I must admit that the second season is not my favorite - there are many excellent episodes, to be sure - but I have always been partial to epics, and later seasons embody that flavor much more effectively than anything in the second.
I do feel, however, that the second season ranks as the most creative Renaissance Pictures has ever produced. Lucy's accident while rehearsing a stunt for the Tonight Show resulted in a mad scramble to fill the time she spent recuperating. Episodes were rewritten - or scrapped entirely - to accommodate the disaster. In fact, I suspect in some ways the accident was a blessing in disguise - it allowed the production staff to take risks they otherwise might never have entertained.
While this season is not an arc-heavy spectacle, many of the later story arcs (and episode seeds) can trace their origins to the second season. Solan makes his first appearance in Orphan of War. The first references to Borias are made in this episode - references that would be more fully examined in later years.
Remember Nothing is one of the first "alternate reality" episodes to appear in the Xenaverse. In a Xenaverse version of It's a Wonderful Life, Xena sees what would have happened had she not taken up the sword in defense of her village. While we have yet to learn of the earth-scorching havoc she wrought as a warlord, this episode shows that taking up the sword was (at least, in the grand scheme of things) the right choice. The alternate universe theme would appear again in the "Bizarro World" episodes of Hercules (Stranger in a Strange World and Stranger and Stranger, among others), the Armageddon Now two-part arc, and other episodes.
The definitive (and universe-expanding) clip show The Xena Scrolls presented the idea of Xena and Gabrielle continuing their battle down through the ages. It also established that - whatever the history books may tell us - what we see on Xena is the "true story" of the mythic world. Other episodes deal with this idea as well -- Déjà Vu All Over Again, Between the Lines and the "RenPic Episodes" of Hercules (Yes, Virginia... and For Those Of You Just Joining Us).
