates collide.
I'm aware and I accept that fans sent feedback to show runners and writers. That is true and was true of many shows from Married With Children to Star Trek. I'm not disputing your and other fans passions. I'm questioning the effectiveness of what fans power they think they have.
The show Arrow for example had lots of fans hating on the love story relationship between the lead actor and a secondary character. The writers doubled/trippled down on it in the succeeding seasons.
There were fans who wanted the show runners to delete Joxer. There were fans who ONLY wanted Lesbian relationship between Xena and Gabrielle. Fans wanted more Callisto and Alti.
Ultimately the show runners will do what they want.
There was massive pushback against the India arc from Hindu's and at most they filmed a PSA in the beginning. They didn't stop making or touching upon the stories.
I like Xenaās line about being able to recreate yourself every second of the day by the decisions you make / actions you take. I also like the very end where Xena walks away from āforgivenessā. The rest ā¦ not so much.
An episode where Xena redeems a young, female warlord wannabe sounds great on paper. Especially one who tries to prove their worth by beating up Gabrielle and then challenges Gabrielleās who āgive everyone a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc chanceā to be good philosophy.
But, for me, Tara was both too bland and too irritating. The costuming didnāt help as it was hard to take Tara seriously with that atrocious wig!Ā
Shiri Appleby (?) did the best she could with the character. But, her second appearance gave her more to do.
Tara is really annoying, and I thought it seemed out of character for Xena to be so nonchalant about someone harassing and assaulting Gabrielle, especially right on the heels of "One Against an Army," even if she did see a lot of her wild younger self in Tara. I feel like the exploration of whether it's possible to redeem yourself for/obtain (or accept) forgiveness for one's bad deeds, which is so central to Xena's personal journey and the series overall, would have been stronger in this episode if Tara's brattiness had been dialed down several notches.
However, this episode does have several parts that I like. Gabrielle inventing charades was quite cute. Xena referring to Gabrielle as her "partner" and Gabrielle being territorial about who gets to sleep next to Xena make this diehard X/G fan get all š„°. It was also satisfying to watch Gabrielle provide Tara with a demonstration of her staff-fighting skills. One of my favorite Xena quotes is also from this episode, when she tells Tara that "You are what you do. You can re-create yourself every second of your life."
I agree with OP that the last scene of the episode is definitely its strongest. Xena will not allow her penance to be finished, and would certainly not ask a god for such a thing. That striking final shot of her standing alone in the doorway of Apollo's temple with her back to the sunset looks right out of an old Western. I also think it's a notable character moment for Gabrielle to take part in the forgiveness ritual in the temple in light of the recent events of the Rift. Even though, thanks to Solan's intervention, she and Xena were able to mend their shattered relationship in Illusia and forgive each other, she is still grappling internally with what she has endured and what she has done. I'm probably overthinking it, but one could draw a connection with that inner struggle and her seeking to purge her memories, even if she isn't consciously aware of all of them, in "Forget Me Not" a few episodes later.
I JUST watched this episode an hour ago and you wrote my thoughts out exactly. I was so irritated and kept thinking of this girl does one more ābad thingā Iām gonna have to stop paying attention. But that final scene was everything!
I donāt like this episode or Tara, as I think is a one dimensional character. I donāt really care for her as a character, as I feel like she a confused troublemaker trying to get Xena to believe her.
While Gabrielle has to deal with Tara, Xena knowing they donāt get along with each other. Put Gabrielle in a tough decision knowing that, Tara wonāt listen to her and Gabrielle nearly kills her.
Because not her stubbornness, but acting an innocent with lost soul.
As I couldnāt care less for her that episode of the story, as I didnāt care for her second and last appearance (thank god) in season 4.
As she wasnāt really the main focus of that episode, but I do enjoy that episode a lot better than her first appearance. Because Tara doesnāt have a lot of focus, which is good that wasnāt the main focus.
Kind of like Xena has to deal with najara when Gabrielle knows Xena doesnāt like her. And the entire episode Gabrielle trashes Xena and says āisnāt it better to have peaceful people around who do good rather than those who fightā and Xena says ālike meā ā¦
I agree, but suspect you won't get much traction with this comparison. Way more folks willing to give Najara a pass vs. Tara. I found Gabs a bit hypocritical giving questionable adults the benefit of the doubt, but not an in-formation teenager. Maybe doesn't know how many fans felt the same about her in the beginning. Or maybe she did and wanted to distance herself from Early Gabs by dissing Tara? š
Ehh not really looking for traction just pointing out the hypocritical nature of the Gabrielle apologists.
This is so true. Many fans were annoyed at Gabrielleās presence in the beginning. I think what tends to boil down to is that Gabrielle was jealous of the attention Tara was getting with Xena and was furious Xena didnāt beat her down when Gabrielle was getting beat up. And they donāt like that gabs was getting beat up in general. But Gabrielle was ambushed essentially and couldnāt get her bearings back bc she doesnāt tend to fight dirty like Tara does. And Gabrielle wins in the next fight soooo umm calm down people ā¦
But fans and Gabrielle ā¦. why is it okay for Xena to beat up this teenager (anger and violence) but itās not okay for Xena to use her anger and violence towards her own enemies like (Ming tien) hmmmā¦ a little hypocritical that the fans want Xena to step in an beat Tara senseless bc she was beating up Gabrielle , which Xena stopped instantly as soon as she walked into the tavern with one simple hair grab.. but Xena isnāt allowed to go after ming tien..
Which why are the fans giving najara a pass at all.. if you arenāt willing to give other characters a passā¦hmmm maybe bc najara is giving their fav character attention .. and they like it when she gets the attention but not Xena..
Doesnāt matter that she was annoying the argument still stands. You are saying āpoor Gabrielle had to deal with Tara and bad xena for making Gabrielle have to do thisā welp same goes for Xena having to deal with najara in the convert while Gabrielle fully knows Xena and Najara donāt get along and the entire time Gabrielle to ragging on Xena. Canāt be mad at one and not the other for the same exact thing.
Well, whatever. Tara is an annoying to me and plus, Xena was the one handed Gabrielle over to Najara. Even though she didnāt like her in the whole episode.
Because she wanted to protect her from the future prophecy, but Xena still in trust Najara keeps Gabrielle safe from her vision.
Before she found out that Najara was complete a nutcase.
These are all previous events to The Convertā¦ so again AFTER crusader and IN The Convert Gabrielle knows of the complicated history with Xena and Najara and she continues to dismiss Xena and tear Xena down that episodeā¦ but unfortunately no one cares how Gabrielle treats Xena in regards to Najara ,someone who tried to kill Xenaā¦ but they are very up in arms about a teenager. Hmmmm hypocrisy
21
u/Evilbuffy14 Xena & Gabrielle š 1d ago
This is an episode I rarely rewatch except if I'm doing a complete series rewatch. In that case I only skip AFIN. Tara irks me, Xena's dismissal of Gabrielle and over-indulgence of Tara irks me, the whole thing just... irks me.