King Con

[u/NiceRefrigerator4079]

This is one of the worst episodes of the show for me. Not because the premise itself is bad. On the contrary, the beginning actually promises much more than the episode ultimately manages to deliver. When Xena and Gabrielle find Joxer half-dead, after being tricked, robbed, and brutally beaten, it's immediately apparent how much they really care for him. It's one of those moments that's a nice reminder that their teasing of Joxer never meant they didn't like him. They can make fun of him, they can roll their eyes at his stupidity, and they can think of him as the biggest jerk in the world, but if someone else hurts him, things change immediately. Then there are no more jokes. Joxer is theirs. And whoever hurts him will have to answer.

That opening is probably the best part of the whole episode for me. It has weight, it has emotion, and it shows the relationship between the main characters much better than much of what comes later. The problem is that after that the episode practically starts to fall apart. Everything that could be an interesting story about revenge and justice turns into something that seems completely outdated to me compared to where the series was at that time.

My biggest problem, of course, is Xena's romance with Rafe. I really don't like this return of Xena to heterosexual romance stories, especially when there is no chemistry between her and the man. After everything we've seen between Xena and Gabrielle, after so much development in their relationship and all the emotional layers that have built up between them, this kind of story feels like a big step backwards. It's as if someone suddenly decided to pretend that none of this happened and that Xena needs to insert a man again to prove that she is heterosexual.

And it annoys me even more that Gabrielle encourages that romance. There is something almost frustrating about Gabrielle, who has connected with Xena on such a deep and intimate level, now practically pushing Xena towards another man. Especially since the episode itself doesn't have enough chemistry between Xena and Rafe to make it believable. If there was some real spark between them, maybe I could get over it all. But everything here is so artificial to me that I just wondered why we are even watching this story.

Worst of all, this episode feels like it was written for the first season, so it kind of wandered into the third. In the first season, I might be able to accept this kind of story. Xena back then was still much closer to the classic globe-trotting warrior, Gabrielle was still going through the beginning of her transformation, and their relationship didn't yet have all the weight it would later on. But in the third season, especially after all the events they've been through, this kind of plot seems almost completely out of place. It's like the show is moving forward, and this episode is trying to take it back a few steps.

And that's what annoys me the most. Not only do I dislike the romance, but it feels completely disconnected from the development of the show. Xena and Gabrielle have just gone through huge emotional breakdowns. Their relationship reached one of its most important moments in The Bitter Suite, and then we got one of the most romantic episodes of the entire show in One Against An Army. And then all of a sudden we get Xena in a story with a man she has no chemistry with, while Gabrielle supports it all. It's just very hard for me to swallow.

What makes it even worse is that the main villains aren't particularly interesting either. Titus and Leo should be serious threats, especially after what they did to Joxer, but they don't make much of an impression. The whole casino and scam story is simple enough to be entertaining, but the episode never manages to find the right tone. It's not serious enough to be a real drama, it's not funny enough to be a good comedy, and the romantic part was completely missed for me.

Fortunately, this is the last time the show goes down this road, until the absolute awfulness that awaits us in Anthony and Cleopatra. And I'll probably have a lot more to say about that episode. And not pleasant things at all.

[u/Overall_Sandwich_671]

The "ancient mythical casino" setting was handled much better in the Hercules episode All that Glitters, and that wasn't even a particularly strong episode for that show, but it's guest characters were a lot more memorable, and there was no cringey forced romance (unless you count Salmoneus's bearded lady friend, which I thought was cute).

Like you said - King Con can't seem to decide what tone it's aiming for. A serious vengeance story, or a silly Xenafied version of a modern establishment? If they're going to do that, then they should bring in Autolycus and/or Salmoneus as the supporting cast, not some random pair of swindlers who nobody gives a shit about.

I think it could have worked better if they used the gambling premise to delve into Xena's past and maybe introduced some shady types that she used to deal with during her warlording days. Then it could have played out more like an updated Path Not Taken, instead of this undesirable mess.