From: davideml@bellsouth.net   
      
   6-06    The Abyss   
      
      
      
   The first airing was Nov 6, 2000.   
      
   The story starts with Virgil and a man named Hosep running through the woods   
   being chased by men   
   wearing boar's heads and skins.  Hosep's foot gets caught in a trap and is   
   carried away by the men.   
   Virgil follows them.   
      
             Gabrielle has a bow and arrow and shoots at a deer, and misses. She   
   isn't happy about it.   
   Xena tells her they can have fish instead. Gabrielle decides to get their boat   
   ready so they can   
   meet with Virgil and Hosep.   
      
             They are on the river and see Virgil's campsite and land the canoe.   
   It is deserted.   
   Gabrielle notices there is blood everywhere. Xena finds a sword with a skull   
   on it and says they   
   escaped in their canoes while running for their lives.   
      
             Virgil sees Hosep tied around a pole used for a spit and he is   
   covered with mud and being   
   cooked alive. Virgil runs away.   
      
             X&G are back in the canoe. Gabrielle yells for Virgil. She is still   
   blaming herself for   
   killing Korah. She says she has the reflexes of a warrior but not the   
   judgment. She yells for   
   Virgil again.  They find Virgil's canoe broken to pieces. Xena says they are   
   being watched. They   
   keep heading down river toward a waterfall.   
      
             Virgil is caught by the cannibals and taken back to their camp.   
      
             Gabrielle says if she had listened to her heart maybe Korah would   
   still be alive. Xena   
   says she's glad she can trust Gabrielle with her life, especially now. And two   
   spears or swords   
   come up through the bottom of the boat. X&G fight off two of the cannibals,   
   then head toward shore.   
   They have many cannibals to fight. Once again, Gabrielle hesitates to kill,   
   and gets stabbed in the   
   side. She is picked up by one of them, carried to the river, and is thrown in.   
   Xena dives in to   
   save her.   
      
             Gabrielle's foot is caught on underwater branches and goes under.   
   Xena finally finds her   
   and swims her to a cave in the side of the cliff. Xena tells her they were   
   cannibals. She has to   
   use her knife to get a broken piece of blade from the wound. She tells   
   Gabrielle she can't see   
   Korah's face every time she fights. Xena tells her to try to stay warm. And   
   leaves.   
      
             Xena tries climbing up the cliff, but the cannibals throw rocks down   
   on her and she falls   
   back into the river. Back in the cave, Gabrielle's wound is getting infected.   
      
             Virgil tries telling the cannibals Xena is coming after him, but   
   they don't seem to care   
   (or understand).   
      
             Gabrielle is getting delirious from the fever. She thinks Xena is   
   Hope and tells her she   
   loves her and would never hurt her because she is her child. Xena starts   
   crying and says she   
   understands - everything.   
      
             Virgil is thrown into a jail with a skinny man named Rubio. There is   
   a lot of food in   
   there. It is to fatten up Virgil. He tells Rubio Xena will come for him.   
      
             A storm rages and the river rises, starting to flood the cave. Xena   
   tells Gabrielle she   
   is going to get her out of there. Gabrielle says she has a last wish - she   
   doesn't want to be   
   buried with the Amazons, but with Xena because she is a part of her and she   
   loves her. Gabrielle   
   says (getting stabbed) is her fault. Xena tells her she set Gabrielle on a   
   path she was never meant   
   to walk. Gabrielle says any path is okay as long as she's with Xena.   
      
             Xena ties Gabrielle to her back with a stout vine and climbs up the   
   face of the cliff.   
   Gabrielle is shivering with fever and the cold. She tells Gabrielle to trust   
   her, then gives out   
   her war cry, bringing the cannibals to find Gabrielle. They carry her back and   
   put her inside the   
   jail with Virgil. Xena kills two of the cannibals and puts on the boar's head    
   and skin.   
      
             The cannibals come into the jail and put Gabrielle on a bed/table.   
   One of them (the witch   
   doctor?) pours liquid down her throat to make her still. He chants over her   
   and sprinkles stuff on   
   her wound. Then they leave.   
      
             Xena sneaks into the camp, looks around, then leaves. She goes to   
   the top of the   
   waterfall and using her Chakram, chops down two trees and releases boulders.   
   She uses her sword to   
   cut down more trees, damming the river. She ties a vine around some boulders   
   and ties it to a tree.   
      
             Gabrielle's fever breaks, then cannibals come to get her. They tie   
   her feet and arms   
   together around a pole and start smearing mud over her body. Then they put a   
   large reed in her   
   mouth so she can breath. Virgil yells out Gabrielle's name so loud Xena hears   
   it and comes running.   
   She throws her Chakram around and it kills a bunch of them, and also frees   
   Gabrielle, who then uses   
   the pole to fight with. Xena spits fire. And she tells Gabrielle to free   
   Virgil and to go to the   
   horses. Gabrielle does that and, as Virgil fights, she drags Rubio after her.   
      
             They all get on the horses and get away to the top of the falls.   
      
             Xena says she is going back to lure the  cannibals to the bottom of   
   the falls, and when   
   she yells, Gabrielle is to cut the rope. She tells Rubio to take the horses   
   and get away. Four of   
   the cannibals are sneaking around.   
      
             Xena war cries again and she is chased by the rest of them. When her   
   back is against the   
   waterfall cliff she repeatedly  yells for Gabrielle, but Gabrielle and Virgil   
   are too busy   
   fighting. Gabrielle makes the choice to kill the cannibals, and finally uses   
   her sais to cut the   
   vine.   
      
             The dam is washed over the falls and Xena jumps to the cliff wall to   
   escape the falling   
   water and debris. The cannibals are drowned and she climbs back up to   
   Gabrielle.   
      
             Back at the cannibal camp, Gabrielle is clean again. Xena asks how   
   she is "upstairs".   
   Gabrielle says she will learn to live with her mistakes.   
      
             ..........   
      
             Not too shabby. Not a good as Gurkhan or Legacy, but not bad.   
      
             At first I thought the cannibals were just more of the Horde, since   
   the head cannibal   
   looked like one of the head Horde.   
      
             Poor old Hosep should have been wearing a red shirt, it was so   
   obvious. (If this inside   
   joke escapes you, I'll explain it at the end.) BTW, just who WAS Hosep?   
      
             I liked the deer hunting outfit Gabrielle was wearing at the   
   beginning. I wonder where it   
   went (Xena's too).   
      
             Pretty good fight against the cannibals when Gabrielle got stabbed.   
   Although Xena seems   
   to do better in the camp when the whole tribe is after her. And that fight was   
   very good.   
      
             Xena carrying Gabrielle up the cliff was cool. I'd rather see those   
   kinds of feats of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)