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Heart of Darkness is an ep that was made for one reason, and one reason only - TPTB knew that the ratings for their series were in decline and decided that they needed a skin show to try to lure some casual viewers back. If you have to trash your principal characters in the process, so be it, as long as you can get them in revealing costumes and orgy scenes. The only character development we get in this one is the knowledge that Xena is perfectly willing to sell someone else out to save her own *ss, and that's a bit of information I would have gladly foregone. At one time, I berated Emily Skopov for this screenplay, but after seeing how TGYK was completely changed from her original conception, I'm now willing to give her the benefit of the doubt - she may have written something far different from what ended up on the TV screen.

Another week, another stupid plot construct, this time centered on the Seven Deadly Sins. What this particular piece of medieval Catholic theology has to do with X:WP, or why Xena would know about them, we never find out - it's just tossed in to provide a cheap escape clause for Our Hero to escape doing duty as the Ruler of Hell. I hate it when a TV show's creative staff engages in compound folly - the whole "whoever kills the King of Hell must rule in his stead" deal was dumb to begin with, but "tricking an archangel into committing the Seven Deadly Sins so he goes to Hell instead" is much, much dumber. Naturally, the writers stack the deck against Lucifer, starting with his name, but the fact remains that Xena decides that he gets to go to Hell in her place, not for the Greater Good or to protect her friends and family, but simply because she doesn't wanna go. Of course, it's all supposed to be "right" in the end, as Bad Lucifer becomes Satan and Xena is reunited with her cloying companions, but that's the sort of storyline that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Oh, and the suggestion that this was all a big set-up by Michael to rid himself of an obstreperous presence in Lucifer was lovely as well - if the GOL really is the divine analog to a Mafia don and the archangels are his quarreling capos, what does that say about Xena's and Eve's roles in the latter part of S5?

Odd that TPTB decided to throw in the Seven Deadly Sins, as the setting of this ep largely negates them. According to the storyline, the Great Big Hole to Hell swells up the cheesy SFX black-heartedness in all of us, causing us to be bad. Unfortunately, Catholic theology teaches that Man has free will, and sin arises when Man chooses wrongly. If Evil is some sort of malign force dwelling in all of us that can be controlled by outside entities, free will doesn't exist, and therefore neither can "sin." Satan is the Great Tempter, not the Master Button-Pusher - those who serve him do so of their own volition. Then again, by this time TPTB had made such a miserable hash of the theological elements they'd so blithely introduced in S5 that it's probably unfair to expect them to figure this one out. BTW, in case anyone needs a reminder, the Seven Mortal Sins are Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Greed - Pride, Lust and Wrath are definitely covered, Envy is addressed (pretty clumsily), and I suppose Gluttony may be represented by whatever Xena was feeding Lucifer in the early going, but I never saw Sloth, and Greed is dubious as well - it's generally defined in terms of wealth, which isn't too meaningful to angelic beings. Xena does tempt Lucifer with power, but that's different than Greed as a mortal sin - it's more akin to Pride.

As I pointed out in my review of HOA, Adrienne Wilkinson was probably wondering just how smart she'd been to sign that RenPics contract when she got her first two S6 assignments. Eve was always a problem for the S6 writers, but this ep shares honors with HOA as utterly wrecking whatever interest may have existed in the character. When she's not preaching to the black-hearted residents of Amphipolis, Eve is berating an indifferent Lucifer, getting walloped with a fish symbol (why would this symbol be associated with GOL worship? Christ never existed in this world!) or being pursued by a Mommy with blood in her eye. The worst is saved for last, when after being beaten, chased and abused for 40 minutes, Eve tells Xena she shouldn't have doubted her! Xena responds with a sickening homily about the "power of love to change lives," a theme that had nothing whatsoever to do with this ep. If I'd been Eve, I would have belted Xena right in her sanctimonious chops, preferably with the biggest sword I could find.

Gab's a big nothing in this ep, much as in HOA - a meat puppet for whatever orgy scene or nastiness the writers thought up next. Xena's claim at the end of the ep that whenever she was on the verge of losing control, she thought of Gab and that "led her home" was self-serving slop on the part of the writers - there was certainly nothing in the ep to suggest that Xena was thinking about anyone but herself. Gab's response - "Don't get all emotional on me, Xena" - sounded appropriately cynical to me (although the writers may not have intended it that way). Virgil's even more of a nothing than Gab, so I won't bother discussing him. Actually, now that I think of it, he had one good moment, when he told Eve that he'd been asking Eli why he picked his father's murderer to be the messenger. If that had been combined with the Evil Livia scene in HOA, it might have formed the nucleus of a pretty good ep, rather than the dreck we ended up with.

One mark of a series in serious creative decline is an increasing willingness on the part of writers and creative staffers to pander to various elements of their fanbase, and this ep was full of pandering. People want to see Gab get sexy? OK, let's get her snogging with Virgil - whoops, don't want to piss off the subtext fans too much, so let's put in a Xena/Gab poledance! Oh, and in the final scene, let's make sure Xena throws lots of semi-jealous glances Gab's and Virgil's way! Meanwhile, let's do an Evil Xena reprise so we can have LL getting hot-'n-heavy with the Disposable Male Guest Star of the Week! Oh, yes, and let's have Xena ask Lucifer, "May I call you Lucy?" - wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

As a heterosexual male, I freely admit that Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor are beautiful women who look very appealing in scanty outfits - I just wish that it had been in service of a better story. For that matter, Adrienne Wilkinson is very sexy as well in her Eve bikini - too bad that being continually bashed and preaching screechily tends to detract from that quality. Mark Beesley appeared to enjoy shooting half-naked women in orgy scenes - imagine that! :) He does his usual good job with the fight scenes, although only the first one is particularly interesting - the Lucifer/Satan vs Xena fight at the end is strictly by-the-numbers, with Satan doing a wirework flying routine that doesn't look any more convincing than Mephistopheles' in HOA. There were a few good lines in this one, mostly from Xena (Evil Xena always seems to inspire writers) -

Gab: Xena? Xena, we've got a problem.
Xena: Let me guess - it's huge and potentially devastating.

Lucifer: You twist my words.
Xena: No, I straighten them out.

My rating? 4/10 chakrams - the characters hit rock-bottom here, and the franchise was showing all the symptoms of creative bankruptcy. There was going to have to be a lot of digging to get the show out of this hole - fortunately, such digging would start happening later in the season.