TV GUIDE PROMO
Xena and Gabrielle agree to hide a 12-year-old boy who has run away from home after learning from his mother he was to be sacrificed in the name of a new "Supreme Deity."
Xena and Gabrielle struggle to save an innocent boy from being sacrificed to a malevolent deity.
AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 04/22/96
An AA average of 5.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) STAR TREK: DS9 with 6.5
(2) XENA with 5.0
(3) HERCULES with 4.9
2nd RELEASE: 08/19/96
An AA average of 4.4.
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) HERCULES with 5.2
(2) XENA with 4.4
(3) STAR TREK: DS9 with 4.2.
SYNOPSIS 1:
This synopsis is by Bluesong.
Xena & Gabrielle swim sans clothing
... Xena is teaching Gabrielle to catch fish. A young boy with
men chasing him runs close; Xena pulls him in the water. He
can't hold his breath. Some guy grabs the kid (Ikus); Xena rises
from the water, scowling and breathing and purring (like a
dragon-kitten, maybe?). She gets the kid; grabs her leather
cover (no breast plate or anything), and beats up 10 guys with a
string of fish. Then Mael, the brother of Ikus, shows up. He
says, "I don't know who ... or what ... you are, but this is none
of your concern." Xena then manages to make the word "maternal"
sound like the strength of the sun ("call it my MATERNAL
instinct"). Ikus tells Xena he's to be sacrificed by his father
to "the one true god."
Xena takes Gabrielle & Ikus to a cave
and then goes to see Anteus, father of Ikus and Mael; she also
finds Ikus's mother at the temple of Hestia; Mael rouses the
other men against Xena. Meanwhile, back at the cave, Gabrielle
eats some nutbread that Ikus has and is poisoned. Xena figures
out the bread is poisoned when she speaks to Ikus's mother, (Mael
had the bread made) and rushes back to the cave, to find a very
drugged Gabrielle lying on the ground. Ikus is gone. Gabrielle
hears voices and is very funny, though Xena's rather concerned.
Xena leaves her and goes back to get Ikus, who has gone
to his mother to get help for Gabrielle. Xena has to jump a
barricade and with some cunning gets Ikus away from the men who
would sacrifice him.
Anteus is praying on the mountain,
and god thunders and speaks to him -- everyone hears this. Xena
takes Anteus and Ikus back to their house, and Gabrielle shows
up. Mael grabs Gabrielle and takes Ikus. Xena and Gabrielle end
up falling or jumping (or something--I think they allow
themselves to be thrown) down a well; Xena saves them both.
Anteus takes Ikus up the hill to sacrifice him; Ikus goes
willingly because he loves his father and his god. However, we
see that Mael has made a "gong" that he strikes to sound like
thunder and has constructed a "loud talking thing" to make his
voice echo over the hill. He is jealous of his father's love of
Ikus.
Xena tells Mael to tell Anteus not to
kill Ikus; Mael throws the loud talking thing up the ridge;
Gabrielle goes after it. Xena crosses a rope bridge to Mael, who
cuts the ropes one by one, while Xena does a balancing act on
each remaining strand until she's close enough to flip over to
the same side as Mael; Mael falls, and clings to the rope. He
won't take Xena's hand and falls into the river below. Xena runs
to save Ikus. She throws her chakram and it misses as a voice
booms out: "Anteus, you have proven your faith, do not kill
Ikus." As Xena and Gabrielle leave, Xena tells Gabrielle she did
a good voice of god imitation. Gabrielle says she never managed
to reach the loud talking thing. So then who ??? Quick shot of
the sky; choir sings.
SYNOPSIS 2:
In a clever reworking of the
Abraham-Isaac story from the Torah (or Abraham-Ishmael story from
the Quran), Xena finds herself mid-fish between several
father-son severe miscommunications. Using her "maternal
instinct", Xena triumphantly uncovers a fake god only to have a
close encounter with a real one.
Anteus (Abraham) is the leader of a
group of monotheists. He hears a voice which commands him to
sacrifice his youngest son, Ikus (Isaac/Ishmael). Ikus' mother is
horrified. She sends the
boy off and the boy finds Xena teaching Gabrielle how to fish
sans clothes. This allows Xena to depart the water and admonish
Ikus' pursuer with the words, "Didn't your mother ever tell you
it's rude to stare?" just before knocking him out with a blow to
the head. The lesson is either, don't mess with the gals when
they are fishing, or don't mess with defenseless children. Xena
tries to promote the latter, but I personally believe the former.
With incredible dexterity, Xena quickly
puts on some clothes
just in time to slap everyone with some fish. The music used was
the vaudeville theme from the baby tossing scene in CRADLE OF
HOPE. Strangely enough, it added to the overall effect.
And this is only the teaser
folks!!!!
It turns out that the older son Mael
(Ishmael? How rude!) is
tiffed because Anteus has chosen the younger Ikus to be his
successor. It is implied but not stated that Mael had a different
mother. In the original biblical story, Ishmael and Isaac had
different mothers; but then, also in the original story, although
Ishmael was angry (actually, his mother was REALLY REALLY angry)
but not psychotic. In the Quran version, Ishmael was the son to
be sacrificed.
Mael, the classic ungrateful son,
drugged his father to make
Anteus susceptible to hearing voices and believing them. Just to
clinch the ruse, Mael also created a loud-talking-thing
(megaphone) which he used to tell his father to sacrifice Ikus.
It is unclear whether the god of Anteus initiated this whole
sacrifice idea and Mael was merely exploiting it to his advantage
or whether Mael set up the whole thing. Mael was capable of
either.
The bottom line is that Mael was a
charismatic egomaniacal
evil kind of guy who loved the adoration and power he could get
from his people. He wanted to rule. It was that simple. He needed
to get Ikus out of the way before he was home free.
Unfortunately for Mael, Xena was in
town and was also
horrified by a god who would want to sacrifice a child.
Xena discovered Mael's plot after
Gabrielle was accidently
drugged by Mael, and Mael committed suicide. Xena rushed to save
Ikus, but her chakram and intentions were intercepted by the one-
true-god! As in the original story, Anteus' god came through and
told Anteus not to sacrifice his son.
Xena and Gabrielle then had a
light-hearted moment and
chatted about drug use before they went off into the distance.
COMMENTARY:
Commentary by Kym Masera Taborn.
In a beginning worthy of Sound of
Music, from the very first
second of the very first scene, the viewer can tell that this is
not going to be a usual XWP episode. If we can blame anyone, it
might as well be the director, Michael Levine. ALTARED STATES
contains some of the most visually arresting panoramas; blatant
double entendres; slow and contemplative camera work; wholesale
raiding of biblical material; and an attitude that just won't
quit.
The cinematography and sensibilities
of ALTARED STATES were
mimicking that of a motion picture. The sweep and scope of the
screen beckoned for a large vista, not a square one. Even LoDuca,
the series composer, changed his style to reflect this need to
present a feel for biblical epics. Both Sam Raimi and Robert
Tapert, executive producers of XWP, have stated that one of their
goals was to produce the show using motion picture techniques
instead of regular television production practices. The opening
shots are truly jarring because nothing like it had yet been seen
in XWP or HTLJ before (and apparently afterwards too!). Much of
the time was spent on large visual ranges. The feel of the
episode was one of outdoors, even though much of the show took
place indoors (the cave, Ikus' mother's home, the well, etc).
This feel permeated the episode.
One could write an essay just on the
cinematography of this
episode. From focal techniques (punctuated stills to the altar)
to use of location (the framing of each critical scene with
montages of the countryside; especially the rainbow shot after
Ikus leaves his mother and we join the gals in progress at the
lake) the feel of the episode had large screen written all over
it. The effect on the flow of the episode (the panning shots and
montages of vast vistas or majestic natural formations gave a
slow, rambling feel to the progression of events) to the effect
of the characters (shooting characters from so far away that they
looked very small and powerless) was quite euphoric. XWP had a
tendency to do this before, but not in such abundance or devil-
may-care fashion.
ALTARED STATES was a peculiar episode
not just for using
radically different editing and filming techniques, but also for
content and music as well.
The Xena of the closing scene was a
Xena never seen before.
Her guard was completely down while she playfully teased
Gabrielle with surprising familiarity. Xena tapped on Gabrielle's
head asking "How's the head?" Gabrielle reacted by slapping Xena
in the mid-drift. Xena then did a mock accu-pressure attack
stance and said "Whoa". It was a very laid-back Xena; even the
Xena of the more loose opening teaser scene was more staid.
The teaser scene was either obviously slyfully concocted or was
an example of a fine piece of dumb luck. It was a throw to the
fans who were concerned about the possibility of a romantic
relationship between Xena and Gabrielle.
The camera focused on Xena's breast
plate hanging on a tree
and then sauntered to more strewn clothing. Laughter was heard in
the background, followed by Xena saying, still in the background,
"Come on Gabrielle, you've been wanting to do this for ages."
Then the camera cut to the gals skinny dipping. But what had
Gabrielle been waiting for? To catch a fish with her BARE HANDS!
More humor abounded in this episode; most notable being
Gabrielle's accidental consumption of henbane which was placed in
the nutbread by Mael for Anteus. Renee O'Connor went to town with
her broad turn at Gabrielle experiencing insobriety.
Another humor angle was used in the
well scene, where Xena
and Gabrielle were thrown down by Mael's henchmen. Luckily, the
strong Xena caught the well rope and Gabrielle too. Gabrielle had
to climb up Xena and used the opportunity to milk as much humor
out of the situation as was possible.
Perhaps these three intense and
unrelated humor scenes were
added to counterbalance the rather intense main story line. The
primary plot dealt with several still-unresolved-by-humankind
issues and attempted to represent differing sides without making
one necessarily better than the other. They did okay for a
"knuckle-headed" show.
Mael represented an opportunist who
was using the religion
of his people for his own ends. Mimicking some rather modern
sentiments, he called Xena an affront to his god, unnatural, and
told his people that she must have been a test sent by their god.
Ironically, he was describing himself. His death by suicide was a
creepy touch. He was so insane by that point the he could not
even accept Xena's help. He believed in his own lies. Very
chilling.
Ikus' mother was an interesting
character as well. Departing
from the original story, she was shown as returning to "the old
gods". She went to the deserted Temple of Hestia to pray for her
son's life. With an undercurrent of female solidarity, Xena
anticipated finding the mother there. There seemed to have been
an implication that the women were not really part of the
patriarchal god who was demanding Ikus' death. This was also the
scene where Xena discovered that Mael was drugging Anteus.
The mis-aimed chakram at Ikus' sacrifice was telling. Xena
intended for the chakram to hit Anteus' knife from his hand. It
missed because Anteus chose to listen to his god. Xena's chakram
never missed before. Actually, Xena really didn't miss; Anteus'
god was merely good enough to make it look like Xena missed. In
the future, the only other one who would alter the course of the
chakram in season one was Callisto, who would appear in episode
22 (CALLISTO).
The use of fish as a weapon hearkens
back to vaudeville
where performers would hit each other over the heads with fake
and sometimes not-too-fake fish for the slapstick effect. This
tradition was carried on enthusiastically by the Marx Brothers,
Monty Python, and countless other comedy groups. This slapstick
action carried over into the IRC. The IRC (Inter Relay Chat)
sessions on the internet adopted the use of the action words of
hitting someone with a trout when one wanted to show playful
antagonism to another chatter. It is conjecture, but it is not
too fantastic, to think that the experiences of the producers of
XWP who are familiar with being "on-line" may have inspired the
idea of Xena hitting someone with a trout to express her
antagonism towards them.
The only glaring failure of the episode
was not much of a
failure. The feel of the episode demanded a biblical epic musical
feel and the music did not deliver it. However, an attempt was
made. The music, especially at the opening and during important
montages, intimated an epic feel, but that was it. It merely
intimated the feel. It did not deliver the punch that should have
equalled the visual depth and scope of the episode.
WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO
FAR
12-16-01. Karl Urban at the Oct. 31- Nov. 1 1999 Chicago convention made the following statements about this episode: The first scene filmed of the episode that Urban was in was the knife to the throat scene. This was the first time he had ever seen Lucy Lawless in Xena character mode (they had done all the prep and read throughs not in costume). When she burst into the room (he was holding Gabrielle at knife point, 'natch) he was so surprised and disjointed that he had difficulties speaking his lines.
01-26-99. In an upcoming WHOOSH interview with Chris Manheim (writer), scheduled for February 1999, Ms. Manheim mentioned that ALTARED STATES was her first attempt at writing for "Xena" the character. RenPic had seen one of her spec scripts and asked her to write a Gabrielle vehicle, which became PRODIGAL. They called her back and said they wanted to see what she could do for Xena, and ALTARED STATES is what she gave them. At the end of the story conference phase, Manheim was offered a staff position at
DR. QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN, so she told the XENA producers that she needed to finish up quick because she got a job! So RenPic offered her a job too. MAnheim took the XWP job and the rest is history!
11-24-98. The USA Channel censors changed Mael's words "May whatever god you believe in have mercy on your soul" to "May our god have mercy on your soul". Strange, but true.
11-11-98. As reported by Beth Gaynor.At the Cherry Hill NJ Creation Con (08/29-30/98), Karl Urban shared an "embarrassing moment" story. Karl described attending a script read-through for one of the Xena episodes. Standard procedure at the read-through is to begin by going around the table to tell everyone your name and your role. After hearing "I'm Lucy, I'm playing Xena," Karl responded in his turn with "I'm Karl, I'm playing Xena... whoops!" Apparently he got an impressive arched-eyebrow evil-eye look from Lucy Lawless (but no real trouble, honest!) for that one.
CHANGING TIMES
Changing Times is by Debbie White.
ALTARED STATES (#19) explores how Xena's morals
have changed since her 'evil days.' We also get to see
Gabrielle learn from her experiences.
"You're too late, it's already begun!"
--Maell in ALTARED STATES
(#19)
The Changing Xena
Xena has never been shy about her body. That
is most evident when she walks out of the lake stark naked.
But there is more to this than meets the eye. Xena is using
her body as a distraction until she can get to her weapons.
She may no longer sleep with men to get her way, but she is
still willing to use any of her foes'
weaknesses against them.
Xena demonstrates that she will jump in and
help people before she knows what the argument is about.
Perhaps someday she will jump in and assist the wrong side
merely because they look innocent or in need of help.
Leaders must think beyond the group
mentality. Xena tries to get Anteus to question what he is
doing and to see the wrong in sacrificing his son. However,
Xena fails, because she does not understand the nature of
Anteus' belief. How can she when she has seen her gods and
even has been called upon to help them? For once Xena is
unable to manipulate someone because she cannot understand
what motivates them.
One thing that is similar to her morals of the
past is her refusal to let children be killed. What
has changed, though, is Xena merely hides and protects Icus
while trying again and again to persuade Anteus to change
his mind. Before turning to the good, Xena would have given
them a chance to change their mind, but then would have
simply killed then had they not resolved it her way.
Another curious thing is that Xena took Icus
to Anteus when he was lying hurt on the hill.
She basically risked Icus to try and help the man she was
trying to stop. Still, she realized that Anteus was good at
heart and that Maell was the one that was the manipulator.
In the end, however, Xena was willing to cut Anteus' hand
off rather than let Icus die. Xena even offered Maell a
chance at life rather than killing him or even simply
letting him fall and die.
Xena greatly cared for the people she was trying
to help in this episode. She even got Icus to talk
with her when he was upset. Xena usually leaves those tasks
to Gabrielle.
Another interesting thing to note is that
Xena had several caves she used for her wounded men and was
willing to come back and use them. First, she rejects so
much from her evil days it is interesting that she has no
qualms about using the cave. Maybe that is because of the
second point: the cave was used for the welfare of her army
rather than for destruction.
In THE ROYAL COUPLE OF THIEVES
(#17), Xena was retrieving the Ark of the Covenant for her
Hebrew friends, who had previously saved her life and healed
her. Yet she had not heard of the 'one God', which you would
have expected her friends to have mentioned in passing, if
nothing else.
Xena has changed in how she treats
Gabrielle. At the beginning of the episode, she is teaching
Gabrielle to fish by hand -- and even leaves an easy catch
for Gabrielle under a rock to get her confidence up. Xena
leaves Gabrielle behind to guard Icus while she looks in on
Anteus. Xena also is very patient with the drugged
Gabrielle, though the fact that Xena immediately thought of
Gabrielle when Icus' mother mentioned nutbread and 'how
children are about nutbread' seems to indicate Xena still
thought of her as a child. At the end, though, Xena has
actually loosened up around Gabrielle enough to tease her
about her headache.
The Changing Gabrielle
Gabrielle is getting much better at picking
up Xena's hand signals. They both disappear under the water
at the sound of men chasing someone. Also, Gabrielle is now
falling into the role of back-up defense. Whenever they have
some one to protect, Xena fights while Gabrielle keeps an
eye on the person they are protecting.
Gabrielle is also no longer complaining at
being left behind to protect people. In fact, now she is
starting to understand how valuable she can be at times. She
tries to tell Icus a story to calm his mind about his
father's strange behavior. It does not work, but at least
she is trying to help rather than sulking.
We now also know she loves nutbread so much
she will hog it all. Though after being drugged, I wonder
how much she likes nutbread now. Gabrielle did learn one
important lesson, though. One headache and a bizarre day has
taught her to avoid drugs.
Note: I have just got to say this. Renee
O'Connor, I could watch your parts in ALTARED
STATES (#19) a million times in a row and never
become bored with it. The part of drugged side-kick was
played to perfection.
HIGHLIGHTS:
(1) Xena using fish as a martial aid
(2) Gabrielle rehearsing the All-Rock Choir
(3) Gabrielle scaling Xena
(4) The chilling death of Mael
THINGS TO LOOK OUT
FOR
The statute of Hestia (the goddess of
hearth and home) which first appeared in A FISTFUL OF DINARS
(#14), also appears in ALTARED STATES (#19), A DAY IN THE LIFE
(#39), and BLIND FAITH (#42).
HENBANE WORKSHOP:
HENBANE contains "hyoscine" which is a
muscurinic receptor antagaonist. In unmedical terms, it is
something which prevents the "resting calm" receptors in your
body from being activated. It causes:
1) wide eyes and blurred vision
2) memory Loss
3) fast heart beat
4) dry mouth
5) hot, flushed skin
6) agitation
7) delirium
8) constipation
9) retention
SHOOTING SCRIPT
DIFFERENCES
Prepared by
SheWho.
Shooting Script: February 26, 1996
(yellow)
The Gabrielle/Xena water games, as
scripted:
Gabrielle (O.S.): "Sorry. How was
that?"
Xena (O.S.): "Very good."
Gabrielle (O.S.): "Really? It felt a
little awkward."
Xena (O.S.): "No, you're getting the
hang of it."
Note: This is a rewritten version. (Man, I'd love to see
the original.)
Gabrielle disappears under water, then
she pops up, "a large catfish appended to her hand. She just
shoved her fist into the fish's mouth." [No comment.] Xena's
rather...interesting...facial expressions while Gabrielle is
under water are not mentioned in the script.
The initial fight scene has been
completely rewritten, according to the marks.
When Maell whips the worshipers into a
frenzy, shouts of "Kill the harlot!" "She's a freak!" and "Pagan
bitch!" are scripted.
Just a fun description: After Xena
awakens Gabrielle from her henbane-induced state, Gabrielle
"stops, staring up at Xena, transfixed." With a "dazed smile,"
she tells Xena that she's beautiful.
Gabrielle's lectures to her 'choir'
("You -- you're a tenor; get away from the sopranos!" "You're
standing like a stone, relax!") are not in this version of the
script.
In the script, when still-drugged
Gabrielle shows up at Anteus and Zora's house, Xena pulls her
inside, closing the door, "pinning her to it." [Oooh, yeah; wish
they'd kept that.]
The scene where Xena and Gabrielle are
propelled into the well has been completely rewritten. A cute
line: "They dangle there for a moment. Here's another fine mess
they've gotten themselves into." Gabrielle line "It's a long way
down. Don't let go," and Xena's reply, "Just don't let go of my
hand," are not in this version of the shooting script.
The wonderful body-climbing scene
(which should be listened to carefully at least once with one's
eyes closed) begins in the script with Xena's instruction.
"Okay, Gabrielle. Climb up over me." (Definitely spiced up a bit
for the televised version.) "Gabrielle grabs Xena's belt and
starts to crawl, slide, and slither up every inch of Xena's
shapely body until she reaches her neck, around which Gabrielle
wraps her arms as she locks her legs around Xena's waist.
[Didn't I just read that in some fan fic?]
Gabrielle (panting; anxious): I didn't
hurt you, did I?
Xena: You kidding? I've taken worse
punishment from a lumpy mattress.
[Again, a little more fun in the televised version: "No,
no, lovin' every moment of it."] Gab's line that if they fall,
Xena can tell her the story on the way down isn't in this version
of the script. Much of this scene also shows rewrites.
Describing the rope climb, the script
reads: "Xena keeps coming, one hand at a time." [No comment.]
The exchange between Icus and Anteus
about heaven, Gabrielle's line about her stomach not feeling so
good, and Xena's reply not to even think about it, are not in
this version of the script.
When Xena and Gabrielle, "who remains
clenched around her," emerge from the well, Gabrielle says,
"Thanks for the lift. Where to now?" In the screen version, she
does that really cute scramble over Xena's head and says "What's
next?"
The script uses the word "megaphone,"
but it's called the loud talking thing in the screen version.
At the end, as Xena and Gabrielle wave
at the others, Xena hoists a sack slung over Argo and shouts,
"Thanks again for the supplies." In the televised verson, it's
"Take care."
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of ALTARED STATES .
DISCLAIMER:
No Unabating or Severely Punishing
Deities were harmed during the production of this motion picture.
WHOOSH! ARTICLES:
The following WHOOSH! articles discuss this episode:
Carper, Virginia, Food and
Drink: What Xena and Gabrielle Eat on the Road, Issue 10
(July 1997), paragraphs 4, 14
Carter, Carmen, Visual Metaphor
in XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS , Issue 3 (November 1996),
paragraph(s) 3-5
Eaton, Kristi, XENA: WARRIOR
PRINCESS: Something for Everyone , Issue 9 (June 1997),
paragraph 2
Knighton, Linda, XENA: WARRIOR
PRINCESS: A Native American Perspective , Issue 3 (November
1996), paragraph 17
Letters to the Editor,
Letters to the Editor , Issue 10 (July 1997)
Rudnick, Bret, An Interview
with Michael Levine, Issue 11 (August 1997), paragraphs 24,
57, 58, 60, 99-103, 138
Rudnick, Bret, An Interview
with Robert Field, Part 1 of 2, Issue 10 (July 1997),
paragraph 26
Rudnick, Bret, An Interview
with Robert Field, Part 2 of 2, Issue 11 (August 1997),
paragraphs 159-161
Rudnick, Bret, Xena: A
Demigod? , Issue 7 (April 1997), paragraph 24
Silver, Diane, The Shock of
Recognition: A Lesbian Appreciation of XENA: WARRIOR
PRINCESS, Issue 11 (August 1997), paragraph 7
Swenson, Gregory R., Alexander
the Great: Blueprint for Xena , Issue 4 (December 1996),
paragraph 25
LINKS:
The following links discuss this episode:
Graphics and Sounds of the Episode
Graphics from A Day in the Life of a Xena Addict
Website
Sounds from Tom's Xena Page
Miscellaneous
Complete credits from
Logomancy Xena Website
Altared States Site from Vesta's Xena
Website.
