From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   1-23 Death Mask   
      
   First air date – June 3, 1996   
      
   The story starts out with Xena riding and Gabrielle walking. Gabrielle is   
   talking about the way Xena catches arrows without even seeing them come.   
   Xena says she has to feel the attack before it comes. They stop – Xena   
   senses something. Suddenly an arrow is shot toward Xena and Gabrielle stops   
   it with her staff. There is a fight between Xena and one of the assassins   
   and one between Gabrielle and the other one. Both assassins are defeated.   
      
   Xena puts the Pinch on one of them and he tells her he is wearing the mask   
   of Cortese and the rest of his men are attacking a nearby village. Xena   
   tells Gabrielle that Cortese was the one who attacked her village and caused   
   her to become a warrior.   
      
      Xena and Gabrielle hurry to the village and help slow the attack until   
   the king's men can arrive, and Cortese's men run away. The soldiers can't   
   cross the border into the woods to chase them.   
      
   One of Cortese's men meets Xena in the woods and it turns out it's Toris,   
   Xena's long lost older brother. He has been looking for Cortese and joined   
   his army to get close to him to kill him.   
      
       When Cortese is told about Xena, he tells Malik, his 2nd in command,   
   that he created her.   
      
        Xena and Toris have a heated discussion about Xena leading the people   
   of Amphipolis against Cortese and that it caused the death of Lyceus, their   
   younger brother.   
      
       Xena and Toris decided to go together to get Cortese, but when Xena   
   suggests that Gabrielle find a village to hide in, Gabrielle tells her that   
   she is not going to because being with Xena is always dangerous.   
      
       Gabrielle disappears while Toris pretends to have taken Xena hostage and   
   brings her to Malik. Malik takes Xena and runs Toris off. Xena knocks out   
   Malik and discovers they use pigeons to send messages, supposedly, to other   
   raiding parties.   
      
       While Toris and Gabrielle wait for Xena, he tells her that Xena is   
   turning her into a warrior like she did the people of his village and it got   
   them killed.   
      
       Xena returns and she and Toris decide to sneak into the castle to see   
   the king. This time Gabrielle stays behind. When they finally get to see the   
   king, it is Cortese. He uses high taxes to get rich by telling the villagers   
   he needs the money for his army to protect them from Cortese.   
      
       Xena and Toris escape.   
      
       Toris confesses that all the years he's been searching for Cortese is   
   because he ran away instead of fighting for the people of Amphipolis and   
   feels he is a coward. He wants to put Cortese in the grave he says he   
   (Toris) should have been in.   
      
       Xena tells the villagers that Cortese and the king are the same men but   
   they don't believe her. And don't want her to stay because the soldiers and   
   Cortese's men are looking for her.   
      
       Toris is captured by Malik and tied to a tree. Xena comes to save him,   
   knowing it's a trap. They both end up in the dungeon. But they escape and   
   take Aescalus, the king's general/captain-of-the-guard/whichever, captive.   
   He says the king is on the archery range and Toris goes after him.   
      
       Xena sends a pigeon message to Malik telling him to attack the castle in   
   full force.   
      
       Xena and Toris fight the bandits, and Gabrielle comes running to the   
   rescue.   
      
       The king shows up with soldiers, but when Xena threatens him he tells   
   the bad guys to surrender their weapons to the soldiers, proving to everyone   
   he is Cortese.   
      
       Toris wants to kill Cortese, but when Xena gives him the chance, he   
   can't do it.   
      
       Toris is going back to Amphipolis and asks Xena to go with him, but she   
   refuses.   
      
      
   Not a bad episode. Not as good as "Callisto" but it had some very good   
   scenes and some very good interaction between Xena and Gabrielle.   
      
   Gabrielle is proving herself to be a very capable backup for Xena. While   
   stopping the arrow with her staff may have been an accident (would Xena had   
   caught the arrow? She didn't catch Callisto's dart.), she is quite capable   
   of holding her own against even two men.   
      
   I liked the line when they were first talking about Cortese and Gabrielle   
   says, "So he's the one who made you – you know – so aggressive?"   
      
   And I especially liked her telling Xena she was NOT going to go away because   
   it was too dangerous:   
      
   “Huh -- oh no.  No, no -- that’s your way of saying, ‘It’s too   
   dangerous to   
   be around me right now, Gabrielle.’  Well, have you ever considered that   
   there  *isn’t* a safe time to be around you? Now, that village doesn’t need   
   my help, but you might -- and I’m going with you.  Now, if that’s all,   
   I’ll   
   just be practicing with my staff -- end of discussion.  Sorry you had to   
   witness that, Toris.”   
      
   And I liked that little, "sorry you had to witness that, Toris."   
      
   And I especially loved the little smile on Xena's face after Gabrielle's   
   tirade. It could have been a condescending smile, but I think it was just   
   pride she felt for Gabrielle for standing her ground.   
      
   I thought it was curious that after all the time they've spent together,   
   Xena never mentioned Toris to Gabrielle.   
      
   Loved seeing Xena pop the breast knife out to cut the ropes she was tied up   
   with while in Malik's tent.   
      
   Once again, Gabrielle was briefly the comic relief with the yellow dots on   
   her from the little girl's rubber (?) tipped arrows.   
      
   While they were resting, Xena told Gabrielle to go see if Argo was fed, and   
   Gabrielle answers, "Argo? He can – right, checking on Argo."   
      
   It seems like Gabrielle called Argo, a 'he' but she was kind of gesturing   
   toward Toris, so I'm wondering if there was something she was starting to   
   say about Toris (like maybe Toris can do it?), but instead realized that   
   Xena wanted to be alone with Toris and didn't finish her thought.   
      
   All in all, I pretty much enjoyed the episode, and rate it a 7 out of 10.   
      
      
           [okay, so when does Argo become a mare instead of a stallion?]   
   --   
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)