Throughout its six seasons, Xena: Warrior Princess featured an enormous array of world mythologies, but my absolute favorite was the four-episode arc dealing with Gabrielle’s spiritual quest in India, which is why that particular storyline earns the most esteemed award we here at TheTorchOnline can bestow:
The India Storyline
Five Torches (Out of Five)
The first episode, called “Paradise Found,” takes place before they even arrive in India, but introduces the element that most affected me: Gabrielle begins to feel peace by focusing on her breathing and practicing Yoga. Sure, it sounds hippie-dippie and new age-y, but anyone who’s truly thrown themselves into the practice of Yoga understands its healing and soothing effects.
Unfortunately, Gabrielle is guided along the beginning of her path by a guru named Aiden, who is actually a demon who feeds off the goodness of the people who come to his island paradise. As his victims sink deeper into a meditative state, they turn into blue stone and he absorbs their essence.
So, that part’s not so great. But the Yoga? We’ll keep that.
When they finally arrive in India in “Devi,” they encounter a man who will be very important to them: the Christ-like Eli,who at first glance seems to be just a street magician. Gabrielle is possessed by the demon, Tataka (man, can’t Gabrielle ever catch a break?) until eventually being rescued by Eli.
The next episode, “Between the Lines,” showcases a theme that will continue on for the remainder of the series: Xena and Gabrielle are more than just best friends. They are soul mates, and this is evidenced by the fact that every time 
their souls are reincarnated, they always find each other. They learn about the concept of karma, and how everything you do in this life affects what happens in future lives.
In this episode, they are sent into the future where Xena is the “Mother of Peace,” and Gabrielle is a male warrior. They fight the sorceress Alti in the future, before being pulled back into the present for a grand finale smackdown. (In this tussle, Alti grabs onto Gabrielle’s hair, and Xena uses her chakram to free Gabrielle of her grip, thus giving Gabby the short haircut she would wear for the rest of the series. Unfortunately, this is also the haircut that Xena keeps seeing in an earlier Alti-inspired vision of her and Gabrielle’s deaths.)
Finally, in “The Way,” Xena and Gabrielle again meet up with Eli, who we discover is being hunted down by the demon Indrajit. Eli teaches Gabrielle about The Way, a philosophy that emphasizes love and non-violence over all else. Gabrielle soon learns that this is not an easy pursuit in a world torn asunder by violence. After all, how do you defend yourself if you 
can’t ever fight back?
When Gabrielle and Eli are captured by Indrajit, Xena must do something she’s never done before in order to rescue Gabrielle: pray.
Unlike the petty, all-too-human Olympian gods, when Xena encounters the Indian deity Krishna, she finds him to be noble and serene. He explains to her that the way to purify her karma and rescue Gabrielle is to be true to her own Way, which is the Way of the Warrior (in this life). He endows her with the spirit of Kali, the goddess of destruction, allowing her to defeat Indrajit and rescue Gabrielle and Eli.
Aesthetically, the show never looked better, incorporating the exotic beauty and majesty of Indian culture into the set and costume designs, and of all the “looks” that Gabrielle sported throughout the series, her sari costume was my favorite.
At this point the show was at a creative peak. As could only happen on Xena, the writers took the simple art of mehndi, the beautiful body art made with henna, and gave it into a supernatural element, thus showcasing a real element of Indian culture with a truly Xena-twist. Cliche images like flying carpets were incorporated into the story as props in action sequences. And though the number of gods in the Indian pantheon is literally in the hundreds, these episodes allowed us to glimpse a few, when so rarely are Indian gods even acknowledged in most fantasy stories.
Aside from being a fantastic yarn (and they make excellent repeat viewing), it was this batch of episodes that gave me two gifts. The first was the doorway into Indian mythology, which for a myth-geek like myself, weary of Greek and Norse legends, was a true prize. And the second was an introduction to Yoga, a practice that to this day remains a large part of my life.
Fortunately, I never had a teacher that tried to turn me into blue stone.
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I also LOVE the “India” arc, even though it seems the majority of the online Xena fans weren’t as enamoured with the episodes as I was.
I can’t say it drastically changed my life, but they’re great episodes and I too was drawn to learn more about Indian mythology. I distinctly remember discussing the episodes with one of my then work colleagues (who knew a lot more about Indian mythology and religion than I ever will) due to the controversy surrounding “The Way”. From a fan’s perspective, I thought the show went out of its way to be respectful of the Indian culture (particularly as Krishna was (at that point) the only deity to whom Xena had ever prayed which was a big deal for the character), but I also fully appreciate why people would have issues with the episodes, particularly “The Way”.
It’s strange there was never any real reaction to the thinly-veiled Christian arc in seasons 5 and 6, particularly when the Archangels (if not the “God of Love” him/her/itself) ended up being portrayed as mostly “evil”).
Somewhat speaking of which, I thought it was an incredible shame when Eli was turned into a puppet of the so-called “God of Love” in season 5 (particularly when he was convinced to commit suicide by so-called Guardian Angel Callisto for the “good” of the “God of Love”). The mysterious charlatan who ended up being an agent of an un-named god (at least in the India episodes) was far more interesting than “goody-two-shoes” Eli who handed over his ability to think to the so-called “God of Love” and received death in return.
And on a purely superficial level, Gabrielle’s Indian costume was the first time I actually appreciated Gabrielle as a “woman”. Even in the BGSB and short-skirt, she seemed to be the little girl from Potideia (sp?), but damn that rather raunchy version of a sari definitely got my attention (particularly when combined with the short hair). Xena’s costume change in “Between the Lines” was nice as well and I thought she was super-cool as Kali in “The Way” and the extra arms were generally well done, even if they were obviously very rubbery in some shots/scenes.
The less we say about XENA’s fifth season, the better, don’t you think? After the opening ep set in heaven and hell (which was amazing), the season was mostly completely terrible.
Oh, God, yes! What a waste of a season.
Agree. The less said about season 5, the better. A cool story-arc (the Twilight of the Gods) and a major character development (a pregnant warrior princess) that offered so much story potential and yet it all amounted to nothing. Well, Gabrielle’s leather bikini was super-hot. As was the “go go bikini” in “Lyre, Lyre”, but when costuming is the highlight of a season, I think it’s fair to say that something went stray.
The 25 year sleep didn’t even create that many interesting stories in season 6 (and Eve could have been aged or disposed of in any number of other ways).
Fanboy ranting about season 5 aside, I reiterate that the India arc was great.
I was not a huge fan of the 25-year sleep. Ultimately, I found it to be a pretty weak plot device, and only served the plot as far as they could have Xena interact with an adult Eve…who soon left the show. Pointless.
I was excited when it happened — it seemed like a real reboot. But then they did nothing interesting with it. I mean, Argo’s daughter is exactly like Argo? And yeah, Eve was just stupid.
“The Way” was incredible. But I still remember the weird animation in “Mother of Peace,” the cheesy rainbows in the air…
That did get a little hokey, but considering that it was filmed a decade ago, you have to forgive the effects.
Oh there are some great episodes in the fifth season - Succession, where Ares tests Gabrielle against wanna be Xena, Mavican. Them Bones, Them Bones was also good - further showing that Alti is very hard to get rid of permanently. Seeds of Faith, with Gabrielle questioning herself again in regards to how far she is going with her efforts to help Xena protect her unborn child. As well as several after Eve is born (forget the silly Gabrielle’s being knocked out for an episode and into an alternate reality), and Little Problems wasn’t that bad.
And speaking of Little Problems, don’t forget to look for Rose McIver, the little girl Daphne from this episode, in The Lovely Bones. She was fantastic as the frightened kid who’d turn instantly into Xena in different parts of the episode.
I think we have to agree to disagree. There might be one or two “watchable” episodes, but on the whole…oh, lord.
Succession *could* have been a pretty decent episode. If only there had been enough money in the budget to buy the actor playing Mavican an adult’s costume instead of getting her to wear a child’s costume which resulted in the episode becoming a game of: “when are they going to pop out”.
I found it incredibly hard to accept Mavican as a credible enemy when she was dressed like the Xenaverse’s equivalent of a $2.00 hooker. Actually, more like a $0.99 hooker.
Them Bones was decent. Sucked to see Gabrielle fail in battle yet again though. The skeleton fight scene was pretty decent. Reminded me of “Jason and the Argonauts” in a good way.
Seeds of Faith had potential, but from the very beginning where Gabrielle had to ask Xena to tell her a “story” about the Twilight (um, since when did Xena become the one with the knowledge about myths, etc instead of Gabrielle) right through to the nonsense about Eli needing to kill himself for the so-called God of Love and the rather terrible fight scene on the rope bridge. If Xena had just cut the bridge and gone back to town, she could have saved Eli instead of blaming Gabrielle for failing to do so. Argh. All this typing about season 5 is just making me angry. I’m turning a very unpleasant shade of green.
Well said. These were beautiful, fascinating episodes.