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SHEENA

TREASURE OF THE SIENNA MENDE


EPISODE NO. 28
Season 2, episode 06
Series 206
1st release: 11-10-01
2nd release: 01-05-02
Production number: 207
Last update: 12-16-01


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REGULAR CAST, GUEST CAST & CREDITS
TV GUIDE PROMO
SYNOPSIS by Sally Dye
SYNOPSIS 2 by Loretta Miller
COMMENTARY by Mao
COMMENTARY 2 by Loretta Miller
THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
WHOOSH! ARTICLES


REGULAR CAST
Gena Lee Nolin (Sheena)
Margo Moorer (Kali)
John Allen Nelson (Matt Cutter)
Kevin Quigley (Mendehlson)

GUEST CAST
Alexandra Tydings (Elena)
Mira Furlan (Yoka Laneesh)
Thomas Merdis (Meshudu)
Gregory Davis II (Niko)
Greg Sproles (Henry)
Denise Loden (Sheena stunt double)

CREDITS
Written by Harry Dunn
Directed by Goran Gajic

Filmed on location in Orlando, FL and Africa.




TV GUIDE PROMO

A female jewel thief helps Cutter and Sheena locate a hidden treasure that could help a drought-stricken tribe. Website

A tribe, dying of drought, needs a long hidden treasure to buy irrigation supplies. The key to the treasure is a crystal skull… which gets stolen by a thief and adventurer. Logline






SYNOPSIS:

This synopsis is by Sally Dye .

Teaser

Cutter and Mendelson are working to fix a pump in a village that desperately needs water. Meshudu, the leader of the village, asks if it would be possible to get water from Lake Nayu. Cutter says it is ten miles to the lake, and the irrigation system would cost a king's ransom. Sheena arrives with containers of water from Kali's village. Meshudu takes Sheena into a hut and shows her a crystal skull which, according to their legends, is the key to a long-lost treasure. He says the treasure is in the sacred Sienna Mende region and can only be accessed every 22 years. The time will be right tomorrow, if the treasure can be found -- the map, which was hidden in the pedestal of the box holding the skull, disappeared long ago. Sheena offers to take the skull and try to find the treasure. When they go back to the hut to get the skull, though, the box that was holding it is empty.

Act I

Sheena and Meshudu search the hut and find a hole in the wall where the skull was kept. Sheena takes off into the jungle.

The thief, Elena, is trying to create a false trail. She walks backwards in her footprints and then climbs a tree. Just as she thinks she is safe, Sheena grabs her and throws her to the ground.

Sheena takes Elena, bound hand and foot, back to the village. Elena finally admits that she was hired by a wealthy art collector named Yoka Laneesh to steal the skull. Sheena and Meshudu discuss how they will find the treasure now that they have the skull back. When Elena hears that a map that was in the skull's pedestal is missing, she says she knows where it is. She offers to make a deal with them if "Indiana Jerk and Tarzana" (aka Cutter and Sheena) will leave her alone.

Elena leads Cutter and Sheena to Yoka Laneesh's compound, which is heavily guarded. Sheena leaves to find a way to get into the house. Elena asks Cutter if he and "Jungle Jane" are "doin' the wild thing". Cutter looks at her questioningly. Elena: "Come on. I just met you guys, and I can see it."

Elena goes into the compound and gives Yoka Laneesh the skull. As they leave the room, Elena manages to stick a spray can on the door. After they go out, the spray illuminates the position of the laser security system that guards the items in the room.

Outside, Sheena waits til they emerge and then morphs into a monkey and runs into the house. (This is apparently not a remarkable sight because Yoka Laneesh has several monkeys as pets.) She gets into the room and navigates through the laser beams. Just as she gets to the skull, the spray can falls to the floor, setting off the alarm. Yoka Laneesh and her men seize Elena, and some of the guards rush back into the house. Cutter, watching through binoculars, knows they have trouble.

Act II

A guard reports back that the skull and the pedestal are gone. Elena protests that it couldn't have been her, but Yoka Laneesh doesn't believe her. Just then Cutter breaks into the compound in his truck. Elena gets free from the guards and jumps into the back as the truck roars by. One of the guards jumps in, too. As they pass under a tree, Sheena jumps down into the truck. She passes the skull and pedestal to Elena and then fights the guard. Meanwhile, Elena gets the map out of the pedestal, memorizes it, and then eats it. Sheena finally throws the guy out of the truck and then she and Cutter realize what Elena has done.

Back at the village, Elena says that she knows they will have to cut her in now since she is the one who knows where the treasure is. Sheena says she can get the map, and pulls out her knife. Elena stops her, saying that she has helped them and now she just wants a share of the treasure. Meshudu surprises Sheena and Cutter by saying that Elena can have a share. Sheena says that she and Elena will start out the next morning.

That night a village boy, Niko, brings Elena food and water. She says they must not have much of a water problem if they can offer her some of it. Niko says that she is in their care, so they will give her what they can. Elena is thoughtful.

The next morning Sheena and Elena set out by canoe. Sheena throws a coconut in the water first to test the speed of the current. Elena is miffed because she thought Sheena was bringing her the coconut to eat. She asks Sheena how she can be happy in the wilderness. She prefers to be where she can see people, go places, do things. Sheena says she can do all that.

Cutter takes Niko with him and goes into town to get another pump. Yoka Laneesh and her men are waiting for them. They grab Cutter and beat him up. They want Elena, and they threaten to hurt Niko if Cutter doesn't tell them where she went. Cutter says she went after the treasure, and directs them to Mount Zindai. Yoka Laneesh doesn't believe him and tells Niko they will kill Cutter unless he tells them the truth. Niko says they are headed to Sienna Mende.

Act III

Sheena and Elena get out of the canoe and head into the jungle on foot. Elena is using her compass to guide them in the right direction. Sheena asks Elena why she steals. Elena tells of the first time she stole -- food from a supermarket because she and her little brothers were hungry. She says it's more fun to be a "have" than a "have not". Sheena: "And you steal from others so other people can be 'have nots'". Elena doesn't know how to respond to this.

Yoka Laneesh and her men are coming down the river, too, with Cutter and Niko. Cutter sees his chance and kicks Niko into the water. Then he fights the guards so Niko can get away. They subdue him, but Niko makes it to the bank.

As Sheena and Elena are coming down a jungle path, Elena trips and falls -- to come face to face with a large angry cobra. Sheena tells her not to move or speak, just listen, and when Sheena says go, to roll to her left. When Sheena signals, Elena rolls out of the way, and Sheena grabs the snake and kills it. Elena says Sheena just saved her because she knows where the treasure is. Sheena responds by pointing out the location -- between two distant hills. She says she figured it out from the compass reasings Elena has been taking. Just then they hear gunshots.

Yoka Laneesh has Cutter tied to a tree and has her men firing shots in the air. Yoka Laneesh says surely either Elena or the other woman who helped them feels an attachment for Cutter and will come to his rescue.

Sheena and Elena do come back and see Cutter and Yoka Laneesh. Sheena hands Elena the box the skull is in and says don't even think about leaving because she'll come and find her. Then Sheena goes into the jungle and changes into the darak'na.

Yoka Laneesh offers Cutter $5,000 if he'll agree to work with her to find the treasure. Cutter says $5,000 isn't much compared to a treasure. Yoka asks how much it would take. Cutter: "Ten miles of irrigation canals plus equipment to keep water flowing into the fields." Yoka tightens the bonds holding Cutter to the tree. Suddenly the darak'na jumps down and knocks Yoka and her men to the ground and cuts Cutter free. Cutter and the darak'na run into the jungle with Yoka shooting after them. Elena hears the shots and starts to take off, but runs right into Yoka and her men. They take the box and set off down the trail.

Act IV

Cutter says there is no way they can find the treasure now -- no skull, no map, no woman who ate the map. Sheena retrieves the coconut she threw in the river earlier and tells Cutter to open it. He does, and the skull is inside it. Sheena says she didn't trust Elena so she hid the skull in the coconut knowing it would float to their location. Cutter looks incredulous that this plan worked.

Yoka asks Elena what that was that attacked them. Elena says probably some jungle animal. Yoka says when they see it again, they will be ready for it. Elena sees the dead snake that Sheena killed, picks it up, and throws it at the others. They panic and shoot at the snake, and in the confusion Elena grabs the box and gets away.

Sheena and Cutter find the cave where the treasure is. Elena comes running up and thrusts the box at Sheena, telling her to get the treasure while she leads Yoka and her men in the other direction. Sheena smashes the box and Cutter shows Elena the skull. Elena: "How did you do that?" Sheena: "I'm the thief." They go into the cave.

Sheena finds a pedestal and places the skull on it. The sun shines through a crack in the ceiling and causes the skull to reflect the light onto a place in the wall. Yoka and her men get to the cave, and Sheena and Cutter fight the guards while Elena takes on Yoka. The fight starts a rockslide in the cave. One of the men is buried, and the other is killed when he gets in front of the beam from the skull. Elena runs to the uncovered treasure and starts scooping it up. Sheena pulls her out of the way of the falling rocks, but Yoka also runs to the treasure and is trapped when the rocks fall into the crevice and seal it off.

Epilogue

Mendelson gets the pump installed in the village and tells Cutter that he has contacted men to start work on the irrigation canal next week. Meshudu comes over and gives Elena the share of the treasure he promised. Elena is thrilled, but then gives some of it back, telling him he should build a school or a library with it. Cutter says maybe a leopard can change its spots. Sheena gives him a look, but says she gets it. Sheena takes the gems back to Elena, saying that Meshudu says he has more than enough to provide for the children. Elena starts to take it, but then gives it back and says that Sheena has already given her more than she thought she could. She starts to leave, but Sheena stops her. Elena sighs and takes out Cutter's wallet and gives it to her. As she is leaving, Cutter comes over to tell Sheena that Elena turned out to be pretty nice. Sheena just tosses his wallet to him and laughs at his expression.



SYNOPSIS 2:

This synopsis is by Loretta Miller .

Sheena, Cutter and Mendehlson work to devise a way to get water to a village that is in danger of dying. Without water they will not be able to plant and the villagers would be forced to move on. The nearest lake ten miles away would be require an irrigation system and it would take a king’s ransom. Privately, Village chief Mashuda offers Sheena a crystal skull telling her that it is the key to the Zukaman’s treasure in the Sierra Mende region and would reward her efforts and afford the badly needed system. The treasure is only available every 22 years and Mashuda knows that the time has come to use the key and retrieve the riches. The only snag: the map to the treasure is in the skull’s pedestal but it had disappeared years earlier. Sheena turns down the offer for riches but Mashuda insists on giving her a percentage of the riches. When he goes into his tent to get the skull, he discovers the skull has been stolen!

A quick search of the tent reveals a covered window. Sheena races outside and off into the jungle. She chases a woman as a woman, Elena, cleverly back tracks her own steps and climbs a tree to outsmart her tracker. Elena watches below for her but should have looked behind as Sheena suddenly pulls her off her limb and she falls to the ground.

Elena is tied up back at the village where Cutter and Sheena try to get her to talk. She tells them she sells antiquities and is merely a thief. "Untie me or I’ll scream," she tells them as she lets go a blood-curdling scream only to have Sheena shove a fistful of dirt into her mouth.

Well, that not only shut her up it forced her into a course of coughing, and spitting and a promise from Sheena that if she continues "there’s more where that came from." Elena tells them that Yoka Laneesh, an art collector, had "hired" her for the theft of the skull. "Does she know about the treasure?" Sheena asks which stuns all but Elena most. When Elena hears about the pedestal she correctly identifies it to Mashuda and knows where it is. While she calls Cutter "Indiana Jerk" and Sheena "Tarzana" she is willing to make a deal with them.

Cutter and Elena go to Laneesh’s digs and she tells him that the whole floor is rigged with pressure sensitive plates and laser beams that would trigger alarms. Elena goes in to see Yoka about her money. When asked if Elena knew about the legend of the treasure, Elena tells her she’s only a thief, not a pirate. As they exit the area, Elena drops her purse where she grabs a fogger and deftly sticks it to the door and while pulling on a string, the door closes and the fogger fills the room readily showing the zig-zagged red laser beams throughout.

Sheena watches Yoka and Elena leave the building as Yoka instructs Elena to wait at a gazebo for her money, Sheena transforms into a duplicate of Yoka’s pet wombat and enters the fogged room. She grabs the skull as the fogger falls to the floor and triggers an alarm. Outside, Yoka and her henchmen race to find out the reason for the alarm as Elena makes off with the pedestal. Into Cutter’s jeep, Elena jumps into the bed of the truck and fights one of Yoka’s men and manages to get away from him. She breaks the pedestal and eyes the map that is inside and as Sheena now fights the man Elena EATS THE MAP! Cutter hits the brakes on Sheena’s signal and the man goes flying.

Back at the village, more dirt goes into Elena’s mouth as she sputters that if she had merely turned over the map there’d be no more use for her. Now the map is in her head. Mashuda offers her a reward as he holds the skull and the sunlight running through it keeps getting into Elena’s eyes which she complains about.

That night Niko, a guard, brings Elena food and water and for once we see Elena is truly human. She realizes that he is offering water, a priceless commodity, to her. She doesn’t feel worthy. As a "guest", he tells her, they are to offer her all they can. She is deeply touched.

The next day, Elena busily uses her compass at the river’s edge as Sheena tosses in a coconut into the water and watches it slowly drift downstream. They will follow the current by boat.

Cutter and Mendehlson work on the pump to no avail. Mendehlson suggests that they give them their own pump, it’s rusty but it can work. Cutter elects to go and get it as Niko approaches and asks for a ride in his truck. He had never been inside a vehicle before. Cutter agrees.

On board the boat, Sheena and Elena talk about their radically different lives and how it’s so much better to be a "have" rather than a "have not". In the course of their talk Elena confesses that she had to steal as a kid to feed herself and her siblings. "You were a have not and hated it," Sheena says, "and now you steal so others are have nots."

Yoka and her henchmen surround Cutter as they approach his office. She wants the map to the treasure. Cutter tells them that Sheena and Elena are enroute to Mt. Zundai some 400 miles south-southwest. Under pressure and threat of death of Niko, Niko tells them that they are really headed to Sierra Mende. Onboard a boat with the henchmen, Cutter kicks Niko overboard and yells at him to "go, go, go, go" as the henchmen’s bullets just miss him as Niko makes it to shore. Cutter is still a captive.

Now on dry land, Sheen and Elena walk as they intercept a copperhead. Sheena orders her to roll left on her command and she complies as Sheena grabs it and kills it. "You saved me because you need me". Sheena tells her that that isn’t so, the treasure lies between the two hills that lay ahead having noticed the two compass readings she had taken along the way and the two directions converged giving her the heading.

Time is now vital as at sundown it’ll mean that another 22 years will have to pass before the treasure can be claimed once more. Elena guards the skull as Sheena muddies up.

Cutter is with Yoka who tells her that they won’t return to save him. She figures that one of the two women has an attachment to him. But, regardless, at sundown they won’t be needing Cutter anymore. Cutter is tethered by ropes, his arms held high. Yoka is trying to come on to him and asking him what’s his price. Finally he says the cost of 10 miles of irrigation canals to bring water to the fields. Yoka is unimpressed and raises his arms painfully much higher.

The Darak’na attacks and as gunfire erupts, Yoka captures Elena and leaves.

At the river’s edge while Sheena cleans up, she opens the coconut that had followed them downstream to reveal it had always held the crystal skull. The bad guys come across the snake from earlier and Elena escapes in the chaos. They didn’t immediately know that it’s dead but Elena did.

Elena finds Sheena and Cutter and says "they’re coming". Elena offers to use herself as a diversion away from the cave where the treasure is to be. Sheena tells her to get inside the cave which they find is empty except for some hieroglyphics and a pedestal. Sheena places the skull on the pedestal as the sunlight hits it just right. The crystal sends a laser beam into the rock and cuts it open. Every 22 years the sunlight is precisely lined up with the pedestal to have this effect.

A fight breaks out as Yoka and her men arrive and see what’s happening. Elena goes after the treasure as suddenly the earth begins to move and they all scramble to safety. Cutter, Sheena and Elena are all fine as we see Yoka happily surrounded by her jewels as the light in her lantern goes out. She’s inside, trapped with the jewels but with no air. "She won, she got her treasure," Sheena says.

Everyone celebrates as the irrigation system is in place and bringing plenty of water to the village. Mashuda offers Elena a reward and tells him that she cannot carry it all. She suggests that they use the money to build the kids a school or library. Elena confesses to Sheena that thieves are jealous of homes and that she has plenty all around her and tells her that she gave her more than she ever wanted.

Elena heads away with Cutter convinced that a leopard can change his spots when Sheena retrieves his wallet from her. She tells them that it’s a force of habit and advises him to keep his wallet in his front pocket.



COMMENTARY:

This synopsis is by Mao693 .

This was a very enjoyable episode. I rarely watched Xena, so this Tydings actress was not really known to me -- I enjoyed her work very much. I did watch several episodes of Babylon Five, so hearing Mira Furlan's voice and realizing that she played the "bad" character in this episode took me aback a bit, but she did a good job with what she had also.

The episode starts with Cutter and Mendelson working on putting in a pump at a small (very small) village. The pump is practically falling apart, but it's all they have. The leader of the village wants to know how much it would cost to have an irrigation system put in from the lake about 10 miles away -- Cutter tells him it would be "a kings ransom." Sheena shows up and talks to the leader and Cutter, but Cutter doesn't back down even for her. It's an expensive proposition, but this village is a group of farmers and, without water, they won't have any crops for the next year. Surprisingly, even Sheena is recommending that they move (at least, they'll have a chance to stay alive) but the leader refuses. Finally, he shows Sheena a crystal skull that, once every 22 years, will allow the tribe access to hidden treasure that they've never needed until now. Unfortunately, there's a map that goes with the skull and it's been lost for some time.

For some reason unknown to me (other than as an obvious plot point, but we won't go there) the leader and Sheena leave the small house where the skull is kept, only to have another member of the tribe come out of the house carrying the skull and a case it's housed in. Of course, as the leader opens the case to show the skull to Sheena, he discovers that the skull is missing. Right.

Anyhow, Sheena takes out after the thief. Again, plot integrity is rather ignored -- she figures out that the thief got to the skull from the back of the building, so she runs out the front door and keeps going straight ahead. Why would she think that would work instead of going *behind* the building? ::shrug:: Anyhow, we see the thief (Tydings) making her way through the forest, then stopping and slowly backtracking her trail making sure to keep her feet in the tracks already made. (Laying a false trail, I believe is the term.) Then she jumps up into a tree and climbs up to wait for the hunter(s) to pass her by -- pretty smart. Until Sheena reaches around the tree limb and knocks her to the ground.

So now we've got ourselves a thief tied up in the middle of the village, yelling about the important contacts she has and how they need to let her go. Cutter, Sheena and the leader just laugh at her until she threatens to scream. Not that this changes their mind -- Sheena just reaches down and, as the thief is screaming, applies a handful of dirt to her mouth! Except for the perfectly white teeth said thief manages to retain, it was pretty funny. Plus, it shuts her up for a minute or two. Until the leader mentions that the skull is still useless without the map, which is in the original pedestal the tribe used to have for the skull. Said thief (somewhere in here we learned her name was Elena (sp?)) suddenly has information of use - - she knows where the pedestal is and is willing to help them get it if they untie her.

So, we're off to the compound of the bad lady -- Furlan. I don't remember what her character's name is, sorry. Elena plays the part to the hilt, asking for her money, pretending not to care about the treasure, etc. As they leave the vault where the skull has just been placed on the pedestal, she attaches a bug bomb spray can to the door, with a thread to pull the handle and set the spray off as the door is closed. While this stretches the limits of credulity, it serves to illuminate the laser system that's part of the security system. Meanwhile, Sheena's been hiding in the trees, watching the proceedings. Furlan has a pet lemur or something like that, so Sheena does her little morphing thing and becomes one of those. We see her in the vault (no idea how she got in or out) jumping, presumably, over and around the laser system to the skull and pedestal just in time for the bug bomb can to fall to the floor and set off the security system. Elena yells for help, and Cutter crashes the gate in his truck. One of the henchmen manages to hang on to the truck, even as Elena gets into the truck bed, so they fight for a few moments. Finally, Elena gets into the cab, just as Sheena jumps into the bed and hands Elena the skull and pedestal before starting to fight the bad guy. While Sheena's fighting and Cutter's driving, Elena's smashing the pedestal to get to the map. And what does she do with it? Eats it. That's right -- she stuffs a piece of parchment that's about 10 x 14 inches large into her mouth, chews, and swallows. Oh, I guess it's a little smaller than that because the bad guy manages to snag a corner of it before Sheena and Cutter, working together, manage to knock him off the truck.

Elena's all happy, though, because she's the only one that knows what the map says and so they have to take her along to find the treasure. I have to admit she's pretty smart, if a little lopsided in her ideas of 'right' and 'wrong.'

She starts to get an inkling that maybe her way's not the only way when a young man of the tribe brings her some food and water later that night. When she asks him about the drought, he says that she's a guest and they will do all that they can to be hospitable. This is obviously not something she's very familiar with.

The next day, Elena and Sheena start out on the river to find the treasure. Cutter and Mendelson have finally gotten the pump put in, but it's practically worthless. Mendelson reminds Cutter of the pump back at the office -- the one they don't use very often themselves. So Cutter drives back to town to get that for the tribe to use for a while. A young tribesman bums a ride -- he's never been in a car before and is excited about the prospect. Of course, the bad guys (and gal) are waiting to beat them up, threaten them, and generally get the location of Elena out of them so they're soon off to the Sienna Mende to find the treasure, taking our boys with them.

Meanwhile, Sheena's thrown a coconut into the river to give them some idea of the current and the girls are rowing down the river. Well, paddling I guess is the more accurate term. We get some girl talk about how thieves want to be the 'haves' as opposed to the 'have nots' and how it's better to be free from encumbrances and just take what you want. Sheena, of course, has the last word -- "so, you take from other people so you'll be a 'have' and make them the 'have nots.'" This shuts Elena up for a little while, at least until they start hearing the gunshots from the baddies trying to get their attention. It works, and the girls go discover that Cutter's been tied up and there are people with guns keeping an eye on him. (He'd managed to help the young tribesman escape on the way down the river.) Sheena tells Elena to guard the skull and stay put, then she becomes the Darak'na and goes to save Cutter.

Elena does pretty well, staying put, until the end of the fight when gunshots are fired and she panics. Unfortunately, she runs right into the arms of Furlan. For whatever reason, neither of them verify that the skull is in the case she's lugging around, they just start trudging their way to the point that Elena thinks the map told her the treasure was.

Meanwhile, Cutter is waiting while Sheena cleans up after her little Darak'na episode. He's worried that they need to go rescue Elena, but Sheena tells him that she'll be safe at least until the day's over. Then she tosses the coconut to him and he tells her that he doesn't really think it's time for a snack break. She tells him to open it, and he does, to discover the skull hidden inside. He's impressed, but a little surprised at her conviction that she'd be able to find that same coconut when she needed it. She, however, tells him that everything in the river gets caught in the eddy so she wasn't worried.

They start off towards the two hills that Sheena determined must be the "X" spot on the map, based on the compass readings Elena had been doing. (This was an amusing scene earlier -- Sheena saved Elena from a snake and, when Elena said she must have done it because Sheena needed her, Sheena informed her that she'd already figured out where the treasure must be. Both of these ladies are sharp as tacks!)

Cutter and Sheena make it to the cave when Elena loses her guards and tries to give Cutter and Sheena the case (she still thinks the skull is in it) and claims that she'll lead the bad guys away. Sheena tells her to get in the cave and shows her that she already has the skull. Why they didn't stop and take care of the baddies right then and there, I don't understand, but I guess we're back to the plot requiring that the good guys get in the cave so the bad guys can come in after them. Sheena determines the proper place to put the skull and it starts doing its voodoo magic, with a laser-like beam cutting through one of the cave walls. About this time, we have our big fight scene -- one bad guy is killed by falling rocks, another is done in by stepping in front of the laser, and Furlan ends up locked inside the treasure room because rocks fell down around her.

Elena has managed to grab some of the loot, so we're treated to a scene of the tribe properly thankful and promises are made of an irrigation system being put in place. Elena gets a small chest of goodies; some she gives back to the tribal elder to "buy something for the kids -- a school or something." Even when Sheena tries to give it back to her, she refuses; she's feeling good about herself and likes that feeling. Though, Sheena does have to call her back to get Cutter's wallet returned -- evidently, habit got the best of her. "Tell him to put it in his front pocket" is her parting words.

Likes:

Mendelson was useful and relatively innocuous.

Elena comments to Cutter that 'there's something between you two' (he and Sheena.) No denials are issued.

Sheena deals with the recalcitrant Elena by filling her mouth with dirt -- if she'd had access to soap, do you think she would have used that instead? :-)

Sheena morphs and becomes the Darak'na in this episode.

Dislikes:

No Kali

Cutter and Sheena have spent all this time and effort trying to get to the treasure, but when it's available they're more worried about the fact that the roof is caving in than in grabbing at least some of it. Elena's the only one attempting to get some of the goodies before hightailing it out of the way.

Furlan's too caught up in the idea of treasure to recognize that the others are all screaming about the cave falling down around them, so she ends up in the room with the treasure and no way out. Kind of lame, but oh well.

Does Sheena take off her clothes when she becomes the Darak'na? For some reason I thought she normally did, but she did not for this episode. Maybe I'm just really confused.

In general, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The two guest actresses were very entertaining and the interaction between our main stars was also interesting and in character. Cutter's come a long way since last season; it's highly unlikely he would have even been near that village much less helping them by putting in a pump unless Sheena had coerced him there in the first place (or someone had already paid him a lot of money.) Mendelson's also doing some work out of the goodness of his heart, at least until the others point that out to him -- at that point he decides he deserves some extra pay! However, I felt this was also in character for him so that was ok.



COMMENTARY 2:

This synopsis is by Loretta Miller .

There were some great moments in this one. The dirt in the mouth bit with Elena and Sheena was unexpected and there’s really no way to fake it…dirt on the teeth proved it. Wonder what Alex thought at the initial read-through…and the extra bonus that would be coming to do it. Can’t use a stunt double with that now can ya? And "Indiana Jerk" and "Tarzana"…GREAT!

Alex did a good job with this and I didn’t see even a speck of Mighty Aphrodite in her. Good casting and wholly believable. Good job.



JUST MORPHING AROUND

11-08-01. Director Goran Gajic is married to Mira Furlan.



THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

08-20-01. Alexandra Tydings played Aphrodite of XENA, and Mira Furlan played Delenn on Babylon 5.



WHOOSH! ARTICLES:

08-20-01. Alexandra Tydings discusses her part in SHEENA during the 2001 Pasadena XENA Con.




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