PROMO
TRANSCRIPTION
TWO ARMIES PREPARE FOR WAR
[Ares stands firm. Women in masks kneel.]
Callisto: Such power its almost scary.
THE DAWN OF REVELATION OR THE BEGINNING OF THE END
[Someone falls to their knees.]
Ares: She wants it all.
Xena: She's coming after you.
[Callisto moves rocks. Someone is covered with
slime. Xena and Callisto fight.]
THE TIME HAS COME
Ares: I am Ares God of War!
[Xena kicks a hooded figure.]
Callisto: Welcome to my world. Now get ready to
leave it.
[Callisto throws Xena to the ground.]
[Ares grabs Gabrielle.]
TO CHOOSE SIDES
Xena: It's about Hope.
[A grotesque masked figure.]
Voice: Xena will die.
Ares: We strike now!
[Someone jumps on Callisto. She turns and
screams.]
BATTLE ON XENA!
TV GUIDE PROMO
Xena saves Gabrielle's friend Seraphin from being
sacrificed, then learns that she's willing to die -- so
that Gabrielle's evil daughter Hope can be reborn. Part
1 of 2.
Xena and Gabrielle vainly struggle to stop
evil Hope's re-emergence from her cocoon.
Callisto returns to resurrect Gabrielle's evil
daughter Hope and build an army to conquer the world.
AIRING AND RATING
INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 05/04/98
An AA average of 5.1
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES 9th with 5.4
(2) XENA 11th with 5.1
(3) STAR TREK DS9 16th with 4.6
(4) HERCULES 17th with 4.5
1st RELEASE: 09/14/98
An AA average of 4.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES 9th with 5.2
(2) ER 13th with 4.2
(3) XENA 16th with 4.0
(4) HERCULES 18th with 3.8
(5) BAYWATCH 20th with 3.6
(6) STARGATE 3.2
(7) STAR TREK DS9 3.1
(8) VIP 2.7
(9) HIGHLANDER THE RAVEN 2.1
(10) SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 1.8
SYNOPSIS:
This synopsis is by Bluesong.
Callisto emerges from the
hole-between worlds where Hercules had trapped her
in a previous episode. Xena and Gabrielle watch a
ceremony from behind a rock, too far away to hear the
words of the priest. Gabrielle is searching for a
friend, Seraphin, who has joined this "cult." Seraphin
appears; she is placed upon high and will soon be
skewered as a sacrifice. Whoosh! The chakram saves
the girl, slicing through the spear the priest holds.
Xena and Gabrielle fight with the worshipers. Seraphin
is taken away, and Xena gives chase. Callisto appears
in front of her, holding a priest, whom she kills.
She laughs, then disappears. Xena and Gabrielle track
Seraphin. Xena has a little talk with Ares. They
think the cult is worshiping Callisto. The cult
group begins worshiping again, and the sacrifice girl
comes out, only it's Xena dressed up. She attacks the
worshipers. Callisto appears, and she and Xena cross
swords. She throws a godly-fireball at Xena and Ares
takes the impact, pushing Xena away. He and Callisto
have words.
Gabrielle keeps Seraphin from
returning to the priests. Xena realizes that the
goddess they are worshiping, preparing for a "rebirth"
of, is not Callisto, but Hope, the goddess of Dahak.
Gabrielle talks to Seraphin, who convinces Gabrielle
she was wrong about Hope because no child of
Gabrielle's could be all evil. Callisto talks to this
blob/cocoon, which is Hope. Ares goes to get warlords
to raise an army. A flaming vision appears to him. A
priest speaks to Hope for Callisto, and learns that
Callisto wants oblivion as her reward for helping Hope.
Xena goes to the cave where Aunty Callisto is watching
over "her child" and Callisto and Xena fight. Xena
runs outside and Callisto follows. She throws a
fireball at Xena, and Xena bounces it around until it
landslides on top of Callisto. Xena goes to kill Hope,
but Ares stops her. He takes Hope to the Halls of War
to protect her (I'm sorry, but I didn't quite
understand this part and I "hope" somebody explains it
to me.) He tells Hope he forgives her for killing
Strife and then tells her to do something about Xena.
Hope sends a bunch of villagers after Xena; they pummel
her pretty good because she won't kill them, but she
gets Gabrielle and Seraphin away.
Xena goes to scout ahead.
Gabrielle tells Seraphin that she loves Hope, sending
Seraphin to warn her daughter that Xena is trying to
kill her. Xena reappears and says Gabrielle almost had
her convinced that she still loves Hope, but Gabrielle
says no, she realizes she is evil. They follow
Seraphin to the Halls of War. Xena tells Gabrielle to
wait outside. Ares takes Gabrielle to see the Three
Fates. He says he is calling in the debt Gabrielle
owes him from when he sent her to Chin ahead of Xena.
If Xena kills Hope, Xena's lifeline will be cut and
Xena will die.
Xena enters the Halls of War
and fights with the hooded priest-dudes. Seraphin
worships the cocoon. The head priest runs her through,
and she pulls herself to the cocoon and wipes blood on
Hope (apparently Hope needs her blood to finish
metamorphosis). Xena is about to run Hope through when
Gabrielle jumps and knocks her aside. Everybody stops
and watches as Hope emerges from her cocoon. Callisto
appears to watch. Hope looks exactly like Gabrielle.
Callisto bursts out laughing.
TO BE CONTINUED
COMMENTARY:
This commentary is by Beth Gaynor.
Sacrifice is hard to render an opinion on
without seeing Sacrifice II. Even more than the Debt, this episode was largely setup.
Lots and lots of setup. Interesting setup, lots of dark plots and convoluted schemes and
angst, but without any resolution yet. So I guess we get to hold on to our buttons and see
what part II is going to deliver on this premise.
Xena: Sensitivity Princess she ain't. Xena and
Gabrielle have learned a lot from the nasty Rift going-ons: despite all this reopening of
old wounds, they don't fall into the same mistakes again. With one small exception: Xena
and Gab both spent much of the Rift hurting so bad they weren't able to reach out to the
other. This time, Gabrielle checks with Xena - we're revisiting the death of your son here,
"Are you OK?" Xena never once checks on Gab. She treats her worlds better (and
gentler) than before, but cripes, Xena, check on the bard once in a while, will ya? The
poor woman's got a child's (non-)death to relive, too.
Ares gets the title of First President of Xena's
Fan Club (sorry, Sharon!). "When Xena puts her mind to killing someone, they generally
get killed." "When Xena starts to move, nothing is 'safe'." He is just TOO smitten with
her, daddy or no.
Note to self: when someone climbs a
scaffolding with a big empty bowl lying beneath it, it's a bad sign. I've heard of
bloodbaths before, but that's going a little too close to the source.
Xena leaves Gabrielle to handle a whole pack
of baddies... and she does. Handily. Sit back and watch the bard kick b*tt; she really
does haul back and swing for the fences nowadays. I wonder if the stunties in Auckland
are starting to get nervous?
Xena's skills come in handy in the darndest
places: she uses her chakram banks to send back Callisto's firebolt on herself. But you
know, if I was a god, the very first thing I'd be working on would be my rock-escaping
powers. This is, what, the third time Xena has used rock piles to trap gods?
We now know the origins of the ku klux klan:
judging by the costumes, they started out as numbskull Hope worshipers. How
appropriate.
Xena lets us know that she and Gabrielle had
heard about Callisto's latest imprisonment from Hercules and Iolaus. The big question:
did they also know that Hope had returned from the dead after being poisoned and
cremated? I can't tell for sure from their reactions.
How did Xena get her arms free of that
sacrifice scaffolding? They had her pinned pretty tight, then suddenly the hooks were
three feet away.
What's with the royal "we" from the priest?
Time for a serious "get over yourself" check!
It's strange that Callisto can't hear Hope. Hope
hears her, and hears Ares. Hope can talk to her royal-we-ness priest, the flaky priestess
Seraphin, and the zombie villagers, including at great distances. Theoretically, you'd
have to worship Hope to be able to hear her, and neither Callisto nor Ares fall in that
category. I'd think that the godhood business would grant some privileges there, though.
That was a very sick conversation Seraphin
had with Gabrielle by the riverside. Saying that Hope's rebirth was for the Greater Good
was a nasty twist on one of Gabrielle and Xena's own favorite phrases, and her plea to
"let the Goddess Hope touch your soul" must have been a dagger in Gabrielle's gut.
From the moment Gab tells Seraphin who she
is, Serphin (and Hope's) recruitment plan changes bigtime. Dimes to dinars says that
while Seraphin was sitting alone, Hope was whispering nasty nothings in her ear about
the best way to try to coax Gab to betray Xena and help her get free. It seems that Hope
still has something real personal against Xena. All the old "Hope could really be good"
arguments come out, with lots of faith in Gabrielle's innate goodness and a nasty twist on
the bard's guilt for abandoning Hope to the river. All of Gab's own arguments, when she
and Xena fought over Hope, the ones that ended up with Solan dead, are coming back to
haunt her.
I was fooled for a minute when Gab let
Seraphin go; I couldn't believe we were about to go through all this again. But regardless
of how much it hurt, Gabrielle wasn't falling for it a second time. That argument between
Xena and Gabrielle was staged for Seraphin, but it must have skewered both of them to
relive those old wounds again.
Seraphin says that "the Destroyer [Hope?] will
wash the land of its sins" - more Christian imagery and symbolism turned on its ear for
the daughter of Dahak. In Christianity, people are "washed of their sins" by the lifeblood
of God's son. Is a similar blood sacrifice going to wash the land with Dahak's daughter?
(Besides Seraphin's blood?) Sacrifices have been the big theme of the episode:
Seraphin's sacrifice of herself, Callisto's request to die, the sacrifices Xena and Gabrielle
are making to protect the world and each other... and those will probably just get bigger
in the second part. Seraphin's name, by the way, is a twist on the word seraphim, one of
the orders of angels of the "God of the Israelites."
What was the flame that showed up behind
Ares and made him look darned nervous? Was that when the Fates showed up to tell
Ares about Xena's death? Why would they interfere in their own work like that?
"You're gonna love it... well, at least half of it."
Callisto knows how Xena will feel about Hope being freed, but figures that she won't
mind at all the return favor Callisto wants from Hope - her obliteration. Callisto seems
to have some of her zest for life back, but apparently still finds things pretty empty now
that she's done torturing Xena. Try a hobby first, Callisto!
Gabrielle's marker to Ares gets called in, and
surprisingly, it's to save Xena. Not a tough task, except that it means the easiest way to
serve the greater good - just let Xena shish-ka-bob Hope - is no longer an option. Part
two is going to be plan beta.
EDITS/CUTS ON THE USA/SCI-FI CHANNELS
03-17-00. From KSZoneW. Sloppy editing with the fade in from the last commercial to the
final portion of the episode.
WHIMPERS,
MURMURS, AND A LOVE GONE TOO
FAR
12-20-98. At Dragon Con in Atlanta (09/98), Steven Sears stated that the character of Werfner was based on Gollum, from LORD OF THE RINGS.
03-17-98. WHOOSH's very own
Bret Rudnick appeared as a featured extra in this
episode. He's a hooded worshiper for most the show but
hopefully his unhooded scene will remain for all to
see. Bret reports that this episode will knock the
socks off of you.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Highlights by Beth
Gaynor.
Hope emerging from that cocoon (eeeyuk!)
looking like the spittin' image of Gabrielle makes sick sense: all the soul of the father, all
the body of the mother. ("Hey, Hope, you have your mommy's eyes... and biceps... wait a
second, let's see your abs.") Plus, it's a dandy excuse to make Hope even creepier and
give Renee O'Connor a chance to show off some range. I love Callisto's delightedly
amused giggle when everyone realizes what/who Hope looks like. Note to XenaStaff,
though: this does _not_ count as a Gab double episode. We've seen warriors, tramps,
princesses and priestesses. I'd still love to see a bard double comedy episode.
NICE smokeout of Ares, Callisto! He likes to
poo-poo Callisto as a newbie god, but she's certainly holding her own against him
without problems. She may be new to being a god, Ares, but she's old hat at being a
vicious psychotic. As always, Hudson Leick takes every line in her teeth and chews them
up for all they're worth. I loved the beautiful sweep and half-bow with "But I'm a god now,
Xena. Welcome to my world." Reminiscent of Illusia, but still fun.
THINGS TO
LOOK OUT
FOR
From Beth Gaynor.
Those dancers looked like they were in recycled amazon costumes, right down to their
masks. I'm guessing they aren't actually renegade amazons, since that would probably
have merited some manner of comment from Queen Gabrielle, so it must just be a
remarkable coincidence (and a nice break for the costuming staff). But may I just say:
ouch! Those studded bras do NOT look comfy.
From Beth Gaynor.
The zombie villagers and their attack on the hut are a big-time page from the Night of the
Living Dead playbook. Will we see the army of villagers return in part two to square off
against Ares' army? That could make for an ugly massacre. It wasn't much of a
slowdown for Xena and Gabrielle; if that was the best Hope could manage, color me
unimpressed.
From Beth Gaynor.
Where's Ares' army? He sends off the flunkie in the middle of nowhere to gather all the
armies that follow Ares, which would pretty much cover most of Greece, especially all the
warlords. But we don't see them at the Sister Peaks or the Halls of War. I'm sure this
army will turn up in part II, but I was left wondering what happened to that thread.
From Penandswrd. Xena
can read lips -- when she and Gabby see the ceremony
from afar, Gabby can't hear them but Xena can read
Werfner's lips to make out what he's saying.
From Penandswrd. In the
second act, Ares disses mortals and says to Xena, "I
don't know why you bother to continue to protect them."
Perhaps Xena really *is* more than a mere mortal?
From Penandswrd. During
the "Night of the Living Dead" zombie scene we see for
a moment (from the back) what sure looks like a
first-season Gabrielle. Skirt, blouse, and hair!
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to read a transcript of SACRIFICE I.
DISCLAIMER:
No Pulsing Cocoons were
harmed during the production of this motion picture.
What was witnessed was purely a re-enactment.
