by Sharon Delaney
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 19
“I've got a cradle set up in the bedroom. I can't believe soon there will be a little baby in there!” Lucy answered the phone in a voice bubbling with excitement.
“How long do you have to finish that parrot rug you're hooking for the baby's room?” I asked, wondering just how close to giving birth she was.
“I was just working on that,” Lucy chuckled. “I've got less than two weeks. And it's not a parrot,” she said indignantly, “it's Saturn… with rings!”
“It looked like a parrot to me,” I said. “Are you sure it's Saturn?” I teased.
Lucy paused to look down at the rug and I could sense her tilting her head sideways. “Okay, at this stage, it could be a parrot. But, honest, it's Saturn. I haven't made much progress recently,” she admitted ruefully. “Been having way too much fun. Feeling like a million bucks. Julius got his first two-wheeler bicycle and started pre-school today.”
“Was he excited?” I asked.
“He was very pleased. He was in a hurry to have breakfast so he could get to school. Demanded cornflakes with vanilla soy milk,” Lucy laughed.
“Is that the breakfast of champions in New Zealand?” I chuckled.
“It's the one thing he was missing,” Lucy explained, talking about school, not the cornflakes. “Social interaction with other kids his age. I dropped him off this morning and he was quite challenged by the whole social structure of being with 14 or so kids. He's used to everyone doing what he wants rather than having to fit in with others.”
Thinking about suburban Long Island when I was growing up, I said to Lucy, “It used to be that a neighborhood was filled with young couples who had children about the same age. The houses were right next to each other. The mothers would sit outside while the babies and toddlers played on the lawn near them. It was a built-in pre-school.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “And it's nice for mothers to have other women to hang out with because the isolation can be a terrible thing. Especially when you've got young kids and you don't have contact with other people to share your problems and joys.”
Lucy mentioned once that she didn't get to see many movies and I'd heard that she was making up for it. “What have you seen recently?” I asked.
“Gosford Park,” she answered. “I really liked it. Not a story with a conventional beginning, middle and end. Almost like a large slice of life. I could see why it won an Oscar - beautiful direction, acting and art production. I've also been watching back-to-back episodes of the second season of The Sopranos. Fantastic!”
I'd been on a bit of a movie binge myself renting Training Day with Denzel Washington and America’s Sweethearts with Julia Roberts. I'd been thinking about the effect an actor's persona has on the audience no matter what part they're playing.
“Some people have a goodness that shines through and some people have a goodness that doesn't,” Lucy offered. “Some people make you feel comfortable and some remind you of the girl who was mean to you at school.”
I thought about that and what Denzel made me feel in Training Day. “I found myself wondering if maybe his character was doing the right thing even though I knew it was wrong. Denzel's luminous smile and the intelligence that I don't think he could wipe off his face if he tried, added an extra layer to the character,” I told Lucy.
Lucy thought for a moment. “I'm wondering how much is a planned stratagem, an approach to building a character, and how much is just Denzel? You know what I mean?
“You could never know that unless you worked with them. Whatever their failings in real life or whatever’s reported in the press, it seems that some people, like Tom Hanks, Julia and Denzel, have a goodness about them that we respond to unconsciously. There's a lack of malice. When an actor comes across as being unlikable, and it's more than just their character, I think it's some basic instinct in us that's recoiling. And it could be from our own personal experiences.”
She continued, “I don't like to watch soap operas, daytime or nighttime, for the most part. I don't want to watch people who are bitchy to one another. Because that reminds me of being at school when somebody hurts you so bad or is mean to you. You know, the mean girls at school? They have no appeal for me on screen. I don't want to invite them into my living room. I don't know if it's nature or nurture, but we have a recoil mechanism that protects us. When we don't like someone, there could be a very good reason for it in your psyche.”
“Denzel’s character in that movie probably started out doing the right thing,” I said.
“As an actor you think, ‘What would make me want to behave this way?’ Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. You learn in drama school how to rationalize your own behavior,” Lucy explained. “And we learn that in life, don't we? Looking back you say, ‘Wow, look how I acted in the past!’ But, at the time, you justified it. You have to find the justification in the character. It might be retribution. Or, ‘I feel so ugly inside. I feel so cheated by the system. I'm fighting back.’”
I'd also seen Moulin Rouge and thought it was an incredible spectacle, but, for me, something was missing. I remembered watching Fred and Ginger musicals and West Side Story and said to Lucy. “There was an innocence in those movies that I didn't find in Moulin Rouge.”
“They didn't have to be innocent in order to sell the romance to you, did they?”she queried. “Look at The Bridges of Madison County. That wasn't about youth and innocence.
“I loved Moulin Rouge because of Baz Lurhman's direction, but I didn't feel the love between the two characters. In a story like that, I want to see something that is alive. The words I want to use are things like, ‘There's got to be juice in it, there's got to be blood, there's got to be tumescence!’” Lucy laughed. “I want to believe those two human beings on the screen really have a hard-on for one another. But it was a little buttoned-up. Perhaps because it's really hard to sustain the heart through such a technically demanding film.”
“There was a feeling of impending tumescence between Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in Madison County,” I said thinking how I probably wouldn't have come up with Lucy's description, but it was the perfect visual.
“The ultimate is Titanic with Kate Winslet,” Lucy added. “Whatever you thought of the movie, you felt her fullness of body and sensuality. You could feel her through the skin - not skin, what is that, the screen!” she laughed at her malaprop. “I remember someone saying Kate has a skin appeal they also attribute to Julia Roberts.
“It's something sensual whether it's sexual or not,” Lucy thought out loud. “They are what I would describe as sexy human beings. I'd almost spell that ‘sexeh.’ That's how I think of that word when I use it in that sense. It's something that appeals on a very visceral level.”
The DVD for “Friend In Need,” the finale of Xena, had just been released and I wanted to talk to Lucy about the experience of recording the commentary.
“It reminded me of three kids sitting on a couch, eating popcorn, watching a movie and poking each other,” I chuckled. “It was so funny and casual. Very intimate. Really gave the sensation of being right there in the room with you, Renee and Rob.”
“Oh good,” she said sounding very pleased. “It was that casual. We were in a room with a big TV screen sitting in three chairs next to each other and it was done in one take. Renee would go in and out as the baby needed attention. And Rob left at one point. He decided he wanted the fans to have a Xena/Gabrielle Renee/Lucy moment at the end.”
“It was good that you commented on Miles being in the room with you,” I told her. “Because we could hear these strange noises.”
“He's such a beautiful baby,” Lucy said warmly. “I just had a long chat with Renee the other day and she's great.”
“You sounded like you were eating,” I teased.
“I had lollys of some sort. Something delicious,” she remembered after thinking for a minute.
“You talked about a man on the boat telling fortunes with cards,” I reminded Lucy.
“Oh, yeah, that was Kenji, the boy who plays the young monk who gets killed,” she explained. “The cards were about relationships and mine came up two aces and two kings or something. It doesn't get any better than that Kenji said.”
“Renee said she remembered that you were sitting around telling ghost stories,” I said.
“The guys on the boat were talking about supernatural occurrences they had witnessed,” Lucy said. “But I don't have any stories like that.”
In the opening of the episode, Xena and Gabrielle first meet Kenji. He's been sent by the ghost of Akemi (Michelle Ang) to bring Xena to Higuchi. And this is the first time Gabrielle has heard about Akemi.
I brought this moment up with Lucy. “In the commentary, you said you didn't know how to play the scene where Xena and Gabrielle first meet Kenji. You say, ‘Here's another relationship I didn't tell you about. Like finding out your partner was a crack addict.’ What was it about the scene that stumped you?”
“We probably shot that first day up, in the first couple days of filming,” Lucy began. “I hadn't even met Michelle and I hadn’t explored that relationship at all. Because there was no backstory, in earlier episodes, between Xena and Akemi, I never knew there was this girlfriend. It was all news to me,” Lucy laughed.
“I'm as surprised as the audience is about these things,” she continued. “I know people find that hard to believe because I live with the guy who thinks up most of them, but when Rob and I talk, we're talking about the baby and what Daisy needs this weekend. Real life. And I could get all excited about something in an upcoming story only to have it change by the time we film it.”
“So you hadn't met Michelle and you’ve got to respond to her character as if someone you loved in your past life has just called you?” I queried.
“You always have to know where your character’s just come from and where they're going to next. That’s a given. That’s the prep you do every night before bed. But when you’re suddenly told that there was a love of your life in your past that you didn't know about,” she laughed, “you need to do some concerted thinking about that. By the time we got to the finale, we were snowed under trying to finish off previous ones, going back and doing reshoots, and it was hard to keep up. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't do enough homework on that relationship. Unfortunately, I allowed that to be sprung on me a little and I had no one to blame for that but myself,” Lucy said ruefully.
Michelle Ang was praised by everyone who worked with her. Lucy, Renee and Rob said she was terrific professionally and a nice person to boot. Actors have to do intimate scenes with relative strangers and I wondered if it was easier to do when you liked the actor as a person.
“I know there were actors in the past that weren’t your favorite people,” I began, “and I wondered if that had an effect when you worked with them?”
“In the early days,” Lucy said, “you could dislike somebody just because you were tired. I think I became a better person, had more understanding of the production process and was more concerned about the comfort of other actors as the show went on. Now, someone would really have to go out of their way to make me dislike them. It certainly makes it easier to pretend you love somebody if you like and respect them. But I think, generally, I can find something to respect about most people.”
“I remember you saying to Renee, when you were together in Pasadena, that you were always sympathetic, but as time went on you got more empathetic,” I told her.
“Yeah, I guess that’s a function of growing older where it’s less about me, me, me,” Lucy chuckled. “You become less and less the center of your own universe which is a very adolescent way of being, isn't it? And we have to grow out of that in order to really appreciate life, the world around us and the people in it. It also enables you to be grateful for everything you have and to enjoy it more.”
“I find myself more and more taking the time to look through other people's eyes,” I agreed.
“Somehow,” Lucy piped in, “you have more time in the day for other people. Which is not to say we have endless time to commit to other human beings. You have to also be realistic about where you put your time. There's only 24 hours in a day. But I guess I got more relaxed, too. I knew the job, wasn’t so stressed and that enables you to open your eyes and smell the roses.
“You feel besieged, sometimes, especially with charity requests and such,” she continued. “I remember just once feeling like I wanted to fold myself up and hide under a rock. Then I got involved with Starship Hospital and the Safe and Sound campaign and all of a sudden my day got longer. Sometimes giving time makes time. It’s peculiar, a paradox, but it seems to be true.”
“You mentioned having to learn a couple pages real quick. Can you memorize quickly?” I asked.
“I don't memorize, I digest the lines. When I have to, I can be the gun. When the pressure was on was always when Lucy was the best. If we have an enormous fight and minutes in which to do it, I will pull a really great fight out of my armpit,” Lucy laughed. “The final fight I had with Athena in ‘Motherhood’ was filmed in 15 minutes. It was one of those things when it’s, ‘Okay, Lucy, it’s all down to you. We are screwed if you don't do this.’ That’s when I rise to my best, when people are depending on me. I always kind of enjoyed that. The mad scramble at the end. Especially when it came down to me. I suppose it’s an ego thing. ‘I can save the day!’” Lucy sang exuberantly.
“‘Here she comes to save the day,’” I sang back at her.
“Mighty Mouse!” she chortled and began to sing the song.
If you've been reading these newsletters, you know that Lucy delights in putting ridiculous songs into people's heads. And she was at it again. As she began to sing the cartoon theme song. I started to hum to drown her out.
“You're not going to do that to me again,” I pleaded. Only a few weeks before I'd been driving with Lucy and she started in on the theme from “Green Acres.”
“Last time you did that to me, I was humming it all the way home on the plane,” I begged.
Lucy laughed and continued to sing.
“I’ve got my fingers in my ears,” I stated emphatically. “I’m not listening to you.”
Lucy sang louder and taunted me mercilessly. “I’ll bet your poor neighbors on the plane weren't very thrilled either,” she teased. “You not sleeping and singing ‘Green Acres.’”
“Evil Xena, Evil Xena. I’ve got an Evil Xena question,” I said, trying to get us back on track. The singing died down and Lucy reluctantly gave up the musical torture.
“You said you had an easier time playing Young Xena,” I began. “Has it always been that way for you?”
“Yeah, I just love playing her. And I love playing Meg. You know,” she stated confidentially. “I'm not done with Meg. I wanna bring her back in some guise. I miss her.”
“Why do you like her so much?” I queried.
“I don't know. It’s like, secretly, that’s the real Lucy,” she laughed.
“That's interesting,” I told her. “When people ask me what you're really like, I say, ‘She is this and this and that and she can be really loopy.’”
Lucy's enjoyment of this description of herself rang through the phone line. “I guess that’s the Meg character. And when I'm playing a man. Remember when Renee played the Southern whorehouse maven and I played the guy. Anthrax?” she said enthusiastically. “That just tickles me pink. I cannot control myself when I'm dressed like that. Or when I'm being Meg. I have such great memories, too, working with Ren, Ted, Bruce and Josh Becker. They were the most fun times.”
“When I think of Meg,” I told Lucy, “My elbows automatically go out and my face goes into her grin.”
“My Planet of the Apes face,” she chortled happily. “The nostrils flare? That’s Meg. She cracks me up.”
“Where did Anthrax come from?” I asked curiously.
“It’s funny cuz I didn’t give a second's thought to how I would play that character,” Lucy said. “I put the outfit on and he was just there. I didn't prepare the voice. That’s the way it came out. I looked so much like my brother, Daniel. It totally delighted me.
“And characters like Meg,” she continued, “I felt always had the best lines. Even if they weren’t, they felt like they were. Meg could always put a great spin on her delivery. She was vulnerable and messed up with a good heart. She did terrible stuff, like stealing that baby, but she had her reasons. Totally misguided.”
Continuing on with things I'd heard Lucy talk about in the commentary I remarked, “You said Young Xena is totally selfish.”
“Selfish in the sense of egocentric rather than grasping for oneself,” Lucy explained. “It's about being the center of your own universe. Where everything going on is really about something we all hope to grow out of.
“I'm reading this biography of Oprah Winfrey. I fold down the pages of things I want to remember,” Lucy said as I heard the pages turning over the phone. “Here it is. This is something Oprah's dad had stuck to his barbershop wall. It says, ‘Attention Teenagers. If you're tired of being hassled by unreasonable parents, now's the time for action. Leave home and pay your own way while you still know everything.’” Lucy burst out laughing. “Isn't that cool?”
“And then there's the scar on Xena's breast. You made a remark about it being stuck there by the makeup people every morning,” I began. “There are a fair amount of newbies watching the show who believed you when you said that. So I thought we'd clear up the fact that the scar is real.”
“I was being a little drier than I needed to be. I was being dry where I should have been droll,” Lucy chuckled. “The producers thought it was a corny gag to explain the scar. I thought it was fun because we all love tying up loose ends. And that was the tiniest of loose ends.
“New people watching the show?” she went back to my earlier comment.
“Yes,” I informed her. “Some discovered it just a year ago. some during the past few months, some on Oxygen.
“Did you hear about the reference to Xena in the New York Times review of Kathleen Turner in The Graduate?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. I did,” Lucy exclaimed. “That's so cool! I love that and I'm so grateful to hear that people are newly interested in Xena. Even more amazing is that they're still interested in it; the people that have always been there. The show really does have legs and not just rerun legs, but people are actively interested. That blows me away. I can’t believe it.”
Xena and young girls. I discussed this with Lucy and Rob in an interview with Rob in Issue #17 and it came up in the commentary.
“You remember us talking about this when you were in the car with Rob?” I asked Lucy.
“Yep, and he told me off for butting in on his interview,” she said saucily.
“It didn't shut you up,” I teased.
“He did! He absolutely did! Accused me of being a backseat interview.” She laughed. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“I had asked Rob about Xena and the young women in her life like Anokin, Akemi and Gabrielle,” I reminded her. “We were having a discussion about mentors and you said, ‘Xena's drawn to their respect and innocence. She wants to be respected by someone who’s good. Xena's never had someone love her, truly love her, in a nonsexual, non-avaricious way.’ This conversation took place after you’d filmed the commentary. In the commentary itself, you said, ‘Akemi is nothing like Borias so it’s hard to see why Xena is attracted to her. But it was in the script, so we did it.’’ I was wondering about the difference in those remarks between the time you left the studio and when we talked in the car.”
There was a long pause as Lucy thought about the two comments. “I don't understand why I would have said they were nothing like each other. I think the second answer in the car is more correct.”
“That statement about Xena wanting to be respected was a great insight into her character,” I remarked.
“Pity I only thought about it eight months after we’d filmed the episode,” she sighed. “But Anokin was never innocent. She was already a corrupted youth from hanging out with Alti. She was an abused child ready to prostitute herself for whatever cause she thought would help her.
“I hate to put it like that, but, in retrospect, that's how I see it when I imagine her face. And she was supposed to be so young although the actress was not as young as the character. But to compare Anokin to Akemi - those two are oil and water, you know what I mean? Vastly different characters.”
“They were both manipulators,” I said.
“They were,” Lucy agreed. “But Anokin's a much sadder character than Borias or Akemi. First, she was used by Alti. Then she was taken over by Xena. Xena loved her, though, she did love her. When Anokin died, Xena was in terrible pain.”
“I remember people saying they wished they'd seen more of the relationship between Xena and Anokin,” I told her.
“Yeah, it would have been interesting to explore that,” Lucy agreed. “But those episodes were all about Alti and Borias.”
“Xena’s reaction to the death of Anokin astounded people,” I stated.
“Oh, cool!” she exclaimed.
“I wondered at the time,” I continued, “if it was a fascination with Xena and these young girls she took under her wing or the fact that they got through to the locked up emotions of the Warrior. Anokin and Akemi were able to touch Xena’s heart. That intrigued the viewers.”
“Interesting,” Lucy said thoughtfully. “Xena's spark of humanity. For an instant, she wants to uncover it. And they helped Xena find the tenderness locked so deeply inside all hurt people. Maya Angelou wrote, in a poem, how strong, successful women have to look to their tenderness to avoid being consumed by those traditional male elements in their lives.”
“I wonder if the first time Xena was touched like that was when she held the baby in ‘The Gauntlet’ on Hercules,” I thought out loud.
“Say, hang on. I should ask you,” Lucy interrupted laughing. “Did Xena meet Akemi before Hercules or after?”
“Oh, right, Anokin, Lao Ma were all before Hercules,” I remembered.
“Lao Ma was before Hercules?” Lucy asked cautiously.
“Yeah.”
“Lao Ma!” she said astounded.
“Yep,” I assured her.
“She looked so bad in those hairdos,” Lucy guffawed.
“What, who?” I asked, totally lost.
“I was thinking about those Japanese hairdos,” Lucy said with a giggle. “I just always looked so bad in them. Every time I'm trying to pretend to be Japanese, it's so ugly. And I was stumping around with Xena’s bad leg. That’s right, I had the bad leg through Anokin and Lao Ma,” she said, finally remembering the sequence of events.
Speaking of Japanese actors, during the commentary, every time Shiori Terada, the actress who played Miyuki, the geisha who summoned Yodoshi, came on screen, Lucy went into raptures of ecstasy about how wonderful she was. It was a small part with no dialogue and I wondered why she had had such an effect on Lucy.
“What is it about her look?” Lucy said, trying to verbalize why she was so taken with Shiori. “It's a look that we on set would call fruity. Unusual, very Japanese in a way that is not the accessible beauty of, say, Michelle Ang whose looks are very Western-friendly. But Shiori is an extremely beautiful Japanese woman. She's quite arch looking. And she was an interesting person off screen.”
“You mentioned she had a punk haircut,” I reminded Lucy.
“Yes, spiky, blonded. A lot of young Asians who come to New Zealand to study get really wild,” Lucy explained. “They’re outside the confines of their culture at home. They don't rebel, but they really explore their freedom. And I think she was one of those Asian students in Auckland. She was just so interesting. I found her an original human being. I'd never met anyone remotely like her.”
“Rob says in the commentary she was hard to direct because she didn’t speak much English and it was difficult to communicate with her,” I added.
“Right, but if you're a girl you could talk with her. We talked,” Lucy stated firmly.
“The way I can talk with my young deaf friend Erika even though my sign language isn't very good?” I asked.
“Right. Your language will be limited, but you understand their heart somehow,” Lucy said warmly. “You communicate without words, don’t you?”
And I knew exactly what she meant. Bounding on into incredible feats, I had seen Lucy doing handstands and cartwheels in the behind-the-scenes footage of “Friend In Need.”
“It was a modest version of your leathers, though,” I commented, “because nothing untoward was showing when you were upside down.”
“I must have been wearing the stunt coppers,” Lucy explained. “And they had the skirt sewed or taped to a pair of bicycle shorts.”
“I didn't know those skinny, little arms of yours were capable of that,” I said to Lucy, astonishment clearly evident in my voice.
“Say that again,” she laughed.
“You've got these skinny, little arms and you're a pretty tall person.”
“It's that thing when Lucy has to do something, she will,” Lucy explained with pride. “She’ll just pull it out. Even if I haven’t done a cartwheel in three years. If we need one, I gotta do it, there's no choice. If we gotta blow fire, okay, let’s not think about it, let’s just do it!”
“I kept playing the tape over and over. I couldn't believe my eyes,” I informed her.
Lucy giggled but seemed pleased at my reaction. “It was only a cartwheel. I can't do anything else. I must have had a Danger Mouse moment. I'll save the day! I'll do a cartwheel! I like it when I can make the crew happy.”
“Xena's back story got worse and worse each time they explored it,” I started off. “Did you ever think Xena got too bad?”
Lucy thought for a moment. “She would do things Xena's not allowed to do. She was so angry which justified her actions in her mind. It was interesting to play.”
I added, “She was extraordinary for the lead character…”
“...of a show.” Lucy finished my thought. “Now, I can look at it from this distance talking to you and I go, ‘Oh, that's distasteful, that's terrible!’ But I couldn't afford to think that way. I am by nature a co-operator. And what's good for the whole is good for me. And it does not help for me to stump up and down about ‘my character wouldn't do this,’ when we've all gotta make a living here. So. for better or worse, that was my MO, I guess. I don't know if I realized it at the time, but I didn't throw too many hissy fits during Xena. And Renee certainly never did.”
“Do you remember ever getting upset about something about the show or about the filming?” I queried.
“Yes,” she said, “in the last season. A stuntwoman showed up at work and she was six months pregnant. She was doubling me because my regular stuntwoman was working on another unit. This girl had declined to tell the stunt coordinator she was pregnant and in the end it came down to me saying, ‘This is totally unacceptable. This woman is six months pregnant and she's doubling me.’
“I said to the girl, ‘I'm really sorry. I know you probably need the money. I know you don't want to say no.’ Stuntmen just don’t say no for the most part. They try to be all gung-ho. I said, ‘I know I worked when I was pregnant, but I had stunt people to make me look good. You have a life inside you that you don't appreciate because you've never had a child, but when that baby's born, you're gonna go, ‘Oh my God. I was endangering this little human being who was there all the time.’
“I think it's shocking it got all the way to the set before I finally ‘spat the dummy,’ which means to spit out a pacifier, when a baby throws a tantrum. It was me who had to call it off. But I feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was the right thing.”
“How about the dark places they took Young Xena?” I asked.
“She was such a great character, there's not many places I wasn't willing to explore,” Lucy explained. “And she wouldn't be that out of place today. You don't have to go too far out of your comfy suburb to see people who are so hurting and angry. Watch the Hughes brothers' movie. Menace II Society, watch the news any night of the week and you will find unstable people with a big sense of grievance and they will justify the most abominable act.”
“We're not all that civilized yet,” I said sadly.
“Nope,” Lucy agreed. “Not as civilized as animals. They don't do anything out of malice.”
My questions today were following the same timeline as the commentary and they'd gotten to the part where Xena was beheaded and Lucy spent some time in a green suit - from neck to toe, fingers to fingers - so her body would disappear against the green screen.
“I looked like a ridiculous version of the Riddler,” Lucy said woefully. “No, actually. I looked like something out of Dr. Seuss. I just looked truly stupid. That sparks the loopy in me,” Lucy chuckled. “I put that green suit on and I just went loopy!”
One last question and I would let the mother-to-be go back to her Saturn rug.
“Knowing the relationship Xena and Gabrielle had with each other, would you have chosen the 40,000 over Gabrielle?” I asked.
“I really love that Gabrielle says, ‘I don't care,’” Lucy said softly. “I love that so much. It was human and so very real. I wish we could have explored that idea. Not that it needed to be explored more. It was all there in Renee's face. But it was so interesting to me.
“I don't believe in soulmates in real life. For me. I don’t think it's a helpful thing to subscribe to. But Xena and Gabrielle certainly did,” Lucy continued. “I don't believe it cost Gabrielle her soul. Maybe her soulmate, but not her soul. She and Xena would see each other again one day in their universe.
“It's Khalil Gibran's, ‘I'm just waiting in the next room.’ You will spend 40 years remembering me, but you're still going to have a life. You're gonna do good works and be a wonderful asset to the planet. For me, there's absolutely no choice to be made. There is only one decision. If you've trapped 40,000 souls in some sort of purgatory, you can't leave ‘em there just so you can go back and be in bodily form. The greater good is what matters.”