User Reviews

Xena and Gabrielle must come to the aid of the centaurs who are under threat from warlord Dagnine, one of Xena's former associates from her evil days. In addition to guarding the all-powerful Stone of Ixion, the centaurs are also protecting a young boy who is Xena's long lost son.

SYNOPSIS

Xena and Gabrielle approach the Centaurs under command of Kaleipus and offer to help them protect the Stone of Ixion. This stone holds all the evil power that was spared from the centaurs when their race was made noble, and evil warlord Dagnine wants to take it and harness its power. Kaleipus and the centaurs don't want Xena around since back in the day she promised to stay away from them so long as they adopted her and Borias' son Solon. She knew that the warrior life was not a safe place to raise a child. This news comes as a shock to Gabrielle who wonders how Xena could have done that, but Xena knew that this difficult decision was the right one to make at the time.

Dagnine has his spies observing the centaur camp, and they learn about Xena's presence and her relationship to Solon. Solon at first is very cold toward Xena, but she works on being his friend and he shows signs of coming around. Dagnine's men capture him and put him in a cage in their camp which is not far from that of the centaurs. Xena uses some trickery to get to him, but they fall down into a cavern under Dagnine's camp. This cavern is part of the cave system that Dagnine had sought, and it's where everyone assumes the Stone of Ixion can be found. While being pursued by Dagnine and his men, Xena and Solon find the altar where the sacred stone should be, but it's not there. Xena concludes that the late Borias had found it and put it somewhere safe where evil warriors could not find it. Thanks to Xena blowing a horn made of vines, Gabrielle and the others up on ground find the cavern where Xena and Solon are, and they pull them up with a rope. Suddenly Dagnine and his men arrive at the altar down below, but they're too late to capture Xena and Solon. Unfortunately, Solon's sword fell down below, and out from it popped a stone that is now in possession of Dagnine. The sword previously belonged to Borias, and the gem is the powerful Stone of Ixion. Now it's in Dagnine's possession!

Xena and everyone at the centaur camp must prepare for the all-powerful Dagnine to return to the surface to wage a war of terror on all corners of the earth. She and Kaleipus order the hasty assembly of a large catapult that can shoot a large spear. Dagnine prances into camp, he is now a huge evil centaur! The combined effort of Xena and serval centaurs including Kaleipus distract him enough in order for the catapult to be fired. Dagnine is dead, and the threat is passed. Before leaving the centaur camp Xena spends a little time with Solon. He doesn't find out that Xena is his biological mother, but he has learned to love and appreciate her. He has a good home now, and Gabrielle understands why the troubled Xena of the past had to leave him behind with the noble centaurs.

NOTES

Xena's son is growing up to be a good person, and he has wisely decided to not follow the path of the warrior. Gabrielle's battle staff is better than a sword since its main focus is self defense.

Enter: Kaleipus, Dagnine, Solon

Xena and Gabrielle are in Centaur lands. They want to stop Dagnine from finding the Ixion stone which would give him dark powers. A complex layer is added when it's revealed Xena has a son, Solon, who lives with the Centaurs. She gave him up 10 years ago. Now Dagnine finds out about the son and wants to use that against Xena.

Pretty well-layered episode. In season one, in The Hooves and Harlots, we hear about the Xena and the great battle of Corinth. The story is mentioned here again. So good, to being consistent and following up on the story. We discover that Xena along with her lover, Borias went up against the Centaurs. Borias betrayed her and stood up for the Centaurs and then was killed. She was pregnant at the time with Solan. Xena gave her baby to Kaleipus, a Centaur leader to raise.

Xena mentions that Borias could sing and they used to sing together, However, that is never shown in the flashbacks in later episodes. Also different here is the feeling that Xena/Borias were in love with each other. But in the flashbacks later on in the series, that's not the case. Tho, it does seem that Borias did love her.

Do you find Solan annoying or likable? A little of both for me. His going after Xena seemed silly. That sword looked so ridiculously oversized on him. Also, he nearly messed up Xena's plan to rescue him by wanting the sword. But he is also likable with Gabrielle and later on with Xena.

Xena seems like she's having a tough time with her emotions. I think I read somewhere that Lucy Lawless didn't like the way she played that last scene with Solan. But I thought she did a really good job. Kind of sad and wanted to say something, but kept it in. At the same time proud that her son threw away the sword and decided not to be a warrior. Quite a range of emotions there actually.

So Ixion's power turns the person into a beastly Centaur. Cool. Actually, it was. They just used flashes to indicate Dagnine's change. Nowadays they would use morphing CGI. There is an Ixion in Greek mythology who is the father of Centaurs. So it was cool that the writers put their own spin on it.

Dagnine seems different from the much later "Past Imperfect" where he was more important in Xena's army than was implied here.

Gabrielle is truly Xena's BFF here. It's like a real-life instant where one may confide in their BFF about giving up a child.

Some really good action. But I don't know about Xena's sword splitting the spearhead in two which looked metal to me. But who cares, it was cool. Lol.

I disliked the part when Xena was fighting Dagnine as a Centaur Beast and Gabrielle was fighting his men. Xena in the middle of her fight throws the chakram over to take out the men and help Gabs. I would have preferred Gabs to fight and beat them up with her staff herself. Did the writers/director do this so that Xena wouldn't use her chakram on Dagnine? So that they could follow up on the giant arrow thingy? Which was actually cool, btw. Because the chakram would probably totally take out the beast? And the fight scene would be over too soon? Hmmm.

What a difference between season one vibes and season two vibes. This first episode of the second season feels more confident and grounded. More organized and aware of what this show is. They're still using the grainy 16mm cameras, which is too bad because season two is definitely much better than season one.

Anyway, really good compelling drama and action and more personal stakes for Xena. It's also sort of an arc story as the show will go back to the Centaurs and Solan later in the series. I also found the guest characters interesting and colorful. 10/10.