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scifi_rewatchI stand by what I talked about in the last episode; that it was mostly filler. Yes, we needed the set up, but this hour is most definitely the main attraction. Hope is back, in charge, and more evil than she ever has been this season! Callisto joins Ares in flip flopping allegiances in order to get what she wants. We have new guest stars (like one with a certain theme song) who join the roster! There are more callbacks to Hercules and the hinds blood dagger, plus “the rift” between Xena and Gabrielle that dominated all season. Our leading ladies are both tested with what they might do to save the world from Dahak, when the price for action is high.
And, of course, “sacrifice” takes on a new meaning, apart from the villagers who are unwillingly made part of it in order to usher Hope’s daddy into the world.
It’s a tricky episode of television, because it’s one that pits human characters against god characters, and of course the humans are expected to win. Spoilers spoilers. So yeah, there are some eyebrow archy plot moments, mainly having to do with the inaction of the gods. But Xena makes up for it with a strong focus on characters. Who is really keeping track of how many fireballs Callisto should be throwing, when emotionally things are coming to a head between her and Xena? I mention Xena specifically, because while the evil half-goddess Hope is Gabrielle’s child, Xena still bears significant responsibility for creating the villain Callisto became. One might argue—correctly—that she is a more compelling and dynamic character than Hope is, too. Though man, Renee O’Connor was having a blast playing Gab’s daughter. :P
There is some great stuff for Ares, too, just sayin! So much great stuff for all of the characters that they truncated or deleted a loooot of footage. The season three DVD set devotes one entire disc to just this episode and a bunch of special features—all of the unaltered scenes, interviews with several people involved in this particular duology and etc.
The ending packed a punch, and left fans on the edge of their seats that summer of 1998, wondering just what the hell would be coming next. Mission accomplished, season finale. :P
Summary is here, courtesy of whoosh.org.
When last we left off…Hope was emerging from her cocoon and she looked exactly like Gabrielle! So of course she said “Hello, Mother.” :P Xena and Gabrielle go back and forth a few times with Xena trying to kill Hope and Gabrielle trying to stop her without getting the chance to explain why. At one point, Xena wounds Hope and Hope’s hold over Seraphin lessens, so maybe Hope is still beatable after all? Callisto steps in to try and protect the demigoddess, only to be foiled by rocks again. :P Now, everyone wants the hinds blood dagger, last seen in Hercules, in order to kill gods—Xena wants to kill Hope, Hope and Ares want to kill the Olympians, and Callisto wants to kill herself. Though it seems like Hope is just stringing Callisto along and won’t allow her to commit suicide (I guess Hope will need some fireballs in the future? :P) So Callisto ultimately switches sides, figuring that she can goad Xena into killing her. We also get more intel into why Ares switched sides. Allying with Dahak (though it sounds more like servitude when Ares is talking to the big ball of fire that is the god,) means that he gets to father a new race of gods. That’s right; he and Hope get jiggy with it! :P Renee and Kevin Smith share a passionate kiss, but I think most people say it looks way wrong, hee. Anywho. Xena, Gabrielle (and Callisto) spend most of their time trying to get to Dahak’s temple, occasionally kicking ass and attempting to save villagers whom the Dahak priests are rounding up for sacrifice. Apparently he needs lots of those in order to take form in the human world. Ares drops in once or twice to remind Gabrielle of their bargain; although Xena is ok with dying for the greater good, Ares thinks Gabs can’t live with that. Ares talks to the warrior princess personally, too, trying to get her to join him, and Hope does the same with her mother. Both are refused. Joxer pops up, too, only to be sent away by Xena because he is so bumbling and annoying. …or so it seems! Hope is lurking around Xena, pretending to be Gabrielle so she can learn the location of the hinds blood dagger (because of course Hercules told Xena where it was! :P) Instead of telling “Gabrielle,” Xena tells Joxer where to find it, which he does, as revealed in his “gotcha!’ moment when he tosses it to Xena. By this point, Xena has already smothered Dahak’s fire with a big boulder, so yay? :P Otherwise she and the gals are fighting Dahak’s priests while Ares protects a pregnant Hope. But Xena is persistent, and those last minutes drag on with tension. Hope is trying to magically get Xena to stab herself, while Xena nevertheless inches the demigod closer and closer to a lava pit. The fates watch, with the crone’s scissors over Xena’s lifeline. Ares makes one more pitch to Gabrielle and she takes the bait, catapulting herself into the fray and sending both herself and her daughter down the lava pit! A distraught Xena gets to kill one god—Callisto, when she expresses joy over Gabrielle’s demise. We leave the characters staring over a fiery precipice. Just what can happen next in season four???
First thing’s first—are Dahak and his religion gone for good??? Was it that easy to squelch Dahak’s power in this world; just by throwing a boulder over his fire? (Yeah, I’ll agree that’s pretty weak sauce.) And what about Hope? She’s a demigod; can lava kill her? Personally, I’d be far more worried about Gabrielle (though of course I’m not, because she’s a main character and serial television didn’t kill off a whole lot of those in the mid-90s. Oh, and of course I’ve watched the rest of the series, so. :P) That being said, Callisto’s demise has a bit more finality to it. So someone was sacrificed! And not, it seems, any of the hapless villagers who were brought to Dahak’s temple for that purpose alone. Neither was Seraphin, who was supposed to die in the last episode, after all. Instead, there seems to be a weird shift in her backstory; maybe because there are two different writers for the two episodes of “Sacrifice”? In the last episode, she came off as naïve but basically following her own free will when it came to Dahak worship. In this episode it’s like she’s under Hope’s spell, and when Hope is hurt she comes back to herself. Herself being, I guess, nice and confused? Seraphin is more evil in this episode, too. At least she’s driven in gathering sacrifices, and she seems more on board with the idea that Dahak is a god of destruction, not goodness. I may be reading too much into that one. She also still wants Gabrielle to join them—and so, it seems, does Hope! But Gabs probably seals a forever rift with her daughter when she says she wished her poison from “Maternal Instincts” had finished the demigoddess off for good. ….awkward. At least Gabs looked a little conflicted about it—or she wanted to touch Hope’s cheek for dramatic effect. :P Show did a good job having two Renee’s in the picture, I think!
But oh, Gabrielle. I think most fans (at least according to whoosh.org) would say that they weren’t surprised that she was one of the characters who ended up kicking the bucket, in a way. Ares kept putting the impetus on her, over and over—only you can save Xena. And how else could she do that, other than to sacrifice herself in Xena’s place? I don’t necessarily think she wanted to die, but she made a snap decision at the end of the episode. And man, whether or not you saw it coming, the blocking of that scene was excellent! So too was the “goodbye” look on Gabrielle’s face as she fell. :/ Wibbles! But elsewhere, she continued to be the voice of reason for Xena! Picking up on dialogue from the last episode, it is Gabs who encourages Xena to take Callisto’s help, because refusing it is obviously stupid (hello, nice to have a god on your side,) and borne out of her personal emotions. Those make her lose focus. Ares should be proud of Gabrielle helping Xena find her focus; except that it’s apparent, especially from some deleted dialogue, that the God of War blames Gabs for taking Xena further down the path of compassion. He grouses that in the old days, Xena would have killed Gabs for betraying her. This time, they are putting past grievances behind them. The whole reason Hope looks like Gabrielle, at least from a production stand point, is that they wanted to make things more difficult for the warrior princess; putting the face of the one she loves the most on the face of the one she hates the most, to paraphrase. Also, Xena and Gabs do have a couple of foreboding conversations where Xena claims that Gabrielle is the best thing that ever happened to her. Technically, she’s gearing herself up to die, not the other way around! Oh well? :/
When it comes to Xena…well, Xena is Xena. :P She is driven to incredible heights to serve the greater good, no matter what—this time, “the greater good” being getting rid of Hope once and for all (bonus points for sticking it to the demigoddess who murdered her son! :P) Almost nothing distracts her—except, perhaps, for Gabrielle. Gabs is the one she listens to for advice, and even occasionally stops to wax poetic with. They don’t kiss in this episode, but it’s so obvious that they love each other deeply (the subtext is real!!!) Xena is always laying traps, too—still tipping rocks and boulders onto gods, lol—and sending Joxer, rather than the more obvious choice of Gabs, after the hinds blood dagger. I mean, I figure Joxer is below Ares’s or Hope’s notice. :P But why the big charade of sending Joxer away in an angry huff? Was she trying to throw Gabs off the scent—just in case, you know, Gabs was Hope again? Or maybe she didn’t trust Callisto. Really, that scene was there to throw the “gotcha!” blanket over the audience’s head, a move that annoys me more now than it did when I was a teen. Ah well. There are two other encounters in this episode where maybe Xena gets the wool pulled over her eyes for once! The first is when Hope finds her in the village, posing as Gabrielle and asking after the hinds blood dagger. Does Xena know the whole time that Gabs is Hope, or is it only when she gives away the game when talking too nicely about “her daughter”? (Though side note—in an extended scene, Xena seems genuinely sorry when “Hope” says it was difficult for Gabs to poison her! This is probably the closest we get to Xena expressing sympathy for Gab’s plight as a mother. Anywho.) That being said, if Xena was honest about where the hinds blood dagger was, then why didn’t Hope grab it before Joxer did? Or maybe she did, and Joxer was able to get it off of her when he was brought to the temple as a sacrifice! I think I may be giving all of this a bit too much thought. :P But speaking of giving things too much thought—my second example involves Callisto. Specifically at the end of the episode, when Xena kills her. Apparently there has been controversy about this scene since the beginning—and as an adult, I find myself switching sides from where I was as a teen! :0 I thought, as was evidently written in the script, that Callisto truly did want to live again, and Xena killing her was her final act of getting one over on her. But now I think it’s more poignant the way that Hudson Leick played it--that Callisto knew she could get Xena to kill her if she gloated over Gabby’s death. And she’s spent these last two episodes with people who were wishy washy about if they were going to kill her. :P Time to nip this thing in the bud. I mean, Callisto has sucked so much as a goddess; her final act should be brought about by her own cunning! It’s her greatest strength, after all. Callisto is a total Slytherin. :P It’s not just Hudson’s acting in that final scene, either. Lucy Lawless also brings her A game…and it feels like a weird, emotional parallel—just seconds ago Gabrielle killed her own creation, and now Xena is killing her own, too.
In case I don’t remind you of this enough in every Xena recap I write—Callisto is evil warlord Xena’s creature. Just as Caesar is her peer and Ares, seen here grousing about the good ol’ days when Xena took his guidance, is her mentor. You know, once upon a time Callisto killed Gabrielle’s husband, but Gabby doesn’t really bring it up anymore. :P Not so the case with Callisto. She constantly has to remind Xena of what she did to Callisto when she burned down her village and killed her family. It’s the big impetus of one of the cut scenes where Callisto tries to explain her desire to die to “her maker.” There are a lot of cut scenes in this episode, but this is the one that everyone talks about. I mean, first off—everyone looooves Hudson’s acting, and I mean obviously! :P But I think it’s more than that, too. It’s because Callisto’s pain is so human. She is one of the most complicated, nuanced villains. Maybe Gabrielle is to blame for how Hope turned out (or maybe she would have been a daddy’s demigod either way. :P) But Hope doesn’t struggle and yearn as much as Callisto does, not by a long shot. Ares is perhaps cut out of a similar cloth to Callisto. In the DVD special features, Steven L. Sears reminded us that Ares isn’t “evil.” He is legitimately trying to save humanity—with the belief that war is the only way to go about it, heh. It makes his ambitions greater than Dahak’s, which seems to only be about ruling the world. That being said…Ares turned on his own family rather quick when Dahak offered him a new race of gods! So maybe Ares does care about himself more than anything? Or maybe he hopes that his children will help him in his greater ambition to turn all mortals towards war. But otherwise…I think we could raise our collective eyebrows a bit concerning Ares’s lack of action while Xena et al were fighting the Dahak priests. But I have a theory about it! :P I mean yeah, sure, he probably has the capacity to strike Xena down at any time. The problem is, even now, does he want to? He obviously still has feelings towards her, admiration for her. That’s why he didn’t attack her in the temple. And that’s why he shifted the burden of making sure Xena didn’t kill Hope to the fates and to Gabrielle. It’s his “have your cake and eat it, too” moment, I suppose. Except when Hope and Dahak go down! :o One has to wonder what Ares’s reception on Mount Olympus will be like, once he chooses or is forced to go back there. :P
And finally, some looks behind the scenes! As I mentioned before, there are a lot of looks behind the scenes on the DVD! :P They did a whole “retrospective” about the “Sacrifice” episodes, talking to various cast and crew, though honestly most folks talked more generally about their craft on Xena. It was Sears and the part 2 writer, Paul Robert Coyle, who talked specifically about their desire to end the season big, you know teasing some god kills and all, and that they wanted to do their best to address remaining issues from “the rift.” I think they came to the conclusion that even though Xena and Gabrielle will never have a two dimensional (and unbelievable) happy relationship, they will still struggle through their pain together and still love each other. *swoon* Er, anywho. :P (Also, there was a touching en memoiram to Kevin Smith, aka Ares, just sayin.) So, they wanted to end season three on a big note, and indeed they did! According to the wikia, 5.4 million viewers watched the original airing! :0 Only slightly fewer folks than had watched the X-Files season finale that year. Renee spoke in an interview that although Gabrielle sacrificed herself to save Xena’s life, it wasn’t necessarily her intention. I think she was hoping just to push her daughter in…sorry, mommy! :P Another funny anecdote—during the Xena/Callisto fight scene, apparently Lucy asked Hudson not to make physical contact, because she was about to get married and didn’t want any bruises! One assumes that her hubby, Rob Tapert, aka the co-creator and executive producer of Xena: Warrior Princess, would be understanding. :P The writers talked about writing a fake final page of the script so that Gabrielle’s death would be a surprise to as many people as possible. But the wiki says that Gabrielle wouldn’t have died at all, had Callisto’s death not been leaked on the internet! Looks like there’s more controversy about this episode, hee. Fun fact—before figuring out all of the logistics of this episode, writer Liz Friedman was putting together a season four storyline, and it needed the context of this season finale. Working backwards! Ares’s children, the six destroyers, comes from the biblical Armageddon. Not the first time Xena pilfered inspiration from the Abrahamic faiths! Fun fact—Xena’s “may you live forever” curse to Callisto actually was a curse in ancient Greece, according to the wiki! Is it possible that for once, Xena is being historically accurate?? I think I need to sit down, hee.
Disclaimer Gabrielle finally went off the deep end during the production of this motion picture.
Favorite Quotes:
*the Hope introduction! Also, Gabs has trouble explaining her intel to Xena*
Hope: Hello, Mother.
Gabrielle: Hope?
Callisto: Aw, the mother and child reunion. I’m all misty-eyed.
Xena: *Hope attacks!* Ahhh!
Callisto: Ooh-- now, she’s scary. And you just lost your one chance before she hatched-- Xena.
Xena: It ain’t over, yet.
Gabrielle: Xena! If you kill her, she-- !
Xena: Get back, Gabrielle!
…
Gabrielle: Look, Xena you can’t kill her-- ! Xena--
Xena: Well, you protected your daughter well, didn’t you?
Gabrielle: Look, you don’t understand.
Xena: Why you released that monster that killed _my_ son on all the children of the world? Well that, I do not understand.
…
Gabrielle: Xena-- just listen to me. Ares came to me. He called in my debt. He said that I had to stop you from killing Hope, or you were going to die.
Xena: Don’t you get it? I would _gladly_ die to rid the world of that thing.
Gabrielle: Well, I had to do something. I had to think quickly. I--I just couldn’t stand the thought of losing you.
Xena: Hope’s stronger now-- but she’s still half-human. I hurt her in there. And when it happened—Seraphin returned to normal for a minute. Gabrielle, whatever happens, I must stop Hope. And if I have to die doing it, then so be it. Do you understand?
Gabrielle: I understand.
Xena: You saw her face, didn’t you?
Gabrielle: Mmm.
Xena: It’s strange-- the one I love most in all the world and the one I hate-- look exactly the same.
*Can Callisto trust Hope?*
Hope: Now that I’m back-- the faithful will come by the thousands. The blood of innocents will soak the holy ground-- and Dahak _will_ enter the world.
Callisto: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Glory, Hallelujah—but first, your promise. Come on. Kill me.
Hope: You could be a soldier in Dahak’s army. Instead, you choose oblivion.
Callisto: Yeah, well-- call me short-sighted-- but that’s our deal.
Hope: When I’m finished with you, you will get your reward--as promised.
*Obligatory badass Xena line before she fights for good*
Werfner: If you understood what an honor it was to be chosen, you would not be fighting us! Your innocence, your blood will welcome Dahak into the world!
Xena: Welcome this.
*just in case Gabrielle is having second thoughts on their deal*
Ares: Never gives up-- Even when it’s hopeless. Time was, it was a quality I admired about her.
Gabrielle: How’s life as a slave to your new master-- Dahak?
Ares: I consider it a partnership. You know, he’s not so bad, once you get to know him. He’s-- ruthless, decisive. We got a lot in common. I’m here to remind you-- that our deal is still in place.
Gabrielle: I know that Hope has to die-- no matter the consequences.
Ares: Even if that means-- saying goodbye to your beloved Xena? Think you can just-- let it happen? I don’t.
*Callisto is further suspicious of her choice in allies*
Ares: Sorry-- this time we’re on the same side.
Callisto: What?! He’s with us?! You didn’t tell me that!
Hope: You’re told what you _need_ to know, Callisto—nothing more.
Callisto: Hope, you mess with him-- you’re asking for trouble.
Hope: Relax-- we all want the same thing-- the hind’s-blood dagger-- the only thing that can kill a god.
Ares: And with it-- no god would raise a hand against Dahak, or-- against me, for that matter.
Hope: I know where it is. I saw where Hercules put it.
Callisto: All right, enough games! Where is it?
Hope: I wouldn’t want you using it on yourself, Callisto--yet.
Callisto: I want it-- now!
Ares: Just like old times.
Callisto: You remember when I killed Strife, that look in his eyes? You’re _next_, Ares.
Hope: Enough! Ares-- you and I have unfinished business. Callisto, I will deal with you _when I say_-- not before.
Ares: *smoochero with Hope* You are so not like your mother.
*Callisto tests a new alliance, Seraphin escapes her kidnappers, Xena curses an enemy*
Callisto: Oh, well done, Xena. I’m not here to fight with you, Xena-- just wanna chat.
Xena: Let me guess-- things didn’t work out with Hope quite the way you expected.
Callisto: No, actually-- the sight of her and Ares rolling around like weasels made me sick.
Gabrielle: Hope and Ares?
Callisto: Oh yes, Gabrielle-- it seems your daughter is in heat.
Xena: So you’re switching sides-- again.
Callisto: For a price. I help you put Dahak back in the bottle, and you help me die. I figure you got a bead on that hind’s-blood dagger. Hercules probably told you where it was. It can kill a god, you know. So, how about it? I scratch your back-- you stab mine.
Xena: What’s the matter? Existence getting to be a bit of a burden?
Callisto: Yes-- honestly. I yearn for oblivion-- annihilation-- peace, if you will.
Xena: You helped that demon kill my son. You think I’m gonna help you find peace?
Callisto: Then I’ll just go back and do Hope’s bidding.
Xena: Do that. I’ve beaten you before; I can beat you again.
Gabrielle: Seraphin!
Xena: Let her go! She’ll only slow us down. She’s doomed anyway if we can’t stop Hope. *to Callisto* May you live forever.
*Joxer’s usual sort of introduction :P*
Joxer: That’s far enough. Release those people, or you’ll be sorry.
Follower: Who are you?
Joxer: Joxer, the Mighty.
Follower: Never heard of you. Step aside-- or suffer the wrath of Dahak.
Joxer: Dahak? The one great evil-- Dahak? You’re-- workin’ for him? Good benefits?
*Gabrielle reminds Xena to set aside her emotions*
Callisto: Look, I know about Ares deal with the Fates. After Hope dies, you’re not gonna be around much longer. And we can help each other out-- right? You know where that dagger is, don’t you? You could just-- use it and do the job on me.
Xena: I could, but I won’t.
Callisto: No, you want it for Ares. You’re willing to take Ares out to get to Hope. Well, why not let me help you? And then it would be so simple to just-- turn it on me.
Xena: Because, I like the idea of you living with your suffering.
Callisto: Oh, please! Who said anything about suffering. Really, it’s more of a boredom thing, an emptiness, really. Anyways, I’m disappointed in you, Xena. The sensible thing would be to enlist me on your side. You’re taking this far, far too personal.
Gabrielle: You know, she’s right?
Xena: What?
Gabrielle: Remember what you said about staying focused? You’re letting your anger get in the way here, Xena. It’s best if we let her help us.
*Once Hope realizes that the dagger isn’t where she thought, she poses as her mother to get some answers*
Joxer: Hi, Gabrielle. Gaby! Boy, am I glad to see you! We got big trouble! Hey, where’s Xena?
Hope: We’re close-- aren’t we?
Joxer: Yeah, I’d say so. Now, look-- Dahak and his guys hijacked--
Hope: We’ve known each other for-- how long, now?
Joxer: I don’t know, a couple years? Look-- if we can get a small band together--
Hope: You know me pretty well, don’t you?
Joxer: Yeah, I’d say so-- a small band together--
Hope: Better than anyone? Other than Xena, of course.
Joxer: Yeah, like I say, we’re pretty close. Now, I’ll come up from behind-- I’ll camp--
Hope: I want to talk to you about our relationship.
Joxer: You wanna-- you wa-- you mean, like, you and me?
Hope: Just like that.
Joxer: Wait a minute, you-you-you-- you wanna know how _I_ feel about _our_ relationship?
Hope: I wanna know how you feel about me.
Joxer: Well, I-- uh-- it’s a really big question. Um, I-I, uh-- I feel, um-- well, I feel, uh--
Hope: Would you call it love?
Joxer: Well-- uh, that’s a _huge_ word, but um, uh-- I think I have a nosebleed.
Hope: *to herself* Strange-- there wasn’t enough love in her to let me live-- yet people love _her_. *to Joxer* What would you make of my feelings towards Xena?
Joxer: Xena? Well-- you know-- you love her more than anybody in the whole world.
Hope: More than anyone. Has Xena told you anything about the hind’s-blood dagger?
Joxer: What’s that?
Hope: Never mind.
*uh oh, looks like Hope succeeded!*
Xena: Gabrielle. Gabrielle. Now’s your chance to go for the dagger while Callisto’s occupied. Come on! This way.
Hope: I’m right behind you.
*but nope, the gig is up!*
Hope: She _is_ evil. She deserves to die.
Xena: Maybe even to suffer a little.
Hope: I wouldn’t say that. After all, she is my child. Now, Xena, tell me-- where is the dagger? There must be a thousand crypts.
Xena: It’s carved in the shape of-- there! Don’t turn around, Gabrielle. Don’t you turn around. What’s the name of your sister?
Hope: What sister?
*ominous monologuing by the Dahak fire…*
Hope: When the blood flows, my father will enter the world. By morning, we will have enough sacrifices to begin. Now, go. Get ready.
Werfner: As you wish.
Dahak: [Growls]
Hope: I have satisfied my curiosity, Father. My mother and Xena are weak. They’re fools. If they dare come here, they will be sorry.
*something seems off about this scene… :P*
Joxer: Ooh! Uh! Uh.
Xena: All right, that’s enough!
Joxer: Ow-w-w-- I don’t know why I keep fallin’ off those things.
Xena: I am sick to death of you. The fate of the entire world rests on this mission. If you think I’m gonna let a bumbling fool like you mess it up, you got another thing coming.
Joxer: What?!
Xena: Well, you don’t hear too good, huh? I said I am sick of you. Now, get lost!
Joxer: You guys!
Gabrielle: Xena.
Xena: You need a little lesson, huh? Listen to me, you bumbling--
Callisto: *to Gabs* You didn’t sneak off, back in that village, and get that
hind’s-blood dagger, now, did you?
Xena: *to Joxer* Get lost, and don’t follow us!
Gabrielle: *to Callisto* If I did, do you think I would tell you?
Xena: Now, scram, ya fool! Moron! Get out of there! *to the gals* All right, let’s move!
*Ares makes an offer to Xena and delivers news to Gabrielle*
Xena: Ares-- I know you’re here, ‘cause my skin is crawling. Show yourself.
Ares: You’re the only mortal I know who can do that.
Xena: What do you want?
Ares: I’ve come to give you one last chance to join up with me and Dahak. We’re gonna win, Xena. There’s no turning back. Join us.
Xena: What makes you think that you can trust Dahak? Let me guess. Is it because you played such a large part in his daughter’s delicate condition?
Ares: So, you know. And we haven’t even sent out the announcements, yet.
Xena: Seraphin said that Hope had a special purpose. I heard you were together, and I guessed the rest. Hope is pregnant with your child.
Gabrielle: No. That’s not possible.
Ares: Congratulations, Gabrielle. You’re gonna be a grandma.
Xena: Dahak’s daughter-- your Olympian seed. You sold out your fellow gods so that you could sire a new race.
Ares: Our child will be the first of what Dahak calls “the six destroyers”-- insidious creatures with no souls, who eat of the living and the righteous, and lay waste to all gods.
Xena: You deserve the little monsters.
Gabrielle: This can’t be happening.
Ares: Oh, but it can, Gabrielle-- all thanks to you, it’s the beginning of the end. The bloodletting ceremony will be the window into the world for Dahak. Even if you manage to somehow kill Hope-- you still lose. The Fates will cut you down. So for me, it’s-- win-win. Goodbye, Xena. It _has_ been fun.
*Hope makes an offer to Gabrielle*
Hope: I’m not going to hurt you. It’s growing-- inside me, Gabrielle-- the child-- the way that I grew inside of you.
Gabrielle: What do you want, Hope?
Hope: I want to give you one last chance. Don’t make me do this alone. Come-- be my mother. If I say so, Father will welcome you. Please-- please, Mother.
Gabrielle: Hope-- when I gave you that poison--
Hope: I forgive you. Ahh--
Gabrielle: I’m so sorry it didn’t finish you.
*moral courage speech before facing climactic end of season action!*
Xena: Gabrielle, stay here.
Gabrielle: No way. After all we’ve been through, I am with you till the end.
Xena: Then just one thing. When I’m gone, I don’t want you to feel any guilt.
Gabrielle: Xena--
Xena: Listen to me. A lot’s happened to us over the past year, and there were times when we were both very confused. But I want you to know that I still think you are the best thing that ever happened to me. You gave my life meaning and joy-- and you will be a part of me forever. Ready?
Gabrielle: Yeah.
Xena: Let’s go.
*gotcha hinds blood dagger moment!*
Xena: Joxer! Did you get it?!
Joxer: I got it.
*the final scene, where pretty much everyone is called to account*
Ares: You know the stakes, Gabrielle. Xena’s fate is in your hands.
Xena: Ahhhhhhh!
Gabrielle: No! Hope! *grabs her daughter and tumbles down the abyss with her*
Xena: Ahhhhhhh! Gabrielle!
Gabrielle: Xenaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Xena: Gab--
Joxer: Gabrielle!
Callisto: I never thought I’d feel so good again! Seeing poor, dear Gabrielle sacrifice herself makes it all worthwhile. It finally gives me a reason-- for living, and I have you to thank for it, Xena!
Xena: Ahhhhhhh! *stabs Callisto with hind’s blood dagger*
Callisto: Uh!
Xena: No more living for you.
And, of course, “sacrifice” takes on a new meaning, apart from the villagers who are unwillingly made part of it in order to usher Hope’s daddy into the world.
It’s a tricky episode of television, because it’s one that pits human characters against god characters, and of course the humans are expected to win. Spoilers spoilers. So yeah, there are some eyebrow archy plot moments, mainly having to do with the inaction of the gods. But Xena makes up for it with a strong focus on characters. Who is really keeping track of how many fireballs Callisto should be throwing, when emotionally things are coming to a head between her and Xena? I mention Xena specifically, because while the evil half-goddess Hope is Gabrielle’s child, Xena still bears significant responsibility for creating the villain Callisto became. One might argue—correctly—that she is a more compelling and dynamic character than Hope is, too. Though man, Renee O’Connor was having a blast playing Gab’s daughter. :P
There is some great stuff for Ares, too, just sayin! So much great stuff for all of the characters that they truncated or deleted a loooot of footage. The season three DVD set devotes one entire disc to just this episode and a bunch of special features—all of the unaltered scenes, interviews with several people involved in this particular duology and etc.
The ending packed a punch, and left fans on the edge of their seats that summer of 1998, wondering just what the hell would be coming next. Mission accomplished, season finale. :P
Summary is here, courtesy of whoosh.org.
When last we left off…Hope was emerging from her cocoon and she looked exactly like Gabrielle! So of course she said “Hello, Mother.” :P Xena and Gabrielle go back and forth a few times with Xena trying to kill Hope and Gabrielle trying to stop her without getting the chance to explain why. At one point, Xena wounds Hope and Hope’s hold over Seraphin lessens, so maybe Hope is still beatable after all? Callisto steps in to try and protect the demigoddess, only to be foiled by rocks again. :P Now, everyone wants the hinds blood dagger, last seen in Hercules, in order to kill gods—Xena wants to kill Hope, Hope and Ares want to kill the Olympians, and Callisto wants to kill herself. Though it seems like Hope is just stringing Callisto along and won’t allow her to commit suicide (I guess Hope will need some fireballs in the future? :P) So Callisto ultimately switches sides, figuring that she can goad Xena into killing her. We also get more intel into why Ares switched sides. Allying with Dahak (though it sounds more like servitude when Ares is talking to the big ball of fire that is the god,) means that he gets to father a new race of gods. That’s right; he and Hope get jiggy with it! :P Renee and Kevin Smith share a passionate kiss, but I think most people say it looks way wrong, hee. Anywho. Xena, Gabrielle (and Callisto) spend most of their time trying to get to Dahak’s temple, occasionally kicking ass and attempting to save villagers whom the Dahak priests are rounding up for sacrifice. Apparently he needs lots of those in order to take form in the human world. Ares drops in once or twice to remind Gabrielle of their bargain; although Xena is ok with dying for the greater good, Ares thinks Gabs can’t live with that. Ares talks to the warrior princess personally, too, trying to get her to join him, and Hope does the same with her mother. Both are refused. Joxer pops up, too, only to be sent away by Xena because he is so bumbling and annoying. …or so it seems! Hope is lurking around Xena, pretending to be Gabrielle so she can learn the location of the hinds blood dagger (because of course Hercules told Xena where it was! :P) Instead of telling “Gabrielle,” Xena tells Joxer where to find it, which he does, as revealed in his “gotcha!’ moment when he tosses it to Xena. By this point, Xena has already smothered Dahak’s fire with a big boulder, so yay? :P Otherwise she and the gals are fighting Dahak’s priests while Ares protects a pregnant Hope. But Xena is persistent, and those last minutes drag on with tension. Hope is trying to magically get Xena to stab herself, while Xena nevertheless inches the demigod closer and closer to a lava pit. The fates watch, with the crone’s scissors over Xena’s lifeline. Ares makes one more pitch to Gabrielle and she takes the bait, catapulting herself into the fray and sending both herself and her daughter down the lava pit! A distraught Xena gets to kill one god—Callisto, when she expresses joy over Gabrielle’s demise. We leave the characters staring over a fiery precipice. Just what can happen next in season four???
First thing’s first—are Dahak and his religion gone for good??? Was it that easy to squelch Dahak’s power in this world; just by throwing a boulder over his fire? (Yeah, I’ll agree that’s pretty weak sauce.) And what about Hope? She’s a demigod; can lava kill her? Personally, I’d be far more worried about Gabrielle (though of course I’m not, because she’s a main character and serial television didn’t kill off a whole lot of those in the mid-90s. Oh, and of course I’ve watched the rest of the series, so. :P) That being said, Callisto’s demise has a bit more finality to it. So someone was sacrificed! And not, it seems, any of the hapless villagers who were brought to Dahak’s temple for that purpose alone. Neither was Seraphin, who was supposed to die in the last episode, after all. Instead, there seems to be a weird shift in her backstory; maybe because there are two different writers for the two episodes of “Sacrifice”? In the last episode, she came off as naïve but basically following her own free will when it came to Dahak worship. In this episode it’s like she’s under Hope’s spell, and when Hope is hurt she comes back to herself. Herself being, I guess, nice and confused? Seraphin is more evil in this episode, too. At least she’s driven in gathering sacrifices, and she seems more on board with the idea that Dahak is a god of destruction, not goodness. I may be reading too much into that one. She also still wants Gabrielle to join them—and so, it seems, does Hope! But Gabs probably seals a forever rift with her daughter when she says she wished her poison from “Maternal Instincts” had finished the demigoddess off for good. ….awkward. At least Gabs looked a little conflicted about it—or she wanted to touch Hope’s cheek for dramatic effect. :P Show did a good job having two Renee’s in the picture, I think!
But oh, Gabrielle. I think most fans (at least according to whoosh.org) would say that they weren’t surprised that she was one of the characters who ended up kicking the bucket, in a way. Ares kept putting the impetus on her, over and over—only you can save Xena. And how else could she do that, other than to sacrifice herself in Xena’s place? I don’t necessarily think she wanted to die, but she made a snap decision at the end of the episode. And man, whether or not you saw it coming, the blocking of that scene was excellent! So too was the “goodbye” look on Gabrielle’s face as she fell. :/ Wibbles! But elsewhere, she continued to be the voice of reason for Xena! Picking up on dialogue from the last episode, it is Gabs who encourages Xena to take Callisto’s help, because refusing it is obviously stupid (hello, nice to have a god on your side,) and borne out of her personal emotions. Those make her lose focus. Ares should be proud of Gabrielle helping Xena find her focus; except that it’s apparent, especially from some deleted dialogue, that the God of War blames Gabs for taking Xena further down the path of compassion. He grouses that in the old days, Xena would have killed Gabs for betraying her. This time, they are putting past grievances behind them. The whole reason Hope looks like Gabrielle, at least from a production stand point, is that they wanted to make things more difficult for the warrior princess; putting the face of the one she loves the most on the face of the one she hates the most, to paraphrase. Also, Xena and Gabs do have a couple of foreboding conversations where Xena claims that Gabrielle is the best thing that ever happened to her. Technically, she’s gearing herself up to die, not the other way around! Oh well? :/
When it comes to Xena…well, Xena is Xena. :P She is driven to incredible heights to serve the greater good, no matter what—this time, “the greater good” being getting rid of Hope once and for all (bonus points for sticking it to the demigoddess who murdered her son! :P) Almost nothing distracts her—except, perhaps, for Gabrielle. Gabs is the one she listens to for advice, and even occasionally stops to wax poetic with. They don’t kiss in this episode, but it’s so obvious that they love each other deeply (the subtext is real!!!) Xena is always laying traps, too—still tipping rocks and boulders onto gods, lol—and sending Joxer, rather than the more obvious choice of Gabs, after the hinds blood dagger. I mean, I figure Joxer is below Ares’s or Hope’s notice. :P But why the big charade of sending Joxer away in an angry huff? Was she trying to throw Gabs off the scent—just in case, you know, Gabs was Hope again? Or maybe she didn’t trust Callisto. Really, that scene was there to throw the “gotcha!” blanket over the audience’s head, a move that annoys me more now than it did when I was a teen. Ah well. There are two other encounters in this episode where maybe Xena gets the wool pulled over her eyes for once! The first is when Hope finds her in the village, posing as Gabrielle and asking after the hinds blood dagger. Does Xena know the whole time that Gabs is Hope, or is it only when she gives away the game when talking too nicely about “her daughter”? (Though side note—in an extended scene, Xena seems genuinely sorry when “Hope” says it was difficult for Gabs to poison her! This is probably the closest we get to Xena expressing sympathy for Gab’s plight as a mother. Anywho.) That being said, if Xena was honest about where the hinds blood dagger was, then why didn’t Hope grab it before Joxer did? Or maybe she did, and Joxer was able to get it off of her when he was brought to the temple as a sacrifice! I think I may be giving all of this a bit too much thought. :P But speaking of giving things too much thought—my second example involves Callisto. Specifically at the end of the episode, when Xena kills her. Apparently there has been controversy about this scene since the beginning—and as an adult, I find myself switching sides from where I was as a teen! :0 I thought, as was evidently written in the script, that Callisto truly did want to live again, and Xena killing her was her final act of getting one over on her. But now I think it’s more poignant the way that Hudson Leick played it--that Callisto knew she could get Xena to kill her if she gloated over Gabby’s death. And she’s spent these last two episodes with people who were wishy washy about if they were going to kill her. :P Time to nip this thing in the bud. I mean, Callisto has sucked so much as a goddess; her final act should be brought about by her own cunning! It’s her greatest strength, after all. Callisto is a total Slytherin. :P It’s not just Hudson’s acting in that final scene, either. Lucy Lawless also brings her A game…and it feels like a weird, emotional parallel—just seconds ago Gabrielle killed her own creation, and now Xena is killing her own, too.
In case I don’t remind you of this enough in every Xena recap I write—Callisto is evil warlord Xena’s creature. Just as Caesar is her peer and Ares, seen here grousing about the good ol’ days when Xena took his guidance, is her mentor. You know, once upon a time Callisto killed Gabrielle’s husband, but Gabby doesn’t really bring it up anymore. :P Not so the case with Callisto. She constantly has to remind Xena of what she did to Callisto when she burned down her village and killed her family. It’s the big impetus of one of the cut scenes where Callisto tries to explain her desire to die to “her maker.” There are a lot of cut scenes in this episode, but this is the one that everyone talks about. I mean, first off—everyone looooves Hudson’s acting, and I mean obviously! :P But I think it’s more than that, too. It’s because Callisto’s pain is so human. She is one of the most complicated, nuanced villains. Maybe Gabrielle is to blame for how Hope turned out (or maybe she would have been a daddy’s demigod either way. :P) But Hope doesn’t struggle and yearn as much as Callisto does, not by a long shot. Ares is perhaps cut out of a similar cloth to Callisto. In the DVD special features, Steven L. Sears reminded us that Ares isn’t “evil.” He is legitimately trying to save humanity—with the belief that war is the only way to go about it, heh. It makes his ambitions greater than Dahak’s, which seems to only be about ruling the world. That being said…Ares turned on his own family rather quick when Dahak offered him a new race of gods! So maybe Ares does care about himself more than anything? Or maybe he hopes that his children will help him in his greater ambition to turn all mortals towards war. But otherwise…I think we could raise our collective eyebrows a bit concerning Ares’s lack of action while Xena et al were fighting the Dahak priests. But I have a theory about it! :P I mean yeah, sure, he probably has the capacity to strike Xena down at any time. The problem is, even now, does he want to? He obviously still has feelings towards her, admiration for her. That’s why he didn’t attack her in the temple. And that’s why he shifted the burden of making sure Xena didn’t kill Hope to the fates and to Gabrielle. It’s his “have your cake and eat it, too” moment, I suppose. Except when Hope and Dahak go down! :o One has to wonder what Ares’s reception on Mount Olympus will be like, once he chooses or is forced to go back there. :P
And finally, some looks behind the scenes! As I mentioned before, there are a lot of looks behind the scenes on the DVD! :P They did a whole “retrospective” about the “Sacrifice” episodes, talking to various cast and crew, though honestly most folks talked more generally about their craft on Xena. It was Sears and the part 2 writer, Paul Robert Coyle, who talked specifically about their desire to end the season big, you know teasing some god kills and all, and that they wanted to do their best to address remaining issues from “the rift.” I think they came to the conclusion that even though Xena and Gabrielle will never have a two dimensional (and unbelievable) happy relationship, they will still struggle through their pain together and still love each other. *swoon* Er, anywho. :P (Also, there was a touching en memoiram to Kevin Smith, aka Ares, just sayin.) So, they wanted to end season three on a big note, and indeed they did! According to the wikia, 5.4 million viewers watched the original airing! :0 Only slightly fewer folks than had watched the X-Files season finale that year. Renee spoke in an interview that although Gabrielle sacrificed herself to save Xena’s life, it wasn’t necessarily her intention. I think she was hoping just to push her daughter in…sorry, mommy! :P Another funny anecdote—during the Xena/Callisto fight scene, apparently Lucy asked Hudson not to make physical contact, because she was about to get married and didn’t want any bruises! One assumes that her hubby, Rob Tapert, aka the co-creator and executive producer of Xena: Warrior Princess, would be understanding. :P The writers talked about writing a fake final page of the script so that Gabrielle’s death would be a surprise to as many people as possible. But the wiki says that Gabrielle wouldn’t have died at all, had Callisto’s death not been leaked on the internet! Looks like there’s more controversy about this episode, hee. Fun fact—before figuring out all of the logistics of this episode, writer Liz Friedman was putting together a season four storyline, and it needed the context of this season finale. Working backwards! Ares’s children, the six destroyers, comes from the biblical Armageddon. Not the first time Xena pilfered inspiration from the Abrahamic faiths! Fun fact—Xena’s “may you live forever” curse to Callisto actually was a curse in ancient Greece, according to the wiki! Is it possible that for once, Xena is being historically accurate?? I think I need to sit down, hee.
Disclaimer Gabrielle finally went off the deep end during the production of this motion picture.
Favorite Quotes:
*the Hope introduction! Also, Gabs has trouble explaining her intel to Xena*
Hope: Hello, Mother.
Gabrielle: Hope?
Callisto: Aw, the mother and child reunion. I’m all misty-eyed.
Xena: *Hope attacks!* Ahhh!
Callisto: Ooh-- now, she’s scary. And you just lost your one chance before she hatched-- Xena.
Xena: It ain’t over, yet.
Gabrielle: Xena! If you kill her, she-- !
Xena: Get back, Gabrielle!
…
Gabrielle: Look, Xena you can’t kill her-- ! Xena--
Xena: Well, you protected your daughter well, didn’t you?
Gabrielle: Look, you don’t understand.
Xena: Why you released that monster that killed _my_ son on all the children of the world? Well that, I do not understand.
…
Gabrielle: Xena-- just listen to me. Ares came to me. He called in my debt. He said that I had to stop you from killing Hope, or you were going to die.
Xena: Don’t you get it? I would _gladly_ die to rid the world of that thing.
Gabrielle: Well, I had to do something. I had to think quickly. I--I just couldn’t stand the thought of losing you.
Xena: Hope’s stronger now-- but she’s still half-human. I hurt her in there. And when it happened—Seraphin returned to normal for a minute. Gabrielle, whatever happens, I must stop Hope. And if I have to die doing it, then so be it. Do you understand?
Gabrielle: I understand.
Xena: You saw her face, didn’t you?
Gabrielle: Mmm.
Xena: It’s strange-- the one I love most in all the world and the one I hate-- look exactly the same.
*Can Callisto trust Hope?*
Hope: Now that I’m back-- the faithful will come by the thousands. The blood of innocents will soak the holy ground-- and Dahak _will_ enter the world.
Callisto: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Glory, Hallelujah—but first, your promise. Come on. Kill me.
Hope: You could be a soldier in Dahak’s army. Instead, you choose oblivion.
Callisto: Yeah, well-- call me short-sighted-- but that’s our deal.
Hope: When I’m finished with you, you will get your reward--as promised.
*Obligatory badass Xena line before she fights for good*
Werfner: If you understood what an honor it was to be chosen, you would not be fighting us! Your innocence, your blood will welcome Dahak into the world!
Xena: Welcome this.
*just in case Gabrielle is having second thoughts on their deal*
Ares: Never gives up-- Even when it’s hopeless. Time was, it was a quality I admired about her.
Gabrielle: How’s life as a slave to your new master-- Dahak?
Ares: I consider it a partnership. You know, he’s not so bad, once you get to know him. He’s-- ruthless, decisive. We got a lot in common. I’m here to remind you-- that our deal is still in place.
Gabrielle: I know that Hope has to die-- no matter the consequences.
Ares: Even if that means-- saying goodbye to your beloved Xena? Think you can just-- let it happen? I don’t.
*Callisto is further suspicious of her choice in allies*
Ares: Sorry-- this time we’re on the same side.
Callisto: What?! He’s with us?! You didn’t tell me that!
Hope: You’re told what you _need_ to know, Callisto—nothing more.
Callisto: Hope, you mess with him-- you’re asking for trouble.
Hope: Relax-- we all want the same thing-- the hind’s-blood dagger-- the only thing that can kill a god.
Ares: And with it-- no god would raise a hand against Dahak, or-- against me, for that matter.
Hope: I know where it is. I saw where Hercules put it.
Callisto: All right, enough games! Where is it?
Hope: I wouldn’t want you using it on yourself, Callisto--yet.
Callisto: I want it-- now!
Ares: Just like old times.
Callisto: You remember when I killed Strife, that look in his eyes? You’re _next_, Ares.
Hope: Enough! Ares-- you and I have unfinished business. Callisto, I will deal with you _when I say_-- not before.
Ares: *smoochero with Hope* You are so not like your mother.
*Callisto tests a new alliance, Seraphin escapes her kidnappers, Xena curses an enemy*
Callisto: Oh, well done, Xena. I’m not here to fight with you, Xena-- just wanna chat.
Xena: Let me guess-- things didn’t work out with Hope quite the way you expected.
Callisto: No, actually-- the sight of her and Ares rolling around like weasels made me sick.
Gabrielle: Hope and Ares?
Callisto: Oh yes, Gabrielle-- it seems your daughter is in heat.
Xena: So you’re switching sides-- again.
Callisto: For a price. I help you put Dahak back in the bottle, and you help me die. I figure you got a bead on that hind’s-blood dagger. Hercules probably told you where it was. It can kill a god, you know. So, how about it? I scratch your back-- you stab mine.
Xena: What’s the matter? Existence getting to be a bit of a burden?
Callisto: Yes-- honestly. I yearn for oblivion-- annihilation-- peace, if you will.
Xena: You helped that demon kill my son. You think I’m gonna help you find peace?
Callisto: Then I’ll just go back and do Hope’s bidding.
Xena: Do that. I’ve beaten you before; I can beat you again.
Gabrielle: Seraphin!
Xena: Let her go! She’ll only slow us down. She’s doomed anyway if we can’t stop Hope. *to Callisto* May you live forever.
*Joxer’s usual sort of introduction :P*
Joxer: That’s far enough. Release those people, or you’ll be sorry.
Follower: Who are you?
Joxer: Joxer, the Mighty.
Follower: Never heard of you. Step aside-- or suffer the wrath of Dahak.
Joxer: Dahak? The one great evil-- Dahak? You’re-- workin’ for him? Good benefits?
*Gabrielle reminds Xena to set aside her emotions*
Callisto: Look, I know about Ares deal with the Fates. After Hope dies, you’re not gonna be around much longer. And we can help each other out-- right? You know where that dagger is, don’t you? You could just-- use it and do the job on me.
Xena: I could, but I won’t.
Callisto: No, you want it for Ares. You’re willing to take Ares out to get to Hope. Well, why not let me help you? And then it would be so simple to just-- turn it on me.
Xena: Because, I like the idea of you living with your suffering.
Callisto: Oh, please! Who said anything about suffering. Really, it’s more of a boredom thing, an emptiness, really. Anyways, I’m disappointed in you, Xena. The sensible thing would be to enlist me on your side. You’re taking this far, far too personal.
Gabrielle: You know, she’s right?
Xena: What?
Gabrielle: Remember what you said about staying focused? You’re letting your anger get in the way here, Xena. It’s best if we let her help us.
*Once Hope realizes that the dagger isn’t where she thought, she poses as her mother to get some answers*
Joxer: Hi, Gabrielle. Gaby! Boy, am I glad to see you! We got big trouble! Hey, where’s Xena?
Hope: We’re close-- aren’t we?
Joxer: Yeah, I’d say so. Now, look-- Dahak and his guys hijacked--
Hope: We’ve known each other for-- how long, now?
Joxer: I don’t know, a couple years? Look-- if we can get a small band together--
Hope: You know me pretty well, don’t you?
Joxer: Yeah, I’d say so-- a small band together--
Hope: Better than anyone? Other than Xena, of course.
Joxer: Yeah, like I say, we’re pretty close. Now, I’ll come up from behind-- I’ll camp--
Hope: I want to talk to you about our relationship.
Joxer: You wanna-- you wa-- you mean, like, you and me?
Hope: Just like that.
Joxer: Wait a minute, you-you-you-- you wanna know how _I_ feel about _our_ relationship?
Hope: I wanna know how you feel about me.
Joxer: Well, I-- uh-- it’s a really big question. Um, I-I, uh-- I feel, um-- well, I feel, uh--
Hope: Would you call it love?
Joxer: Well-- uh, that’s a _huge_ word, but um, uh-- I think I have a nosebleed.
Hope: *to herself* Strange-- there wasn’t enough love in her to let me live-- yet people love _her_. *to Joxer* What would you make of my feelings towards Xena?
Joxer: Xena? Well-- you know-- you love her more than anybody in the whole world.
Hope: More than anyone. Has Xena told you anything about the hind’s-blood dagger?
Joxer: What’s that?
Hope: Never mind.
*uh oh, looks like Hope succeeded!*
Xena: Gabrielle. Gabrielle. Now’s your chance to go for the dagger while Callisto’s occupied. Come on! This way.
Hope: I’m right behind you.
*but nope, the gig is up!*
Hope: She _is_ evil. She deserves to die.
Xena: Maybe even to suffer a little.
Hope: I wouldn’t say that. After all, she is my child. Now, Xena, tell me-- where is the dagger? There must be a thousand crypts.
Xena: It’s carved in the shape of-- there! Don’t turn around, Gabrielle. Don’t you turn around. What’s the name of your sister?
Hope: What sister?
*ominous monologuing by the Dahak fire…*
Hope: When the blood flows, my father will enter the world. By morning, we will have enough sacrifices to begin. Now, go. Get ready.
Werfner: As you wish.
Dahak: [Growls]
Hope: I have satisfied my curiosity, Father. My mother and Xena are weak. They’re fools. If they dare come here, they will be sorry.
*something seems off about this scene… :P*
Joxer: Ooh! Uh! Uh.
Xena: All right, that’s enough!
Joxer: Ow-w-w-- I don’t know why I keep fallin’ off those things.
Xena: I am sick to death of you. The fate of the entire world rests on this mission. If you think I’m gonna let a bumbling fool like you mess it up, you got another thing coming.
Joxer: What?!
Xena: Well, you don’t hear too good, huh? I said I am sick of you. Now, get lost!
Joxer: You guys!
Gabrielle: Xena.
Xena: You need a little lesson, huh? Listen to me, you bumbling--
Callisto: *to Gabs* You didn’t sneak off, back in that village, and get that
hind’s-blood dagger, now, did you?
Xena: *to Joxer* Get lost, and don’t follow us!
Gabrielle: *to Callisto* If I did, do you think I would tell you?
Xena: Now, scram, ya fool! Moron! Get out of there! *to the gals* All right, let’s move!
*Ares makes an offer to Xena and delivers news to Gabrielle*
Xena: Ares-- I know you’re here, ‘cause my skin is crawling. Show yourself.
Ares: You’re the only mortal I know who can do that.
Xena: What do you want?
Ares: I’ve come to give you one last chance to join up with me and Dahak. We’re gonna win, Xena. There’s no turning back. Join us.
Xena: What makes you think that you can trust Dahak? Let me guess. Is it because you played such a large part in his daughter’s delicate condition?
Ares: So, you know. And we haven’t even sent out the announcements, yet.
Xena: Seraphin said that Hope had a special purpose. I heard you were together, and I guessed the rest. Hope is pregnant with your child.
Gabrielle: No. That’s not possible.
Ares: Congratulations, Gabrielle. You’re gonna be a grandma.
Xena: Dahak’s daughter-- your Olympian seed. You sold out your fellow gods so that you could sire a new race.
Ares: Our child will be the first of what Dahak calls “the six destroyers”-- insidious creatures with no souls, who eat of the living and the righteous, and lay waste to all gods.
Xena: You deserve the little monsters.
Gabrielle: This can’t be happening.
Ares: Oh, but it can, Gabrielle-- all thanks to you, it’s the beginning of the end. The bloodletting ceremony will be the window into the world for Dahak. Even if you manage to somehow kill Hope-- you still lose. The Fates will cut you down. So for me, it’s-- win-win. Goodbye, Xena. It _has_ been fun.
*Hope makes an offer to Gabrielle*
Hope: I’m not going to hurt you. It’s growing-- inside me, Gabrielle-- the child-- the way that I grew inside of you.
Gabrielle: What do you want, Hope?
Hope: I want to give you one last chance. Don’t make me do this alone. Come-- be my mother. If I say so, Father will welcome you. Please-- please, Mother.
Gabrielle: Hope-- when I gave you that poison--
Hope: I forgive you. Ahh--
Gabrielle: I’m so sorry it didn’t finish you.
*moral courage speech before facing climactic end of season action!*
Xena: Gabrielle, stay here.
Gabrielle: No way. After all we’ve been through, I am with you till the end.
Xena: Then just one thing. When I’m gone, I don’t want you to feel any guilt.
Gabrielle: Xena--
Xena: Listen to me. A lot’s happened to us over the past year, and there were times when we were both very confused. But I want you to know that I still think you are the best thing that ever happened to me. You gave my life meaning and joy-- and you will be a part of me forever. Ready?
Gabrielle: Yeah.
Xena: Let’s go.
*gotcha hinds blood dagger moment!*
Xena: Joxer! Did you get it?!
Joxer: I got it.
*the final scene, where pretty much everyone is called to account*
Ares: You know the stakes, Gabrielle. Xena’s fate is in your hands.
Xena: Ahhhhhhh!
Gabrielle: No! Hope! *grabs her daughter and tumbles down the abyss with her*
Xena: Ahhhhhhh! Gabrielle!
Gabrielle: Xenaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Xena: Gab--
Joxer: Gabrielle!
Callisto: I never thought I’d feel so good again! Seeing poor, dear Gabrielle sacrifice herself makes it all worthwhile. It finally gives me a reason-- for living, and I have you to thank for it, Xena!
Xena: Ahhhhhhh! *stabs Callisto with hind’s blood dagger*
Callisto: Uh!
Xena: No more living for you.
