Xena: Warrior Princess Episode 1.23: “Death Mask”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

For the second-to-last episode of the first season, this one leaves me asking a few questions about the writer’s intentions. The big over-arching theme of this season has been Xena confronting her evil past—would confronting the warlord who started her on this journey be the wrap-up to that? Is it because Xena had her own little creation come confront her last ep? (Though I gotta say, Xena and Callisto are both dynamic villains—Cortese…not so much. He has one clever idea but other than that, he’s the regular ol’ warlord languishing in his tent while his goons roughhouse and guffaw.)

And because Xena has dealt with rage regressions in the case of Ares/Daddy, and because last episode she came so far on the path of forgiveness, we needed someone new as her vengeful stand-in and that person came in the form of her never-before mentioned older brother, Torres. He’s also never heard from again, which makes his introduction a little annoying. Also, he has the bad luck to come after Callisto’s episode. Callisto’s quest for vengeance, and Hudson Leick’s acting, was just off the charts and utterly engaging. Torres’s actor and vengeance quest were on the cheese side again, which seemed a bit like empty calories after the warrior princess/warrior queen faceoff. :P Though at least I bought the ebb and flow of their relationship more than I did with Xena and “Atrius” a few episodes back. These two characters had more shared history.

And there were some nice themes about murder vs self-defense and coming to terms with the past. Gabrielle rounded it off with some workable comedy. :P

( Episode Summary and Spoilers )