I've missed the Amazons and/or a good female foe. What do I first see, but what one friend ungraciously referred to as "those Las Vegas Amazons" (as distinguished from "that Melrose Place Amazon," which he had called Amarice.) Wow, and there was Hilary Clinton leading them! (I liked Hilary/Athena, by the way.) Within seconds, Xena's chakram is chopping up those arrows, I hear her battle cry, and she's BACK IN THE LEATHERS, snarling, no papoose strapped to her back! Yes!

Amphipolis is under attack, just like in "Sins of the Past," and Athena says the townsfolk are loyal to her, not Xena. I'm a leetle worried that Athena might be right, especially when Cyrene says, "Hasn't this village given up enough of its children?" Not to worry, though. Grandma comes through this time, and so do Xena's kinfolk. Xena's look of grateful appreciation (with a smidgen of surprise) and the Glede song almost get me misty eyed. I'm even more touched when I see the poor scraggly farmers so determined to defend against not one, but three armies that outclass them far more than Draco's bunch of goons, whom the villagers had once submitted to without a squeak. And these are the same folk who almost stoned their most illustrious citizen. Xena's wings were nothing compared to this turnaround.

And there's Gabrielle - protecting Xena's back (not to mention Eve's), but not in the bumbling way that used to get me irritated. Nope, this time she's got a knife (a la Callisto) tied to the end of a staff. She's not only giving the orders, she's leading the charge. Yanking the malcontents up by the scruff, just like her partner in the "Horde," except her call to arms is for love, not hate.

We've even got that snafu, where Athena's folks waylay Xena in the tunnel and Xena tries to bait Elainis, but to no avail, and Xena outrunning the flames and sending them topside just at the right spot to knock off the enemy soldiers threatening Gabrielle & Co. Even with clay feet, the saved WP *can* still do the unbelievable!

In an ironic turnaround, we have Ares for once not believing Xena, and Xena trying to seduce Ares. (I notice she offered her "sword and the body that wields it," as opposed to her soul or even her heart.) I loved it when she threw him down on that bed. Wow, and then to have her indiscretion witnessed by both her mom and her daughter?

Elainus did a pretty good Callisto imitation, too, bolstered by the fact that her patron goddess was kicking Xena's patron's butt. Ah, but the Xena of old was back - this time not reduced to those flying split-leg kicks every pregnant warrior must rely upon. In the end, Xena gets the"fair" battle she wanted - mortals fighting mortals, gods fighting among themselves.

Oh, and let's not forget the subtext. (I don't know if the Elainis-Athena relationship counts, but if so, my my.) Boy, that Athena sure sounded like she's been keeping an eye on her former Queen and Queen's Champion. Indeed, much of her military strategy was built around the bard's (yes, that was nice to hear again) role in Xena's plan, as wondering how to kill Eve. "I don't doubt Gabrielle's willingness to die, only Xena's willingness to lose her." "We'll see how long Xena will resist while her companion slowly bleeds to death." All that talk about nothing more dangerous than a mother protecting her cub, and in the end, Athena seems more worried about how/when Xena is protecting Gabrielle.

And then, of course, there's Gabrielle's innovative idea to blow up Ares' temple. "That bomb was a little much," Xena says. Oh, yeah? says Gabrielle. "Otherwise you would have had to go through with the deal, right?" Heh heh. Bet that'll make old Xena and Ares think twice about messin' with the bard's soulmate. Oh, and the quick look Xena gives her partner when Ares asks if she felt something. And the smug look Gabrielle gives when Xena insists to Ares, "I felt nothing." Xena better do something about talking out loud to herself, though, as she did when she admitted she did feel a little something, which of course is the topic of the last exchange we hear between the two (which I think qualifies as "bantering"). Then, of course, Xena denies any lust for the hunka hunka God of War, probably not wanting to encourage any more bed bombs in the near future.

So, all in all lots of "classic" Xena. (I rewatched "Altered States" and "Ties That Bind" just to remind myself of what that was.) And then it hit me. I saw much of the old formula, but without a lot of the freshness it had the first time around. Sure, I had a moment of doubt about Cyrene and the villagers. I felt a little of Xena's conflictedness that her kinsmen were once again caught in the middle - this time because of something good she was trying to do for the future, not because of past misdeeds. I even wondered for a second if she'd actually brought Eve out for sacrifice, even though I knew there was no way she would.

But everything pretty much proceeded as I expected. I saw what I was used to seeing and had said I missed. Except the roller coaster, the moral ambiguity, the surprise that knocked my socks off. I'm not saying I expect that all the time, or that maybe we haven't already had enough of that this season. It's just that I got my wish and wasn't as thrilled as I thought I'd be. For me, any letdown wasn't about the subtext. It was about too many damned deities, too little Xena and life with Eve, who's had much more of an impact on my view of the X&G relationship than any "male of the month" contenders. Saving, protecting each other was always my girls' first priority. They lived and would die for each other. Eve's cute and cuddly, makes her mommy and "daddy" seem more domesticated, but I'm still getting used to her.

So what do I miss? What am I looking for in the future? (Beyond "Fishsticks," of course, which appears to be one of those eps I will push to the side of my consciousness.) Has "classic" Xena become too formulaic for me? Too predictable? I loved the third and fourth seasons, as they had something in them that had me on the edge of my chair, emotionally engaged. So now I've got "classic" *and* "bombshell" Xena, the latter represented in little Evie.

Maybe I'm not feeling what I think someone else alluded to - the "heart." It's not the touches, the looks or the hot tubs I miss. I think it's the way these two people were trying to find their own way with, and sometimes in conflict with, the other. Now the baby is a superior purpose that, as in real life, often supercedes personal desires - in this case, both as the personification of something of import to the world, as well as simply an innocent child who needs both her mothers' attention.

It's so ironic. I love "classic" Xena and "bombshell" Xena. I always wished the series could deal with children without killing them off. Now I've got it all and I'm still not sure yet how I feel about it. I only know that when I saw "Amphipolis," I kinda missed Xena's long coat and leggings, and I'd rather have heard Gabrielle talking to Xena than cooing to Eve about how "mommy" works. At least some of the rest of the fans with concerns are pointing to the subtext or the plots or the writers, etc. Oh, gods, am I a bad person for being concerned about Eve, for thinking she's the biggest threat to "the relationship" (however one defines it), for secretly wanting X&G to dump her with her grandma real soon?