I assume Athena has never shown up before. If that's the case, I think it's a little late now to bring her into the picture. Granted, I'd expect a whole slew of Gods to come crawling out of the woodwork now, but a Goddess of this stature would have been much better placed a couple seasons ago. If not for the fact that she was entirely unathenous, she would have made an excellent God character. Sadly, that's not the case. She's overpowered, for one thing. See how she tosses Ares around like a rag doll. True, perhaps his powers were weakening, or perhaps he was distracted, or any number of other reasons, but come on, he's the God of War. Even if she's the Goddess, they should be pretty evenly matched. Of course, I can see the writers' points there too. If Xena can beat Ares, and Ares can beat Athena, what threat is Athena to Xena? (Sounds like a lame rap solo. "Athena ta Xena, what's ya dameana?")

Apart from the physical fighting aspect, the writers forgot that Athena is supposed to be the Goddess of Wisdom, even if they did mention it in the script. Now, if I was a God, and there was a child out there that was going to end up destroying me, and I wanted it dead... Would I lay siege to a whole city that has been loyal to me in the hopes of bartering for the child, or would I simply... Use my Godlike powers to teleport next to the kid and off it? I mean, Xena let her mother hold Eve for half the episode. I really doubt Mama Xena could hold her own against the Goddess of War if she wanted that child. And lord knows, Xena was plenty preoccupied here. Indeed, if Xena had to be eliminated first, Athena displayed her ability to cloak herself to Xena's presence, so that she couldn't even be detected like Ares could. The writers have written themselves into a big-ass corner here. Every God has to be dumbed and powered down so that they don't kill Xena or Eve. I could expect it from gods not reknowned for superior intellect like perhaps Poseidon or Hades, but from a Goddess known for wisdom and insight? Come on.

Then we have Xena's treatment of Ares. Now, this pissed me off something fierce when I saw it. Sure, Ares can be scum, sure he practically tried to blackmail Xena into having his child. But this is sheer manipulation when she had absolutely no intention of following through on her word--although Ares technically didn't help her save Eve, she still played him like a fool... And after such mock shock when he said that she always played with his mind to get out of deals and such. Maybe Ares is a little sharper than we thought. Even if this kind of behavior is acceptable to some viewers, it's not the kind of trick to pull on the one god who is willing to give you hand against every other one. Very unwise. Speaking of gods and treatment, is it just me, or would you too have reduced Mama Xena to dust after she spoke to your godly presence like that? Maybe it's just me.

Joxer takes another leave of absence for this episode. Come on, people, either he travels with them now or he doesn't. I think I saw him in the preview for next episode, which means he's conveniently not there for this episode. I can't even think of why. Xena probably sent him out to get fresh diapers for Eve or something. Or, knowing these writers, he'll come back having found some baby named "Adam" who is a male twin of Eve or something else religiously overbearing...

Let's see... Some good things. Athena was very well decked out and looked much like I'd expect her to look. She was also at least respectable in how she wanted the city spared as much as possible and did not gloat over getting to kill Eve, but loses points for the very unsportsmanlike poisoning of the water. (She gets half the penalty back for telling Xena of the poison ahead of time.) She scores an 8 overall. Her champion looked a little too evil (most likely on purpose) for my tastes, but fought well and was a good match for Xena. Too bad she all the personality of your standard henchman, scoring a mere 5.

And as a final insight into this episode, if one more army devoted to a god or goddess (these guys were Athena's own soldiers, not those of one of her priests) disbands and runs like cowards just because their general gets taken down, I'm going to scream. Ever heard of fanatical loyalty? Fighting to the death? Of course, the fact that they knew the instant Athena's champion woman fell makes sense; they were fighting so poorly against a town of farmers and villagers, they must have been spending all their time looking at her instead of the person in front of them.

In an aside, I'd like to say that the preview, featuring Aphrodite, is bound to lead to a disappointing episode. I can't see Aphrodite being the vengeful bitch-goddess she needs to be here. She's the goddess of LOVE! For another thing, it looks to be another humor episode, of which we've already had three this season, two of which had Aphrodite and none of which were that good.