Recap / Xena S 04 E 22 Deja Vu All Over Again

Written by RJ Stewart

Directed by Renee O'Connor

Annie believes she is the latest reincarnation of Xena and goes to an expert on past lives to prove it.

Tropes

• Ascended Fangirl: Annie... just not in the way she hoped.
• Batman Gambit: Ares is behind the reincarnation therapy operation and taught Mattie the hypnosis technique, as he is trying to find Xena.
• Bittersweet Ending: Heavy on the sweet. Ares gets defeated yet again. Harry and Mattie, aware they are destined to be together from their time as Xena and Gabrielle, begin a romantic relationship. Annie is upset to learn she used to be Joxer, but steps aside for the sake of the other two and the last scene is her coming to terms with it.
• Call-Back: Annie, Mattie and Harry escape their bindings the same way Xena did in a previous episode.
• Clip Show: Presented via the form of past life therapy.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Ares admits he's not as powerful as he used to be.
  Ares: You tend to lose a little bit of your edge when you haven't been worshiped in a while.
• Ironic Echo: When Annie and Harry enter the psychic's office, a sign says 'Welcome To Who You Used To Be' with Annie thinking she was Xena. When Harry and Mattie hook up, Annie looks at the sign with a different perspective. Now it represents her past thoughts that were proven wrong.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Annie quietly leaves to let Harry and Mattie be together. It's no so much for Harry's sake, as their relationship was pretty rocky to begin with, but for Mattie as Annie remembering her life as Joxer means she knows that she can't be with the new incarnation of Gabrielle.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: Annie battles someone who believes she is Joan of Arc.
• Noodle Incident: How Ares finally escaped the tomb.
• Not-So-Phony Psychic: Mattie thought the whole clinic was nothing but a scam. Turns out she knows more about reincarnation than she thought.
• Reincarnation: The theme of the episode, though it is not who you think it is.
• The Reveal: Marco is really Ares in disguise.
• Reincarnation Romance: Once Harry and Mattie are revealed to be the reincarnations of Xena and Gabrielle respectively, they quickly become soulmates.
• Screaming at Squick: When she discovers she's actually the reincarnation of Joxer.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • Mattie and Marco after a flashback to a certain repulsive episode.
    Marco: Ah, you're probably watching too many episodes.
    Mattie: No, I don't watch that show. Bunch of chop-socky crap. Besides, this was so repulsive. It couldn't have been an episode.
    Marco: Ah-h-h-h-h-h-h-h, you never know with that show.
    Mattie: No, the sights, the sound—
    Marco: They're sneaky. They'll try anything.
    Mattie: That smell.
    Marco: One week, they're melodrama; the next week, they're Three Stooges.
  • According to Annie, Harry always falls asleep during the show's teaser.
• Take That!: Mattie fears her actions will cause her to be reincarnated as a worm, a cockroach, or a TV evangelist.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Faced with possibly dying, Mattie dreads how she learned reincarnation is a real thing well-after she poised her karma with this scam.
• Throw It In!: Lucy Lawless ad-libbed the beginning of 'Annie the Mighty', but the verses were liked so much they became part of the song.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Marco (whose actor plays Salmoneus) is revealed to be Ares in disguise.

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Disclaimer: No Sword-Wielding, Card-Playing, Therapy-Seeking French Freedom Fighters were deflowered during the production of this motion picture. However, rumors of Custer and Pocahontas remain unconfirmed.