Xena: Season 6, Episode 14: "Path of Vengeance"

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: 

“The One Where You Hope Eve and Varia Get Together

But They Don't They Don’t Even Come Close." 

Wow, I...do not remember this episode AT ALL.. Great! 

 

What was the whole-ass point of Gabrielle getting her butt kicked? Woulda been nice if she'd, you know, not.  

Also, when I'm talking about phoning it in: As Xena, Gabrielle, and Eve were saying goodbye, they knew they would never see Eve again probably, and not one of them was crying or getting emotional. Eve did the best job here. It looked like LL even made a joke with, "Stay out of trouble," and they turned it into a sentimental thing.

SPOILERS: My reviews are full of them! I'll try to note when I'm about to spoil the series by posting [SERIES SPOILER] before said item and [END SPOILER] after. Please don't read the review, unless you've seen the episode under discussion or don't care if I spoil it.

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EXTRA QUOTES:

1) Cyane: "Varia, queen of the Amazon nation, has ordered that no one is allowed to pass." X: "Well, we're coming through." G: "Xena, I know you wanna save Eve, but these are our friends so let's keep it that way, all right?" – Love Gabrielle's intervention here. 

 

2) G: "This is Xena. I'm Gabrielle." Cyane: "It is a privilege to meet a fellow queen of such reputation. The elders of my tribe tell many stories of your deeds, but I can't go against Varia's orders. She's our leader, now." – Any talk of Xena and Gabrielle as legends.

 

3) Livia: "Check inside! I don't want anyone hiding. No! Watch the faces. We've got to get the money back at auction." – Gd that’s brutal. 

 

4) Livia: "I'm running out of territories to capture. We'll wage so much war we'll have nothing but peace." – Thinking about this makes my brain hurt. 

 

5) Ares: "You haven't been there.” Livia: "Amazon lands? There's nothing to be gained there."  – Why didn't Ares turn Xena onto beating the Amazons back in the day. Or did he? Guys, it's been so many f years, I've forgotten. I need to rewatch the whole series when I finish this. This whole review will my magnum opus, I guess. 

 

6) G: "Xena, I had no choice." X: "Ahhh." G: "I had to vote with them. If they had kicked me off the council, they would have found Eve guilty anyway. It's the only thing I could do to save her." X: "By condemning her to death?" G: "No, Xena, this way, I have a voice." X: "Mm." G: "I can plead Eve's case when they go to sentence her and I can try to wake up the Amazons to Ares' ways-" X: "-I just can't talk to you right now." G: "Xena!" – Awesome. I *love* it when they fight like this. 

7) Cyane: "Varia is the queen, Gabrielle. She decides the sentence." G: "I use my rite to challenge. You are not queen, Varia, until you defeat me." Varia: "You had a better chance of saving her with words, Gabrielle." – What a diss.

 

8) X: "Gabrielle, look, I don't want you to do this. Let me fight Varia." G: "Xena, it doesn't work that way. I challenged Varia. It's my fight. Promise me that you won't interfere. If I am queen, I can pardon Eve and uphold the Amazon law. You know it's the right thing to do. Promise me." X: "All right." – I thought it totally did work like that, that the queen could choose a champion to fight for her. What is going on? Maybe because a queen is challenging another queen? Also, I thought these fights were to the death. 

 

9) Varia: "This woman has pleaded guilty to her crimes. Even she admits she can never do enough good to erase the evil that she has done, and yet, she's willing to keep trying. As queen of the Amazon nation I hereby sentence Livia killer of the Amazons to death... [long scary pause], so that Eve the messenger of peace may live." – God, what a horrible time to make a "gotcha" joke out of that. Just to make a joke out of sentencing someone to death, period, is awful. 

 

10) X: "They've forgiven you, Eve. Maybe you should think about forgiving yourself." Eve: "Have you? Forgiven yourself, Mother?" X: "Ahh, good point." – Yes, good point, Eve. 

 

11) Eve: "I know what I have to do. I've decided to go east to Ch'in and the land of Indus. Eli's message will be heard." X: "Now?" Eve: "Yeah." X: "You mean now." – Thank god. I thought this moment happened way the fuck earlier in the season. What a complete dumbass I am. 

 

12) Eve: "Thank you for saving my mother, for bringing her such happiness. I'm forever in your debt." G: "Eve-" Eve: "Gabrielle-" G: "You don't owe me anything." Eve to X: "And thank you for giving me life so many times. I love you." – Goodbye, Eve :c 

EXTRA LOVED:

1) Young Varia wakes up, sees slaves 

2) Varia kicks Gabrielle's foot out from under her 

3) Skull disintegrates into acid water 

4) Xena breaks Varia's staff 

5) Varia knocks Xena off the plank 

I listened to this song this day... Fuck it, I listened to all three of these: