From: davideml@bellsouth.net   
      
   3-07    The Debt II   
      
      
      
   First air date Nov 10, 1997.   
      
   This episode starts out with a few scenes from the previous one, "The Debt."   
      
   The story starts out with Gabrielle telling Ming T'ien she wants to see Xena   
   but he says a prisoner   
   charged with a capital offense can't have visitors. Gabrielle says he told her   
   that he would let   
   Xena go, but he says if he does, Xena will just return to try to kill him.   
      
   Cut to Xena with a huge pillory around her neck, about 4 feet square (3.5   
   meters sq). Just before   
   she is thrown into a shaft going down to the dungeon, a guard says he heard   
   she was betrayed by a   
   friend. Xena says no, not by a friend. She lands in the dungeon, filled with   
   water almost up to her   
   waist.   
      
   Back to Gabrielle and Ming T'ien eating. Gabrielle is worried that Xena is   
   thinking of her and   
   needs to explain. Ming T'ien says murder is in Xena's blood, in her soul. And   
   what Xena did to him   
   as a child taught him how to rule.   
      
   Flashback to the past when Xena ransoms Ming T'ien to Ming Tzu.   
      
   Then back to Ming T'ien and Gabrielle. He says his father is dead. And if   
   Gabrielle hadn't betrayed   
   Xena he wouldn't be emperor but one of Xena's victims.   
      
   Down in the dungeon prisoners are giving Xena clothes as a tribute to her   
   attempted assassination.   
   One man says he knew Lao Ma and witnessed her execution. Another says if she   
   really had the great   
   powers they thought she had she wouldn't have died. Xena says she DID have   
   powers.   
      
   Flashback to Xena and Lao Ma. Xena breaks a vase on a table with her foot. Lao   
   Ma breaks it with   
   the force of her mind and offers to teach Xena. Xean tries but can't. Lao Ma   
   says Xena has to stop   
   desiring and stop hating. She tells Xena she has to serve someone. Xena says   
   she can serve Lao Ma,   
   but she tells her it has to be someone she hates. And Ming Tzu is coming to   
   dinner. At first Xena   
   balks, then agrees.   
      
   During dinner Xena is tempted to kill Ming Tzu, but doesn't. Ming T'ien   
   recognizes her but says   
   nothing.   
      
   Ming Tzu is worried about Borias being too powerful since he received the   
   horses in exchange for   
   Xena.   
      
   After Ming Tzu leaves, Lao Ma takes Xena to see her husband, Lao Tzu, who is   
   barely alive. She says   
   he was a tyrant, but in his name she is going to make him a beloved ruler.   
   Xena can't understand   
   how Lao Ma can give him credit for what she is doing. Lao Ma says it doesn't   
   matter as long as good   
   is being done.   
      
   Then she tells Xena that Ming T'ien is her son.   
      
   Back to the present. Xena is in front of Ming T'ien and Gabrielle is yelling   
   at her to say if he   
   lets her go she will leave and never try to kill Ming T'ien. Xena says   
   nothing. Gabrielle stoops   
   down to plead with Xena, caressing her cheek, but Xena flinches away. A tear   
   runs down Xena's   
   cheek.   
      
   Ming T'ien sentences Xena to death.   
      
   Then Ming T'ien tells Gabrielle it didn't matter, he was going to have Xena   
   executed anyway. But   
   now she can visit Xena.   
      
   Down in the dungeon, Gabrielle tells Xena she thought she was saving her but   
   instead got her   
   condemned to death. And she knows that Xena hates her.   
      
   Xena moves closer to Gabrielle, then asks her to scratch her nose. Gabrielle   
   breaks down in tears,   
   scratches her nose, then caresses her cheek again, which Xena lovingly   
   accepts, and says she was   
   mad at her, but could never hate Gabrielle..   
      
   Gabrielle says she now knows why  Xena had to kill Ming T'ien - it was Lao   
   Ma's last request and   
   she saved Xena's life. But Xena says she saved her soul and spirit.   
      
   Flashback to Xena and Lao Ma. Xena is lying on a bench while Lao Ma moves her   
   hands above Xena   
   legs. Then she has Xena stand and her legs are healed. Xena runs and flips off   
   a far wall. Lao Ma   
   has a length of cloth fly thorough the air to encircle Xena. As it wraps   
   around her it draws her to   
   Lao Ma. Then they are floating in the air in a kind of ethereal dance.   
      
   Suddenly Borias comes in and the spell is broken.   
      
   Back to Xena and Gabrielle, and Xena says that was the moment she could have   
   followed Lao Ma's way,   
   but instead let her hatred of Borias re-emerge.   
      
   Flashback to Xena attacking Borias and finally Lao Ma uses her mind power to   
   throw Xena across the   
   room.   
      
   Xena and Borias are facing each other and Lao Ma tells them that there is   
   going to be a three way   
   alliance between her, Ming Tzu and Borias, and Xena will be a part of it. She   
   will be Lao Ma's   
   warrior princess, but Xena will have to beg Ming Tzu's forgiveness. She leaves   
   Xena and Borias   
   alone, who take the opportunity to re-ignite their lust for each other.   
      
   At the meeting Ming Tzu doesn't want to go along with Xena's part in the plan,   
   saying she is   
   already his. Borias also stakes his claim to her, as does Lao Ma. Xena says   
   she belongs to herself,   
   but suggests a game of chance to see who gets her, and a body part from each   
   of the losers, like a   
   hand.   
      
   They throw the dice and Xena wins. Borias offers her his heart. Xena then   
   wants Ming Tzu's and   
   stabs him as Borias kills his guard. Xena starts to kill Ming T'ien, but Lao   
   Ma intervenes and   
   throws Xena and Borias around the room with her mind power.   
      
   Back to Xena and Gabrielle  in the dungeon. Xena says it was years before she   
   realized what Lao Ma   
   wanted from her, and that was the debt she owed her.   
      
   Xena is taken to same wooden altar Lao Ma was killed on. As Xena lies there,   
   images of Lao Ma and   
   all the things she told her flash through her mind. Just as the executioner   
   starts to kill her with   
   a scythe-like knife to the forehead, the power of La Ma comes to Xena and she   
   makes the   
   executioner's other knives fly through the air and kill him. The irons binding   
   her wrists open and   
   Xena gets up and begins fighting off the guards. She then uses the power to   
   start destroying the   
   palace. Gabrielle helps everyone escape.   
      
   Ming T'ien crawls out from the rubble and says to Xena he has something to   
   tell her. Xena sends   
   Gabrielle away. He says he killed Lao Ma himself. Xena says she was his    
   mother and he replies that   
   he knew it, and knew she wouldn't use her powers against her little boy. He   
   gives Xena the lethal   
   hairpin from Lao Ma. Then he says he cut her heart out.   
      
   When Gabrielle returns Xena is talking to Ming T'ien as he sits on his throne.   
   She tells him he   
   lost face with his people and they won't follow him anymore. She takes the   
   book of Loa Tzu's   
   sayings and she and Gabrielle leave.   
      
   Gabrielle tells Xena she loves her, and Xena says it back.   
      
   And then we see the hair pin sticking out of Ming T'ien's right temple. Xena   
   killed him after all,   
   and let Gabrielle  believe she didn't.   
      
   '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)