Rick's Studio

I think Them Bones, Them Bones has been pretty well discussed, but here are my $0.02 worth (just noticed these keyboards don't have "cents" signs on them). Technically, Purity hasn't aired yet here in Atlanta, so I'm not quite late yet!

Right off the bat: Xena's eating mushrooms! She seems to be ingesting all sorts of strange things considering she's pregnant. If that baby wasn't unusual before, by the time it's born it sure will be. For any of you ladies out there who are pregnant, I don't recommend magic mushrooms or blood derived from sacrifice rituals as they are both highly toxic! I did like seeing Gabrielle kidding Xena about taking herself seriously. There's been so much action, X&G haven't had much together time to talk this season. And the skeleton baby coming out of Xena a la Alien was pretty cool. Just a dream, but for a second there, well...

The opening scene (after the credits) showing Xena, Gab & Amarice riding along all on horseback was really powerful. If a warlord wasn't scared seeing Xena coming before, the sight of these three lovely female warriors would no doubt do it. So much better than having Gab and Amarice walking.

I'm going to miss Amarice, she really got more interesting as the show progressed. I think she got to do what Tara originally wanted to do: ride with and learn from Xena. However, instead of trying to usurp Gab, Amarice just fit herself in as part of the group. I hope she comes back soon!

As usual, I was keeping an eye on Gab, and I must say she just looks so cute in her deer costume with the little antlers! And the way she fought Xena to go fight Alti was inspiring if somewhat misguided. I thought the writers could've a least let her get a couple good licks in on Alti before going belly up. She just showed up and got whupped! At least she had previous experience handling death! And, as you all noted, the "Xena's Little Bitch" line was a scream!0

Seems like those Northern Amazons are really into psychedelics! All those weird visuals leading to the spiritual world were cool. I like the disorienting affect since it mirrors what would probably be a disorienting experience to the person crossing over. It was kind of like the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I kept waiting for Xena to appear in a hotel room and age quickly to become a star child.

I read several people say they were sickened by all the blood in this episode, but hey, those were violent times, and XWP's been known to dip into the blood drinking stuff before (most noticeably Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Adventures In the Sin Trade). Personally, I don't think the show is gory enough (for the times in which it is set), but it is mainstream TV, so what can ya do?

Is it just me, or was Yakut amazingly bland? The actress was cute who played her, but she didn't seem to have the darkness to have caused all this trouble in the first place. I guess even shamenesses are a bit green and naive when they begin their careers. Maybe she'll seem a little more worldly next time. Anyway, it was good to see Xena haul off and belt her one in the dreamworld, even if it was actually Alti she hit.

The skeleton fight was really cool, and it made a nice tie-in to the beginning's skeleton birth scene. Seeing Xena dismember Alti reminded me so much of Monty Python's Holy Grail where the knight gets all his arms and legs cut off and still wouldn't stand down.