The Haunting of Amphipolis

The Haunting Of Amphipolis

Teleplay by Joel Metzger
Story by Edithe Swensen and Joel Metzger
Directed by Garth Maxwell

Episode synopsis:

Segment one:

Xena, Gabrielle, and Eve arrive at Xena's childhood home only to find it long ago deserted. When they split up to search the place, Xena catches a glimpse of an apparition, while Eve has a vivid experience, with Cyrene's spirit walking through her. When Xena arrives, Eve annouces that Cyrene is dead.

Segment two:

Realizing that the house is haunted, Xena goes to the mausoleum to find answers. There, she encounters an old man who tells her that evil spirits sent by Mephistopholes haunted the house and drove Cyrene mad. The townsfolk eventually burned her as a witch. Meanwhile, in the house, Eve and Gabrielle's food is assaulted by maggots. Eve begins chanting while Gabrielle is tormented by tearing her own flesh off of her hands, then being pulled into the floor, into a pool of filth and half-alive corpses.

Segment three:

Xena rescues Gabrielle from the pit, then everyone helps Gabrielle into the shower to wash off the burning liquid. Eve runs off, only to be tormented by watching the floor ooze with blood. Xena walks away and relives the moment when she brought her brother's corpse home to Cyrene. Gabrielle is turned into a demon. When she attacks Xena, Xena holds her down. She reveals that Mephistopholes needs to spill Eve's blood to be brought into the world where he will reign.

Segment four:

Eve casts the evil out of Gabrielle. While Eve prays beside the pit to hell in the backyard, Xena and Gabrielle's limbs merge. They waddle to Eve so that she can fix them. Xena teaches Gabrielle to do the nerve pinch so that Xena can fight Mephistopholes in the spirit realm, and then be revived. Xena battles him there, but she can only kill gods on earth. Eve is tormented by those she killed. When Xena returns to her body, she decides she will spill Eve's blood and fight Mephistopholes here.

Segment five:

Xena shrugs off the threat that the one who kills Mephistopholes will have to take his place as the ruler of hell. Eve spills her own blood and Mephistopholes rises. After a battle, Xena kills him (of course.) Cyrene's spirit appears and tells everyone how much she loves them.

Disclaimer: No maggots were harmed during the making of this motion picture, although a few were found stuck in Gabrielle's teeth.

Moments Of Subtext:

• Everyone participates in washing Gabrielle in the shower. There is even scrubbing!
• There is some naked tussling when Demon-Gabrielle attacks Xena.
• Demon-Gabrielle licks Xena's hand.
• Xena and Gabrielle hug after Gabrielle regains possession of her body.
• Xena and Gabrielle are temporarily joined into one body.
• Xena lets Gabrielle "kill" her because "I believe in you."
• Gabrielle cradles Xena's body after doing the neck pinch.
• Gabrielle tenderly brushes Eve's face while Xena is under the pinch.

Commentary:

Most people on the discussion page of this site seemed to really enjoy this episode. I found it to be dumb, dumb dumb. One of my biggest complaints in this episode is Eve. She is just awful here. First of all, she really only has one line: "In the name of Eli and all the powers of heaven, I command this evil spirit to be cast out!" She says this about one hundred times, each time more dramatic than the last. This gets real annoying. And she has other lousy lines, too. When they first arrive, and Eve reacts to how quiet it is, she says "It's as if I can feel the realms of Heaven and Hell taking sides." Really? What must that "feel" like? Hey, girly, it's quiet, okay? Just say so. She later in the episode is "dying" because of all the enthusiastic praying she has been doing. Dying from praying! And secondly, much of this episode is about abusing Gabrielle, when she is not even involved in any of the events of the episode! It seems the only way they could include her character in this plot was for her to be victimized over and over again. Otherwise, the people Mephistopholes is really after are tortured by a few awkward visions.

There are also a lot of just wierd (or stupid) little moments spread throughout the episode. The intro is very heavy-handed and melodramatic. Two arc-angels stand on a cloud looking down at Xena and saying in their deep, biblical voices, "Gosh, I sure hope Xena stops Hell from taking over the earth!" "That's right Bob, that would be Real Bad!" Thanks guys. I think if you erased that scene from the episode we the audience would still pick up the idea that Hell On Earth is a fairly unpleasant thing. Next, Xena and the gang ride up to mom's house after a twenty five year absence, and Xena is surprised things are different? "My mother wouldn't leave this place" says Xena in disbelief. Hello! Wake up and smell the future, Xena! Is it me, or did it take them a long time to notice that the house looked different than normal. They ride into the courtyard, chatting, being happy...wait...wait..Hey! Not only is nobody here, but this place is Messed Up! Get a clue, people. Then, Xena, realizing the place is haunted and they have seen some scary things, announces that she needs to go to the mausoleum alone! Why does she need to do this alone? Who would think of that? And speaking of plot devices, we are expected to buy the fact that there is this guy, who knows the place is haunted, and to avoid dark and stormy nights he hides out in the mausoleum? How stupid is this guy? How stupid are we for buying it?

And let's talk about horror movie cliches. Okay, people normally split up in these type of situations and go their seperate ways. But rarely is it this forced! When they originally split up, okay, that's its own thing. But after Gabrielle has clawed her own skin off, then been dragged into the floor, then burned with Nasty Liquid, then they drag her to the shower...they then just wander away for No Reason! And of course the result is...Another bad thing happens to Gabrielle! Arrgh! Pay attention people! Solitude=bad!

Then there's the inconcistency of the Xenaverse. Eve says of Cyrene, "If she died unabsolved, Mephistopholes would have possession of her soul." Now, let's see...every other culture seems to have their own gods...and the Greek gods have been dead for about two episodes now...so Mephistopholes has (more or less) Everyone. Everyone who has ever died. Except for maybe the few in the Cult Of Eli (cult=small) who were absolved before they died. And Livia herself made sure that most of them died unabsolved.

Part of the resolution to this episode is that Xena allows herself to be killed to defeat the bad guy. Again. Twice in two episodes. What, did they think that we'd forget that she did pretty much the same thing last week, and that it is a stupid plan to begin with? I wonder how Xena will be triumphant next week? I sure hope she (sigh) kills herself again! Wow, who can recover from a cliffhanger like that, week after week!

So yeah, I'm a little disappointed with this week's offerings. As far as I'm concerned, this throws us right back into Season Five. Yeah, there was some skin, but it was irrelevant (exploitational?) I'm tired of Xena fighting god after god after god. Where's the human element?

But then again, there were some more subtext moments here than there has been in a while.