22: 2x12 "Destiny"

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend your ears to a new episode of XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST! This week, Vera, Katie, and Livy flash back to ten winters ago in 2x12 “Destiny,” an episode that delves deep into Xena’s past and has huge implications for her future. We discuss Rob Tapert’s directorial signature (boats! fish! Lucy!); Julius Caesar, a.k.a. world’s worst boyfriend, whose introduction kicks off the show’s longest and most ambitious narrative arc; Xena/M’Lila, a tragic ship that never sailed because Xena was too enamored with the peen; and sharpened logs, which for some reason are Xena’s Kryptonite? Plus Renée O’Connor makes us cry again!  

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21: 2x11 "Here She Comes...Miss Amphipolis"

She's beauty, she's grace, she's XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST. This week Vera, Katie, and Livy get their pageant on in 2x11 "Here She Comes...Miss Amphipolis," a deceptively light episode that has big ambitions, tackling gender and gay culture directly, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. We discuss artifice and performativity, why beauty pageants were such a *thing* in the '90s, and what happens to the male gaze when both the writer and director of the episode are female. Plus our french bulldog Phil has strong opinions about human trafficking.

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20: 2x09-10 "A Solstice Carol" & "The Xena Scrolls"

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, it’s beginning to look a lot like...Solstice? Vera, Katie, and Livy get into the holiday spirit (yes, even though it’s April) by watching 2x09 “A Solstice Carol.” We chat about our favorite TV Christmas specials, praise the magnificent acting talent of Tobias the donkey, and debate whether or not Julia Child’s voice is sexy. *purrs* Boeuf Bourguignon… Then it’s on to 2x10 “The Xena Scrolls,” a clip show light on clips and heavy on... sets, costumes, and action? Um, guys, I don’t think Xena understands what a clip show is, and thank god for that because this episode has a significant impact on the show’s mythology. We discuss the gender masquerade of Melinda “Mel” Pappas and Dr. Janice Covington, how the introduction of the Xena Scrolls adds levels of intertextuality and subjectivity to the show’s narrative, and the important framework this ep laid down for Xena fanworks. Plus Vera just will not shut up about Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. 

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19: 2x08 "Ten Little Warlords"

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, who will be the next God of Waaaaar? /reality show announcer voice. Vera, Katie, and Livy attempt to solve the mystery of 2x08 "Ten Little Warlords." This mediocre ep, with its half-baked Agatha Christie premise (like anyone was clamoring for the return of King Sisyphus and his Haunted Mansion?) would be pretty unremarkable if not for the fact that Hudson Leick is playing Xena to a T. We discuss her heroic, incredibly seamless performance, the psychologically rich implications of this predicament for both Xena and Gabrielle, and the Season 2-that-could-have-been had the producers extended it. Plus we talk about Rob Tapert's favorite boat set, new developments in the Xena/Ares relationship, and Gabrielle the hangry bargain hunter.

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18: 2x07 "Intimate Stranger"

This week on BUFFY: THE VAMPIRE PODCAST, get ready for --*record scratch*-- wait, what? Who are we?? Which series is this?!?! Identity crises are the name of the game because Vera, Katie, and Livy are talking about 2x07 “Intimate Stranger.” With the show's first foray into body swap territory, this Xena and Callisto classic sure has an uncanny resemblance to another famous body swap episode at the time...you know the one. We lose our minds over how great Lucy Lawless and Hudson Leick are at inhabiting each other’s roles, try to puzzle out why feeling guilty always leads to SPINNING INTO A ROCK, navigate through the minefield of consent issues that is the Callisto/Ares hook-up, and discuss the terrible extenuating circumstances that forced the ep’s unnatural ending into existence. (Y'all, Gilbert Gottfried is always bad news.)

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