Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Thanks so much! Yeah, 'Xena' kind of went off in a weird direction in mid-season 4, when they were in India and started introducing Gabby's mega-pacifist phase and all that reincarnation stuff.

However, I got a kick out of "The Way" (in which Xena briefly becomes an avatar of Kali, with a lot of help from Krishna -- yes, Xena actually prays and asks for help from a god, and gets it!) and out of the season finale "Ides of March", in which Gabrielle totally goes off the pacifist rails, Callisto tries to tempt Xena into hell with a way to avoid being crucified, and both our gals end up dying and ascending to heaven.

Season 5 opens with "Fallen Angel" (introducing a much more Judeo-Christian-ish bit of mythology, though still with reincarnation) and the first appearance of Charles Mesure as the Archangel Michael, and from there things really started to get interesting again, for me.