Okay, well the whole idea here is that Xena, while visiting a hospice sponsored by the goddess Aphrodite, has seen a little girl of about 9 or 10 years old in a kind of coma and Her heart goes out to her. She says that if she could trade places with her, she would do it in a heartbeat. Well of course, this being a wish of pure love...the goddess of love, in a "your wish is my command" moment, snaps her fingers and Xena slumps over to the wall.
Gabrielle wants to know what happened and Dite explains that she has switched personas between them and that the little girl is inside of Xena and that Xena is inside the little girl. After Gab expresses concern for Xena's baby Dite says no sweat, the kid will be nice and comfy and get lots of rest now. Yup that little one sure could use it too considering what mom has put her through so far this season! LOL
But wait! What is this? Xena's voice and very stoic and serious expression from the little girl? Holy misfire Dite, you screwed up! Hehe..
Well it doesn't take long for them to figure out that Xena AND the little girl are in the same body. And this is confirmed when the little girl looks in a hand mirror and sees...Xena! (Disney eat your heart out!!!) Hey wait a minute! Did they even HAVE hand mirrors back then? Hmmm...well I guess Xena invented that too, LOL
And thus began the exciting adventures of Daphne: Warrior Princessette!
Well, it turns out that Daphne and her dad don't have any kind of real communication. Daphne knows daddy is upset about something but doesn't know what. If you ask me, Daddy acted like a bit of a schmuck towards his beloved baby girl but, eh...I'm a mother anyway. And it is further revealed later on that the little girl had fallen into the sea one day and when her mom jumped in to save her, she drowned. Thus Daphne thought her daddy blamed her for her mother's death.
In the meantime an old warlord nemesis of Xena's is out for blood...hers! Seems she messed up his face a long time ago and now he walks around looking like The Shredder (remember him from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? LOL) and is determined to get revenge no matter what. He has this ragtag, whimpy, cowardly bunch of poor excuses for warriors who turn tail and run when they meet up with the little girl who does a couple of Xena flips, says, "CHEEE LELELELELE" in a very high pitched voice, LOL and generally kicks the head dude's butt. Oh I loved those sequences where she fought those dudes, especially the one where she ends up with her dainty size 4 foot on his throat and says in her tuff girl Xena voice..."Next time pick on somebody your own size!" Ya gotta love it!!!
Now the back story here is really the friendship and closeness that develops between Xena and Daphne. You see every time she looks in anything which displays a reflection....a mirror, a lake, dishwater, soup, LOL, she sees Xena. And Xena keeps encouraging her to try to talk to her dad.
Okay in the meantime Gabs and Dite are trying to figure out how to get Xena out of the Daphne's body and back into her own. They hit upon a plan to invade the twin mud wrestling matches and there they can steal the oil from Castor (get it?) and his siamese twin Polluch. This oil is the only thing that can separate the siamese twin studs and so Dite and Gabs reason it will also separate Daphne and Xena.
Ohhh this part was a hoot. Dite and Gabs complete with long blonde braids and Valkerie helmets (I do believe that when the one on Dite's head slipped it was a blooper that they decided to leave in, LOL) complete with sveeedish aksents. And here were some of the funniest lines of the ep too. Loved Castor's or was that Polluch's line that they were "Cunning linguists". I LMAO!!! And the part where they ask in Swedish if Dite and Gab want to engage in wild sex with them...and D & G haven't got a clue as to what they said was priceless. G: "Just agree with it." And so wide eyed and big grinned they nod and say, "Ya!" Again....I LMAO! Then the thumbs up by the stud twins...hahahaha!!!
Well they wrestle a bit and one of them...Dite I think...manages to steal the oil. Castor figures it out and then pulls on the cloth binding G & D together thus revealing that they are NOT twins. Of course Gab goes very nineties and declares the mud wrestling degrading to women. Go Gab!!!
Anyway in the meantime Shredder face has captured Daphne's daddy and chained him up in the basement prison to be used as bait. Of course it works and Daphne/Xena goes to the rescue while Aphrodite goes for Xena's body. The switch must be made by sundown or else Daphne is Xena forever. D/X declares very solumnly that "This is gonna be close."
So of course now Xena has taken total control of Daphne's body and is kicking Shredder's butt. Gab in the meantime has finally managed to teach dad (who was freed first by his little girl) how to fight back. And the two of them are great! I have to agree with everybody else here by saying that Gab/Renee just gets better and better. She looked tuff kick boxing, spinning and slicing the bad guys. Daddy didn't do too bad himself either.
Now...the controversial scene arrives...this is the one where previous reports had Daphne tossing the man over the wall to his death. Let me say this....Daphne did NOT push him over that wall!!! He charged at her, he was going to push HER over but she sidestepped and he fell to his death on his own. She never laid a hand on him!
Well all's well that ends well, Dite uses the oil and separates Xena and Daphne and daddy and Daphne are now together (he having finally accepted her love). And the last scene is of Daphne and daddy standing on a ridge overlooking Xena and Gabrielle walking on the beach.
I know I skipped a lot here but I'm sure you've either read other spoilers or have seen the ep yourselves so I figured it was okay.
WHAT I LOVED:
I loved the care and concern that Gab had for Xena....been a long time since we saw that.
I loved the care and concern that Xena had for Daphne....looks like maternal instinct is taking over.
I loved Aphrodite! Well I always love her...she's a hoot!
I loved the Sveedish Tvins....hahahaha still LMAO at that whole scene between them and Castor and Polluch.
I LOVED DAPHNE!!! What a wonderful little girl! The actress who played her was exceptional...especially for someone so young! She really stole the show...and my heart as well!
I even loved The Shredder!!! I really wonder if the writers had him in mind when they did the helmet head thing.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Absolutely Nothing!!!!!
I can honestly say that I enjoyed this episode from beginning to end. I really had my doubts when I read all of the spoilers and rumors beforehand and so I went into this with a great amount of skepticism. Boy was I surprised...and delighted!!!
Yeah...this was a good one! This was a keeper!
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