From: davideml@bellsouth.net   
      
   3-20 Vanishing Act   
      
      
      
             First air date Apr 27, 1998   
             The episode starts out with Gabrielle and Xena going in separate   
   directions. Gabrielle   
   goes into a village that is celebrating 20 years of peace where a gold female   
   statue called Pax   
   stands next to the docks. Gabrielle tells the mayor Xena will be there in the   
   morning.   
      
             Then next day they discover the statue is missing (and the   
   pedestal?). Xena guesses it   
   was stolen. She spies a suspicious old lady. When the old lady tries to get   
   away, Xena kicks her   
   cane out from under her. And when she tries to scramble up a gangplank to a   
   ship, Xena lassoes her   
   feet and drags her back down. It is Autolycus in disguise. He says it's   
   because with his reputation   
   he has to or will be accused of thievery. He says he didn't steal the statue,   
   but will let Xena   
   work with him to get it back.   
      
             They interrogate the wharf-master about who might have a ship. Xena   
   uses the Pinch but   
   takes it off at Autolycus' insistence. They are told Tarses stole it and lives   
   on an island. They   
   catch a ship to the island. Gabrielle is to pose as Myopia, a fence for stolen   
   items. Tarses   
   decides to have the statue melted down.   
      
             Xena shows up disguised as Ezra, another fence. She insists on   
   seeing the statue.   
   Autolycus is disguised as her manservant with an eye patch and a humpback.   
   Autolycus turns over a   
   series of torches to allow Xena to use her Chakram to close (or open) some   
   kind of lever on the   
   furnace, causing it to lose heat.   
      
   Tarses decides they will go back inside to wait for the furnace to get hot   
   enough, but Xena needs   
   time for Autolycus to look around. She and Gabrielle start bidding on the gold   
   after the statue is   
   melted down. Xena wins with a bid of 400,000 dinars and the Ring of Apollo.   
   Autolycus has seen what   
   he needs to (a fake wall painted to look like a hallway) and has a plan.   
      
   Xena and Autolycus send Gabrielle to a party while they find supplies to   
   implement Autolycus' plan.   
   Later they join the party. Tarses figures out who Autolycus is and reminds   
   Autolycus he killed his   
   brother. Xena pretends everything was Autolycus' fault and she (Ezra) just   
   fell in love with the   
   wrong man. They are taken away. Autolycus is chained with 20 feet of chain and   
   200 locks. Ezra is   
   tied to a chair.   
      
   Tarses tells Myopia she can bid again in the morning against a Silosian   
   general who also wants the   
   statue.   
      
   Xena gets out of the chair and is back in her leathers, and Gabrielle is out   
   of her disguise. Xena   
   goes to find Autolycus, but he has escaped. She tells Gabrielle he is going to   
   kill Tarses for   
   killing his brother.   
      
   Autolycus finds Tarses and starts to kill him, but Xena talks him out of it,   
   saying it's not what   
   Autolycus' brother would want him to do. Tarses' soldiers come in and Xena and   
   Autolycus escape.   
      
   Outside they fight again, and Tarses' soldiers run away when the Silosian   
   general shows up with   
   his soldiers. Tarses says they (Autolycus, Xena and Gabrielle ) are trying to   
   get his gold. But   
   they are nowhere to be seen, nor is the statue. The general threatens Tarses'   
   life about offering   
   goods he doesn't have. The statue has been hidden behind a panel painted to   
   look  like the wall it   
   was next to.   
      
   The next morning, the statue (and pedestal) is back in the village. Xena and   
   Autolycus pay each   
   other compliments about being the best or second best thieves.   
      
   .........../   
      
   Not a particularly great episode. Many plot holes. But some things weren't so   
   bad.   
      
   *First the good things ---   
      
   Anytime both Xena and Gabrielle are in disguise we know they are gong to have   
   fun with it.   
   Gabrielle/Myopia was using her Marquessa accent. I always like to see   
   Gabrielle wearing blue.   
      
   Xena/Ezra was kind of Meg-like with a New York accent and personality. Lucy   
   sure knows how to put   
   on a show. Loved that huge mole that Myopia couldn't keep her eyes off of.   
      
   The two double flips with Xena and Autolycus was kind of cool.   
      
   And Autolycus was back to his old King-of-Thieves self, having fun with the   
   200 locks.   
      
   Kind of liked Gabrielle counting off the seconds while Xena and Autolycus   
   argued about   
   interrogating the wharf-master.   
      
   Gabrielle and Xena trying to outbid each other for the gold with dinars they   
   didn't have. Was that   
   amount of gold worth 400,000 dinars?   
      
   *Things I didn't care for/understand ---   
      
   The statue and the pedestal --- At first the statue seemed to be "as tall as a   
   house" but at the   
   end, the pedestal was the tall item and not the statue - what happened? And   
   where was the pedestal   
   all this time?   
      
   What was Autolycus doing in the village in the first place?   
      
   Gabrielle had her staff back. Since she was fiddling with it on the dock,   
   maybe she made another   
   one and was just finishing it up?   
      
   How did they get the statue (and pedestal?) back to the village and get it put   
   back in place in one   
   night?   
      
   *Also ---   
      
   During the interview for this episode, Andrew Merrifield (the director), Rob,   
   Lucy and Renee all   
   agreed this was a stinker of an episode. Rob said there is bound to be a bad   
   episode in every   
   season. He (or maybe the director) mentioned the different sizes of the   
   pedestal/statue. Lucy   
   thought this was the worst one of the series, but Renee mentioned a fifth   
   season episode involving   
   Eeyore (which I take to mean Lachrymose and the episode 'Punch Lines') as   
   being the worst one she   
   remembered. (I don't remember too much about that one, unless it's the one   
   where Argo and Gabrielle   
   are shrunk down very small. But more on it six or seven months from now.)   
      
   Even with all the fun Lucy and Renee were having in their  disguises couldn't   
   raise this one   
   higher than a 7 out of 10 rating.   
      
   ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::   
      
   3-20 Vanishing Act                   7   
      
   3-19  Tsunami                          7   
      
   3-18  Fins, Femmes and Gems  8   
      
   3-17 Forget Me Not .             8   
      
   3-16 When In Rome .            8   
      
   3-15  King Con                        6   
      
   3-14  Forgiven                         8   
      
   3-13 One Against An Army      9.5   
      
   3-12 The Bitter Suite                9.5   
      
   3-11 Maternal Instincts             9.5   
      
   3-10  The Quill is Mightier.    8   
      
   3-09  Warrior-Priestess-Tramp 8   
      
   3-08  King of Assassins           6.5   
      
   3-07  The Debt II                     9   
      
   3-06  The Debt                         9.5   
      
   3-05  Gabrielle's Hope              9   
      
   3-04  The Deliverer                  9   
      
   3-03  The Dirty Half Dozen      8   
      
   3-02  Been There, Done That   9   
      
   3-01  The Furies                      6.5   
      
   Average score so far   ----  8.2   
      
   --   
   David   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)