“The Quest” is still revolutionary!
It is the Year Of Our Lord 2018 and still I can’t believe that back in 1997 Xena kissed Gabrielle on network TV.
I’ve seen/heard so much commentary about the kiss in The Quest, about it being such a moment of realization for wlw who didn’t even realize they were wlw, and what it was to see represented on a syndicated show that was by all accounts pretty mainstream this thing that they didn’t realize represented them. I mean, my God, I went into it with the understanding that it represented me and I still was screaming when I first watched it happen because I couldn’t believe it was happening.
Because despite all the network malarkey, despite the fact that you never see their lips actually touch (this time), despite the fact that Lucy Lawless disappears and Bruce Campbell reappears at the very last moment in time for the actual lip lock, it was revolutionary. And it still hits so hard because it still is!
A lot of it’s down to the grand tradition of showrunners of dramas being afraid to put their leads together romantically because they’re afraid of losing viewers when dispensing with the romantic drama inherent in sexual tension. Hence Mulder and Scully not kissing until season 7 of the X-Files, Booth and Bones only getting together when Emily Deschanel was actually pregnant in Season 6 of Bones, etc. At one of the cons that just recently happened, Lucy herself said a reboot would probably need to go this way. (Lucy, I love you, but you’re wrong!)
We’ve been trained not to expect the romance we want to happen until there’s been a ton of UST lasting literally years. Long past the point where any real life couple would have actually started dating, and to the point where that essentially becomes the show.
Which is… not the show Xena is. And don’t get me wrong when I say thank goodness because to have this romance set at the heart of this epic and beautiful storytelling - not as the main plot, but absolutely as the primary driver of it? That is a gift that keeps on giving.
Can you imagine if we’d had anything as banal as a “will they/won’t they” for six seasons dominating the main storyline? Instead we get an epic where the love between two queer women is the beating heart of the story and the thing that grounds its sweeping scope and serious themes. Instead, we get a love between two queer women that transcends itself into an expression of divine love by the end of Season 4.
And all because in Season 2, we got this infinitely precious thing: Xena drawing Gabrielle into a dreamscape to talk to her because she loves her, and kissing her because she’s heard Gabrielle thinking about how much she loves Xena, too. It’s that simple. That easy. That natural. This girl who I love also loves me, and I want to kiss her, and so I’m going to.
And without drawing it out, without planning or angsting about it for a season or an arc or an episode or even five fucking minutes, Xena does!
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