I liked the action of DHD, and thought it also had a lot more "meat" than may have appeared. It think the rather pat resolutions were a set-up for knocking our socks off in future episodes -- particularly around such issues as who made whom into what/whom and whether some people/acts are inherently good or evil. I also believe that in this episode, Gabrielle comes of age in significantly new ways.

Some may feel that the "extra" folks in DHD added little or got in the way of focus on G&X's relationship. On the contrary, I think they allowed G to see X in a way she never had before. With Callisto, it was easier for G to believe that Callisto was a twisted sister who took her grief well beyond the norm, and that X could not be blamed entirely for someone with no hint of a redeeming quality. But, just as in The Price, G in DHD finally gets to see the real pre-redeemed X in a new (and not so favorable) light.

You could see G carefully observing X's interaction with her little DHD "team." It was obvious that X still held enormous influence over them. Once again, X had no compunctions about using them as means for "just" ends (i.e., fighting Ares and giving the team a chance at freedom and a "good" life). But G imagined them as the average village people they were before they joined up with X, whether they did so to protect their village, make a few dinars, or (like G herself) lead a more adventurous life.

For so many episodes, G focused on the good that was in X and that X was doing. There was horror in the look she gave X during The Price -- the kind of look you give someone you've elevated so high, that you can't believe they've betrayed your adoration so. But when G talked in DHD about the extent to which X may have "made" the others and G herself, G's thoughtful look was more like one equal dispassionately regarding another. You could see her wondering just how many other previously normal folks there were who had come under X's spell, perhaps wreaking havoc that Xena could not in a lifetime ever rectify.

As for X, she once warned G about putting people on pedestals. But that is exactly what X has done with G. But whereas G is finally seeing X in more realistic, human terms, X seems to be making G into even more of an angel. It's starting to sound a little self-serving -- and dangerously naive. Consider the conversation X has with the woman slaver. X basically suggests that some inherent flaw makes them vulnerable to evil, while her "teacher" G "has never given in to hatred" (The Price) -- even when given perfectly justifiable reasons to (Perdicus' murder). If (or, judging from the spoilers, when) G becomes involved in something bad, X will have to cling to her rather simplistic notions or be forced to see G -- and those notions -- in a new light.

The two "redeemed" DHD crew certainly end up seeing G as a far more equal partner to X than they did initially. I think it's quite significant that they emerge from X's shadow to acknowledge G's heroic warrior qualities, refer to her as "princess" and tell her to "take care of Xena." X doesn't mind this, in fact has always known G's significance as her "soul." But as each is forced to accept the other more as independent, complete, flesh-and-blood woman -- not as the symbiotic, idealized complements to each other they suggest at the end of DHD -- it cannot but turn their relationship--and self-images--upside down. I think it's called "growth." Painful, but necessary for enlightenment.

Finally, a comment on Ares. Some may question Ares' choice of a twerp as his new representative. Why? All the others he's backed since X were equally noxious. Why again? Perhaps because Ares and what he represents have lost the power to attract someone like X, whose value as a conquest lay in her integrity, not in her run-of-the-mill bloodlust. When the twerp and X have their showdown, X's superiority is never in doubt. Look at their eyes. He knows it, she knows it, even Ares knows it. She has the confidence of Good on her side. Her disdain for Ares -- even in the face of his still acknowledged godly powers -- is palpable.

If Xena cannot be defeated by an evil but worthy mortal adversary, or "turned" with overt appeals to the "bad" Xena, then what is a poor god to do? Weaken her "good" side, presently and worthily embodied in G. Again, this suggests that X's battles with evil will become more internal, more complex, more human in nature -- even if it involves the gods' manipulations. It seems a natural course for this reason too that her relationship with G will present thorns more painful than anything heretofore dished out by Ares, precisely because it has been so safe, so beautiful -- so right.