From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   1-03 Dreamworker   
      
   First air date Sep 18,  1995   
      
      
       Once again it seems like Gabrielle is going to be the comedy relief as   
   she taunts and battles a tree stump with Xena's sword.     She wants Xena to   
   teach her to fight. And she has a point. Traveling with someone like Xena IS   
   dangerous and she SHOULD be able to defend herself. But Xena gives her four   
   rules of survival:   
           1. If you can run, run.   
           2. If you can't run, surrender, then run.   
           3. If you're outnumbered, let them fight each other, and then run.   
           4. Talk your way out of it.   
      
       And she says that once you kill . . . everything changes. An ominous   
   warning if I ever heard one.   
      
       Almost immediately they are accosted by a band of ne'er-do-wells, and   
   Xena has to fight (and kills one of them). When Gabrielle picks up Xena's   
   sword (and gives a weak version of Xena' battle cry), she becomes a target   
   for two of the bad guys, so she throws the sword down, and Xena dispatches   
   the thugs.   
      
       So much for the teaser.   
      
       While Xena is shopping for a sharpening stone and oil, Gabrielle  goes   
   into a weapons shop, looking at swords. She ends up buying a breast knife.   
   She struts up to Xena, her chest thrown out either to show off her new-found   
   'confidence' or just to keep it from falling through, which it does anyway.   
   And of course Xena keeps it for herself.   
      
       The town is attacked and while Xena, again, fights off the bad guys,   
   Gabrielle is abducted by the followers of Morpheus, the God of Sleep/Dreams,   
   to be his new bride.   
      
       Xena goes to the blind Elton, an ex-mystic, to find out how to get   
   Gabrielle back. He puts her into a trance so she can enter a Dream Passage.   
   Many of her victims appeared, trying to get her to kill them once  more. But   
   Xena was too smart, knowing that is exactly what Morpheus wanted (but I   
   don't know what that would have accomplished).  But why was she wearing the   
   purple kimono-like thing? As a warrior looking to free Gabrielle, she would   
   be better off wearing her armor and weapons, I would think. And it WAS her   
   dreamscape.   
      
       Gabrielle is held prisoner in a cell, and dressed in some very fancy   
   duds. And she certainly looks better than in her peasant garb. In fact, she   
   borders on beautiful. Very nice eye candy.   
      
       And Gabrielle has her first challenge – she has to defeat (kill) two men   
   or die trying. But she remembers what Xena said about getting her enemies to   
   fight each other. She manages to get them to stab each other.   
      
       Xena and Gabrielle meet in Gabrielle's dream. Xena tells Gabrielle to   
   tell her something she (Xena) doesn't know about Gabrielle just in case it   
   is a trick of Morpheus'. Gabrielle says that she was born with six toes.   
      
   Xena then warns her that if she loses her blood innocence she will be   
   sacrificed to Morpheus. Gabrielle wakes up and tries to buy Xena time to   
   free her, but is told by Manus that his men are looking for Xena's body, so   
   the longer Gabrielle stalls the better the chance that they will find and   
   kill Xena.   
      
       Gabrielle's second challenge is to defeat three men at once. She gets   
   them fighting among themselves over who is the better fighter. Two kill each   
   other, and the third one is killed when a dagger that was thrown and was   
   stuck in the cave wall is blown  out of the wall by some kind of (volcanic?)   
   pressure behind the wall.  Which I though was kind of cheesy. Having the guy   
   trip and fall into the chasm in his rush to attack Gabrielle would have been   
   better, and kind of funny.   
      
       During Gabrielle's third challenge, Xena meets her dark self, in warrior   
   dress, and has to fight herself. Xena realizes that her dark side is still a   
   part of her, and is the part that gave her the battle skills. But she also   
   learns that those skills can be used for good as well as evil. This is the   
   key she needs to break through a door into where Gabrielle is about to kill   
   or die.   
      
   Xena fights and defeats Manus' men (and in the process Gabrielle yells out   
   "XENA!" twice, and "XENA! HURRY!" once). And she uses the breast knife she   
   got from Gabrielle to kill the last attacker.   
      
       The story ends with Gabrielle saying she could have killed; it was in   
   her. Xena says it's in everyone, but she (Gabrielle) didn't kill.   
      
   There is a thing about Xena throwing a stone into the lake to demonstrate   
   that even after the ripples die down, the lake is forever changed, the lake   
   being Xena, the ripples are her dark past, and the now-calm lake was the   
   present day Xena.   
      
      
       All in all, a very good episode. We got to see a lot more of Gabrielle   
   than in the previous episode. I guess, because the story was half about   
   Gabrielle not losing her blood innocence, and half about Xena facing her   
   dark past.   
      
       Not really too much to pick at.  I already mentioned the kimono. It was   
   odd to see Gabrielle wielding a sword, several times, in fact.  She broke   
   the point off a spear to use the staff to help her against the three men   
   (even if she only used it to vault across the chasm. A preview of things to   
   come?).   
      
           And when Xena's victims starting telling her their names --  since   
   Xena never knew the names when she killed them, how was it she knew them in   
   her Dreamscape?   
      
           Maybe it's just my perception, but I think that Xena is starting to   
   look at Gabrielle as something more than just a useless tag-along. And not   
   just as a new friend, either, but as someone who can think on her feet when   
   things get rough, and has a backbone as well.  And as someone she was   
   willing to risk her soul and her life to save.   
      
       On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this one an 8. I really enjoyed it. And I   
   hope the subsequent episodes are as good.   
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)