After last week's excellent comic outing, I was warmed back up, after the holiday reruns, and I was really looking forward to Xena this week. Imagine my surprise to find out that "Dangerous Prey" was Renee's directorial effort this season, and she was way too busy to play Gabrielle much this week (and after we already soldiered through the Gab-lite episode "Return of the Valkyre" so she could do her pre-production for this episode). Much as this bummed me out, I was also curious to see what she could do behind the camera. Last episode she did was "Deja Vu," a clip show, and it wasn't one of XWP's best episodes. Here, the lovely Renee got to direct a regular action-oriented episode, and her efforts are, well--read the review!

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The episode opens with a pretty standard Xena/Herc format. Someone, in this case, the Amazon queen Marga from "Coming Home," is being chased through the woods by something clearly bent on taking her life. Here, the hunter turns out to be a man, and he seems to like hunting down Amazons for some reason.

This being Xena's show, guess who's village she and Gabrielle just happen to be riding through at this moment? Yes, Queen Marga is missing, and Varia is stressed out over it. Xena immediately takes charge, and no sooner does she enter the woods to track down Marga than there's Marga! She's dying, and she makes Xena promise to teach Varia how to be a good warrior so she can lead the Amazon tribe. Xena, not realizing how big a brat Varia had become since they last met, agrees. But the bad part is, Marga's got a message carved on her lifeless body, basically taunting the Amazons to send their best fighter out to face the danger. As the opening credits roll, I'm into it.

I was surprised Gabrielle had to have Xena explain why Marga was allowed to crawl back and die. Surely after seeing the message it was obvious she was a living mail carrier, so to speak. Well, she was pulling double duty this week....

Xena suddenly notices Varia has run off, so Xena tells Gabrielle to guard the village while she gives pursuit. So much for Gabrielle this hour! But with a small bit of rewriting, you can see how the part of Varia could easily have begun as Gabrielle, and it was rewritten to give Renee time off for directing. More on this later.

Just as the unknown actor on the Star Trek away mission was the first to get zapped, in the Xenaverse, the hot headed youngster bent on revenge always crashes into danger and is immediately trapped. Yes, Varia charges into the woods only to end up hanging upside down in a tree, a victim of the hunter's traps. As she is about to be collected by some of the hunter's men, we learn the mysterious man is Prince Morloch. Fortunately, Xena arrives to break up their party, and a great fight ensues. Renee really does a nice job setting up the action scenes, and the frontal shot of the chakram zooming back into Xena's upraised hand is really breathtaking. The fight isn't really all that special, yet the action builds dramatically and is full of little Xena touches (watch her stare down the head henchman while still beating the tar out of another guy). Xena also manages to trap one of the men in their own devices, and by the time the others run off, Xena has an information source hanging next to Varia. Well done!

Unfortunately for Xena, Varia's not watching him as instructed, and he poisons himself. Varia, missing the big picture, says it's "one less to worry about." Xena chews out Varia, who responds with cool overconfidence. Xena, being Xena, knows exactly where all the bear traps and such are located, and she shows that skill off to Varia by using her sword to trigger off a bear trap right next to Varia ("There's a whole lot of things you need to know," she says). You would think this display of skill would pipe down Varia a bit, since it could have been her ankle in the trap Xena sprung. Instead, she blows off Xena and starts into the jungle. The ever pragmatic Xena simply flips a chain and collar around Varia's neck with a quick motion, and Varia's under control! Varia's slow burn after this is just something to watch! Such humiliation for a proud Amazon!

Finally, we see Prince Morloch, practicing against his men. We've seen other warlords who could kick their men's butts, and Xena beat them all. You get the impression this guy'll give Xena a run for her money, but he's just another arrogant, full-of-himself whippersnapper. He's goin' down! But such pedestrian challenges are boring him, and he shows great interest when his scout, Raczar (sp?), returns from the field reporting a fresh challenge, a certain talented female warrior. Yes, Morloch now wants to hunt Xena. Obviously, he's never seen the show before, or he'd know better.

Well, last week, we saw a dog bite Xena on the tush and live. This week, we see Varia, still collared and feisty, give Xena a good right hook to the jaw (for wronging the Amazons in her evil days). Xena, in classic style, feels it but refuses to let Varia know it. The quick look of fear that crosses Varia's face is priceless, as Xena quietly says, "I'm gonna let that one go." I'll bet Xena's starting to regret that promise she made to Marga to take care of Varia. I'll say one thing, though: the girl playing Varia, Tsianina Joelson, sure holds her own with Lucy Lawless in their many scenes together. She would've made a good Eve.

Much as Xena eventually had to let Gabrielle literally beat some sense into Tara, the snot-nosed brat of "Forgiven," here she beats some sense into Varia. And again, Ms O'Connor directs us through another well-done fight scene. And this is a good point to mention the incredible music score for this episode. In this scene and many others, LoDuca really turns in the goods, with music that enhances the action to an amazing degree. And in the quiet moments, his strings build a nearly claustrophobic web of dread. I hope some of this stuff finds it's way to the next CD.

Varia falls through some rotten flooring into a deep crevasse. Though only tenuously hanging on, she still refuses any help from Xena. Only when she falls and her last chance is grabbing Xena's lowered chain does she give in. This finally begins to get through to Varia that Xena wants to truly help her. Xena gives her a lecture on when enough is enough. Varia begins to spout back, but suddenly bites her tongue and refrains from comment. At this point, Xena and Varia trade a few expressions, during which much communication between them takes place. You simply have to see this part. The result is, Varia agrees to work with Xena. Which isn't to say she isn't above "brushing" Xena with her shoulder roughly as she passes. Hilarious! And Lucy's expression!

Xena, looking for more information, captures one of Morloch's men. He's got a drum of something he's carrying, and I find it funny that Varia, upon pulling out the cork and sniffing it, says she doesn't know what it is, but one drop'll start a bon fire. If she doesn't know what it is, how does she know what it'll do?

In another brilliant move, Xena doesn't even bother to question the captive, but rather strings him up in a tree to use as bait, figuring that will draw the hunter out of hiding. Meanwhile, we are beginning to see how cunning Morloch is, as he uses the opportunity to observe his men, figuring Xena will be nearby. Yes, a severe battle of wits is brewing.

Xena, having such finely tuned senses, can tell something's amiss. Her next move is to swap outfits with Varia, knowing "Xena" will keep the hunter's attention while she does some tactical maneuvering in Varia's outfit. And Xena in an Amazon loin cloth is not to be missed. Morloch's senses also tingle, and after Xena chakrams one of his men, he is ready to lure her into a cave. I loved watching these two battle it out. The guy's a cad, but he really can think at almost the same level as Xena. Notice I say "almost." Unlike Morloch, I have seen the show.

I mentioned Varia's similarities to Gabrielle, and we see one here. As Xena heads into the cave after Morloch, she tells Varia to wait there. If you've ever seen Gabrielle in action, you can guess about how long Varia's going to wait before going in.

Xena and Morloch can hear each other in the cave, and this leads to some interesting banter between the two. This episode sparkled with a lot of well-written dialogue, especially during the fights and Xena's talks with Varia. With all Morloch's assertion of being a Hunter, with a capital H, I kept expecting them to talk about The Way. Clearly, his was the Way of the Hunter! Until today! There's a killer scene of the two throwing their chakrams into a cave to do aerial battle, bouncing off the walls and slamming about before returning to their respective owners. I'll bet Xena would love to try out that triangular design, see what it can do.

The moody blue lighting, as beams of light slash through openings in the rocks, is perfect, allowing us visibility but maintaining a dark, ominous atmosphere. The red torches carried by Morloch's men also provide nice splashes of color throughout the following chase scenes.

Varia, in Gabrielle-like fashion, comes in and distracts Xena, allowing Morloch to nick Xena's arm with a triangular chakram toss. Of course, it takes no time for Morloch to nearly kill Varia, and only Xena's intervention saves her life. The two women run off into the caves, Morloch and his men in hot pursuit.

Raczar eventually sees Varia running through the caves. The men shoot a volley of arrows her way, and as one guy goes to check out the body, he finds her feet sticking out from behind a rock, apparently hit. As he lifts her boots up, we see they were lying beside that keg of explosive stuff Varia lugged along to the cave. Somehow, lifting the boots lights the keg, and we have a big explosion. Somehow, Raczar and a handful of men escape the blast, although we're not shown how. Varia turns to Xena as they exit the cave and wonders why they had to use her boots! Xena answers that Amazons have tougher feet, but I expected her to say, "Because I'm Xena and you're not."

After hearing the explosions, Xena says she doesn't think that's enough to kill Morloch, and of course she's right. Varia, now finally getting behind Xena, says that Morloch may not be easy to kill, but neither are they! Now she's showing a little spirit! "I'm tired of being the prey. Maybe it's time we hunted him," Xena says. Ooh, yeah: Xena's on the warpath now! Unfortunately for Morloch, he doesn't run away.

Back at Morloch's base, we see Raczar begin to question the wisdom of following his boss, who's turning out to be more of a suicidal nutcase as the Xena chase goes on. Most of their men are dead, and they only have four left. Yet Morloch's more convinced than ever that Xena is the prey he has searched for his whole life.

Now I have a bit of a logical bone to pick. In hindsight, at this point in the story, Morloch's thought process must be going something like this: "Let's assume Xena's friend injures her leg and can't walk quickly. Let's start the forest on fire, driving Xena and her friend forward into my waiting trap. Let's assume that Xena rigs a catapult from a tree and tries to fly her slow-moving friend to safety. Let's set up a net-throwing device right where Xena will try to fly the friend so we can capture her in the net. Then we hold the friend to lure Xena into another trap." I say, "What?" I'm sorry, but we must assume that Morloch somehow knows that Varia gets injured taking a booby-trap arrow for Xena. He also must think Xena's only mode of getting Varia to safety is to rig a catapult from a tree. Somehow, I don't think that would be the most obvious choice. And even if he anticipates the catapult, how in Tartarus would he know where to set up his net-throwing device (rather large and bulky to be moving quickly). And how would he know Varia's trajectory, which would depend a lot on how big a tree Xena used, which way she pointed it, and how far back she pulled it before launching Varia. Very dramatic, but it makes virtually no sense. Perhaps the ending was longer, but had to be cut back for time? And it does all play out like that, in a rather action-oriented finale.

When Varia takes the arrow in her ankle, she started to sound kind of full of herself. "If this had happened earlier today, I'll bet you would have just left me here," she opines. "I think I'm starting to grow on you." After such a screwed up start, she ought to be a bit more humble, but Xena tells her she's beginning to see the qualities in her that Marga saw.

If we didn't think Morloch was a bad ass before, we get a scene of him roasting two of his men alive as they set the forest ablaze. Raczar wasn't too pleased about being forced to shoot the flaming arrow that triggered it off. I think if this episode had gone on a little longer, we'd see a mutiny here. Of course, we don't see Raczar again this episode. Maybe he bolted?

As she climbs on the catapult tree, Varia asks Xena how she's supposed to land. Xena's dry reply: "Tuck and roll!"

Xena finally outruns the fire, and finds the captured Varia tied to a pole (a very Gabrielle-like position to be in). The pole is none-too-firmly attached to a platform high in the air, supported by a square Lincoln Log-style pile of logs. This gave me the same feeling I had when I first saw Callisto's fortress where the ladder battle took place. You weren't sure at first what it was for, but you knew something wild was coming up. Same here with the log tower.

Morloch shows his chakram skills by shooting down Xena's toss, meant to cut Varia's ropes. Has anyone but Callisto shown such prowess with a chakram? Very impressive. The two exchange about equal parts swordplay and cutting remarks as a little warm up to the finale.

Suddenly, the two begin to fight around the base of the log tower, eventually climbing up the sides. I'm not going to say too much about the ensuing fight scene since it is very visual and very complex (yet not too difficult to follow). Again, much like with Callisto's ladders, the two combatants begin to knock logs out of place, spinning them about into all sorts of configurations on which they stand and around which they fight. The music is rockin', and Renee really manages to create a sense of danger and excitement here with her excellent blocking of the battle. As battle scenes go, this one gets a firm five chakrams.

I find it interesting that Xena spends all this time trying to keep Varia from falling off the tower, yet when she finally gets a second to free her, Xena forces her to jump off the tower! I'm amazed Varia didn't break a leg at least (considering she's was still injured from the arrow earlier).

Xena turns to find Morloch right behind her, atop the tower. Then, she solves the whole thing with a bit of reasoning I'm not sure she would've used before meeting Gabrielle. When Morloch claims this is the fight he has been search for his entire life, she replies with, "You're right! So why would I give it to you?" And she jumps down after Varia and walks away, leaving Morloch to bellow like a pouty child atop the tower: "You will fight me!" Hey, buddy, Xena does whatever she wants to!

Then, Morloch plays right into Xena's hands! As she retrieves her errant chakram, he throws a pointy log down at her. He decides to go after her and launches himself to the ground. Meanwhile, Xena casually uses her foot to tip up the end of the pointy log, and sure enough, Morloch gets impaled before hitting the ground. "You lose," Xena tells him, pulling up his head. Morloch has just enough life left to grunt as she allows the pointy log to fall over. Simply brilliant in a log-through-the-guts sort of way!

Varia's learned her lesson about revenge, and we see the group back at the Amazon village, Gabrielle lighting the funeral pyre for Marga. We find out that Marga left her rite of caste to Varia, and Xena seems to feel she's earned the right to lead the tribe now. But Varia is wiser now, and she admits she still has much to learn. I hope we see more of this interesting woman.

What an interesting episode. I really missed Gabrielle, but knowing it was her behind the camera made every scene something to be treasured. Whereas her first directorial effort was a bit sluggish and rough, here she shows us a lot of really interesting, visually well-composed scenes, and the action flies along at breakneck speed. There were some areas that had only a tenuous grip on logic, but the constantly moving plot soon swept those objections away. Morloch, who could easily have been just another bad dude looking to knock off Xena, really establishes an identity here as the great white hunter. Heck, he could hold his own with Xena in chakram ability and bon mots during the fight scenes. Too bad he had to die, but even the way they accomplished that was surprising, with Xena being uncharacteristically non-violent, in a lethal sort of way! The Big Fight Scene was every bit as good as every other "theme" fight they've done. The subplot with Varia was equally well done. After starting out nearly as snotty and obnoxious as Tara, Varia turned into a talented, intelligent Amazon queen. Again, this girl seems move Eve-like than Eve, in the mother's daughter kind of way. She even seemed to bond with Xena so closely that you almost don't miss Gabrielle (I said "almost"). Unlike Morloch, she lived, so perhaps she'll show up again. But Amazon queens don't seem to have much of a life span. And a special honorable mention to whoever designed Varia's Amazon threads. Ooh la la. Let's hope Xena tries them on again.

Yet somehow it doesn't quite add up for me. Perhaps, being a "stand alone" episode, I'm just missing the great cosmic reverberations along the story arc or something. But it seems that despite all the wonderful particulars about the show, it still comes off as just a good episode. And believe me, there's nothing wrong with that. So I can't give it a five chakram rating, but I'll give it a four. Missing Gabrielle, I was really tempted to go down to a three rating, but I don't usually mark off Xena-free episodes like "Fishsticks" for not having Xena, so I can't do that here. And it did have some marvelous Xena/Morloch banter, and that amazing fight scene on the log tower. And Renee's loving hand on every scene. Yeah, a definite four!
Rick(Gabriologist since the late 20th Century)
Visit my web site at ricks-studio.com for Episode Reviews,
Humorous Quotes, and other Xena-themed writing!

"Where's Gabrielle when I need her?" --Xena, in Morloch's cave
"Psst! Xena, I'm over here behind the camera!" --Gabrielle