Okay question Xenites!
I’m watching “A Family Affair” for like the millionth time… At the beginning Xena feels something before even turning around and seeing Hope (whom we are led to believe in Gabrielle at this point, except we all know it’s not gabby because 1) please, like gabby would ever wear that headband… 2) ew, kissing Joxer on the mouth? No.), at that moment, do you guys think Xena knew that it was Hope? She felt that evil presence? Or did she feel what she thought was gabby?
Also bonus note of interest: that Xena lower lip bite… I mean, stop being so sexy Lucy. Someone please make me a gif of that lip bite please?
A shallow answer is that it’s a narrative manipulation. But to give this a more serious answer – because I am a fucking hardcore nerd who cares like woah – I think that the depths of Xena’s intuition was not undermined by this moment of response and mistaken identity. Instead, in the (totally horrible when it came to maternity and babies) imagination or ontology of the show, Faith consisted partly of Gabrielle, since she was her daughter and that’s how the show thinks kids work metaphysically (I mean… they let Gabrielle and Faith look the exact same, since the physical contribution was all Gabrielle and the soul was I guess all evil soul… or more evil soul than Gabrielle soul, I don’t know). So Xena responded in recognition of that part of Faith. But when the real Gabrielle showed up soon after, Xena’s response was way deeper and more dramatic. They actually managed to convey that sense of reality somehow. Like Faith was a little bit Gabrielle. And Gabrielle was A WHOLE lot of Gabrielle.
I think there’s a BTS interview (might be on YT) where this is discussed and I think Lucy mentions that Xena isn’t fooled, but she wants to be, she suspects, but needs proof. And it was certainly staged so that when the real Gabrielle appears, Xena’s response is so complete, we know the truth immediately.
PS: It’s Hope, not Faith. 🙂
OMG, thedoctor-smith just owned this. Yeah, yeah… Hope… not Faith… that’s a Buffy name. I try to forget all the maternity storylines in this entire show. Because I am TERRIFIED by what it says about the cultural imagination about motherhood. Like this show had a great sexual imagination. But maternity… oh my God… what a chaotic nightmare…
The maternity themes were a great failing of this show – but an understandable one, I think. Mid-90s telly women were still so often presented in a maternal fashion (even if they weren’t mothers) and having a child still considered the ultimate goal for a woman. So many female-centric themes for this show, of course they’d play with maternity, but – ugh – rape by a demon, a demon child (who will not be forgiven her sins, though Eve will be forgiven for doing far worse), it was all rather unsavoury.
If the new Xena ever comes about, here’s hoping (haha) they won’t go there again.
The Doctor Is Out 