Xena: Warrior Princess, Season Three, Episodes 12-22

Oct 1, 2011
Steve Rogerson

The Bitter Suite stood out in season three of Xena - Photo by Steve Rogerson

A look back at the second half of season three of cult TV classic Xena: Warrior Princess starring Lucy Lawless and Renée O'Connor.

In the second half of the third season of New Zealand television show Xena: Warrior Princess, the writers took chances that had fans on the edge of their seats and ended not with a cliff hanger but a cliff over. Though there were some low points such as “Forget Me Not” and “Vanishing Act”, the overall quality was very high and in “The Bitter Suite” they had what was arguably the most memorable episode ever.

Xena was played by New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless and Gabrielle by Renée O’Connor. Regulars Kevin Smith as Ares, Ted Raimi as Joxer, Karl Urban as Caesar, Hudson Leick as Callisto, Danielle Cormack as Ephiny, Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite, Bruce Campbell as Autolycus and David Taylor as Solan returned in the second half of season three.

The half could not have started any darker. Gabrielle and Xena were apart hating each other with lies still to be revealed.

There were 22 episodes in season three and it was first broadcast from September 1997 until March 1998 and was filmed exclusively in New Zealand.

“The Bitter Suite”

The second half kicks off with “The Bitter Suite”, the most unusual of the show’s episodes and it needed something unusual to bring the two stars back together. Gabrielle had returned to the Amazons to undergo a purification ritual to ease her pain watched over by Ephiny and Joxer, but not helped by the visions of Callisto. Meanwhile, Ares is giving Xena his own poisoned advice and she comes after Gabrielle, trying to kill her before both fall over a cliff and find themselves in a strange, fantasy land where everybody sings. Yes, this is the musical episode of Xena, and of course Joxer gets another chance to sing the annoying song.

They work out that to survive in the strange world they have to work together and put aside their hatred for each other as they face hate in the forms of the likes of Ares and Caesar. But Gabrielle still has to learn that Xena lied to her about killing Ming Tien (played by Daniel Sing), and it is Xena asking for Gabrielle’s forgiveness and her giving it that lets her say goodbye to her son Solan, releasing them both back to the real world, their relationship restored.

Xena Season Three Episodes 13 to 15

Back to normal Xena fare in “One Against an Army”. Xena has to stop the Persian army reaching Athens. All she has to help her are Gabrielle, who is dying after being hit by a poisoned arrow, and Dorian (played by Douglas Kamo), who she thinks is a deserter from the Spartan army but turns out to be a spy for the Persian army.

“Forgiven” sees the two heroes on a mission to recover the stolen urn of Apollo when Gabrielle is attacked by a teenaged girl in bar who goes on tell Xena she is there to “replace blondie”. This is Tara, played by Shiri Appleby, but is she bad trying to be good or bad pretending to be good?

In “King Con”, Joxer gets badly beaten up after a good run at the casino; Xena goes for revenge with the help of con men Rafe (played by Patrick Fabian) and Eldon (played by Cameron Rhodes).

Xena Season Three Episodes 16 to 18

In “When in Rome…”, when Xena hears that Caesar has captured leading Gaul Vercinix (played by Tamati Rice), she captures Crassus (played by Matthew Chamberlain) and offers a trade, however, she has her own agenda. Also featured is Jeremy Callaghan as Pompey. The episode marks a turning point for Gabrielle as she is complaisant in the eventual execution of Crassus.

Gabrielle is haunted by memories of Hope and, in “Forget Me Not”, goes to the temple of Mnemosine to seek help. Aided by Ares, she travels through her memories in what is a thin plot to disguise the season’s boring flashback episode. The one highlight is Joxer’s tribute to The Terminator when he tells the temple guards: “I’ll be back.”

One of the funnier episodes, “Fins, Femmes and Gems” sees Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer trying to stop Aphrodite’s worshippers from stealing a gem that will cause the North Star to go out, but Aphrodite puts an obsession spell on them. Xena becomes obsessed with fish, Gabrielle becomes obsessed with herself and Joxer thinks he’s a monkey.

Xena Season Three Episodes 19 to 22

When Gabrielle tries to free Autolycus from a prison ship, she and Xena end up on board. Given the episode is called “Tsunami”, no prizes for guessing what happens next. In “Vanishing Act”, war threatens to break out when a statue devoted to peace disappears. Xena and Gabrielle team up with Autolycus to get it back.

And so on to the two-part season finale “Sacrifice” in which Hope is brought back to life with help from Callisto and Gabrielle’s old friend Seraphin (played by Jodie Rimmer). Hope is now an adult (played by Renée O’Connor) and is planning a lot of sacrifices to bring Dahak back into the world. Gabrielle knows that if Xena kills Hope then Xena will die, so she does the ultimate sacrifice by killing herself and Hope. Xena kills Callisto for good measure. Joxer survived unscathed. The season four writers are going to have fun getting themselves out of this one.

Lesbian Subtext

Gabrielle lovingly strokes Xena’s hair as she sleeps in “One Against an Army” and when it looks like Gabrielle is to die, they both declare their love for each other. The following episode “Forgiven” features distinct signs of jealousy by Gabrielle when Xena takes an interest in Tara.

At the end of “When in Rome…”, Xena and Gabrielle once again proclaim their love for each other. It was revealed in “Forget Me Not” that the real reason Gabrielle travelled to Mongolia in “The Debt” was because she was jealous of Xena’s feeling for Lao Ma.

In “Sacrifice”, as Xena strokes Gabrielle’s hair, she says she’s the one she loves more than anyone else in the world.

Actor spotlight: Jodie Rimmer

New Zealand actress Jodie Rimmer who played Seraphin in the season finale was to become a regular in the Xenaverse playing Lilith in 26 episodes of Young Hercules and Seska (Cesca) in two episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Her first recurring role though was as Tiffany in 1995’s Riding High and she went onto to play Kathryn Moore in 39 episodes of The Strip from 2002 to 2003. She won a New Zealand Screen Award for best supporting actress for her role as Jackie in the 2004 film In My Father’s Den. Her most recent role was the 2009 film Separation City, which also featured fellow Xena actress Danielle Cormack, who plays Ephiny.

Xena Trivia

Renée O’Connor’s voice wasn’t good enough to handle the singing in “The Bitter Suite” and so Susan Wood was hired to sing the songs and her voice was dubbed over Gabrielle’s. Likewise, Michelle Nicastro sung instead of Hudson Leick for Callisto’s numbers.

“King Con” was Cameron Rhodes’ second appearance in Xena; he’d previously played Deiphobus in the first season episode “Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts”. And Jeremy Callaghan, who played Pompey in “When in Rome…” played Palaemon in the second series episode “Blind Faith”; he did though return twice as Pompey in season four.

“When in Rome…” had roots in actual Roman history. Vercinix was based on the real Gaul leader Vercingetorix, and Caesar, Pompey and Crassus did form a triumvirate to rule the Roman Empire, and Crassus was executed, though not by Caesar.

The young version of Xena seen in “Fins, Femmes and Gems” was played by Renee Schuda.

Xena: Warrior Princess is listed as one of the ten best fantasy television shows of all time.