From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   2-08 Ten Little Warlords   
      
   First air date Nov 18, 1996   
      
   This episode starts with Xena, still in Callisto's body, waking up   
   Gabrielle, who says she doesn't know if she can get used to it. They hear a   
   noise – it's Joxer sneaking around with a message from Ares to Callisto. But   
   they know Ares knows Callisto is dead, so who is it really from?   
      
       It is an invitation of some sort.   
      
       Callisto-Xena and Gabrielle  are in a village and they see various   
   warlords with the same invitation. C-X tells Gabrielle to find something to   
   eat. Gabrielle starts a fight in the market place over fish cakes.   
      
       C-X and Gabrielle go into a tavern and Gabrielle is very loud and   
   aggressive. At the bar is Ares, whose sword was stolen somehow when he was   
   preoccupied with the Callisto/Xena debacle (in Intimate Stranger). So now he   
   is mortal, and drunk. He says that's why he didn't switch Xena and Callisto   
   back into their right bodies.   
      
       Gabrielle is still making trouble and punching around the bartender.   
   Ares says with no god of war around, people don't know how to control their   
   anger, except those how have learned how to channel their anger, like Xena.   
      
       Later, while camping, C-X tells Gabrielle to recite a poem about the   
   Elysian Fields whenever she gets mad, Gabrielle says she want to knock her   
   up side her head. C-X says she is going to with Ares and Gabrielle is to   
   stay behind.   
      
       The next day C-X and Ares waylay one of the warlords and steal his   
   invitation so Ares will have one.   
      
       They board a small ship, and all warlords have to leave their weapons   
   behind. Joxer runs onto the ship, but C-X tells him he needs to stay and   
   guard the dock.   
      
       As the ship sails to the island, Ares has a hangover. And the warlords   
   try to intimidate each other.   
      
       Gabrielle and Joxer have found a small boat and follow them.   
      
       When the warlords arrive at the island they hear a monster roar. Inside   
   the castle the torches burst into flame. C-X says the only one capable of   
   such trick is King Sisyphus  (Death In Chains). He appears and recognizes   
   Ares. X-C says he has no real powers, but he says his appearance and escape   
   from Tartarus proves otherwise.   
      
       Sisyphus says that whoever can defeat the monster Baracchus will win   
   Ares' sword and become the new god of war, but whoever wins will have to   
   grant him immortality.   
      
       The warlords draw numbers, C-X draws #1 and they all begin fighting. One   
   warlord dies. Ares is wounded and C-X take him to her room.   
      
       Gabrielle and Joxer are sneaking into the castle through a  drain pipe.   
   They keep hearing the Baracchus roaring and it only makes Gabrielle madder.   
      
   As she is dressing his wound, Ares mentions that he has sex with Callisto   
   while she was in Xena's body. C-X's only comment is that she will have to   
   take  a long bath when she get her body back.   
      
   Ares tells her when he gets his godhood back things will be different now   
   that he's been mortal, and he never lied to her while he was a god. But C-X   
   says since he IS a mortal, she doesn't believe he'll be any different when   
   he becomes a god again.   
      
   Another warlord is killed in their room. In the main hall where the dead   
   bodies are being laid on a table, C-X is looking for Ares' sword, probably   
   hidden in plain sight.   
      
   Joxer goes ballistic trying to kill a fly.   
      
   Two warlords trick two more into killing each other.   
      
   Ares wants C-X to become the goddess of war if he doesn't make it. Sisyphus   
   hears Ares and C-X talking and realizes it is Xena in Callisto's body. Ares   
   goes after Sisyphus but is caught in a trap and is hanging upside down by   
   his feet. Then a spiked wall begins closing in on him as the ground below is   
   on fire. C-X manages to save him.   
      
   Gabrielle takes Joxer's sword and runs away to find and kill the monster.   
      
   Back in the main hall, C-X tells the last three warlords Sisyphus has set a   
   trap for them all. But they turn on each other, one is killed and the other   
   two go after C-X and Ares. Ares is fighting Virgilius – a huge bear of a   
   man, and barely is able to keep from being killed. C-X is fighting the other   
   one.   
      
   Gabrielle and Joxer find the monster, which is only a huge fan in the rocks   
   making the noise.   
      
   Ares stabs Virgilius with a dagger and realizes it's the first time he's had   
   blood on his hands.   
      
   Gabrielle and Joxer run in and tell them there is no monster.   
      
   Sisyphus confesses that Hades said if he sends him ten warlords, he will   
   make Sisyphus the god of war. Ares is almost stabbed in the back by a   
   not-quite-dead Virgilius but C-X throws Ares' sword (which was laying on one   
   of the dead warlords) and kills him. Ares gets the sword and becomes the God   
   of War again. And Sisyphus is returned to Tartarus, to push a rock up a hill   
   for all eternity.   
      
   When Gabrielle reminds him of his promise to return Xena to her body , he   
   just laughs and disappears.   
      
       While they are walking along the beach back to the boat, Ares fulfills   
   his promise and Xena's body is returned to her.   
      
   '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''   
      
   Another very good episode, IMO.  Hudson once again played a convincing Xena.   
   And I’m sure Renee had an especially good time really hamming it up with   
      
   Gabrielle's out-of-control anger.   
      
   I really didn't keep count of the dead warlords, so I guess there were 10.   
   Except – if Callisto received an invitation to make number ten, then I guess   
   only nine died.   
      
   So Ares' sword is what makes him (or anyone possessing it) a god. Hmmmmm. So   
   what about  Aphrodite? Or Zeus? Or Hera? Or Athena? Or ……..?   
      
      
   Can't really think of anything else to pick at, so I give this one an 8 out   
   of ten.   
      
      
      
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)