A Good Day

• Gabrielle and Planagus' wife bond over their fighting loved ones.*
  • "You've done this before?"
    "A couple of times," responds Gabrielle.
    "I've never been in a war; I've only wondered what it was like. When I think of Phlanagus out there...fighting...sometimes the thoughts are too much to bear."
    "I know what you mean."
• Xena and Phlanagus return from their trip to Caesar's army. Phlanagus gives his wife a kiss before running back out to check on the catapults. Xena watches this kiss, licks her lips and says "Gabrielle, come with me." They both walk off camera.
• When Caesar reveals how he has tricked Xena's troops, Xena is not concerned for the troops, she is concerned for Gabrielle, and runs out into the war to find her.
• After the battle, Xena finds a distraught Gabrielle. Gabrielle recounts the events of the day in a mechanical fashion, saying "Everything worked out just like you said...[looking down at Phlanagus' body]...almost everything." It is only now, in Xena's presence that Gabrielle allows the events of the day to impact her and she breaks down crying. Xena kisses her on the forehead and holds her.**
• Xena tells Gabrielle: "All this is for a reason. Otherwise, what's the point? I was asking myself that same question when I first met you." Implying that Gabrielle is the point for Xena.

Another subtext-lite episode for this season. No surprise really. When Caesar shows up, you know they aren't going to write many Xena-Gabrielle scenes. What else is there to say about this episode? This show, which makes liberal use of slow motion, takes it to the ludicrous extreme in this episode. Long, slow montages lasting for five minutes of a village burning. An entire war between two armies done only in slow motion, so that we not only get to see the horrors of war, we get to study them, memorize them, look at our watches wondering when they will be over, go to the kitchen and make a meal...
*Insight provided by D.B.
**Insight provided by BaybeeJune