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For the second-to-last episode of the first season, this one leaves me asking a few questions about the writer’s intentions. The big over-arching theme of this season has been Xena confronting her evil past—would confronting the warlord who started her on this journey be the wrap-up to that? Is it because Xena had her own little creation come confront her last ep? (Though I gotta say, Xena and Callisto are both dynamic villains—Cortese…not so much. He has one clever idea but other than that, he’s the regular ol’ warlord languishing in his tent while his goons roughhouse and guffaw.)
And because Xena has dealt with rage regressions in the case of Ares/Daddy, and because last episode she came so far on the path of forgiveness, we needed someone new as her vengeful stand-in and that person came in the form of her never-before mentioned older brother, Torres. He’s also never heard from again, which makes his introduction a little annoying. Also, he has the bad luck to come after Callisto’s episode. Callisto’s quest for vengeance, and Hudson Leick’s acting, was just off the charts and utterly engaging. Torres’s actor and vengeance quest were on the cheese side again, which seemed a bit like empty calories after the warrior princess/warrior queen faceoff. :P Though at least I bought the ebb and flow of their relationship more than I did with Xena and “Atrius” a few episodes back. These two characters had more shared history.
And there were some nice themes about murder vs self-defense and coming to terms with the past. Gabrielle rounded it off with some workable comedy. :P
Gabrielle fangirls Xena’s fighting skills as the ladies walk/ride the New Zealand/Greek landscape. Her latest obsession is Xena’s ability to catch speeding arrows. Xena tries to explain it: “It’s not something you can think your way through. It’s your body that has to listen.” Meanwhile, appropriately enough, they’re being scouted through the trees by goons in Parisian-style eye masks. Xena tenses as a bow is pulled taut…but it’s Gabrielle who catches the arrow! :O She’s so thrilled with herself that she hardly registers that fighting is about to happen. Xena rides and flips towards one goon. Gabrielle is so busy watching and mocking Xeen’s moves that again, she is barely aware in time of the goon sneaking behind her. They fight for a time and then she runs…but only to dig her staff into the ground so he flips over it. Xena ultimately downs her goon but as she looked at his masked face her eyes go wide in recognition…she makes it over to Gabrielle who is still beating her goon down, but it turns out the bard doesn’t need any help. She’s suddenly a warrior attending lady! :P Xeen questions Gab’s goon about the mask and when he’s not helpful she puts the pinch on him. The goon admits that he’s with the warlord Cortese whose men are attacking a nearby village. They see smoke in the distance. After Xena takes the pinch off and knocks the guy out, she admits to Gabrielle, amidst a very brief flashback, that the man who raided her village all those years ago wore the mask of Cortese. She finally has the warlord who’s responsible for the death of her brother Lyceus and all the devastation that followed. Kinda like a repeat of last week with Xena in the victim’s chair!
Sure enough the masked men are attacking a town. The villagers trip and are otherwise tortured. Xena rides in and slashes two goons off their horses. Gabrielle runs through a field of flowers and spots a little girl walking in front of a charging horse to retrieve her dolly. Her mother screams…but Gab arrives just in time to save the girl from harm. Gotta admit—pretty dim-witted girl to absentmindedly wander out like that! Even if she were hard of hearing, she’d surely be aware of the commotion. Gabrielle fights with her staff and so does Xena, still on Argo. The ladies prove formidable and the goons call retreat! A group of soldiers in Grecian-looking armor appears but they can’t pursue because of some red tape with boundaries. Drat. The leader, Aescalus, sounds frustrated as well, but his men are already stretched thin across their boundary. This Cortese fella is a real problem.
In the distance one of the masked goons looks back to the village, witnessing Xena and Gabrielle talking with Aescalus. He takes off his mask—more wide-eyed recognition? He whispers Xena’s name, then turns to catch up with his group. He rides up to his general, Malik, with the news that he must see Cortese and tell him about the warrior woman. Malik refuses; newcomers don’t meet Cortese. Tell him, and he’ll tell the goon in charge. The man looks consternated but ultimately relents, saying Xena is a warrior from Amphipolis. Later, in a standard warrior camp, Malik enters a tent and falls to his knees in front of a well-oiled dude in front of some gold. He tells her they weren’t able to loot the village because Xena showed up. Cortese seems intrigued—well, he sent the assassins from earlier, who obviously failed. Other than that, he knows that he “created her.”
Safe and on the road again, Gabrielle goes back to reliving her arrow-catch, waving her staff around. She was a good student, see—she used her body to listen. “I can still feel that warrior fever just coursing through my blood.” :P Xena is accommodating, saying Gabs could do it again, and if she shot ten arrows, the bard would only miss one. Sounds a little generous. :P But bigger problems are afoot—in front of them is the goon who recognized Xena! The fact that he’s alone intrigues Xena. She’s not going to fight him immediately, but she’s still wary and orders Gabs to stay back with Argo. She approaches, in attack mode, and the man tells her to stop: “Unless, of course, you want to kill your brother.” He removes his mask…the look on Xena’s face confirms the relationship.
Gabs steps in, confused; wasn’t Xena’s brother killed by Cortese’s man? Xeen explains: she has two brothers and this is her elder, Toris! Wuddaya know! Toris explains that he joined up with the goons to get close enough to Cortese to kill him. Later, around a camp fire, Gabs does her best to get conversation going between the two siblings. She brings up her sister, and her “17 secret herbs and spices” for these kabobs, and how she and Gabs would go hours not speaking to each other. But when two sibs haven’t seen each other in so long, there must be something to say… Xena starts. “So, you’re an assassin now, huh?” “It’s a start,” Gabs posits of her experiment. :P Toris doesn’t even seem to register the question. He just repeats wanting to kill Cortese, finally being almost there—so Xena, stay out! I can help bring him to justice, Xena reminds her bro. “He’ll find justice at the end of my sword,” Toris says. Gabs tries to break the tension with her kabobs, but Xena sends her to “check on Argo” instead.
Alone, she tells Toris that murder isn’t the answer and she learned the hard way about justice. Toris scoffs that what he saw of her last, when she was rallying the villagers to fight, was nothing to be proud of. Xena stands by that choice; they had to stay and fight rather than follow Toris to the hills. Things take a particularly ugly turn when Lyceus and his death are brought into the picture. Luckily, Gabs is back to break the tension. Xena wants to send her away to board with the family she helped, but Gabs is insistent—stubborn and firm, in fact—that she has to come along to help. We all know she’s a talker. :P “Sorry you had to witness that, Toris,” she posits awkwardly before leaving. Toris explains things in more detail at Xena’s prodding—right now he’s serving under Cortese’s lieutenant, Malik. Good, says Xena, she’ll have a look around the campsite. Toris protests—you have no idea what they do to women! In fact she’s counting on something like that.
At Camp Roughouse, Toris drags Xena in by a rope. Malik immediately takes over; “look what I’ve captured, boys!” Toris insists on being taken to Cortese personally. Malik scoffs that and makes a suggestive comment to Xena before she’s dragged into his tent. She escapes her bonds with her breast dagger and has a look around at some parchment and a stamp with a strange insignia as the men argue outside. Toris’s insistence is only making Malik angry—no one questions him—and he dismisses Toris from his service with some colorful threats. Toris leaves the camp. Now back to Xena—who’s resumed her position and bonds. He leans in close, talking lewdly; Xena takes him out with one backhand. :D Awesome. She cuts a hole through the back of the tent (beautiful lake outside) and starts back to her people.
Elsewhere on the lake, Gabrielle is practicing her “hearing sounds” with her staff while Toris grows impatient about Xena’s whereabouts. Surely she’s hurt and alone…how many warriors? Gabs asks. 15-20…she’ll definitely be here, Gabs says assuredly. She explains a bit about what she’s doing and then launches into poetic about Xena having such an impact on her young, innocent life. Toris latches on to this: she’s changing you like she changed home! Turning them into warriors, getting them killed. She hasn’t changed, Toris says bitterly. Gabs points out that he’s very worried about a woman he purports to hate, but that drama is interrupted by Xena’s arrival. Toris goes directly for Xena now—did she destroy everything he worked for? :P Oh dear. Nope—she’s picked up some intel on Malik’s carrier pigeons. They carry the seal of the castle that the guards work for…must be a spy inside! They need to tell the king, Gabs says. Too well-guarded, says Toris (quite the pessimist! C’mon, you know Xena can do it. :P) Gabs, meanwhile, will go to the village for real this time.
A washerwoman scrubs the floor as Aescalus and co meet Xena and Toris in the hall. How did they get past his guards?? “Oh, they’re laying around here somewhere,” says Xena. :P She needs to talk to the king, but she’s wary to tell Aescalus what about. As the standstill continues Toris just blurts it out—there’s a spy for Cortese up in here! Aescalus considers, and then beckons them to come. They enter a new room where he takes their weapons and makes them wait. Xena is unhappy about Toris’s impatient outburst; what if Aescalus is the spy? But he’s not the spy…a voice from an above balcony says. The king is the spy. It’s Cortese, with a crown on his head! He recognizes Xena, though “it’s been awhile.”
Cortese saunters down to lounge on his throne, egging his guests to say something. Toris goes with an overly dramatic “You’re deeeead!” and lunges—Cortese triggers some automatic arrows! Xena gets her brother down just in time. Cortese promises that the rest of the throne room contains similar booby traps, so don’t try anything. He starts to gloat over his “little operation” and Xena calls him out on his motives—he rules over a kingdom threatened by warlording raiders, which he also rules, so he gets rich off of looting them AND demanding high taxes for the war effort. There does seem to be something a little cunning to this, I agree. Toris cries out that he’s a “murdering harpie” and the king corrects—nope, it’s the warlord Cortese who’s the murdering harpie. Dude on the throne is regent. Xena asks about his endgame…monologing like this rather than killing them. The king says that his army is tired of losing battles…he can’t quite give them “Cortese” but what about his second in command, “the evil warlord Xena?” Cortese pulls a trap door and Xena and Toris go down! …except that they don’t- they’re able to stretch their bodies along the width of it. Xena flips out and reaches the king’s table. He runs for a hidden wall door as Toris makes it for the real door, trying to keep out the others. He can’t hold it! “Then let them in,” Xena says, who suddenly looks a little thirsty for a fight. A-whaa? Well, not so much—when Toris steps aside and lets the guards rampage in, she simply sends them all through the trap door. But in the next room, Aescalus and other soldiers are waiting! They need to escape through a window without killing anyone—“they’re the good guys, remember?” So Xena uses the washerwoman’s abandoned wet rags to whip them back so she and her bro can flip through the window. Great use of plot device! :P Cortese-as-king rushes to the broken window and orders his soldiers with temper-tantrum moves that he wants them back by morning for execution. Wonder if this is an act or his real personality.
In the village, Gabrielle practices her “body listening” techniques with the girl she saved. Only ends up getting her pelted with paint arrows every time she turns around. :P In the middle of this, Xena and Toris come back! Xena asks the girl’s mother to gather the village elders for an important talk. She then lets Gabs in that Cortese=king. Toris is sulking that Xena held him back from murdering the guy—yeah, that’s exactly what happened. *rolls eyes* Gabs calls him out on murder lust, leaving Toris to spit that she just doesn’t understand before stalking off. Xena follows him into a wooded area. His frustration is now aimed at Gabrielle, but Xena defends the wisdom of her words. Toris is realizing, through her, that maybe Xena doesn’t just manipulate people; maybe people want to stand and fight because they’re brave. He finally admits to the pain and guilt he feels for abandoning Amphipolis all those years ago. Xena tries to comfort him; we all did what we thought was best. When Toris admits that he was afraid, Xena counters that murdering Cortese will not ease that guilt. But Lyceus said nope—once he found out what fighting had cost his family, Lyceus, his “life meant nothing anymore.” Hello, PTSD! So he’s going back to Malik to try and get back to Cortese. Xena is forceful: “I already lost one brother to that madman; I’m not going to lose another!” But before they can go further, the girl’s mom is back to summon Xena to talk with the town elders.
Gabs is trying to warm them up, reminding them who stopped the raiders last time (they mostly credit her! Gabby is touched. :P) As Xena approaches an elder says they’re grateful, but she can’t stay here. Her pronouncement that Cortese=king is met with denial. But the real reason they want her gone is that they hear the army AND raiders are searching for her. Could destroy the village! Gab says they’ll help them fight, but Xena counters that it’s not worth it to risk their lives like this. So they’ll go…but first, according to the girl’s mom, Toris is gone because he has “a debt to pay!” Xena figures out quite quickly where he went.
Xena and Argo ride the countryside to Malik’s supposedly abandoned encampment. But when the warrior princess finds her bloodied brother tied to a tree and he warns her it’s a trap, she already knows because the woods are soaked with oil. And the men are out, led by Malik! Malik knows, through torturing the guy, that Xena and Toris=siblings. Malik saunters up and punches her in payback for their tiff earlier. In response, Xena headbutts him. :P Awesome. The goons raise their flaming arrows, but Malik says stop. He still has the upper hand—Xena will go quietly to Cortese or else tied-to-gasoline-tree Toris will die “in a ball of fire.”
So the next we see the siblings, their hands are tied above their heads in the castle dungeon. Toris, again, is whining that Xena couldn’t stay out of it so he could kill Cortese. “Do you know how long I planned the moment when Cortese and I face off?” Is dude still completely deluded about that working? “Things don’t always work out the way you want,” wise Xena advises. Toris wants to know how she felt after she beat back Cortese’s men in Amphipolis. We hear Xena speaking with heavy memory, her face first framed by the fire of a torch before we move in further. Maybe the problem was she had no time to feel, she muses. All she knew was that Cortese would come back, so she had to mobilize the villagers into an army and then take surrounding villagers as a buffer. “And somewhere—I don’t know where—I changed.” Powerful speech by Lucy. She promises that murdering Cortese will lead Toris down that dark path. Toris tries to call her on hypocrisy—even now she’s killed—but Xena counters that it’s not the same. Murder is in its own category—pre-meditated, not for self-defense. But meanwhile, they gotta figure out a way out of here. When Toris laughs, he admits he’s glad they’re together in this. Aww.
Aescalus comes down with some guards. He seems against the king’s plans for fiery execution, and promises to make their deaths painless if they tell him where Cortese is. “Very well—go to the throne room. You’ll find him seated on the big, comfy chair,” is Xena’s answer. But in case that doesn’t work—shocking—Toris swings his legs up and chokes Aescalus! Xena is able to kick the remaining guards unconscious. She kicks Aescalus’s sword up, catches it in her feet, then flips upward to free herself. She undoes Toris and then demands of Aescalus, at sword point, take me to the messenger pigeons! Meanwhile, in the village, the girl’s mother informs Gabs that Xena and Toris have been taken by the castle! Off Gabs runs with her staff! A messenger pigeon leaves the castle—Toris, is usual, is upset about the lack of direct Cortese focus. Xena wants to “stir the pot a little.” Aescalus says he’d rather die, but with pressure admits to the king being at the archery range. Xena gives Toris permission to go out with vengeance…which means she knows Aescalus was lying. Alone, she chokes him for the real information. Kinda brutal, but bad situation here!
Malik is in possession of a surprising messenger pigeon! :P The message says to attack the castle, which thrills the goons no end. Guess they’re not aware of the full deception…but isn’t Malik? Then again, he’s not the brightest crayon in the box. :P A few soldiers practice at the archery where Toris barrels in yelling for Cortese…really? That’s your plan? He’s able to hold his own against the guards but once they’re down, he’s incensed over Xena knowing this was a ruse.
Xena surprises the real Cortese in his throne room at sword point, maybe in part because she doesn’t storm in screaming for him. :P Meanwhile the raiders are in the castle yard! Guards come out and fighting ensues. Gabs also enters the thick of it…Toris also stumbles upon it. Xena leads tied up Aescalus and Cortese outside. She lets Aescalus go to join the fight. Cortese goes onto a nail in the wall where his feet can’t touch the ground…warrior princess is a high school bully! :P Toris is angry that Xena deceived him, but she’s able to remind him that, uh, there’s a battle going on! At least the bro is good for doing double body flips with Xena. :P Cortese is obviously infuriated by the whole debacle. Ultimately the soldiers and goons position themselves in a stand-off with our heroes in the middle. Xena talks to “Cortese”—tell your raiders to stand down. A sweating Cortese yells for her death instead, but the fear is up when Xena throws two swords at either side of his face. She gets out her chakram, promising it’s the last thing he’ll ever see. Apparently that’s enough and he orders his goons to stand down—and again, desperately, when they look at him in confusion. There’s only one guy with the power to make them do that, Xena tells the soldiers. Aescalus finally gets it. An emotional Malik runs up…you (Cortese?) betrayed us! Aescalus runs him through, and that’s the end of Malik. Toris has gone back to his normal, sulky phase. You wanted Cortese for yourself! In response, Xena drags Cortese down and has him kneel before her brother. If you want it so bad, if you want to embrace everything that I realized was so bad about myself, go ahead, she goads. “And then tell me how much better you feel about yourself.” Tension mounts! Toris, from behind, raises the sword over Cortese’s head…Cortese, for his part, is visually terrified. Maybe I’m judging too harshly, but it’s not exactly the behavior Ares would want from his best warriors, I think. :P But Toris, finally coming to terms, drops the sword. Xena says Lyceus would have been proud. Aaaw.
Afterwards, Toris admits that he finally feels free. Yay! He also says that he’s missed the sis. He thanks her for setting him straight. He’s going full circle…going back home to Amphipolis. Xena says yay and tell mother…but then she pauses and changes her mind. Tell her that you saw me. I’m most intrigued by this, because Xena’s relationship with Cyrene will at least make a comeback on this show. :P Toris suggests maybe she come with, but she’s not ready for that. Then Toris wonders about bringing her a gift, and Xeen says that him coming home is the gift. That Xena can be very kind. The two of them share a hug! Then Xena mounts Argo and rides off, while Gabs, walking beside, continues to practice “body listening” (if that’s what she’s doing :P) with her staff.
The disclaimer is No messenger doves were hiding during the production of this motion picture. However, several are reportedly missing in action and several search-and-rescue efforts are underway. Guess that’s where Xena and Gabrielle are headed. :P
So my parting episodes about this episode are…damn, Toris is annoying, whiny, and shows remarkable stupidity and resentment, though at least he’s good with a sword. If this is the only way the writers could show the Cortese-vengeance storyline, then I’m glad Xena had a stand-in. :P But for our girls, it was nice to see them grow with wisdom and humor. :P Wrapping up this confrontation with the guy who first led her to becoming a monster frees Xena to confront bigger and badder villains from her past next season. The story will get a lot more complicated from here!
___
And because Xena has dealt with rage regressions in the case of Ares/Daddy, and because last episode she came so far on the path of forgiveness, we needed someone new as her vengeful stand-in and that person came in the form of her never-before mentioned older brother, Torres. He’s also never heard from again, which makes his introduction a little annoying. Also, he has the bad luck to come after Callisto’s episode. Callisto’s quest for vengeance, and Hudson Leick’s acting, was just off the charts and utterly engaging. Torres’s actor and vengeance quest were on the cheese side again, which seemed a bit like empty calories after the warrior princess/warrior queen faceoff. :P Though at least I bought the ebb and flow of their relationship more than I did with Xena and “Atrius” a few episodes back. These two characters had more shared history.
And there were some nice themes about murder vs self-defense and coming to terms with the past. Gabrielle rounded it off with some workable comedy. :P
Gabrielle fangirls Xena’s fighting skills as the ladies walk/ride the New Zealand/Greek landscape. Her latest obsession is Xena’s ability to catch speeding arrows. Xena tries to explain it: “It’s not something you can think your way through. It’s your body that has to listen.” Meanwhile, appropriately enough, they’re being scouted through the trees by goons in Parisian-style eye masks. Xena tenses as a bow is pulled taut…but it’s Gabrielle who catches the arrow! :O She’s so thrilled with herself that she hardly registers that fighting is about to happen. Xena rides and flips towards one goon. Gabrielle is so busy watching and mocking Xeen’s moves that again, she is barely aware in time of the goon sneaking behind her. They fight for a time and then she runs…but only to dig her staff into the ground so he flips over it. Xena ultimately downs her goon but as she looked at his masked face her eyes go wide in recognition…she makes it over to Gabrielle who is still beating her goon down, but it turns out the bard doesn’t need any help. She’s suddenly a warrior attending lady! :P Xeen questions Gab’s goon about the mask and when he’s not helpful she puts the pinch on him. The goon admits that he’s with the warlord Cortese whose men are attacking a nearby village. They see smoke in the distance. After Xena takes the pinch off and knocks the guy out, she admits to Gabrielle, amidst a very brief flashback, that the man who raided her village all those years ago wore the mask of Cortese. She finally has the warlord who’s responsible for the death of her brother Lyceus and all the devastation that followed. Kinda like a repeat of last week with Xena in the victim’s chair!
Sure enough the masked men are attacking a town. The villagers trip and are otherwise tortured. Xena rides in and slashes two goons off their horses. Gabrielle runs through a field of flowers and spots a little girl walking in front of a charging horse to retrieve her dolly. Her mother screams…but Gab arrives just in time to save the girl from harm. Gotta admit—pretty dim-witted girl to absentmindedly wander out like that! Even if she were hard of hearing, she’d surely be aware of the commotion. Gabrielle fights with her staff and so does Xena, still on Argo. The ladies prove formidable and the goons call retreat! A group of soldiers in Grecian-looking armor appears but they can’t pursue because of some red tape with boundaries. Drat. The leader, Aescalus, sounds frustrated as well, but his men are already stretched thin across their boundary. This Cortese fella is a real problem.
In the distance one of the masked goons looks back to the village, witnessing Xena and Gabrielle talking with Aescalus. He takes off his mask—more wide-eyed recognition? He whispers Xena’s name, then turns to catch up with his group. He rides up to his general, Malik, with the news that he must see Cortese and tell him about the warrior woman. Malik refuses; newcomers don’t meet Cortese. Tell him, and he’ll tell the goon in charge. The man looks consternated but ultimately relents, saying Xena is a warrior from Amphipolis. Later, in a standard warrior camp, Malik enters a tent and falls to his knees in front of a well-oiled dude in front of some gold. He tells her they weren’t able to loot the village because Xena showed up. Cortese seems intrigued—well, he sent the assassins from earlier, who obviously failed. Other than that, he knows that he “created her.”
Safe and on the road again, Gabrielle goes back to reliving her arrow-catch, waving her staff around. She was a good student, see—she used her body to listen. “I can still feel that warrior fever just coursing through my blood.” :P Xena is accommodating, saying Gabs could do it again, and if she shot ten arrows, the bard would only miss one. Sounds a little generous. :P But bigger problems are afoot—in front of them is the goon who recognized Xena! The fact that he’s alone intrigues Xena. She’s not going to fight him immediately, but she’s still wary and orders Gabs to stay back with Argo. She approaches, in attack mode, and the man tells her to stop: “Unless, of course, you want to kill your brother.” He removes his mask…the look on Xena’s face confirms the relationship.
Gabs steps in, confused; wasn’t Xena’s brother killed by Cortese’s man? Xeen explains: she has two brothers and this is her elder, Toris! Wuddaya know! Toris explains that he joined up with the goons to get close enough to Cortese to kill him. Later, around a camp fire, Gabs does her best to get conversation going between the two siblings. She brings up her sister, and her “17 secret herbs and spices” for these kabobs, and how she and Gabs would go hours not speaking to each other. But when two sibs haven’t seen each other in so long, there must be something to say… Xena starts. “So, you’re an assassin now, huh?” “It’s a start,” Gabs posits of her experiment. :P Toris doesn’t even seem to register the question. He just repeats wanting to kill Cortese, finally being almost there—so Xena, stay out! I can help bring him to justice, Xena reminds her bro. “He’ll find justice at the end of my sword,” Toris says. Gabs tries to break the tension with her kabobs, but Xena sends her to “check on Argo” instead.
Alone, she tells Toris that murder isn’t the answer and she learned the hard way about justice. Toris scoffs that what he saw of her last, when she was rallying the villagers to fight, was nothing to be proud of. Xena stands by that choice; they had to stay and fight rather than follow Toris to the hills. Things take a particularly ugly turn when Lyceus and his death are brought into the picture. Luckily, Gabs is back to break the tension. Xena wants to send her away to board with the family she helped, but Gabs is insistent—stubborn and firm, in fact—that she has to come along to help. We all know she’s a talker. :P “Sorry you had to witness that, Toris,” she posits awkwardly before leaving. Toris explains things in more detail at Xena’s prodding—right now he’s serving under Cortese’s lieutenant, Malik. Good, says Xena, she’ll have a look around the campsite. Toris protests—you have no idea what they do to women! In fact she’s counting on something like that.
At Camp Roughouse, Toris drags Xena in by a rope. Malik immediately takes over; “look what I’ve captured, boys!” Toris insists on being taken to Cortese personally. Malik scoffs that and makes a suggestive comment to Xena before she’s dragged into his tent. She escapes her bonds with her breast dagger and has a look around at some parchment and a stamp with a strange insignia as the men argue outside. Toris’s insistence is only making Malik angry—no one questions him—and he dismisses Toris from his service with some colorful threats. Toris leaves the camp. Now back to Xena—who’s resumed her position and bonds. He leans in close, talking lewdly; Xena takes him out with one backhand. :D Awesome. She cuts a hole through the back of the tent (beautiful lake outside) and starts back to her people.
Elsewhere on the lake, Gabrielle is practicing her “hearing sounds” with her staff while Toris grows impatient about Xena’s whereabouts. Surely she’s hurt and alone…how many warriors? Gabs asks. 15-20…she’ll definitely be here, Gabs says assuredly. She explains a bit about what she’s doing and then launches into poetic about Xena having such an impact on her young, innocent life. Toris latches on to this: she’s changing you like she changed home! Turning them into warriors, getting them killed. She hasn’t changed, Toris says bitterly. Gabs points out that he’s very worried about a woman he purports to hate, but that drama is interrupted by Xena’s arrival. Toris goes directly for Xena now—did she destroy everything he worked for? :P Oh dear. Nope—she’s picked up some intel on Malik’s carrier pigeons. They carry the seal of the castle that the guards work for…must be a spy inside! They need to tell the king, Gabs says. Too well-guarded, says Toris (quite the pessimist! C’mon, you know Xena can do it. :P) Gabs, meanwhile, will go to the village for real this time.
A washerwoman scrubs the floor as Aescalus and co meet Xena and Toris in the hall. How did they get past his guards?? “Oh, they’re laying around here somewhere,” says Xena. :P She needs to talk to the king, but she’s wary to tell Aescalus what about. As the standstill continues Toris just blurts it out—there’s a spy for Cortese up in here! Aescalus considers, and then beckons them to come. They enter a new room where he takes their weapons and makes them wait. Xena is unhappy about Toris’s impatient outburst; what if Aescalus is the spy? But he’s not the spy…a voice from an above balcony says. The king is the spy. It’s Cortese, with a crown on his head! He recognizes Xena, though “it’s been awhile.”
Cortese saunters down to lounge on his throne, egging his guests to say something. Toris goes with an overly dramatic “You’re deeeead!” and lunges—Cortese triggers some automatic arrows! Xena gets her brother down just in time. Cortese promises that the rest of the throne room contains similar booby traps, so don’t try anything. He starts to gloat over his “little operation” and Xena calls him out on his motives—he rules over a kingdom threatened by warlording raiders, which he also rules, so he gets rich off of looting them AND demanding high taxes for the war effort. There does seem to be something a little cunning to this, I agree. Toris cries out that he’s a “murdering harpie” and the king corrects—nope, it’s the warlord Cortese who’s the murdering harpie. Dude on the throne is regent. Xena asks about his endgame…monologing like this rather than killing them. The king says that his army is tired of losing battles…he can’t quite give them “Cortese” but what about his second in command, “the evil warlord Xena?” Cortese pulls a trap door and Xena and Toris go down! …except that they don’t- they’re able to stretch their bodies along the width of it. Xena flips out and reaches the king’s table. He runs for a hidden wall door as Toris makes it for the real door, trying to keep out the others. He can’t hold it! “Then let them in,” Xena says, who suddenly looks a little thirsty for a fight. A-whaa? Well, not so much—when Toris steps aside and lets the guards rampage in, she simply sends them all through the trap door. But in the next room, Aescalus and other soldiers are waiting! They need to escape through a window without killing anyone—“they’re the good guys, remember?” So Xena uses the washerwoman’s abandoned wet rags to whip them back so she and her bro can flip through the window. Great use of plot device! :P Cortese-as-king rushes to the broken window and orders his soldiers with temper-tantrum moves that he wants them back by morning for execution. Wonder if this is an act or his real personality.
In the village, Gabrielle practices her “body listening” techniques with the girl she saved. Only ends up getting her pelted with paint arrows every time she turns around. :P In the middle of this, Xena and Toris come back! Xena asks the girl’s mother to gather the village elders for an important talk. She then lets Gabs in that Cortese=king. Toris is sulking that Xena held him back from murdering the guy—yeah, that’s exactly what happened. *rolls eyes* Gabs calls him out on murder lust, leaving Toris to spit that she just doesn’t understand before stalking off. Xena follows him into a wooded area. His frustration is now aimed at Gabrielle, but Xena defends the wisdom of her words. Toris is realizing, through her, that maybe Xena doesn’t just manipulate people; maybe people want to stand and fight because they’re brave. He finally admits to the pain and guilt he feels for abandoning Amphipolis all those years ago. Xena tries to comfort him; we all did what we thought was best. When Toris admits that he was afraid, Xena counters that murdering Cortese will not ease that guilt. But Lyceus said nope—once he found out what fighting had cost his family, Lyceus, his “life meant nothing anymore.” Hello, PTSD! So he’s going back to Malik to try and get back to Cortese. Xena is forceful: “I already lost one brother to that madman; I’m not going to lose another!” But before they can go further, the girl’s mom is back to summon Xena to talk with the town elders.
Gabs is trying to warm them up, reminding them who stopped the raiders last time (they mostly credit her! Gabby is touched. :P) As Xena approaches an elder says they’re grateful, but she can’t stay here. Her pronouncement that Cortese=king is met with denial. But the real reason they want her gone is that they hear the army AND raiders are searching for her. Could destroy the village! Gab says they’ll help them fight, but Xena counters that it’s not worth it to risk their lives like this. So they’ll go…but first, according to the girl’s mom, Toris is gone because he has “a debt to pay!” Xena figures out quite quickly where he went.
Xena and Argo ride the countryside to Malik’s supposedly abandoned encampment. But when the warrior princess finds her bloodied brother tied to a tree and he warns her it’s a trap, she already knows because the woods are soaked with oil. And the men are out, led by Malik! Malik knows, through torturing the guy, that Xena and Toris=siblings. Malik saunters up and punches her in payback for their tiff earlier. In response, Xena headbutts him. :P Awesome. The goons raise their flaming arrows, but Malik says stop. He still has the upper hand—Xena will go quietly to Cortese or else tied-to-gasoline-tree Toris will die “in a ball of fire.”
So the next we see the siblings, their hands are tied above their heads in the castle dungeon. Toris, again, is whining that Xena couldn’t stay out of it so he could kill Cortese. “Do you know how long I planned the moment when Cortese and I face off?” Is dude still completely deluded about that working? “Things don’t always work out the way you want,” wise Xena advises. Toris wants to know how she felt after she beat back Cortese’s men in Amphipolis. We hear Xena speaking with heavy memory, her face first framed by the fire of a torch before we move in further. Maybe the problem was she had no time to feel, she muses. All she knew was that Cortese would come back, so she had to mobilize the villagers into an army and then take surrounding villagers as a buffer. “And somewhere—I don’t know where—I changed.” Powerful speech by Lucy. She promises that murdering Cortese will lead Toris down that dark path. Toris tries to call her on hypocrisy—even now she’s killed—but Xena counters that it’s not the same. Murder is in its own category—pre-meditated, not for self-defense. But meanwhile, they gotta figure out a way out of here. When Toris laughs, he admits he’s glad they’re together in this. Aww.
Aescalus comes down with some guards. He seems against the king’s plans for fiery execution, and promises to make their deaths painless if they tell him where Cortese is. “Very well—go to the throne room. You’ll find him seated on the big, comfy chair,” is Xena’s answer. But in case that doesn’t work—shocking—Toris swings his legs up and chokes Aescalus! Xena is able to kick the remaining guards unconscious. She kicks Aescalus’s sword up, catches it in her feet, then flips upward to free herself. She undoes Toris and then demands of Aescalus, at sword point, take me to the messenger pigeons! Meanwhile, in the village, the girl’s mother informs Gabs that Xena and Toris have been taken by the castle! Off Gabs runs with her staff! A messenger pigeon leaves the castle—Toris, is usual, is upset about the lack of direct Cortese focus. Xena wants to “stir the pot a little.” Aescalus says he’d rather die, but with pressure admits to the king being at the archery range. Xena gives Toris permission to go out with vengeance…which means she knows Aescalus was lying. Alone, she chokes him for the real information. Kinda brutal, but bad situation here!
Malik is in possession of a surprising messenger pigeon! :P The message says to attack the castle, which thrills the goons no end. Guess they’re not aware of the full deception…but isn’t Malik? Then again, he’s not the brightest crayon in the box. :P A few soldiers practice at the archery where Toris barrels in yelling for Cortese…really? That’s your plan? He’s able to hold his own against the guards but once they’re down, he’s incensed over Xena knowing this was a ruse.
Xena surprises the real Cortese in his throne room at sword point, maybe in part because she doesn’t storm in screaming for him. :P Meanwhile the raiders are in the castle yard! Guards come out and fighting ensues. Gabs also enters the thick of it…Toris also stumbles upon it. Xena leads tied up Aescalus and Cortese outside. She lets Aescalus go to join the fight. Cortese goes onto a nail in the wall where his feet can’t touch the ground…warrior princess is a high school bully! :P Toris is angry that Xena deceived him, but she’s able to remind him that, uh, there’s a battle going on! At least the bro is good for doing double body flips with Xena. :P Cortese is obviously infuriated by the whole debacle. Ultimately the soldiers and goons position themselves in a stand-off with our heroes in the middle. Xena talks to “Cortese”—tell your raiders to stand down. A sweating Cortese yells for her death instead, but the fear is up when Xena throws two swords at either side of his face. She gets out her chakram, promising it’s the last thing he’ll ever see. Apparently that’s enough and he orders his goons to stand down—and again, desperately, when they look at him in confusion. There’s only one guy with the power to make them do that, Xena tells the soldiers. Aescalus finally gets it. An emotional Malik runs up…you (Cortese?) betrayed us! Aescalus runs him through, and that’s the end of Malik. Toris has gone back to his normal, sulky phase. You wanted Cortese for yourself! In response, Xena drags Cortese down and has him kneel before her brother. If you want it so bad, if you want to embrace everything that I realized was so bad about myself, go ahead, she goads. “And then tell me how much better you feel about yourself.” Tension mounts! Toris, from behind, raises the sword over Cortese’s head…Cortese, for his part, is visually terrified. Maybe I’m judging too harshly, but it’s not exactly the behavior Ares would want from his best warriors, I think. :P But Toris, finally coming to terms, drops the sword. Xena says Lyceus would have been proud. Aaaw.
Afterwards, Toris admits that he finally feels free. Yay! He also says that he’s missed the sis. He thanks her for setting him straight. He’s going full circle…going back home to Amphipolis. Xena says yay and tell mother…but then she pauses and changes her mind. Tell her that you saw me. I’m most intrigued by this, because Xena’s relationship with Cyrene will at least make a comeback on this show. :P Toris suggests maybe she come with, but she’s not ready for that. Then Toris wonders about bringing her a gift, and Xeen says that him coming home is the gift. That Xena can be very kind. The two of them share a hug! Then Xena mounts Argo and rides off, while Gabs, walking beside, continues to practice “body listening” (if that’s what she’s doing :P) with her staff.
The disclaimer is No messenger doves were hiding during the production of this motion picture. However, several are reportedly missing in action and several search-and-rescue efforts are underway. Guess that’s where Xena and Gabrielle are headed. :P
So my parting episodes about this episode are…damn, Toris is annoying, whiny, and shows remarkable stupidity and resentment, though at least he’s good with a sword. If this is the only way the writers could show the Cortese-vengeance storyline, then I’m glad Xena had a stand-in. :P But for our girls, it was nice to see them grow with wisdom and humor. :P Wrapping up this confrontation with the guy who first led her to becoming a monster frees Xena to confront bigger and badder villains from her past next season. The story will get a lot more complicated from here!
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