Screengrab by Judi Mair, for the Australian Xena Information Page

"COMING HOME"
Episode #: 1

( )

Production #: 1411
Initial Air Date: 10/02/2000
Rating: 3.3

Cast
Lucy Lawless: Xena
Reneé O'Connor: Gabrielle
Kevin Smith: Ares
Adrienne Wilkinson: Eve
Tsianina Joelson: Varia
Sela Apera: Queen Marga
The Furies

Credits

Written By: Melissa Good
Directed By: Mark Beesley

Log Line | TV Guide | General | Synopsis and Reviews | Missy's Comments
News | Multimedia | Merpup Commentary | Disclaimer

Log Line:

Ares needs Xena's help to restore his godly powers, but he gets more than he bargained for when the Furies play a trick on him.

TV Guide:

In the sixth-season opener, Xena, Gabrielle and Eve travel to meet with Ares and discover that the former god is involved in a war with the Amazons in a misguided attempt to regain his immortality. But unbeknownst to him, the Furies have masterminded a plot of their own: to avenge the deaths of the Olympians by killing either Ares or Xena. Xena: Lucy Lawless. Gabrielle: Renee O'Connor. Eve: Adrienne Wilkinson. Ares: Kevin Smith.

General:

  • Excerpt from Whoosh! interview with Robert Tapert by Bret Ryan Rudnick:

    RUDNICK:

    I understand you had some difficulty when you wanted to have Melissa Good write some episodes. Did you have trouble with people convincing them to do that?

    TAPERT:

    (smiles) Only amongst my writing staff. It's not conventional to go into fandom and pluck out a writer. It invites problems. It's also challenging to the staff. I give R.J. a great deal of credit. Missy did a pretty darn good job on LEGACY (117/605). The whole system worked exactly as it should have. He [R.J.] spent maybe a day or two polishing up some stuff, working out a bit of logic, this and that. All in all, her script was left pretty much intact. COMING HOME (113/601), due to the story we had assigned her, R.J. had more to do in acts three and four, working out a bunch of mechanisms.

    On COMING HOME, Missy did as good a job as I would expect any junior or new staff writer to do, but that was a struggle because the first two acts were left intact and the last two acts needed more work. There were some holes in the story. We noticed Xena didn't talk to her daughter after she was "arrested" by the Amazons, things like that. Then we putzed around with it some more down here.

    But I'll tell you why I like working with Missy Good: she loves Xena and Gabrielle. That's invaluable to me. If I had my druthers I'd have Missy write two more scripts, but I'll take what I can get and have her write one more.

  • MaryD has posted screengrabs from the preview and the transcript of the promo. [click here]
  • According to MaryD's Season 6 Rumours page....Adrienne Wilkinson said at Cherry Hill that Xena's chakram attack on Gab in "Motherhood" would be addressed in "Coming Home". (Can't wait to see how Missy handles this one!)
  • Posted on the Merwolfpack mailing list by pup Judith: This from the Cherry Hill Convention:
    "When asked what she thought of the script Coming Home by Missy Good, Adrienne Wilkinson said it was great and that having Missy there for re-writes and stuff was a very *good* thing:}
    Then, I casually asked her what she thought of the dialogue:} She immediately said it was the best dialogue she has ever heard in her life. The attending Pups howled and applauded uproariously!!! A memorable moment for the Pups. Quite possibly for AW as well. (g)"
  • Yep. "Coming Home" will be filming from August 15th-August 22nd. Get some good pics Missy!
  • Given Missy's flying schedule...it looks like this episode will be filming in the middle of August.
  • This episode will be the season 6 opener...what a great way to start the year!
  • "When we started having discussions about the story, Rob said he was really thinking about putting a character driven, lighter ep first, to go up against the Olympics which are still running that week. The plot line we came up with was designed with that in mind." - Missy Good

Synopsis and Reviews:

Missy's Comments:

(This is a compilation of comments that Missy has posted on various mailing lists.)

  • How do you feel about episode?

    I liked it. I thought Kevin, Lucy, and Renee did a great job. I think it was a good choice to start the season off with - I laughed at the funny bits even when I knew they were coming. (g)

    The Amazons came off really well - I liked the scenes between Varia and Eve - I liked the fistfight in the snow - I liked the revival scene...(g)

    What didn't I like? I would have liked the original apology scene to have stayed in, and I would have changed the end scene. But all in all, it worked for me.

    I think it turned out a nifty ep, given that it had a lot of things to achieve, and was designed to appeal across a broad spectrum of the audience since it was the opener.  I know Kevin did a great job.

  • Did you have fun?

    Oh, I was having an enormous amount of fun. CH was a trip of a script to write - I laughed the entire first act while I was typing it. It came out even funnier than I imagined, due to Renee, Lucy, and Kevin's interpretation of Ares and Furies.  Renee's Fury Gab had me on the floor - I thought she was going to lean over and blow in his ear for a minute.

    I think it was nice for the cast - they'd just finished filming the Ring trilogy, which was a tough go of it from what I hear. This allowed them to relax, and just 'ACT'- as Lucy put it - do the heart stuff and not have to deal with monsters and FX and the rest of it. Also, it was their first filming with Kevin that year, and there were a lot of nice Amazons and hunky fighters walking around - as well as the three Furies, who were, indeed, chilly..

  • What did the cast think of having a writer on the set?

    They were very curious to meet a writer for the show. The only one they'd dealt with before that was Rob himself.  I was treated as another crew member - it was very nice.

  • Was the episode different than your script?

    From the shooting draft? Yes - but that's mostly because Rob put back in a lot of elements from the first three drafts of the scripts I sent in. I was especially happy with what ended up happening at the end of the fight.

  • While you were in NZ, who proposed changes to the script?

    Some the director asked for, and some Lucy asked for, and yes, you betcha
    both Lucy and Renee have input. (g) A lot of times they'll redo dialog because they know their characters better than the writers do.

  • What was your favorite part?

    Actually, that whole first exchange starting with "This greater good thing gets old" is one of my favorites, aong with the armorer discussion. I saw the armoror scene get filmed - the guy playing the armoror was hilarious especially his facial expressions. (nice guy, too. Tsianina was really nice as well)

  • What parts were purely yours?

    Hm. Is there something in the ep that I can point to, that pretty much went from my demented brain directly to the screen?

    The fly. (g)
    The Ares/Furies scenes.
    The scene between Ares and the armorer.
    The Amazons.

    It's definitely a collaborative process - RJ and RT had a huge amount of input, as did the actors and director when they interpreted the material.

  • The Subtext?

    On the subject of subtext - good friends was exactly what I was aiming for. After 5th season, and how things were at the end of the year, a launch directly back into subtext didn't seem realistic to me. What I was aiming for was a solid partnership to be reestablished - and let the subtext be worked on a little later in the season. (ggg)

  • What was it like writing for Eve?

    Eve was interesting, because one of the objectives was to try and redefine who she's becoming now that she's no longer a killing machine, and following Eli's path. I wanted to show that there was still some.. for want of a better word 'Xena' in there so that she can get frustrated, and the potential might be there for her to let her temper loose if she gets pushed too hard.

  • What do you think of Kevin Smith's performance?

    Kevin did a fantastic job in the ep. There was material there that was different than anything he'd had before as Ares - and I think he really went for it - all across the range from threatening (at the very beginning) to totally wackoid (during the fight scene with Xena) Nice job.

  • Comments on Ares storyline....

    We'd actually had a debate about whether or not to subtract his powers along with his immortality. It was felt that it made for a much better story if he did not have his powers - and it really only lost me one thing - in the beginning, where Ares punches out that guard - I had him turning the guy into a pig. So the only thing he
    was after was his immortality back. I think this made for a better story.

  • How about that famous Xena/Ares kiss?

    It was a scene that was already filmed in Motherhood, but they had to cut it for time. (I think it was referenced in TV Guide, or some other guide, if you remember) So it was recreated here. I didn't mind the scene - however, I think to balance it off, we should have kept in the full version of the apology to give Gab equal time.

    It was something they felt very strongly about including. In my mind, it was the closing of a door, with Xena acknowledging their connection much the same way she had with Hercules.

  • Speaking of the apology....

    That was something that was on the minds of quite a few members of the staff
    for a long time, and when we started discussing CH, it was definitely one of
    the things that was brought up almost from the start.

    Finding a way, and a place was the tough part.

    The apology was oddly placed, because it was moved around as much as it was, and where they ended up putting it was the only 'quiet moment' we could find to fit it in.  It really needed a line or two more for a good transition, but we just didn't have the time available.

    We had a lot, and I do mean a lot of discussions as to how we could put in a
    beat to address or, to be more accurate, acknowledge the chakkie throw -
    without derailing the current story, and the eventual result was a collaboratative effort. I saw it filmed on the last day I was in New Zealand, and while the transition into it felt slightly awkward to me, the emotions of the scene worked as I saw it filmed.

    It was a very tough thing to work out. I give Lucy and Renee a lot of credit for tapping into the emotions of the moment, and doing their best to give us that beat, because they knew it meant something to a lot of people.

    A touch I really did like, was just before that discussion, the flinch Gabrielle does as Xena tosses and retrieves her chakram. It was a very subtle thing inserted by the director, Mark Beesley, and I liked it very much.

News:

Multimedia:

Merpup Commentary:

  • Coming Soon!

Disclaimer:

Xena and Gabrielle's psyche were not harmed in the making of this motion picture.

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