Xena: Warrior Princess 3x12 "The Bitter Suite" Reaction
Added 2022-02-21 00:06:49 +0000 UTC
Comments
There’s dubs only for Renee and Hudson. The rest were the actors real voices. Gabrielle’s voice was Susan Wood and Callisto’s voice is Michelle Nicastro.
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 14:48:04 +0000 UTCI always loved that moment at the end of ‘The Bitter Suite’ where Xena and Gabrielle find themselves in each other’s arms after the whole ‘Illusia’ trip and Gabrielle just says “We’re home” and Xena says “at last” and all the while they’re staring into each other’s eyes and smiling. They definitely do not mean Greece. Fun fact: they filmed a longer version of this playing in the waves scene and it was very gay. There’s pictures if you go looking for them. It’s like From Here To Eternity.
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 14:41:56 +0000 UTCI love how Xena has to jump on the back of another horse to do the Gab Drag because Argo wouldn’t have done it for her. Those two have come along way since ‘The Greater Good’ and Argo wouldn’t have helped her. You could see how distressed she was riding into the camp with Xena aggressively whipping her. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew it wasn’t good.
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 14:13:34 +0000 UTCDon't you think it's interesting that they chose Callisto to be The Fool out of all the characters in 'The Bitter Suite'? At first glance, you wouldn't think it makes much sense. But then you realize, Callisto never got to be a child. She had to grow up immediately after her parents died. The Fool represents the naivety she still harbors under all the hatred and anger. All the confusion. And then her 2nd card. Justice. One would say she should be the ultimate artiber of Xena's journey. And yet, the message she has is not one of "I deserve this" but one of "I must learn this". What she says "All of your anger will poison you yet, unless you can just let go." She's singing to herself and her repression more than she is to Xena. And you realize, these cards make total sense for them to be Callisto's cards. It's really quite astonishing the depth they went into for this episode. All the time, planning, development in the effort for consistency with the characters and their lives. It makes the other musical episodes look like pants in comparison. 'The Bitter Suite' is so much a timeless, artistic masterpiece that I am still finding insight and lore in it all these years later. Remarkable.
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 14:01:12 +0000 UTCThe symbolism of 'The Bitter Suite'. The brilliance of the two time Emmy award-nominated musical episode of 'Xena: Warrior Princess', 'The Bitter Suite' is it's symbolism. The land of 'Illusia' is all based off of the 'Rider-Waite Tarot deck' as well as duality. The attempt to combine the two sets of themes and imagery is what 'The Bitter Suite' is all about. "It's us. Somehow it's all about us.... Everything about this 'Illusia' place has been bright and cheery. The music, the colours. But this place is dark. It's meant to scare us." "Everything about this world has been a torment. We’ve been guided through it for a reason. Whatever happens, we have to go through it together.” "Hatred, Gabrielle, that's what we're fighting, hatred." It is all about Xena and Gabrielle. They are the "Yin" and "Yang" of the story of 'Illusia'. That's why they're depicted as opposites within it. The point behind 'Illusia' is for Xena and Gabrielle to realize that everything they do to each other, positive or negative, is because they truly do love each other and go to extremes lengths to show it. The characters that show up in 'Illusia' are from the the Major Arcana deck of cards and they represent the meaning of the moment or the mood of Xena and Gabrielle at that moment. It is incredibly well-thought-out. 'Illusia' is not a place or a land as such. It's a state of consciousness. Xena and Gabrielle are not really there. They're washed away in the sea somewhere while, in their minds, all this is going on for and to them. They are merely dreaming it. Often in episodes of the show, characters are able to get to other characters through their dreams. Through dreamscape passages, like in 'Dreamworker' where Xena had to get to Gabrielle. The character that's doing this to Xena and Gabrielle in 'The Bitter Suite' is Solan, who's card imagery representation in 'Illusia' is 'The Sun'. He controls all that is going on with them. His intention is to get them back together again. To reconcile their differences. To help them understand that their love cannot be destroyed, it can only get distorted through hate, anger and pain. Through 'Illusia', he is able to help them forgive each other. Forgiveness is the key to making it out of there. I'm not going to explain what cards the other characters, like Callisto, Joxer and Ares, represent in the 'Rider-Waite' deck. I just want to explain Xena and Gabrielle because that's the most important thing to pay attention to as their imagery changes all throughout the stages they go through and I want you to know the significance of those changes. To start off with Xena is 'The High Priestess' and Gabrielle is 'The Empress'. Later Xena is 'The Queen of Swords' and Gabrielle is 'The Queen of Pentacles'. When Xena and Gabrielle face off, they both become Death but Gabrielle's outfit does not change until they enter the stage of "The Hall of Echos' which represents the card of 'The Tower'. Here Gabrielle becomes 'Temperance' and Xena's outfit only changes when they get thrown into the next stage and they get tied up to their respective "torments'. That being of Xena's crucifixion and Gabrielle's raping. Here Gabrielle gets her signature outfit back while Xena dons a worn-out purple shift. I don't know what cards these are supposed to represent but it seems like Xena's just wallowing in her guilt and self-contempt while Gabrielle feels strength and vitality. There is also the card of 'The Lovers' which represents the both of them struggling to hold their relationship and having to make choices they don't want to out of ignorance and stubbornness. Again, all this is to show them that they will always love each other and nothing could ever change that. Not even themselves. It's a incredibly creative and artistic episode. Look up the meanings for each card and character for yourselves. https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list http://www.whoosh.org/issue19/meredith.html.
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 13:55:17 +0000 UTCBoth ‘The Bitter Suite’ and ‘Once More, With Feeling’ are really unprecedented for their time in TV. Even though Xena’s musical episode came first in 1998, both Buffy and Xena take the credit for musical episodes becoming pop culture in TV. But they also did the unthinkable by cleverly, not only coincide with the plot, but further it along in that they both have the characters spill secrets and make confessions which aid to evolve respective character arcs and tell a story that has them begin again in new and interesting ways. In ‘Once More, With Feeling’ Buffy confesses she was pulled out of heaven by her friends. Forcing the Scooby Gang, Willow in particular, to process this information and grapple with the seriousness of it. In ‘The Bitter Suite’ Xena confesses that she killed Ming Tien. Forcing Xena to beg for forgiveness from Gabrielle so she can pass through the waterfall. Thereby reconciling and reuniting them, making their relationship stronger so they can battle the real enemy. All of this is done in song. Cheesy? Sure. But clever at the same time. The creators knew that talking about these subjects and themes would be heavy on the audience watching and listening, so addressing them in music was a way of making what was heavy subject material much lighter. And at the same time, they also knew that music is meant for honest expression. So really, how else would or could it work? They ultimately made the right decision. As cheesy or silly as it may look on the surface, they achieved what few have… Going deeper without drowning. This is why these two musical episodes remain staples in TV history. It is not just because they’re musicals. It’s because they’re musicals with depth. They could have just been some silly entertainment for the cast to have fun with and show off their talent and nothing more. Instead they were much, much, much more than that. They were artistic genius. They were performance art. And you will find it difficult to truly understand either of these shows without them. As my soul brother Sweet put it: “Now, we’re partying. That’s what it’s all about.”
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 13:48:41 +0000 UTC‘The Bitter Suite’ is a musical episode. It combines my love for music and drama into one excellently written, produced, directed and composed episode of the show. But that’s not entirely the reason why it makes the very top of my list, although that’s a huge factor. ‘The Rift’ (as Xenites call it) between Xena and Gabrielle all throughout Season 3 is dealt with and put to rest in this episode. The writers use Yin and Yang and the polarities of love/hate, good/evil and peace/war to represent the importance of friendship, honesty, forgiveness and the ability to put someone you love and care about over yourself in their time of need despite whatever animosity you feel towards them due to past circumstances and situations that broke your heart. They use Yin and Yang several times in the show to give such strong and substantial messages, however, this time takes the winning spot for me. The friendship between Xena and Gabrielle is put to the ultimate test when they fall into this dimension of reality called ‘Illusia’. In this strange, whimsical and colourful place everything is designed to be expressed in song and theatrics. It’s such a clever, artistic and extremely thought-provoking episode. There is a lot it taught me that I unconsciously crafted into my own philosophy of life throughout the years. Also, it was the very first episode I ever saw of the show. They were airing Season 3 in the United Kingdom when I came across it at 5 years old in 1997. Its lessons have remained with me since then but I definitely understand it a lot better now I am a grown adult. If there was ever any episode that you should watch of Xena to introduce you to it… and you really don’t care about spoilers… make it this one. I promise you… you won’t regret it.
Girl4Music
2023-11-13 13:46:51 +0000 UTCThis is one of those I cry every time I watch episodes
Glorie Bluestein
2022-03-24 03:59:40 +0000 UTCI have to say also that despite my enjoyment of OMWF, The Bitter Suite has always been a much more powerful and superior episode for me and I still feel that a lot of people out there don't realise there was a major musical episode on screen before Buffy. This is a legendary segment of the series that tackles the rift between Xena and Gabrielle in a very creative and unconventional way that packs a hell of an emotional punch. "The Love Of Your Love" always brings the tears for me and that and the "Hearts Are Hurting" song were both nominated for Emmys. Joseph LoDuca's music has always been a majorly great part of both Hercules and Xena and this is a total standout, not only with the songs but the score too. Such great acting, singing, production design and cinematography. One of the golden hours of TV period and one that all the musical episodes that followed- including Buffy's- owe a major debt to.
Tony Tenser
2022-02-23 07:16:06 +0000 UTCThis episode brings me to tears every time. This was the FIRST TV Musical Episode. It came years before Buffy. Lucy Lawless can sing. She sand the funeral song all the way back in season 1. She was also on a show called Celebrity Duets where it came down to her and the guy who played Carlton in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. When it came time for voting he told the world that if they voted for him he'd do "the Carlton" dance. So he won over Lucy. I'm fairly certain she would have won if it wasn't for that little "cheat". Sorry, I watched live and called in after every episode to vote. So it bothers me alot. Anywho,, thanks for such an amazing reaction.
KAYLA D
2022-02-22 01:53:12 +0000 UTCYes, that is Lucy's real singing voice, Kevin's (Ares) too. While Renee (Gabrielle) and Hudson (Callisto) had voice doubles for their singing portions. This is easily in the top 3 episodes of the series. This episode and Buffy's musical really spoiled us... TV musical episodes are not usually like this or even good. The two biggest traps other TV musicals fall into are: (i) They serve no purpose. It's quite obvious when musical segments are created just to show off an actor's singing talent, to try and be "cute", or because the show is out of ideas. (ii) They mostly do covers of popular songs. Unless your production is Moulin Rouge, with the corresponding budget, veteran stage director, and story and cast pre-planned specifically with a musical in mind, the disconnect between an unrelated piece of music and the show's plot is going to be very glaring. (I personally never liked Glee's central concept for this reason.) This episode avoids both these pitfalls. The lyrics were tailored to who the characters were and became part of their series-long development, and the direction, costumes and visuals really immersed us in this very special world. Nothing was half-baked.
Judson
2022-02-21 05:26:05 +0000 UTCThis is not only A musical episode, it is, in a very real way, THE musical episode. Although some try to trace the concept of a television show having a musical installment to earlier works, a la Cop Rock, those aren’t really the same thing, in my view. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole development of musical episodes began with The Bitter Suite. And it was no accident that so many followed. (It should be noted that it’s been documented that the staff at Buffy was discussing a musical episode as early as season two, and were surprised to learn that Xena had just done that. Did that lead to a delay until season six because they didn’t want to be seen as copying XWP? Can’t say, of course.) Anyway, it’s a great piece of work. Everything works so well, and was done with such care, that it must stand out as one of the best things this show ever did.
Koz
2022-02-21 02:14:15 +0000 UTCI prefer the Xena musical over Buffy's... the music was so much more epic and cinematic. Something you'd expect from Hans Zimmer. Despite being an icon, the show itself seemed underrated but the Emmys still recognized it and I believe this episode got several nominations.
Rey
2022-02-21 00:58:21 +0000 UTC
