A Day in the Life (Xena episode)

Xena: Warrior Princess episode
“A Day in the Life”
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 15
Guest star(s)	Murray Keane (Hower) ; Alison Wall (Minya)
Writer(s)	R.J. Stewart; Robert Field (editor)
Director	Michael Hurst
Production no.	#V0223
Original airdate	1997 Feb. 17
Episode chronology
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"A Necessary Evil"	"For Him the Bell Tolls"
List of Xena episodes

A justly famous episode of Xena: Warrior Princess when the already camp show goes even further in self-parody. Xena has only one day to prevent a warlord from razing one village and an evil giant from destroying another. The episode is told in chapters, following the arguments, frustrations, and intimate moments of friendship that Xena and Gabrielle share on a daily basis.

Notes (& spoilers)

• Xena's first fight of the episode is conducted with a pot and frying pan, echoing Xena-style comedic scenes from many films with women fighting.
• Classic comic moment when Gabrielle, rather than being grateful to X for saving her, is upset that X ruined their only frying pan by using it as a weapon.
• Self-mockery on the show when Xena employs her special pinch: "You have thirty seconds..." Yeah, yeah, he knows; he's heard all about it; what does she want to know.
• Goddess-worship! The next scene ("Finding Your Way") starts with Gabrielle making an offering to a stone statute of a goddess, possibly Demeter? Some hearth or agricultural or fertility goddess.
• G, still playing up the traditional female-male dynamic, nags Xena for not getting directions.
• X & G are playing 20 questions when the scene opens. G: "Are you male or female? X: Male.
• G tries to surprise X for the first of several times.
• Famous scene where X is fishing & tossing fish at G; while Hower is mooning over X and wondering if she would ever settle down, G says, "No, she likes what I do --" (see also The Quill Is Mightier and Fins, Femmes and Gems)
• X is outraged later on that G is using the chakram to cut fish.
• Toilet humor! G is rehearsing, forgets a line, and goes to look at the scroll. She whips it out only to discover a corner torn off. Looking over Argo (the horse) she sees Xena emerging from the bushes. Her dismay quickly turns to outrage. "You used my scrolls?!?" Xena looks a little shifty: "Now take it easy -- there were no good leaves in the bush." Gabrielle is speechless. Xena: "I used a piece that didn't have much writing on it!" Thumping in the background. Xena with relief says, "The giant's coming," and dashes off.
• The fertility goddess statue shows up again.
• Now they run into Minya (Hower's girlfriend) who is also overwhelmed with hero-worship, and perhaps a bit more, for X. Minya doesn't quite remember Gabrielle's name but quickly starts pestering her with questions. "What's it like to travel with the hottest warrior in the butt-kickin' biz, huh? ... Does she sleep in the --?" G: "Well--" X: "Hey! Lady, we're on a mission."
• X & G are in the hot tub, still playing 20 questions. Sexy with the scrubbing, but then Xena squeakily cleans out G's ear.
• Gabrielle trades Xena's whip for a new frying pan. Minya won't give it back. X: I want it back. M: No! It belongs to me. You don't get that concept real well, do you. The whip is mine; frying pan's yours. Hower is mine! (M looks at G) She's yours.
• G & Minya: Gabrielle: Xena would never take anybody's boyfriend!
• X invents the kite and has trouble flying it.
• X does the sensitive conversation: "Hower, Minya's a good woman. She loves you, you're lucky to have her. And you got a snowball's chance in Tartarus with me, you got that?" Hower is unconvinced.
• G jumps down to try to surprise X and pulls herself up by X's breastcup.
• Repeated jokes about the men who fall in love with X: That men like leather; that if X changes to chain mail it would attract a kinkier crowd; that if X has to push Hower around a bit to dissuade him, he might like it.
• G & X chatting. X, bored, is tossing the chakram around for fun.
• Minya has taken X's advice about men: When Zagreas shows up in the village to whine to X that she has had his army destroyed, Minya pops out in a Xena-ish outfit and socks him. Hower is smitten. Hower: "Minya -- I had no idea --" Minya: "That I looked so good in leather?"
• G & X have a moment of reconciliation and apology for the whip and the scrolls.
• Xena, tricking Gareth, somehow manages to lead him back to the Giant's graveyard -- how'd that happen?
• "Going to Bed": X & G at night naming the constellations. X names the Big Dipper (although, I note, it wasn't visible in the sky). Gabrielle says it looks like a bear to her. Gabrielle finally surprises Xena & socks her in the nose. Xena acts very hurt & Gabrielle gives her a kiss on the cheek. Gabrielle suspects Xena let her hit her but Xena denies it. The fertility goddess statute is hanging out by their campsite again.

Disclaimer

"No Slippery Eels were harmed during the production of this motion picture despite their reputation as a fine delicacy in select cultures of the known world."