From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   Before I go into this episode, something I forgot to mention for Ep 1 - Sins   
   of the Past.   
       And that is how young Lucy and Renee looked ( but it WAS 18 years ago!).   
   Particularly Renee! She looked to be about 17 or 18, the age I think   
   Gabrielle was when she left home to travel with Xena. (Lucy was 27 and Renee   
   was 24.)   
      
   But the episode ---   
       'Chariots of War' (also known as 'Sins of the Father')   First air date:   
   Sept. 11,1995   
       The beginning credits read "Also Starring Renée O'Connor". So she was   
   not yet up to 'co-star' status.   
       I noticed that Xena's hair braid was gone, and replaced with bangs.   
      
   To hit the highlights (I'm assuming / presuming a complete episode recap is   
   not necessary) --   
       In a tavern when Xena is leaving and Gabrielle says, "Don't forget about   
   me," so you just know something's going to happen so that Xena won't be back   
   anytime soon.   
       Xena comes upon a very small village that is being attacked by a band of   
   men bent on destroying the village the villagers are trying to rebuild after   
   a previous attack. And she proceeds to thwart the attack.  For the first   
   time we see Xena catch arrows shot at her. She catches two of them, but the   
   third one goes into her midsection.   
      
     And here is another place I can contrast to 'Spartacus.'  Darius tears   
   open Xena's leather garment to reveal the wound, and all we see is an arrow   
   sticking out of a wound with a minimum of blood. Somehow Darius manages to   
   unhook/unbutton/unfasten Xena's garment and pulls it straight off, not   
   disturbing the arrow.  If this had been a Spartacus type of show, we would   
   have seen a bare breasted Xena with an arrow sticking out of her side, with   
   LOTS of blood!   
       (Since Lucy was at least 15 - 20 pounds heavier in 2012, and had had a   
   second kid, her breasts were obviously larger (to me) than 1995 Lucy.)   
      
     There was that scene about pushing the arrow all the way through her,   
   breaking off the arrow head, and then pulling the shaft back out -- Xena   
   certainly looked like she was in pain! Great acting.   
       And next we see the evil warlord father -- a follower of Ares (Ares was   
   brought up in the first ep. Maybe a setup for when he makes an appearance?),   
   named Sphaerus, and his son, Cycnus, who doesn't seem quite so evil,   
   especially after he and Gabrielle meet in the tavern where she is waiting   
   for Xena to return. That certainly was  a nice kiss she (Gabrielle) planted   
   on him, while sitting in his lap, no less!   
   So Sphaerus makes fake peace with the villagers in order to get them   
   gathered together in one place so Cycnus can slaughter them and Sphaerus can   
   have the valley for himself.  Xena goes to the meeting with Darius, and   
   instead of her warrior garb, agrees to wear his favorite dress that had   
   belonged to his dead wife.   
       And I only have three words -- hot , Hot , H O T!  Wow! Xena IS one   
   beautiful woman, with an erotic, graceful way of walking away from you.   
   (i.e. -- NICE ASS!!)   
       Father and son set out in a chariot going after Xena (I suppose he knew   
   where she was), with a second following behind for back up. Xena is able to   
   commandeer the second one while Gabrielle rides on ahead on Xena's horse as   
   a distraction.  (I was wondering when the chariots of the 'Chariots of War'   
   were going to show up.)   
       Xena and Sphaerus fight while Cycnus threatens to kill Gabrielle, but   
   she convinces him not to, saying this is his moment of choice. Which was how   
   she described to him in the tavern her decision not to stay home and have   
   children but to travel with Xena.   
      
       All in all, not a bad effort for the second episode. We don't see as   
   much of Gabrielle as we did in 'Sins of the Past'. But her small part did   
   what it was supposed to do -- help Cycnus decide he would rather be a   
   peace-maker rather than a blood-thirsty warlord like his brother and father.   
       I originally thought this episode came WAY too soon, that Xena had much   
   more redeeming to do first. But after watching this one again (for the   
   fourth/fifth/or more times), I was thinking that maybe Xena was thinking   
   that if she settled down with Darius and his three children, eventually, the   
   name of Xena the Warrior Princess would fade away and she could live a   
   peaceful life away from the death and destruction she had caused in the   
   past. And Gabrielle could settle down with Cycnus, to be his wife, and live   
   the life she ran away from with Perdicus.   
      
       Out of ten, I would give this one a seven. I don't think it was quite as   
   good as 'Sins of the Past' but close.   
       Oh yeah, in the excitement of the chariot races, we hear Gabrielle yell   
   out, twice – "XENA!"   
       She did it once in the first episode, and twice in this one.  Does that   
   mean that  in the season finale she yells it out twenty-four times?   
      
       Sins of the Past  - 7   
       Chariots of War - 7   
   Average.................   7   
      
      
   http://daviderl.com/LucyLawless.thml .   
   http://daviderl31.blogspot.com/   
      
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