I miss Callisto and Ares very much

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Perfect-Comfortable4@reddit

Season 4 is complex, rich and diverse but it is also a material jump in tone and format from earlier seasons so it can be hard to adjust. A change up keeps things fresh

Like season 3 there is an underlying running theme (the vision) which is very engaging and leads to Ides of March, arguably one of the best episodes of the whole show. It had very dark, sad elements (Adv in the Sin Trade, A Good Day, Past Imperfect, Locked up Tied Down, Paradise Lost, even the Najara eps) and the India arc was a huge jolt (although love the incredible end fight scene with Alti in Between the Lines, and the beauty of Devi).

Xena & Gabrielle’s relationship was being tested in a whole new way. Even in the comedy episodes there felt like a lot of negative tension and after Season 3 it felt a little relentless. Whereas Season 1 & 2, carefully built their relationship up, Season 3 & 4 certainly tested it’s strength.

I think many struggle especially because of Gabrielle’s changes both physical and emotional - it represented what felt like a regression, a backwards step back to who she was at the start of Season 1. She felt naive and vulnerable again, but it represented a stage of new growth.

Given the trauma that she endured in season 3 with losing her blood innocence, death of Hope and Solan and the complete breakdown in her relationship with Xena, watching her family in Potedia be terrorised by her kid and grandkid and now with Xena’s cryptic vision of their impending death, it actually makes a lot of sense that she would undergo such radical transformation to “escape,” or work through the pain by getting in touch with who she was before all the bad happened - someone who wanted to end the cycle of violence. In a show like Xena it probably isn’t practical to have the second lead character that doesn’t also fight too, but I am glad they ignored that and explored it as a concept anyway, and that they explored more of the world than Greece.

I struggled with Xena taking on more of the load together with Gabrielle’s self-righeous attitude (although I need a rewatch before passing judgement as my views on the show have started to change since the 90s), as well as the loss of her physical strength was a bummer. Eli also did not come across well either, I don’t know if it’s due to the way he was written. I did not miss the other recurring characters especially, but you would expect Ares to make a appearance in Ides.

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FirefighterThink1556@reddit

Season 4 is probably my favorite season, and I think it’s narratively the strongest as it’s the only season with a planned arc. I miss Callisto too because I’m always happy to see Callisto, but I don’t feel like the season is lacking from less of the side characters. Xena and Gabrielle are the reason I enjoy the show and this season is more focused on them than any other. The season certainly has its problematic moments, but the story remains strong throughout.

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AuntyEmfromOz@reddit

But Callisto had a big impact in the Ides of March and I loved that she had short hair for that episode, too. Something that just occurred to me - was she jealous of Gabrielle being with Xena (of course she was!) and is that why she had short hair as well - because, you know, maybe Xena liked it more? (Butch Gabrielle?)

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FirefighterThink1556@reddit

Yes! I love Callisto in Ides, I’m very glad she’s back for that episode, but I’m okay with her not being in more of the season, it makes her being there for Ides even more impactful.

And haha omg I love that headcanon. Callisto would totally do something like that. The only issue is that she seems to have short hair in hell before she knows she’s gonna get to have a field trip and the vision she has of Gabrielle still has long hair, so it’s possible she didn’t know that Gabrielle had cut her hair? It’s unclear if heaven/hell has the same connection to the land of the living as Hades. But also, maybe she did know somehow and just has that vision because that’s the version of Gabrielle she’s interacted with, and then she cut her hair when Gabrielle did just in case she ever saw Xena again, or to make herself feel better because of the jealousy.

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AuntyEmfromOz@reddit

Good point, she did have short hair in Hell but was remembering Gabrielle with long hair. So that theory of mine doesn't work. I loved the fact that it was the two of them, Gabrielle AND Xena, who were tormenting her in hell - says a lot about her feelings towards Gabrielle, I think, the jealousy, considering Gabrielle never really did anything to Callisto (except hate her for killing Perdicus).

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FirefighterThink1556@reddit

Agreed! Gabrielle drives her crazy just by existing because she has all of Xena’s attention and affection, and she represents who Callisto thinks she could have been if it weren’t for Xena.

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low_keyLoki@reddit

S4 is my favourite too and it always surprises me to see it be so divisive within the fanbase. For me it’s the most consistent season by far and the narrative through line of Xena’s vision was a stroke of genius. Xena always seems to get left out of the conversation when it comes to the trailblazers of serialized TV but it was absolutely an innovator on this front.

As for Callisto and Ares… I didn’t miss them much. I love Ares and Callisto but S4 benefited massively from its more focused storytelling. It felt grounded in a way the other seasons didn’t and suffered from less tonal whiplash because of it.

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Designer_Stage_489@reddit

Season 3 had the rift arc and season 5 had th Eve/twilight of the gods arc but I think the season 4 arc was the best written one

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FirefighterThink1556@reddit

By planned arc I mean one where they figured out what they were doing at the beginning of the season and followed through with it, which is why I think season 4 is most well written. I love season 3 but I think you can tell that they were making it up as they went, which is fine it and charming in its own way, it wasn’t meant to be a serialized show. The arc in season 5 is a mess thanks to be written by a million different people with different ideas and a lack of attention to the main characters. I like that for season 4 they really committed to the arc and shared with the audience what their goal was, I think it’s great writing.

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IseQween@reddit

Agreed. I especially liked them exploring their different ways, the challenges and consequences of that, culminating in the mutual understanding they reach in IOM. Alti and Najara aren't Callisto, but they presented other dimensions to our girls' journeys.

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AuntyEmfromOz@reddit

Well, Gabrielle and Xena were travelling east towards India for their spiritual quest. Even Joxer couldn't find them easily in the rest of the world, surely!

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Overall_Sandwich_671@reddit

I think 4 is the most boring season. It also doesn't use as much mythology as other seasons.

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Pop_Stensbold@reddit

It's certainly the least interesting season for me except for a handful of episodes.

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Overall_Sandwich_671@reddit

I think season 4 was being shot around the same time as Young Hercules, in which Ares was the main villain, so that probably took up a lot of his schedule, plus he was doing lots of regular Herc episodes as well. He doesn't show up in season 4 of Xena until the season finale, and that episode is a bit... yeah.

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Pop_Stensbold@reddit

Yes that was a prime reason he was unavailable because he was featured in Young Hercules a lot.

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Overall_Sandwich_671@reddit

There weren't exactly any decent male characters around to make up for Ares' absence in season 4 either. The Roman episodes had some great actors playing the Roman bigshots, but those episodes are always so serious, and Ares was capable of bringing the fun into both serious and comedy episodes.

And what new character did season 4 give us? Eli. I got bored of his Jesus gimmicks quite quickly.

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BlueSonic85@reddit

I watched Season 5 before seeing the Indian episodes and it was quite amusing to go back and see that the ultra-earnest Eli was a bit of a comedy con artist in his first appearance.

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Overall_Sandwich_671@reddit

I prefered him as a street magician.

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Agent8699@reddit

I think Kevin Smith was filming his TV series “Lawless”.

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Latte-Catte@reddit

Is that why he lost his Ares hair by season 5? I missed his Greek God hair too after s4 😟

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Agent8699@reddit

https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/lawless-1999/related

Looks like it was even longer?

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Latte-Catte@reddit

I see why after that he'd prefer something shorter hahaha 😂

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Latte-Catte@reddit

I mean, mythology are just religious stories, which s4 has plenty, if not, much more of. But I agree those stories are less fun and too serious. The philosophy-ing was a bit stupid sometimes. All that peace talk from Eli began to feel preachy and arrogant by the end 😅

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Overall_Sandwich_671@reddit

I think even Rob Tapert said in interviews that he was disappointed by the lack of Greek mythology in season 4.

Hercules at the time went into Sumerian, Celtic and Norse myths, and those episodes were actually fun and a refreshing change from the norm. Xena's India eps were kinda weird, and they lead to Gabrielle being almost unrecognisable with the new costume, haircut, and abandoning her staff. Obviously she does go back to fighting eventually , but when I was watching S4 for the first time, I was like, what the hell are they doing to her??? She's become useless!

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Pop_Stensbold@reddit

For the most part Hercules season 5 was actually more interesting to me than Xena season 4 in many ways. I really liked the Celtic and Norse episodes that season and felt they definitely worked much better than the Xena stories in India which were not favourites of mine (though I did love Renee's performance in Devi).

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RotaVitae@reddit

Callisto was getting stale by Sacrifice by IMO. She had finally gotten her vengeance on Xena with Solan, felt empty for it, and then simply wanted to die, but she kept coming back as an attack dog. The endless dueling and rockpiling just to temporarily hold her back was turning her cartoonish. She was rockpiled twice in two back-to-back episodes! Making her a god was totally the wrong move and Maternal Instincts should have been the very last of her.

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Latte-Catte@reddit

I think the writers held her back by treating her as this another villain of the week character, than a true nemesis she should've represent, which fell off once they made her immortal on Hercules. Such a bad plot move, making her invincible yet easily defeatable unlike her previous encounter where every loss meant Callisto had to come back stronger to fight Xena again.

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