Return is the Empire Strikes Back to Callisto's New Hope. It expands Callisto's impact and gives new dimension to Xena and Gabrielle. As the heroines, they succeed only at tremendous cost, with loss, and take a decidedly anti-heroic turn. Everything that they promised each other they wouldn't become during the original campfire scene happens here, thanks to Callisto pushing just the right buttons.

Subtext fans have a field day with this episode, but we know the marriage to Perdicas could never last. His death puts the final nail in the coffin of Gab ever hoping to regain her previous life, and drives both women to different ends than either of them expected.

Gab explodes with rage and becomes exactly what she rebuked Melas for becoming when his son died: unhinged, frothing, uncaring of consequences. She has the perfect opportunity to make Callisto her first kill, but pulls back. This special rage for Callisto never fully disappears while Callisto refuses to feel guilt.

Xena is so shocked at Gab's transformation, and helpless to break through Gab's walls, that in one of very few instances in the series, she prays for guidance. In the premiere, Xena played the usual hero game and saved Callisto to show that she was above her. Here, she becomes Evil Xena and gives in to her baser instincts. She's played judge, jury, and now executioner, and will be haunted by her choice.

Even Joxer's usual bumbling is offset by some evolving tender moments and growing affection and concern for Gab in the midst of her grief.

Callisto is arguably the one who receives the least development this episode, since this time she lacks all reason for sympathy, and is only about finding ways to make Xena suffer. And she discovers that making Gab miserable is equally if not more effective at torturing Xena than killing Gab outright. But her unhinged glee is as good as ever to watch, and her death is a symbol that Xena can never truly redeem her past, only put it behind her, sometimes with extreme methods.

The visual callbacks to the premiere are spectacular: the panning of the camera to Callisto's first shot, watching; the lone child watching their village ambushed; Callisto fleeing the village after taunting Xena; the rush outside to the horseback/chariot chase. The chariots up the complexity of the horseback sequence just a bit and are still masterfully executed.

This is how you bring back a villain better than ever, and make their impact on the heroes darker and also richer than before.