Xena: Warrior Princess Episode 3.06: “The Debt, Part 1”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

Oh my sweet heavens. Much like with the last “Farscape” episode I reviewed, this “Xena” one largely exists to be some elaborate padding for the very end. “The rift” just has to get riftier. Unlike the other show, although this episode was muuuuuuuch more ostentatious, overall I enjoyed it on a higher scale. Sorry, horror genre. :P

In fact, “The Debt” is often counted as THE best episode (or maybe episodes, with part 2 coming up) of the entire show. I’m not sure I can take it quite that high, but it’s undoubtedly up there. Everything was fantastic—the scope, the locations, the music, the backstory, the character motivations; GUH. And although production probably should have paid a little more attention to cultural sensitivity, particularly when it came to Grant McFarland’s character, this was a great introduction to a powerful woman of color, played marvelously by Jaqueline Kim. I’m gonna be doing a lot of kvelling about actors under the cut. :P

Some schisms remain in the fandom, I think, particularly about one character’s arc. Really shouldn’t get into it in detail here, but I find myself disagreeing with them, both in the short run about immediate motivations, and the longer one, about the full reason for the entire “rift” story arc. Either way, these episodes give you a lot to think about.

Summary is here, courtesy of whoosh.org.

( Spoilery thoughts )