PROMO TRANSCRIPTION
SHE'S A WILD CHILD
[A blond horde teenaged girl]
Gabrielle: Xena look!
KIDNAPPED BY SAVAGES, LIVING WITH THEM AS THEIR OWN
Xena: I've come to get you out of her.
[The girl screams.]
AND HER PARENTS WANT HER BACK
Man: Welcome back to civilization.
[The girl kicks the man.]
BUT BRINGING THIS GIRL HOME
[The girl hits man #2]
Man #2: She's an animal!
Gabrielle: She's still your daughter!
PROVOKES A WAR BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Man #3: They'll kill us all!
AN ALL NEW XENA, COMING NEXT WEEK!
A WILD CHILD--
(A blonde Horde teenage girl.)
Gabrielle: Xena, look!
(Two members of the Horde fight a man.)
Man (to girl): Welcome back to civilization!
(The girl kicks the man.)
Man 2: She's an animal!
PROVOKES A WAR BETWEEN TWO WORLDS.
(The girl springs up from an underground trap.)
(Xena headlocks the girl between her legs and brings her down.)
AN ALL NEW XENA!
TV GUIDE PROMO
One girl stands between war and peace. Xena and Gabrielle try to reunite a family but in doing so may cause a war.
Xena and Gabrielle become allies with members of the Horde to bring peace between two feuding cultures.
Xena must come to grips with a past defeat when she ventures into the
lair of the Horde to retrieve the daughter of one of her fighters from
the old days.
Xena recognizes the adopted daughter of a Horde invader as the child of
one of her warriors.
When Xena saves the life of Pilee from a Horde hunter, she
recognizes that the girl is the daughter of one of the men from her past,
Rahl. But when she steals Pilee away from the Horde Chief
Cirvik, she unwittingly ignites a full-scale war between
Rahl’s people and the Horde. Only Pilee can bring peace, if she can escape
the blade of Horde hunter Milo! [from Mania.com]
AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 01/18/99
An AA average of 4.4
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES 10th with 6.2
(2) XENA 17th with 4.4
(3) ER 18th with 4.3
(4) HERCULES 19th with 4.3
SYNOPSIS 1:
This synopsis is by Bluesong.
Xena remembers being evil and fighting the Horde. She and Gabrielle hide from the Horde. "Milo" appears and attacks the Horde hunting party. Xena stops him from killing three young Horde members, including a blond girl. Gabrielle finds a Roman item. Xena says the Horde got the item from her.
Xena goes to see Raul, a former soldier of hers, who lives nearby in a guarded town with his wife. She learns their daughter, Vanessa, was taken by the Horde six years ago. Gabrielle tells them that she and Xena will save the
girl, because she should grow up with a mother and father. Milo wants to join
them, but Xena chases him off; he's a mecenary after scalps. They track the
Horde, and Gabrielle steps on a twig. Xena gets them both up a tree, and they
watch while the Horde disappears into an underground tunnel, because they live
there. Xena dresses as a Horde woman and goes into the cave. She approaches
Vanessa at the spring, but the girl screams. Xena does her "touch" on the
girl's voicebox, so she can't make noise, and then they flee.
The Horde chases them down the tunnel. Xena creates a cave-in and then makes
her own exit. She takes the girl to Gabrielle and tells her to get her across
the river while she creates a false trail for the Horde to follow. Xena sees
that the Horde man who was harboring Vanessa loves her. Vanessa talks to
Gabrielle, and tells her that the Horde are called, and they worship
the sky and land and honor all living things, except civilized people, who
destroy everything. Her name, she insists, is "Pul-lee" and she says she is
loved. Xena doesn't want to take her back, but Gabrielle insists. Milo
appears as they make their way back to town. Upon seeing her father, Vanessa
scratches him and tries to escape. She says her adopted father will come and
kill them all.
Xena meets with the town members and asks to take command of the army and the
town. She declares "all out" war on the Horde. Vanessa puts on a dress,
remembers a doll, and calls Raul "father". Xena tells Gabrielle she wants to
forge a peace, using the bilingual Vanessa. Gabrielle is confused by her own
motives, since it appears saving Vanessa was a mistake.
Night falls, and Vanessa steals away. She takes her doll with her. Milo
finds her and prepares to kill her. Xena saves her, and they talk about peace
and family. The Pomira come for Vanessa (Pul-lee). Milo springs on the
Pomira from behind, and Xena jumps in. They have a big long fight. Xena
kills Milo. Vanessa decides to stay with the Pomira, but says she will come
back to visit. The Pomira chief, Vanessa's adopted father, says they will not
attack because they are all family. Xena and Gabrielle leave after Xena tells
Gabrielle she did a good thing, and saving Vanessa wasn't wrong.
SYNOPSIS 2:
This synopsis is by Missy Good.
We open with a battle… it's the Horde back, and they're fighting the usual
collection of half armored dirt and fuzzballs… except Xena's there. She's
fighting alongside them, and slicing/dicing as per usual, and I figured it
was a current day thing, until she knifes some guy for thinking about
retreating.
Reason I thought it was a current one is because Xena's in her completely
current armor. You know, the brown leather, no dangling metal bits, just
normal. In her usual flashbacks, she's dressed in something from her 'let's
be barbaric' closet, you know, with the extra chain mail, or the coin hat,
or fur…
But it turns out she was remembering the last time she battled the Horde.
She and Gab are in the spot where half her army got munched by the Horde.
Gabrielle comforts her, and tells her she's not the same person anymore..
and that she knows a lot more about herself than she did then. Xena says she
knows the Horde has a code of honor, and one word, but that doesn't mean
she understands them. She decides to make a detour around the territory, but
as usual circumstance interrupts and they see a couple of Hordettes, and
then a guy attacks them. Xena stops him from killing them, and they get
away, but one of the Hordettes seems familiar, and Xena recognizes a pouch
they dropped.
The guy, Milo, is a bounty hunter… he gets paid per scalp, and he's heard of
Xena. He takes pleasure in taunting her, it seems, and reminding her of how
she got beaten by the Horde
Then I realize this is actually a homage to Last of the Mohicans, sort of,
after they get to a nearby village, and find one of Xena's old soldiers, and
they realize the familiar Hordette is their kidnapped daughter.
So, of course, Xena has to go get her back - prompted by Gabrielle, who
tells the parents they'll go find her and bring her back to the village
because 'children need their mothers and fathers, don’t' they Xena?' (ouch.)
Gabrielle makes this decision, by the way… without hesitation, and commits
them both to the hunt, but Xena doesn't seem to mind too much.
Xena and Gab track some horde (with Xena stepping on a branch so we can see
how alert the Horde are, and how clever Xena is by hiding in a tree) to an
underground hideout. Xena's not too thrilled about this, but she sneaks in,
dressed and painted as a Hordette, and tries to get little blond Hordette
out. Except that the kid doesn't really want to leave, so she screams to
alert everyone.
Xena puts a pinch on her to keep her from talking (one wonders where she
developed that particular one? (gg)) and escapes by chopping through a rock
wall and causing a cave in with the chakram. (darn thing's better than a
swiss army knife, I have to admit.)
Gabrielle chats with the Hordette, and we find out a little about the Horde,
and their beliefs.. and then Xena discovers that the girl wasn't a slave of
theirs, she was an adopted daughter of the chief. Xena tells Gabrielle this
means the Horde won't give her up without a fight, and if she doesn't want
to go, maybe they've made a big mistake.
Gabrielle tells her it can't be wrong to reunite a child with her parents.
(and btw, it's the return of touchy feely Gabrielle) and they bring her back
to the village. (after an encounter with Milo the bounty hunter that
involves some nice whip work by Xena, and a good swift kick by the kid.)
The kid's not pleased to be home, and you can see by Xena's face that maybe
she's thinking they should have left her to her new family.
Xena's decided to take command of the little villagers,
and fight the Horde. (I think Xena's losing it a little.) She says it will
have to be total war, and total annihilation, and they go off to build stake
pits or whatever.
Meantime, Gabrielle is trying to get Plee's parents to deal with her, and
she's making progress, until the father decides he can't forgive the Horde
for stealing her when she was six. Gabrielle's love and understanding gland
is being worked overtime, let me tell you.
Gabrielle's having a bad day. She goes to find Xena on the battlements, and
finds that the fighting is a ruse.. Xena's just trying to get the Horde in
so she can negotiate with them, using Plee as a bargaining chip, and to
communicate with both sides. Gab does some hand wringing here… saying the
whole thing's her fault. Xena agrees, but says it gives them a chance to
forge a peace between the two peoples. Gabrielle says she's wondering if
they shouldn't have left things alone, but Xena tells her she was right to
want to give Plee a choice.. but that now they had to stand by the choice
Plee makes.
While it's a nice moment between the two (in fact, there are several) after
the Gab of last week, the SchizoGab meter is wobbling around all over the
place.. while Gabrielle is more aggressive in making decisions (like that
they're going to help get Plee) she's also portrayed a little cluelessly.
Plee decides to circumvent everything and escape - at first she stands over
her parents with a sword, but then she just leaves, trading the sword for an
old doll of hers. However, Milo the bounty hunter catches her as she's
escaping, and we go to a commercial. (G)
Xena stops him, and tells Plee she can stop the war . She seems doubtful.
Next day, sure enough, the Horde show up. Xena orders the gates of the
village opened, and Plee and her parents come out to meet the Horde
chieftain.
But Milo's determined to stop things, and he pops out of a gopher hole…
ready to slice and dice. Xena, of course, jumps down from the walls and
faces off with him, and they fight. Xena gets kicked around a little, then
gets pissed off and ends up stabbing him with a knife. (anyone else think
it's odd the Xena can fight Ares , god of War to a standstill and turn back
the Persian army single-handed, but has trouble with a little blond crusader
and some scruffy bounty hunter?) Anyway, Xena does win, then Plee (Also
called Vanessa) decides to go home with the Horde, who are called by
themselves the Pomira, but promises to return to see her birth parents soon.
The Pomira say the village is now family to them, and they wander off.
(just imagine these family dinners from now on… yikes)
End bit has X and G leaving the village… Gabrielle is still beating herself
over the head for getting involved, but Xena says due to her, there's peace
between the peoples, Vanessa (Plee) has two loving families, and her parents
know she's alive. Gabrielle feels better about it, but says "I did all that?
And they call you the hero."
Xena laughs, and asks her if she wants to switch roles.. then says 'fine.. you'll kick b*tt and I'll take notes.' (laughing)
I liked this. It was fun to watch, had some nice moments between X and G,
and had a nicely sappy ending. Nothing earth shattering happened, there was
no hair cut, there were no snowy mountains sighted, Xena got to be clever,
Gab got to be compassionate… the one guy who deserved to die did… (though,
Xena's stricken reaction to that seemed rather odd to me…) I thought it was
sort of strange that Gabrielle didn't challenge Xena when it looked like she
was implementing a 'kill them all' scorched earth policy… she just seems
sort of resigned to it until Xena tells her it's all a ruse. But maybe it's
because she was feeling very uncertain about her decision making abilities
at the moment…Xena had to keep telling her that despite appearances, she
really did do the right thing.
COMMENTARY 1:
Commentary Beth Gaynor.
Something bothered me throughout this episode, and I think I
finally put my finger on it: Xena, the queen of action,
spends most of the episode reacting. She reacts to
Gabrielle, to Pilee, to the parents, usually obviously
despite her better judgement. She spends very little of the
episode acting on her own thoughts or instincts. That's a
step way off the usual for Xena. Is she maybe feeling some
Hope guilt, trying to accommodate Gabrielle's wish to help
this kid?
Why was Xena wearing her current armor in the flashback
battle? I _liked_ the flashback battle, don't get me wrong,
but why didn't she have the old warlord duds on?
Xena sure makes herself at home, doesn't she? She marches
right in to Rahl and Adiah's house. But they don't really
seem that surprised to see her, either, so maybe this is old
hat between them.
"Xena, I want to go with the Horde. They're better actors."
The kid probably left because she could out-act her parents
put together.
This episode is a real visit with the classic Gabrielle.
She's Xena's constant reminder of her change. She doesn't
hesitate to throw herself into a cause, leading with her
heart and her idealism without a moment's self-doubt. She
acts as the emotional barometer of the episode, translating
what Pilee is feeling for everyone, usually better than
Pilee does herself. In the end, Gabrielle gets down on
herself for starting the whole escapade, but she would have
had to have been psychic to know what Pilee's situation was
with the Horde.
That whip DOES come in handy this episode. It's used for
tree-climbing, Milo-snagging, and axe-grabbing. Busy episode
for the whip.
Great emotion behind the line "Underground, terrific," as
well as the unconvincing "No, piece of cake." It's not until
the tunnel chase scene (high-speed crawling!) that we get an
idea why, as Xena growls "I hate small spaces." But she also
confesses to hating getting kicked across a battlefield, so
maybe Xena's just feeling surly this episode more than
actually suffering from a Viet Cong tunnel repulsion.
How'd Milo get back to town? Last we knew, Xena and
Gabrielle left him in the woods with a kicked face, then
suddenly he was inside the closed city gates.
I'm glad they made the Horde leader smart enough to know
exactly what was happening. Instead of making a frenzied
charge on the town, he stood outside as if saying "OK, you
know why I'm here and I know why I'm here. Give me your
daughter or I burn the place to flinders. Nothing personal."
Listen to everybody, especially Milo, be very careful not to
drop the "d" in "Horde." Watch that diction!
What did Xena see as she walked among the Horde? I would
have been interested to get a glimpse at how the families
interacted, and if Xena got to see a more human side of the
Horde.
Impressive war paint and mini-dredlocks, there, Xena!
The villagers swing their mugs in the tavern as if they're
about to break into a few rounds of "100 Bottles of Beer on
the Wall."
Were we ever supposed to think like Milo - that Xena was
planning to kill the Horde? It may have built up more
tension in the episode if we did, but I never thought that
for a second, even when Xena played to Milo and the
townspeople. Gabrielle didn't seem fooled, either.
Milo was armed to the teeth for that final battle! I counted
two axes, a dagger, and a sword.
The look of surprise and sorrow on Xena's face made the
final dagger plunge dramatic, but why was it there? She
wouldn't be surprised or sorry for the blade to hit Milo.
HIGHLIGHTS: I love the final lines of this episode!
"I did all that? And they call you the hero? Huh."
"You wanna switch? Fine. You kick b*tt, I'll take notes."
COMMENTARY 3:
Commentary Xorys.
I'm afraid I may have rather a lot to say about Daughter Of Pomira. I really liked it. It ranks as a classic Xena episode... it made me laugh, it made me cry, and I must have spent at least 5 hours watching it since I first taped it two days ago. This doesn't mean I don't have anything negative to say about it (heck, I could find quite a few negative things to say about pretty much any one of Shakespeare's plays... and the Mona Lisa has a few points that could probably have been improved upon,
when you come right down to it [g])
The negative things I felt
about Daughter Of Pomira could pretty much be summed up as follows:
(1) At times the script seems a bit forced, a bit to anxious to get where
it's going, and to make entirely sure we get the point and come along for
the ride (details noted below) - sometimes the acting (which on the whole
was outstanding in this ep) manages to overcome this, sometimes perhaps not
quite.
(2) Oddly enough I had problems with the big fight between Xena and Milo - either the editor was a bit sloppy, or he didn't really have the footage he needed to work with.
(3) Perhaps most significantly, in the sense that it represents the broadest issues, and is something of a recurrent complaint, the character of Gab was again, I felt, somewhat sacrificed to the exigencies of the immediate plot (again, details below). I'm not a fanatical devotee of the bard, and I don't have as many problems with the handling of her character as some, but I did feel there was definitely ammunition in this ep for the case that she isn't always treated with proper respect and consistency.
On the other hand, I'm not even going to try and summarise here all the
things I liked about this ep... I loved the sum of the parts, and many of
the individual parts themselves, in so many different ways. Even if it
still had me picking nits (but then, that's part of the fun, isn't it?),
and carping at the odd thing here and there, this ep really reminded me of
why I first fell in love with this show: characters that I can connect
with, real human and moral issues, humour, pathos, adrenalin... and all
packaged together so that when it works, it really works, and seemingly
contradictory elements flow together without negating each other to form a
vibrant whole!
But enough generalities. Let's take a wander through the ep...
Heck of a fight there at the start. But since this was a flashback, taking
place before Xena met Herc, how come she was wearing her current costume?
It seems odd, after all the different costumes they've done for her in the
various flashback appearances, that they'd go with her regular outfit here
- although I suppose you could argue that she had it in her wardrobe (war
chest? whatever...) for quite some time, and just selected it as the one to
go with when she set off on her journey of redemption... she certainly
seemed to have plenty of outfits in the original Herc eps, including that
*ridiculous* gold thing with the canvas shoulder pads, which made her look
like some sort of reject from super-hero school!
Interesting how even in the middle of the fiercest melee people seem to be able to find time to stop and argue! "They'll kill us all!" "Not you, they won't" I thought that was a bit harsh, really - definitely the "evil Xena"... especially given that she changed her mind herself about 30 seconds later: "Your wrong!" ... "but then again, perhaps you have a point..." This is not a management style you want to encounter first hand...
Was it just me, or did anyone else find it a bit strange to hear the Horde's attack accompanied by what appeared to be the skirl of Scottish bagpipes? I mean, the Bulgarian pipes (gaida, I believe) I've come to associate more with Xena than with anything else... but here I started to get the feeling that the show was being possessed by the wandering spirit of Braveheart!
"Xena, you're not the same person that you were then - you know more about yourself now, you know about the Horde..." Err, perhaps it's just me again, but this *really* didn't seem like much of an argument for going wandering through Horde territory...
"Have you ever seen a blonde Horde girl?" I beg your pardon.. what? Excuse me? For all I could tell *all* of the Horde could have been blonde - with all that paint, the headdresses etc, who knows? To say nothing of the fact that I don't believe we saw *any* Horde women before, of any colouring or complexion...
Were my ears totally playing tricks on me? When Xena and Gab first encountered the four Horde folks by the river, I thought we distinctly heard one of the Horde say "Who are these two now?" - presumably with reference to Xena and Gab. If this is so, then I assume this was a booboo
by the post-dubbing people, since a major point of the ep is that the Horde
speak a language which is incomprehensible to us and to all the non-Horde
characters. Maybe it was supposed to be just "Horde language" and I'm
hearing it wrong...
"She looks familiar..." Come on! This is a fifteen year old, completely covered in multi-coloured paint, with a strange costume, and hair done up like a fright wig, and Xena last saw this girl when she was eight or nine - and she looks familiar??
I liked the effect with the two axes flying across from behind - they reminded me of birds or insects swooping across the surface of water... and the juxtaposition of this image of natural beauty with the deadly steel it immediately became apparent they were, was oddly effective.
"Stop, they'll kill you!" Err... he just axed one of them in the back, and appears heavily armed - doesn't this seem like a rather strange response? She soon changed her mind though - using her chakram to stop him killing with another axe throw... and then: "It's a lovely day for scalping!"
And what's with all this scalping stuff? Is this a deliberate attempt to create an association between the Horde and North American natives - some of whom, sometimes, were known for collecting scalps, and who are certainly often associated in movies with the practice... and in that respect at least, Milo's proposed scalping of the Horde is accurate enough - scalping became common practice on both sides during the "Indian Wars" on the American plains.
"They're just kids, out hunting for food!" Err... how does she know they were looking for food? And they didn't particularly look like kids to me. I mean, a moment ago she was warning him that they'd kill him! There do seem to be some slight sense and consistency problems in this script. Possibly the need for tight editing made it difficult to preserve transitions...
Nice to see the Horde still using the same type of boats as before (and boats that look believable for their circumstances, at that!) Indeed the general "look" of the Horde was very well preserved, and consistently expanded on, in this ep.
"Xena. *The* Xena, Destroyer of Nations?" "Ancient history, pal!" "The name's Milo. And I'm a history buff too... enough to know that it tends to repeat itself - you ever notice?" I like this dialogue. And I have *got* to get a sound clip of Xena saying "Ancient history, pal!"
"Look at this, it's a Roman design." A Roman designed what? A belt? A very small hat? A monobra?
"They never got this in battle - they got it from me!" So taking this statement to its logical conclusion, Xena has already figured out that Pilee is Vanessa - quick work! (But then she did "look familiar"...)
"You said it yourself years ago - the only good Horde is a dead Horde. Words to live by!" "Words to die by!" So I guess they definitely are going for the Horde / North American aboriginal association... or at least the association with the long tradition of the demonization of "Indians" in North American culture. Well it makes sense - it's an example of precisely the ill that the script is dealing with that would be most familiar to the majority of the viewing audience.
Strange editing when they arrive at Rahl and Adiah's - shot of big fort, with towers and spikes, shot of Xena and Gab and Argo on the road, "This is the place", shot of Xena's fist pounding on a door, Rahl answers... on first viewing, this gave me the impression that Rahl lived in some sort of enormous castle - whereas actually I believe those are supposed to be the town walls, and Rahl and Adiah just have a small house within the town. Again a case of overly tight editing producing confusing end results...
"It was Vanessa's - the one you gave her before you left!" Are they *deliberately* teasing us about that this thing is??
And note that this gives us a pretty good time fix on Xena's first encounter with the Horde - Vanessa was taken 6 years ago, she's about 15 now, so she would have been about 9 then... it hardly seems likely that Xena would have given the leather thing to a child very much younger than 9 - making Xena's last stay in these parts around 7 years ago, or about 3-4 years before Sins Of The Past if we assume show time proceeds roughly as real time since the series started. So the first battle with the Horde was quite late in Xena's career as a warlord - before she met Hercules, but well after all the other flashback events we've seen (unless I'm missing
something). The burning of Cirra is one of the trickier things to place - but just to get Callisto's age, you'd have to push it further back (close to 10 years before the ep Callisto, I'd think...)
So she already had her current costume 3-4 years before she met Herc...?
"There was a blonde, blue-eyed girl with the Horde. I knew there was something familiar about her, but... with the sling..." Oh, so it's a *sling*! Meaning what? Like a sling-shot, a weapon? Or to support your arm? Or to carry something?
Rahl: "She's my daughter! Do you expect me to just leave her with them?" Gab: "No, no, of course not! We can bring her home." !! I nearly choked the first time I watched when Gab said that. She's certainly enthusiastic about volunteering solutions in this ep! - And Gab continues this dialogue, with Xena, silent, not looking too sure about the whole thing... Adiah: "Will you bring her back to us, please?" (Addressed very directly to Xena) Gab: "Yes! Of course! Look, don't worry. I know that a child needs her mother. And her father. Right Xena?" That flick down of Gab's eyes between "Right" and "Xena" is a killer when you really notice it - it makes me shiver! It's as if Gab's carried away by her enthusiasm for reuniting families... and
then suddenly, all the trauma and pain that they've been through, that could so readily be associated with her words, hits her (I could just *see* the memory of Xena's rejecting her at Solan's Funeral pyre - "Don't you even speak his name!"), and she checks with Xena, almost fearfully... and Xena just says "Right" - like "I know you mean well Gabrielle... I know you don't mean to hurt me, and I know you really want to help these people... and I'll play along... but really, I ain't too sure about this, you know..." (This has been another of my "draw an entire soliloquy out of a single word or glance of Xena's" exercises... sorry if I'm overdoing it!)
BTW, at this point I thought the script had entirely telegraphed where it was going - that Gab's simple "reunite the family" plan was just that: simple - too simple... and that we were heading for some serious re-examination of what "family" means, and of the nature of the Horde. Not that I have any problem with that. Indeed perhaps precisely the reason I
was always ahead of this script in where it was going is that my own
feelings and convictions are so much in sympathy with those the writer was
heading for in this tale. - I believe strongly that family is much more
about love & caring & support than it is about blood (or DNA), more a
question of getting through good times and bad together, and realising our
value to each other, for all our faults, than it is a question of who you
share genes with... And as for the humanity of the Horde - was that ever
really in doubt? No it wasn't (praise the gods!), I'd say - XWP has always
been grounded in sound humanist values, and has only strayed from them once
notably (the big mistake - The Deliverer / Gabrielle's Hope / Maternal
Instincts). Although certainly Daughter Of Pomira, with respect to the
Horde, took things a big and very worthwhile step beyond where they got to
in The Price. (And a step that the end of The Price left very obviously
waiting to be made - so in a sense this was a sequel waiting to happen, a
shoe we've waited two years for dropping...)
"Can you believe him?" "Gabrielle, I *was* him - if it wasn't for you and *one* word, I'd be there now!" Actually I find this kind of hard to believe - it seems to me that even if the events of The Price had never happened, Xena would have reacted differently now to the way she did then... she's developed to the point where the blindness she had about the Horde in The Price would no longer be credible - although, of course, it *is* true that Gabrielle has been a big part of that development.
"You trust your heart, and I respect that, but... taking Vanessa could stir up a whole lot of trouble." Didn't you just *know* Xena was itching to say this? And didn't you just know she was basically right... to the point where Gab's naive and rather one-sided enthusiasm for the project seemed a bit forced...
Gab *still* hasn't learned to creep through woods without stepping on large and obviously placed twigs?! Shouldn't she be given credit for acquiring *some* basic skills in three and half years? Of course, stout boots are hardly ideal footwear for silent forest tracking...
And the Horde haven't figured out that sometimes people can be found in trees, rather than on the ground? - Seems a bit feeble for a forest-dwelling tribe!
X: "Underground! *Terrific!*" G: "Problem?" X: "No, piece of cake." I have to admit I laughed at this. It seems almost as if Gab has rather reverted to her old, naive self, at times in this ep...
And if we ever had any doubts about the Horde's humanity (which, hopefully, we didn't...) surely they'd be utterly dispelled by this cozy scene of Horde family life? Although some of the men do seem to be a bit surly, scowling and muttering "Kaltaka" at the women all the time...
Kinda lucky, eh, that the one word Xena knows is the only thing anyone says to he on her visit?! When she finally said "kaltaka" herself I must admit I dissolved in giggles!
And lordy, that girl could scream, eh? I could see a future for her in horror movies - although judging from her acting in the rest of the ep, she should be able to do better than that.
Xena was pretty slow with the pinch too - she normally reacts faster than that, even to the unexpected. Have we seen the "pinch of silence" before, BTW?
And the pinch of silence "wears off"? - I thought pinches generally had to be released by a counter pinch.
What is this thing they have about tunnels and pipes? At least there were no rats in this one!
Xena's chakram throw to collapse the tunnel gets my vote for the most magical (if not ludicrous) chakram throw yet - the chakram just does a 90 degree turn in mid-air, without even hitting anything, to collapse the ceiling, and then returns to Xena's hand by a process they don't really show us, but which clearly owed nothing to the laws of physics. Imagine
what this woman could do as a spin bowler!
When we saw Xena hacking through the roof of the tunnel, and then we cut to Gab's expectant face, I had this horrible feeling they were going to pop out of the ground right in front of her - I was relieved to find that instead Gab was still sensibly watching the way Xena went in.
I liked Xena's way of laying a false trail - walking backwards, and then suddenly flying up into a tree... an impressive leap, even by Xena's somewhat elevated standards!
I must say, I thought the "Cirvik wailing / Xena looking impressed" bit was a little over done - I think we could have been trusted to get the point that he really cared for Pilee, and that Xena realised this, without*quite* so much demonstrative pantomime. Although I do realise that they took a risk in the first place by telling a story that hinged so much upon people who never said a word that the audience understood.
"Pilee" "Pilee? I don't know that word. I know, err... kaltaka." How many laughs can you get out of "kaltaka"? (You *did* laugh at that - didn't you?)
Actually I rather liked this initial dialogue between Pilee and Gab - indeed I was generally very impressed by Beth Allen's playing of Pilee / Vanessa... she took a tricky role, which could easily have come across as absurd or grotesque, and which would have been *so* easy to overact in, and played it straight down the line, sensitively and movingly - in fact she's now my nominee for "Best Guest Star" of Season 4...
But why did Gab say "You can talk! You can speak our language!" so incredulously? - The girl was raised by people who spoke "our language" (whatever the heck it's supposed to be) until she was about 9... why
wouldn't she still know it? Although, naturally, she *would* be very hesitant and rusty...
Why do TPTB feel obliged to throw in a meteorite whenever they show us a shot of a starry sky?
The girl really was *very* good! Her lecture about tribal values was actually a bit overwritten, but she did a marvellous job of taking the pomposity out of it, and making it seem hesitant and sincere.
"Why run? Soon Cirvik come - then *you* run!" I gotta say (as you probably gathered), I *liked* this girl!
The little heart to heart between Xena and Gab was rather confusing - I thought Gab was getting more of a sense of where Pilee was at, whereas Xena was feeling more anti-Horde, remembering old battles... so when Gab drew Xena aside, I expected Gab to be telling Xena "Perhaps we made a mistake" - which certainly seemed to be where the previous scene was going. But instead they reversed their positions, with Xena suggesting the possible mistake, and Gab still defending the "reunite the family" line - but then why did *Gab* initiate this chat, since it seemed, in fact, to be Xena who had an issue to raise? It was almost as if they taken some of one
character's lines and given them to the other...
Gab really does seem *very* hung up on this "people should be in their mother's arms" thing in this ep, to a degree that stretched comfortable belief at times (yes, I *know* she has issues after Hope and Solan - but, OTOH, she left her own blood family entirely voluntarily to go with Xena when she wasn't much older than Pilee...)
A lot of whip action from Xena in this ep - she's hardly used it this season, otherwise (indeed the last time I clearly remember was in Vanishing Act)... She even says about it, at one point: "You know, this thing has really come in handy lately!"
And by the point where she yanks him from the tree with her whip, Xena has already decided that Milo is "much worse" than the Horde...?
Pilee's response to Milo's "Welcome back to civilisation!" seemed entirely appropriate.
"I am Pilee, daughter of Cirvik. And he come here. And take me. And kill you all!" *Loved* her delivery again! Lines that could have been hokey as hell came out as a very natural, heartfelt, human response - somewhere between fear and bewilderment and defiance and a childish cry for help.
I notice that Vanessa's mother stands up for her & protects her, even when the father turns away from her - this is a bit stereotypical... although entirely likely. And all the characters are perfectly believable the way they're played. Indeed the only person in this whole ep who I found at times a bit unbelievable was Gab, who did seem rather locked into taking certain positions for the convenience of the plot. Although I found Pilee's tendency to trust and turn to Gab, rather than anyone else, entirely believable - Gab certainly does invite confidence and exude goodwill.
Now, no one actually believed that Xena had really gone over to the idea of all out war against the Horde, did they? Even if you were inclined to (which you weren't, were you?), that "If this works, you'll never fear the Horde again!" was a dead giveaway (albeit with chilling, genocidal echoes...)
"This girl, she's a stranger, a savage named Pilee. My Vanessa's gone!" I must say, having raised teenagers, I could feel a certain sympathy here - and believe me, the Horde are the very model of a positive, character-building influence compared to some of the people a teenage girl can fall in with in a big city! And yes, sometimes they say they hate you, and you feel you just don't know who they are... (Does *every* parent go through this? Most, at least, I suspect...) But hey, we got through it, and we're still a family... and now my daughter's coping with the first
stirrings of the long rebellion of *her* daughter against her! And you get
older, you feel a little wiser, sometimes, but still often sad, and often
afraid, for all of them... Hmmm... wandered a bit off-topic there, I'm
afraid - but watching Pilee and all made me think of all of this..
I think it was a *very* wise move to hold off letting us see Pilee in "conventional" clothes until the character was well established - it had an excellent effect when she *was* finally introduced in the blue dress... and we already had a firm sense of her by this point.
Now, I'm sorry to be bathetic again here, but I *howled* with laughter when Gab said "She's honouring the lamb"! I mean, come on! Didn't anyone tell her, it's rude to talk to your food? And an interesting loop here - since The Price opened with Gab "Talking to her breakfast" - which is now tied in with the whole Pomira weltanschauung!
BTW, I guess I haven't said this yet - I *liked* Vanessa's mum - she came across as very natural and sincere, eager to stand up for her family and for what she believed was right (even if it meant confronting a warlord or a mob), and flexible enough to listen and to respond lovingly, even in a difficult situation - liked the character, liked the way the actress played her.
Just a silly point - after expanding in Past Imperfect, the BGSB seems to have contracted sharply again in this ep. And besides shrinking, isn't the BGSB fading? Maybe it's becoming the BYSB!
"She's back!" "I'm back!" Loved the way Xena said that. They really are good at playing their own conventions for a chuckle, and mostly without messing up the dramatic tension and flow of the ep - indeed this ep was a textbook return to the form of classic Xena eps, where you can pick nits and laugh at many of the lines whilst still staying so involved in the characters and the story that they can make you gasp or cry - aw heck, yes! This ep really reminded me why I love this show!
However... when Xena explained the plot on the battlements, she didn't reveal a single thing to me - I thought it was all already perfectly obvious. Which slightly begs the question - why did Gab need it all explaining to her? I mean, she's not stupid, and she knows Xena - if I can figure it out, why can't she? Ah well, I suppose we have to cut them a
little expository slack. But I can see Gab's devotees complaining, not
without some justification, that this was another ep where the consistency
and development of Gab's character somewhat played second fiddle to the
mechanics of getting the plot executed and understood.
G: "You know you'd think I'd learn not to meddle with families..." X: "You were right to want to give her a choice Gabrielle. But now we have to stand by the one she makes." Well I guess that's putting as good a construction on it as you can, and fair enough, up to a point... (although I don't actually remember "choice" featuring anywhere in Gab's original statement of intentions...)
Was Vanessa seriously thinking of killing her parents? I suppose it's natural that the thought should cross her mind - but she didn't really seem at all worked up to it. She should have stuck with the sword rather than the doll though - *much* more practical for a midnight walk in a strange and hostile town (as I thought even on first viewing...)
"He hates Pomira..." (Gods that girl's good! Another line she could so easily have messed up, but she delivered it beautifully.) "Pomira hate him. And the rest of us. It's a bad situation all around." Lucy was good in this scene too - reaching out and connecting, but very much in Xena's somewhat terse way.
Incidentally, I think they did a little sleight of hand between here and The Price, in order to be able to deal with the Horde in the way they wanted to. In The Price the Horde appeared to be an invading army - the battle was not taking place on *their* territory, but rather *they* were
descending on their enemies, a mysterious army from who knew where. But
suddenly in Daughter Of Pomira, the Horde are indigenous people - this is
their land, and others are trespassing on it, desecrating it, and pushing
them out. This serves, on the one hand to put the Horde in a better light,
since they are no longer portrayed as conquerors and aggressors, and on the
other hand they're no longer really a "Horde" - they're not an army on the
move, but a tribe, a people, complete with families, homes and traditions...
"Open the gates!" "No!" - Somehow this struck me as a Monty Python moment...
I have an unusual complaint about the climactic fight between Xena and Milo - the editing seemed off... either that or the right shots just weren't available. Not just once, but multiple times, things felt wrong - Xena jumped down from the walls and appeared to land well behind Cirvik, but in the next shot, she was between him and Milo, and then other shots failed to match, the positions in one shot all wrong relative to the shot before, and the stuntee shots didn't match the main player shots at all well. There are often little mistakes in the editing of fight scenes which you can see if you look carefully, but this is virtually the first time I can remember feeling that a fight on XWP looked obviously wrong on first viewing, to the point where the illusion wasn't really sustained.
They did kind of have me going at the end though - not that I thought they'd really kill Xena (again...) at this point... but they certainly telegraphed it that way. So what was Xena's sad and trembling look for? Surely she wasn't *that* upset at having to kill Milo?
And what about the "Both. Both my father." scene? What can I say? At that point, they really got me - I cried the first three times I watched it... See ultimately, for all my nit-picking, this ep *really* drew me in.
And what did Cirvik say? "Lakota toti. Bonai. Soli Bonai." (It was written under the disclaimer in the end credits.) What does it mean? Well from context and linguistic background, I'd say: "People all. Good. Only good." ("Lakota" is what many of the plains Sioux call themselves, and could probably be roughly translated "the people"... and the rest of it sounds
like slightly distorted Latin.) Pilee renders it as "No fight. No War.
Family." - But then that would seem quite a reasonable way of rendering it...
I quite liked the wrap up too. Gab's doubts seemed entirely reasonable, and Xena's affirming of the positive consequences rang true too.
"Ya wanna switch? Fine. You kick b*tt, I'll take notes!" Well ok, it's just a joke basically... but it's a classic XWP joke - and we haven't seen our heroines looking comfortable enough to make this kind of joke with each other for a *long* time... so altogether, it sealed the feeling that we'd just watched another Xena classic in the making, for all it's little flaws.
COMMENTARY 4:
Commentary Videntur.
Great Episode. The action was great, the acting is always fantastic and the
storyline was unique.
Let’s see, which character should we explore first? How about Milo. Indeed
an interesting character - he definitely had a liking for the old Xena and
loved it everytime he thought Xena was reverting back to her old ways. He
voiced his admiration of Xena several times throughout the episode. The first
time was when Xena threatened to scalp him for trying to kill the horde
children who were looking for food. When Milo found out it was Xena (the
destroyer of nations - mentioned by Milo with admiration) who had threatened
him, he went on to say “the name’s Milo - and I’m a history buff too -enough
to know that it tends to repeat itself - you ever notice?”
Was Milo saying that he was hoping to get the old Xena back or was this a
foretelling that if indeed history does repeat itself Xena might revert back
to her old ways? Several additional times we see Milo’s admiration for Xena:
One was when Xena pulled him from the tree with her whip and informed him as
to his reasons for following them to which Milo responded: “I love this
woman.” Another time was when Xena was telling the soldiers about completely
annihilating the horde, Milo said: “Marry me.” Milo was indeed a skilled
fighter and gave Xena a good fight - although I agree that someone who is able
to whip Ares and the whole Persian army certainly should have been able to
defeat Milo without a second glance but perhaps this was because Xena didn’t
want to kill Milo. Indeed when she did kill him, you could see her disgust in
taking another life. Is her respect for life making her more vulnerable
when it comes to her fighting?
Vanesa/Pilee was placed in a difficult position. She loved Cirvik but she
also realized that her birth parents (Rahl and Adiah) loved her too.You felt
like crying when she returned the doll to her mother but smiled and informed
her that she would come to visit and you felt a little angry when Rahl turned
his head when Vanesa went to place her hand on his face. Its funny how the
horde were willing to make him and Adiah family yet they were not so willing
to accept Vanesa as having two families. However you could see their point,
Cirvik did steal Vanesa when she was young and in reality she was not his
child - yet he clothed, loved and fed her and you could understand Cirvik not
wanting to give her up. I have to admit there were times I wished the father
(Rahl) could have been more forgiving and made it easier on Vanesa to make her
decision.
Its funny, at the end of the show Xena and Gabrielle make a joke about role
reversal, yet we see a different kind of role reversal throughout this
episode. Gabrielle for a change is the one that needs constant reassurance
from Xena that she is doing the right thing. When Gabrielle comes to see Xena
at the battlements, she states that she is confused and Xena takes the time to
ask her what about. This was a good scene and we find Xena reassuring
Gabrielle. This reassurance also takes place at the end when Gabrielle is
still questioning whether or not she did the right thing. Again Xena
reassures her. Gabrielle’s lack of confidence when it comes to meddling with
children could be due to her Hope-Solan background. I liked the way that
Gabrielle volunteered Xena and herself to go and bring Vanesa back . It
showed that these two know each other well enough to know just how far they
can go with each other before backing down. Gabrielle definitely knew that
Xena trusted her judgment and used this to bring Vanesa home. You can see this
when Xena states to Gabrielle: “You trust your heart and I respect that but
taking Vanesa could stir up a whole lot of trouble.” Yet despite Xena knowing
this, she does it anyway because she also trust in Gabrielle’s heart. It was
also good to see the old Gabrielle back that was comforting Xena in the
beginning, reminding her just how much she had changed.
Xena, our hero, has indeed changed. Even we as an audience realize this. In
the very beginning,due to Xena’s outfit, you would think it was the new Xena
who was killing the horde, but as soon as we see her kill one of her soldiers
because he wanted to retreat, we know this is the old evil Xena, despite the
outfit - even we know the new Xena would never do this. Even Adiah, who at
first thought Xena had come to claim her husband for fighting ended up begging
Xena to bring her daughter back to her - she would not have made such a
request to the old Xena. I found it interesting that despite Gabrielle doing
all the volunteering, Adiah’s eyes remained fixed on Xena when confirming that
she indeed wish for her daughter to be brought back home. We also see that
Xena has changed by the way she in no way was interested in killing the horde
but instead wanted to use Vanesa to bring both cultures together to live in
peace even risking her life to fight with Milo to bring peace about. It was
interesting the way Xena looked when she stabbed Milo. Despite seeing Xena
grab something from her left shoulder (her knife I should think), I too at
first thought Xena had been stabbed but I realized that it was made to make
the audience not know at first which one had been stabbed - the look was
justified in that Xena hated killing and felt that Milo’s death was needless.
At the end, Xena reassured Gabrielle that she had made the correct decision
since it led to: Vanesa having two loving families; Adiah and Rahl knowing
their child was alive and well; and two cultures coming together in peace.
Yet it was really Xena who went underground to get Vanesa and it was Xena who
thought of the way to use Vanesa as the bridge between the two cultures -
let’s face it- while Xena was thinking of all this, Gabrielle was busy
doubting herself.
What I liked best about this episode was that we had back the old type of
interaction between Xena and Gabrielle. The comedy episodes are okay but
there is nothing like the serious episodes with Xena and Gabrielle acting and
caring for each other as friends. Also, I had not seen Xena use the whip
since Gabrielle had sold her old one for a frying pan in “A day in the Life”
episode. Xena’s use of the whip was awesome and too cool for words. The way
she used it to pull Milo down from the tree was great. I also enjoyed the
joke at the end when Gabrielle said: I did all that? and they call you the
hero....hmmmm. To which Xena replied: “You want to switch - fine, you kick
b*tt and I’ll take notes.” Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor as always did a
great job - why does this not surprise me?
COMMENTARY 5:
Commentary Bethany Faison.
I didn't think I would like this episode, but I did.
My doubts were related to a general aversion to "The Horde" as presented in
"The Price". When I found out they were to be featured again, I was ready
to write this episode off.
The source of my earlier disappointment was the make-up and costuming of
"The Horde" in "Price". In bright red, white and blue (or if you're
French....blue, white and red) and decorated with other bizarre items, the
blood curdling "Horde" in "Price" reminded me of some over-the-top Buffalo
Bills football fans. Subsequently, my blood didn't curdle and it was kind
of hard to take the threat of total annihilation seriously. I wasn't
scared, so "The Price" didn't work for me.
Now OAKLAND (not Auckland) fans really ARE terrifying...Maybe they should
have gone with "The Silver and Black".
You know, I never really thought of costuming and make-up as being that
critical to the success of a script, but "The Price" failed for me just for
that reason. In contrast, I was totally, absolutely scared to death during
"The Last of the Mohicans" (great musical score, too).
Too bad, since "The Price" is actually one of the very few episodes to
flat-out address major issues regarding Xena's character (the part that
might ultimately drive X and G apart). So...even though it had really
great content, it failed because of cartoonish bad guys (sigh).
By the way, part of the terror caused by war-paint is that it's only used
on "special occasions", it's not for everyday wear. Would have liked to
see the Horde without it. Personally, I think that would have helped (not
hurt) the entire point of the episode (humanity in all of it's
variations). Also, it would have been great to watch Lucy sneak in and out
without makeup....think of THAT challenge....especially with those bright
blue eyes. The costuming there could have been beautiful.
Anyway, thank goodness someone toned down the brightly colored make-up for
this episode, but the LITTLE SKULLS have to go.....
GREAT scoring for this episode. Loved it.
Xena came back in this episode: athletic, courageous, clued-in and
EXCITING. The chase scene in the tunnel was classic Xena.
Gabrielle's lines on the parapet were supposed to be about how the issues
at hand had become blurred and about self-doubt. This was the pivotal
scene. OH WELL...close enough.
My take on the Milo stabbing was that the Director wanted to create a
"little something" for the audience. What he wanted to create was that
terrible interval when it's not clear who has been stabbed (Xena or Milo)
and the stricken look on her face was all in achieving that. The rest was
remorse. Now...this makes some sense, but we didn't need THAT much remorse
(since Milo was, for the thirty minutes we knew him, pretty unredeemable
and even the idealistic Gabrielle has learned that some people DO fall into
that category). So....the director got the audience really going for a few
seconds, then we all just got confused.
Congratulations to newcomer Beth Allen, who did a great job and thanks to
Beth Hymson-Ayer and staff for casting her.
Lawless was just great. She and Allen really made this episode.
WHERE HAVE I SEEN YOU BEFORE?
By Xorys.
So who was who in Daughter Of Pomira?
If Rahl, Vanessa / Pilee's father looked familiar, this would seem entirely
reasonable... he was played by Bruce Hopkins, who we first saw in
Dreamworker as Termin, the first person Xena ever killed. He also appeared
in Ten Little Warlords as Tegason. And over on HTLJ, he has played Pylon
(no doubt he was electric in the role ) in Cast A Giant Shadow, Jordis
in Heedless Hearts, and Nehemiah in Regrets I've Had A Few. But even so...
this leaves me feeling I've missed something - none of these roles really
seems to account for how familiar he seemed as Rahl... so can anyone tell
me if there's some other reason I would recognise him, or is this just my
mind playing tricks on me?
The eponymous role of Vanessa / Pilee was taken by Beth Allen. Beth has
never appeared in the Xenaverse before, but she does have a couple of movie
credits to her name.... She played Ericka in the 1996 movie Mary Jane's Not
a Virgin Anymore, about which I can really tell you nothing, except that
Beth got second billing, and Jello Biafra got third (first was Lisa
Gerstein, as Jane). Beth also appeared in 1997's The Ugly (as Julie, aged
13)... I haven't seen this either, but apparently it was a horror /
thriller, and it seems to have been a real "old home week" for Xena
regulars - included amongst the cast were Jennifer Ward-Lealand (Boadicea
in The Deliverer), Paul Glover (Menticles from The Price), Christopher
Graham (Toxeus in Death in Chains, and the Slave Boss in Remember
Nothing), Jon Brazier (Walsim in The Dirty Half Dozen, Tarsis in Vanishing
Act), Katrina Browne (Mendala in When in Rome, Thelassa in Locked Up And
Tied Down) and Darien Takle (Cyrene, Xena's mother, in various eps). By an
odd (well ok, pointless) coincidence, Beth's character Julie, as an adult,
was played by Vanessa Byrnes.
I thought that Pilee's adoptive father, Cirvik, looked familiar... but he
was played by Watchman Rivers, who seems never to have been credited before
in the Xenaverse, and about whom I can find nothing.
Milo, the aggressive, was played by Craig Ancell... he's never been in a
Xena ep before, but he played the aggressively nervous and ill-fated Paxxon
in the HTLJ ep Web of Desire, which introduced Gina Torres as Nebula.
Andrew Kovacevich was credited as Garth. Andrew has previously appeared as
Tor in Hooves and Harlots, and as the Inn Keeper in In Sickness And In
Hell. He was also in Hercules In The Underworld, as "Berserk Man in Inn",
and the HTLJ eps The Road to Calydon (as Odeon), The Outcast (as Sepsus)
and The Enforcer (as "Proprietor"). Don't feel bad if you have no idea
which character I'm talking about - even knowing Andrew from before, I had
trouble spotting him on a second viewing... he was the guy who said
"Nothing stops the Horde" at the meeting in the tavern.
The rest of the cast were new to the Xenaverse, although you might have
caught Bob Johnson, who played the "Lieutenant" ("Not you, they won't!") as
O'Reilly in the 1997 action movie Maximum Revenge.
The ep was written by Linda McGibney and directed by Patrick Norris, both
of whom are new to the Xenaverse in these roles - which is quite a novelty
in itself... I can't remember when we last had an ep for which both the
writer and the director were new! Well, there was One Against and Army,
directed by Paul Lynch and written by Gene O'Neill & Noreen Tobin - but
even though O'Neill and Tobin were new to Xena, they'd written several HTLJ
eps...
WHIMPERS, MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO
FAR
11-06-98. Apparently Xena and Gabrielle travel to the site of where the Warlord Xena fought with her army against the Horde so many years ago. They spot some Horders from afar and they see a blonde amongst them. Later, they then meet up with Rahl, who was a member of Xena's army back then. He had lost a daughter to the Horde back then. Xena felt that she recognized something in the blonde Horder earlier. Gabrielle gets it into her mind that the blonde is indeed Rahl's presumed dead daughter. Gabrielle becomes obsessed with kidnapping the blonde from the Horde.
10-08-98. In was reported from some convention in 1998 that Xena would find yet another look alike in this episode, but that appears to have been a mistake. Xena apparently infiltrates the Horde (called Pomira in their tongue...now we know they call themselves the Pomira and they drink Kaltaka... how long before we have a Horde Language Institute established? I bet Xena will be fluent in Horde in a matter of moments!) by dressing up like one. That is where perhaps the misunderstanding began???
10-08-98. At the Dearborn Convention (08/22/98), Sharon Delaney hinted that Xena would dress like a savage in "Daughter of Pomira".
09-29-98. In DAUGHTER OF POMIRA, Xena has to infiltrate the Horde in order to save a non-Horde woman being raised as a Horder! This task is made easier by the fact that Xena has a lookalike in the Horde camp as well. Turns out that the "chief"'s daughter is the spitting image of Xena -- well, after she rats out her hair, puts on some skins, and rolls around in the mud a bit.
08-21-98. The Horde returns in the episode DAUGHTER OF POMIRA which is also an homage to John Wayne's THE SEARCHERS. THE SEARCHER's was about the Duke searching for his long lost sister whom he was convinced had been kidnapped by Native Americans quite a few years back. In DAUGHTER, Gabrielle suspects the Horde of a similar kidnapping.
THINGS TO LOOK OUT
FOR
These things are by Beth Gaynor.
We have a bit of XenaHistory re-writing. According to The
Price, Xena never fought the Horde. She was trapped at the
top of a canyon while a good chunk of her army was
slaughtered, and by the time she made it down, the Horde and
most of her men's flesh were gone. According to this
episode, Xena got some serious up close and personal time
with the Horde before telling her army to retreat.
Watch as Pilee first bangs against the city gate: when it's
a long shot from a distance, the bar across the doors is
warped and barely fits in the slots. When the shot is close,
though, the bar is snug in its holders.
Watch Milo during the last shot of him grabbing the dagger
on the ground; his sword is very briefly back in its
scabbard.
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of DAUGHTER OF POMIRA.
DISCLAIMER:
No blonde-haired, blue-eyed Horde girls or their extended families were harmed during the production of this motion picture. Lakota toti. Bonai. Soli bonai. ["People all. Good. Only good." in a Sioux/Latin pidgin OR "No fight. No war. Family." in Pomiran]
