Them Bones, Them Bones Reviewed

After a really nasty premonition, Xena realises her unborn baby`s soul is in danger and returns to visit the Northern Amazons and Yakut to help sort things out. To prove you can`t keep a good woman down, Alti is back, and this time she is after Xena`s baby. Another trip to the spirit realm is needed as in Sin Trade, to defeat Alti there and prevent her stealing the baby`s soul.
Gabrielle mirrors Xena`s antics of Sin Trade part 1, as she hunts and kills a deer to use its spirit to pass over. Of course, Alti being as powerful as she is, even when dead, soon has Gab gasping. So now it is a group effort now involving Yakut and her amazons as Xena must battle Alti in the spirit world.

I love the character Alti, and I think Claire Stansfield is so deliciously over the top, she is wonderful. Many of the features of Adventures in the Sin Trade are here. Lots of women in buckskins - I want a set! The scenes of Gabrielle in her hunting gear as she follows the ritual to become a shamen are very moody. Lots of tiptoeing through woodlands looking sweet.

The spirit realm itself is a suitable spooky place with some wierd freeze frame effects used as Gabrielle realises she isn`t in Greece anymore. I especially liked the bizzare and hallucinogenic sequences used to denote the passing of a soul into the spirit realm. All those quickly flashed images that really were quite disturbing (but PLEASE...don`t put spiders in..I HATE spiders!)

Best of all in this episode was the inventive final fight between skeleton Xena and skeleton Alti. The effects people at Flat Earth did a marvellous job, and full marks to the producers for another ingenious way of getting Lucy out of strenuous fight scenes. While it was a slight shame not to see more of Ms Stansfield, I loved the Jason and the Argonaut style skeletons.

Steven L Sears has been involved with the show for a long time, and left recently to develop a series himself based on 'Sheena, Queen of the Jungle'. This is one of his last scripts, but it was changed quite a bit by new executive producers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Hence, the scriptwriter being a pseudonymous Buddy Williers. Sears has always written well for Gabrielle and for the amazons, and he will be missed. As much for his accessability to the fans as anything.

Hits

• Gabrielle in the Amazon hunting gear. She looked fab.
• The teaser. Excellent beginning
• "I want to be inside you Xena!" Alti gets all the sauciest lines!
• The skeleton fight. Loved it.

• Amarice - as pointless as ever, and the BIG revelation about her...*gasp* she's NOT an Amzon..ah who cares.. At least they get to leave her behind this time.
• Where is Otere and how come no one mentions her? (The actress got a job on NYPD Blue.)

Not as good as Adventures in the Sin Trade but an enjoyable episode.

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