From: davideml@bellsouth.net   
      
    4-10 Key to the Kingdom   
      
      
      
   First air date was Nov. 1, 1999.   
             The story starts in a treasure room. Two guards bring in a large   
   ceramic statue of an   
   upright pig. When they leave the top raises up and Autolycus is in it. He gets   
   out and goes to   
   where a large ruby is inside a booby trapped setting. He uses a mechanical   
   device with a saw blade   
   to cut through the bottom of the stand. He then escapes through the window.   
      
             While looking through the ruby he sees Xena approaching. After some   
   stammering, he   
   figures she is there to stop him from taking it and throws it back over the   
   wall of the city.   
      
             Xena acts kind of goofy, calling him Mr. Stinky and wants to know   
   why he threw the jewel   
   back. Joxer comes up and tells him it's really Meg. An angry Autolycus and   
   Joxer wrestle, and   
   yelling ''Brawl!" Xena/Meg jumps in.   
      
             They go to a tavern where they tell Autolycus they are going to   
   steal the Crown of   
   Athena. Autolycus says Athena locked it away twenty years ago after King   
   Cleades disappeared. Meg   
   says a guard told her where the key to finding it was. Autolycus reminds them   
   that the key is   
   guarded by two warlords - Ormestin and Kryptos. Joxer says that's why Meg is   
   dressed as Xena.   
   Joxer's plan is take Autolycus and Xena to the warlords in chains and it will   
   give him a chance to   
   get the key.   
      
             Autolycus says he has a better plan.   
      
             In the town of Thrasos, Autolycus and Joxer pretend to rob the tax   
   collector. Meg/Xena   
   pretends to defeat them and they run off. She tells the tax collector she   
   wants to talk to his   
   leader.   
      
             Meg/Xena, wearing a large leather backpack, tells the warlords she   
   want to form an army   
   but her enemies have sent an assassin to kill them. She want to see their   
   security arrangements. As   
   they pass the door where the key is guarded. Meg/Xena marks an urn. And she   
   marks the direction of   
   the room on a window. Autolycus climbs in through the window, distracts the   
   guards and starts to   
   get the key from a large chest, but only sees a baby.   
      
             Just then Meg/Xena and the warlords and guards come in and she   
   accuses him of stealing   
   the key and has the guards take him to the dungeon. Meg/Xena says the alliance   
   is off and leaves.   
   An old woman named Gryphia, goes to the chest and the baby is gone, but she   
   tells a guard   
   everything is fine.   
      
             Autolycus is in the dungeon with a door-looking thing around his   
   neck and wrists (think   
   Xena in the Green Dragons' dungeon, only a bit smaller). Gryphia is there and   
   wants to know about   
   Xena. He tells her it was Meg not Xena who stole the baby.   
      
             An old man tells Autolycus he knows he wants to steal the Crown of   
   Athena. He then tells   
   a riddle about the crown - 'The key will point to the door-- To the crown of   
   Athena and more. --   
   Once the key opens the door--The child will be no more.'   
      
             Autolycus escapes from the stocks and the dungeon.   
      
             Meg returns to a barn where Joxer is waiting. The baby is inside the   
   backpack. She says   
   Autolycus had a an accident. Joxer realizes Meg tricked them and only wanted   
   to kidnap the baby.   
   She says it was all she ever wanted.   
      
             The warlords find out Autolycus has escaped and they think he and   
   Xena have figured out   
   the that the key can point to a door where the crown is.   
      
             Autolycus finds Meg in the barn and wants the baby. She sets him   
   down, and while she and   
   Autolycus are arguing/fighting, the baby crawls out of the barn. They chase   
   after him. Guards in a   
   chariot arrive looking for Xena. Everyone fights. The baby crawls over to, and   
   gets inside, the   
   chariot. He gets the reins and the horses run off. Autolycus and Meg get on a   
   horse and give chase.   
   Joxer gets on the other one.   
      
             Meg jumps off the horse into the chariot, and it crashes. Meg and   
   the baby are okay.   
      
             Autolycus asks Meg why she wanted the baby and Meg says when she   
   heard about the baby   
   locked up in the castle with no one to love him she had to do something.   
   Autolycus says the only   
   way they can raise the baby is to get the crown (so they will have  enough   
   money).   
      
             Autolycus and Joxer watch and listen while Meg tells the baby a   
   story about watching the   
   stars when she was a child and imagining they are  windows  of homes with   
   little girls looking out   
   at the other lights.   
      
             The next day when Meg changes the baby's 'trousers' she throws a   
   soiled blanket into the   
   fire but Autolycus saves it and sees there is a map leading to the crown.   
      
             They are inside an old castle. There is a door with a fancy pillow   
   in front of it.   
   Autolycus tells Meg not to put the baby there because the baby will be 'no   
   more.'   
      
             They hear the warlords and their men coming. Autolycus brings out a   
   grappling hook and   
   rope from somewhere and throws it up to a barred window in the ceiling. He   
   bars the door while   
   Joxer fumbles with the rope. Then Meg tires to re-hook it. The baby crawls   
   over to the pillow and   
   sits on it.   
      
             The door opens to reveal the Crown of Athena. Suddenly there is a   
   golden light and the   
   baby transforms into a grown up King  Cleades.   
      
   The soldiers break in just as Meg disappears up the rope. Autolycus, Joxer and   
   Cleades fight the   
   soldiers. Meg/Xena drops down into the fray. Autolycus recognizes that it's   
   really Xena. One of the   
   warlords grabs the crown and runs off.   
      
   Xena explains that Gryphia found her and she came to help. Cleades says he was   
   treating his people   
   badly and Athena changed him into a baby so he could see through the eyes of a   
   child.   
      
   They go back to the castle to stop Kryptos and Ormestin from robbing the   
   treasury. Everyone fights.   
   Cleades banishes the warlords from his kingdom.   
      
   Cleades tells them the crown was meant for his queen. It is Gryphia, who was   
   turned into an old   
   woman to care for baby Cleades. She is now young again.   
      
   Xena finds Meg looking into the chest. Meg is sad that she no longer has a   
   baby. When Xena tells   
   her  that one day she'll have a family of her own, Meg he says she can't have   
   children. Xena tells   
   her that will all the lights in the sky she can't believe there isn't one for   
   Meg.   
      
   .........   
      
   No Gabrielle !!! Bummer !!!   
      
   I had absolutely no recollection about this episode. So I had no expectations,   
   good or bad about   
   it. But it had no Gabrielle, not even a mention of her.   
      
   A comedy episode after three serious ones.   
      
   It wasn't that bad. I always liked Meg, and when she's pretending to be Xena   
   she's even better. And   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)