Episode 5
Gabrielle's Hope
Written by: R.J. Stewart
Directed by: Charles Siebert and Andrew Merrifield
Edited by: Jim Prior

Regular Cast
Lucy Lawless as Xena
Renee O'Connor as Gabrielle

Guest Cast:
Peter Feeney as Caswallawn
Mark Clare as Eochaid
Robert Harte as Goewin
Michelle Huirama as Banshee #1
Nicola Brown as Banshee #2
Catherine Boniface as Meridian
David Mitchell as Tavernkeeper
Bert Keiller as Cadbury
Ronald Fryer as Old Man
Summer Proben as Hope (Toddler)
Hannah Carr/Alyssa Carr as Hope (10 months)

Synopsis by Don MacLeod:
Gabrielle wakes up, troubled by dreams of herself murdering Meridian. She is nauseous to the point of throwing up. Xena assures her it is a natural reaction to the memories of her first kill. On the way to find a ship bound for Greece, they are accosted by banshees who want to worship Gabrielle, calling her the Chosen One.

On the waterfront Xena goes to arrange passage with a Phoenician trader, leaving Gabrielle at an inn where she is served chicken broth. To go with it, she requests cherries, beef jerky, bloody-rare pork liver with melted cheese on top. While she is tucking into her little snack an excitable mob is lighting up its torches outside the inn. Distracted by the additional delights of panfried chicken gizzards smothered in goat's cream, she fails to notice the howling mob of townsfolk until the innkeeper draws her attention to the cries of "Burn the witch!"

Xena concludes her deal with the ship captain and is attacked by two knights who have been following her. Gabrielle, trapped in the burning inn, polevaults through a window and over the heads of the mob into the dock. She clambers out and makes off, pursued by the mob. Xena hears her desperate cries and breaks away from the knights. Despite the discomfort of her stuffed belly Gabrielle manages to outrun the mob until Xena catches up. The mob leader says that they were put up to it by the knights who attacked Xena. They said that Gabrielle must die or she would banish goodness from the world. The knights have a retreat deep in the forest of the banshees.

Gabrielle is again surrounded by adoring banshees. They tell her she is the object of their affection because she carries the child that will bring the rule of darkness to the world. Gabrielle rejects the idea that she is pregnant and tries to run from them. The banshees do not want her to leave the forest until the child is born and they harry them into the knights' castle.

Once inside, Xena gets a look at Gabrielle: she seems to be in her fourth month. When Gabrielle feels the child move inside her, she accepts she must be pregnant. The baby is growing very fast. Xena talks to some knights who explain that she was impregnated by Dahak while held over his altar. They are keen that she be killed before the evil she carries can be brought into the world. Xena will not allow this. Gabrielle gives birth in a stable to a girl and her mood flips from miserable denial to ecstatic motherhood. Some of the knights side with Xena in protecting Gabrielle, believing as Gabrielle does that a newborn is innocent and can be guided to the good. The majority still think, as Xena fears, that the baby is the embodiment of evil, Dahak's spawn. Given her sire, she cannot be other than an evil thing.

Xena's fears are reinforced by the rapid growth of the child, which now appears about one year old. Gabrielle has nothing but love for her daughter. Fiercely protective, she warns Xena not to come between them. Coming back from discovering that the banshees have been granted permission to enter the castle, Xena finds the knight left on guard dead, apparently strangled with his own necklace by the baby. She is about to put the child to the sword when Gabrielle awakens and prevents her. Xena tries to convince Gabrielle what the child has done, without success. The banshees attack. While Xena fights, Gabrielle slips away and accepts safe passage from them.

Gabrielle and baby ride off on horseback, Xena trailing on foot. She finds that the horse has been traded for a rowing boat to speed the escape downriver. After landing Gabrielle talks to her child, swearing to protect her at all costs. She hears Xena coming and flees up a steep hillside. Once in earshot Xena again makes her case that the monster-child must die. When Xena reaches the top of the hill Gabrielle tells her that she has thrown her baby over the cliff, having realized her true nature. Xena is not convinced by the sudden change of heart but comes around after investigating cries from a nearby cave and finding only rodents.

We see the child floating downstream in a wicker basket, alive.

That night Gabrielle rises and fervently pleads with her distant daughter that she will be good. Some hope.

Episode 6
The Debt I
Story by: R.J. Stewart and Robert Tapert
Teleplay by: R.J. Stewart
Directed by: Oley Sassone
Edited by: Robert Field

Regular Cast
Lucy Lawless as Xena
Renee O'Connor as Gabrielle

Guest Cast:
Jacqueline Kim as Lao Ma
Marton Csokas as Borias
Grant McFarland as Ming Tsu
Daniel Lim as Ming T'ien (aged 12)
Daniel Sing as Ming T'ien (as adult)
Tai Hadfield as Chuang
Blair Fraser as Messenger
Peter Mason as Shopkeeper
William Kwan as Soldier

Synopsis by Don MacLeod:
At great cost a message reaches Xena from the land of Chin. "The little green dragon has become too large..." She wants to leave immediately without Gabrielle. Questions from Gabrielle fly at her until Xena gives her the plain truth: she is going to the land of Chin to kill the person known as the Green Dragon and Gabrielle would only interfere.

As they travel Xena reveals, in part, her experiences in the land of Chin and how she began the change from amoral freebooter to the person she is now. In doing so she tells of the early life of Ming T'ien, the Green Dragon, and of his mother, Lao Ma, who saved her life and informed her philosophy. Gabrielle wants no part of her murder mission and leaves her to take ship alone.

Once at her destination Xena wastes no time in attempting to kill Ming T'ien. She is about to strike him in his bed but the covers are thrown back to reveal Gabrielle there in his place. She chose to betray Xena rather than let her go through with it. A stunned and disappointed Xena is imprisoned.

Disclaimer: Xena: Warrior Princess and its characters are the property of MCA Universal, Studios USA and Renaissance Pictures and in no way does this site intend to infringe upon their copyright.