From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   1-15    Warrior … Princess   
      
   First air date – Feb 5, 1996   
      
   We begin with Xena, once again riding hard, leaving Gabrielle behind   
   somewhere. She approaches the castle gates and is mistaken for Princess   
   Diana by the guards and her lady-in-waiting/servant, Tesa. King Lias, good   
   old Sisyphus' cousin (1-09 Death In Chains) wants to hire Xena to protect   
   Diana and find out who the assassins are who are trying to kill Diana. Xena   
   only agrees when he mentions slave traders. Xena and Diana meet and each are   
   amazed at how much they look alike.  {I always wondered if the mirrors back   
   then were so good that anyone actually knew what they really looked like.   
   And if they would know if someone else looked like them?} So Xena was going   
   to masquerade as Diana until the wedding in two days.   
       The king said he didn't want Diana to know about the assassinations   
   attempts, but she obviously did. Xena dresses Diana in her leathers and   
   sends her to meet Gabrielle. And Xena dresses like Diana and shows a lot of   
   cleavage. {Which is really nice when she starts fighting the bad guys – some   
   really great eye candy!}   
       Gabrielle is trying to write down a poem describing one of Xena's   
   adventures (the scroll-writing bard finally shows herself) when the   
   ubiquitous bad guy attempts to rob her. Just then a side-saddle-riding   
   Diana/Xena comes along and Gabrielle expects her to help. She rushes up,   
   hits the bad guy like a girl, then runs away, allowing Gabrielle to use her   
   staff to knock him down, then he runs away. Even with a note from the real   
   Xena, Gabrielle thinks she is being tested until Diana/Xena starts to cry.   
       Back at the castle, Xena/Diana attends a banquet in honor of Mineus, her   
   husband to be, who she has never met. Of course the real Diana and Mineus'   
   brother, Philemon have fallen in love. While Lias is telling Xena/Diana who   
   the guests are, she immediately homes in on Glauce, a "walking gem-mine."   
   She tells Lias he looks like a used chariot salesman. {Can't get any more   
   suspicious looking than THAT!}   
   Diana/Xena is encouraged to play the harp, something Diana is accomplished   
   at. Xena/Diana sits at the harp (which looks like it was made from a   
   mastodon tusk) to play. {I thought that playing the harp might have been   
   another of Xena's many skills, but she just broke the strings instead.}   
   Later, after the banquet Philemon confronts Xena/Diana and she tells him who   
   she is and why she is there. And makes him confess that he loves Diana. An   
   assassin throws a Molotov cocktail through the window and Xena'/Diana   
   catches it and throws it back at him. He is on fire and falls into a   
   fountain. Xena/Diana puts the Pinch on him and he confesses that Bromeus,   
   the king's general hired him. When they go after him, he is found hanging by   
   the neck and is dead. So the king thinks things are okay and the wedding can   
   go on as planned.   
       Back with Gabrielle and Diana/Xena, Diana/Xena balks at sleeping on rags   
   thrown down on the soil, and at eating bread and cheese for supper. But when   
   a man and his family beg for food, she buys them a decent meal with her (the   
   real Xena's?) dinars. One of the man's daughters asks Diana/Xena what her   
   Chakram is and she tells her is a round killing thing. She throws it and it   
   ricochets several times, including cutting the top off of Lias' crown.   
   {Either Diana is WAY stronger than she realizes, or the Chakram has unusual   
   powers of its own.}   
       Everyone is back at the castle, then Xena and Gabrielle leave. But   
   Philemon realized Bromeus couldn't have hung himself because there were no   
   chairs in his room to stand on. {And none to sit on  as well? Man, how   
   Spartan was the guy? He sat on the floor?} Philemon tells Diana and she has   
   him go after Xena and bring her back. And naturally, since Xena was riding   
   and Gabrielle was walking, they ride off leaving poor Gabrielle behind –   
   "I'll just, uh – uh, don't mind me. I'm fine!"   
       But before they get back to the castle Xena stops, so Philemon stops,   
   they both get off their horses. Xena asks Philemon if he told Diana he loves   
   her, he says he didn't because he doesn't think she loves him. But it's   
   really Diana and she says she does and they kiss.   
       Back at the castle, Glauce tries to kill Diana/Xena and Mineus with a   
   falling chandelier. {Someone is cutting the rope holding it when it would   
   have been SO much easier to just untie it.} Xena/Diana fights off assassins   
   running into the wedding hall. Then Xena/Diana grabs a handful of arrows and   
   using the restrung harp, pins Glauce to the wall.   
       The common folk are dancing around after the wedding. Gabrielle tells   
   Xena that one day she'd like to find someone who makes he smile like   
   Philemon makes Diana. And Xena says "I'm sure you will, Just don't be afraid   
   to speak up when it happens. Of course, that's never been a problem with   
   you, has it?"  An obvious comment on how many times Gabrielle has fallen for   
   the Hunk Of The Week {except THIS week!} And Gabrielle  asks Xena how it was   
   being waited on hand and foot, but Xena says it wasn't as much fun as she   
   would think. But that was what Gabrielle was for. {One of Gabrielle's many   
   skills?}   
      
       I have to say I really LIKED this episode. It was silly, and not   
   particularly realistic, but it was fun and had some pretty good fight scenes   
   with Xena dressed as Diana – I already mentioned the reason why. But I   
   figure Xena/Dana's fight cleavage was a good enough substitute for Gabrielle   
   not being in very many scenes. {Okay! So I'm a guy who likes to look at the   
   bosoms!} But the ones Gabrielle WAS in were very good.   
   I enjoyed this one from start to finish. And I could pick it to pieces but   
   liked it too much to do that.   
       I thought Xena as Diana was very good, and Diana as Xena was just as   
   good. But Diana pretending to be Xena was bordering on great.   
       So I give it an 8.5 out of 10.   
   More Gabrielle could have bumped it to a 9 or higher, but I'm not sure what   
   she could have done since this was mainly a Xena episode.   
      
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