From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   2-10  The Xena Scrolls   
      
   First air date Jan 13, 1997.   
      
   The episode starts out in Macedonia in 1940. A long legged woman gets out of   
   a car and walks into a tent. She is accosted by a man named Smythe, and he   
   wants her briefcase.  A tough blond woman appears and she and Smythe and his   
   two men begin trading gun fire. The woman is out of bullets so she turns to   
   her trusty Gatling gun and begins spraying the area with bullets. One of   
   Smythe's men has a machine gun and fires back. Eventually the bad guys are   
   defeated and run off.   
      
             The tall woman says she is Melinda Pappas and she found an old   
   telegram from Janice Covington sent to her father wanting someone to   
   translate ancient writings.   
      
             Janice is angry Smythe's men were able to get in. She tells   
   Melinda she will have someone drive her back to town, but Mel refuses to go.   
      
       A local is murdered and the workers think the tomb they have found is   
   cursed. Janice says what they will find in it will turn myth into history,   
   and history into myth -- the Xena Scrolls.   
      
             A French soldier, named Jacque S-Er, is there, he says, because   
   the French government is interested in the scrolls.   
      
             Smythe shows up again with a piece of clay or stone tablet, the   
   key to opening the tomb, but he can't decipher it. Mel does and the tomb   
   opens and they all go in. The stairs collapse and they all fall to the   
   bottom. Smythe and his men disappear.   
      
             Mel feels as if some great battle between good and evil has taken   
   place there. Janice says legend says Xena and Ares were connected somehow.   
      
             There is a flashback to Xena and Ares together.   
      
             Mel, Janice and Jacque go looking for the scrolls. Mel sits down   
   and a rock revolves around to expose them.   
      
   There is another flashback, this time to Xena and Marcus as Mel reads one of   
   the scrolls.   
      
   They take them out and put them in a backpack. Mel also takes the broken   
   half of a Chakram out of the rock, and it mysteriously pulls her to a large   
   chamber where Smythe has the other half. The two halves join in an   
   explosion, knocking Mel out. The top to a stone casket opens and Ares   
   awakens and gets out.   
      
   Smythe and his men try to kill him, but he makes the men turn their guns on   
   each other and shoot. He then throws out-of-thin-air knives into Smythe, and   
   he dies.   
      
   Ares says that Jacque is a brush salesman from new Jersey. He tells Janice   
   that only a descendant can release him from the cave. Janice think she's the   
   descendant, but Ares tells her no, think irritating blond. She thinks of   
   Callisto, but it's no again, She then realizes she is descended from   
   Gabrielle, the useless tag-along.   
      
   Mel wakes up, but it's now Xena and she won't let Ares leave the cave. They   
   all run away and Xena tells Janice how important Gabrielle was to her. They   
   all go back to fight Ares. But Janice and (Jacque) Jack disappear. When Xena   
   finds them they are tied to a stone pillar with a huge spiked ball swinging,   
   about to break off the top of the column with each swing.   
      
   Ares wants Xena to release him, he is interested in Hitler, but Xena still   
   refuses. They fight as Ares tries to leave and Xena tries to keep him from   
   it. She throws her Chakram and it hits the Eye of Hephaestus and the door   
   begins to close again. The Chakram breaks in half again, and Xena' spirit   
   leaves Mel's body. They barely get out, imprisoning Ares again.   
   Janice dynamites the entrance to the tomb. Jack leaves (with some of the   
   scrolls) and Janice and Mel stay together.   
      
           [this is where Janice's famous "Sayonara, Sucker!" comes in. I use   
   it when I empty my Recycle Bin]   
      
   Fifty years later, Jack's grandson is pitching ideas to a producer about TV   
   show ideas. In desperation he pulls out the scrolls he found in his   
   grandfather's attic. The producer reads them, asking about this 'Xena.'   
      
   `````````````````   
      
   Another winner!  It's like TPTB were  apologizing for the horrid 'Solstice   
   Carol' by giving us one of the best episodes  EVER!   
      
   Although I enjoyed the teaser more than the rest of the episode, it's still   
   all good.   
      
   Mel's southern accent was so delicious and so endearing! And Janice's   
   'tough-guy' persona was ever so much fun!! Even the French accent of Jacque   
   S'Er was funny.   
      
   Of course, the plot holes and inconsistencies were big enough to drive a Mac   
   truck through, but who cares?   
      
   It would have been nice if we knew how Ares got into the cave in the first   
   place. And how the dozen or so scrolls also ended up there. And what about   
   Xena's broken Chakram? But maybe we'll find out in a later episode.   
      
   A few items-   
      
   Janice didn't seemed too concerned about the crated up artifacts when she   
   started peppering the place with the Gatling gun.   
      
   And they all need to get to the firing range. Apparently NO ONE can hit the   
   broad side of a barn, even with machine guns barely yards apart.   
      
   I noticed that three of the flashbacks were from the S1 'Callisto' episode.   
      
   Also from' The Reckoning' (Ares trying to seduce Xena back to his side while   
   undressing her).   
   One each from -- 'Mortal Beloved' (Marcus). 'Altared States'  (Gabrielle   
   telling Xena how beautiful she was while drugged on henbane).   
   'Hooves and Harlots' (Gabrielle falling over and protecting the mortally   
   wounded Amazon).   
   'Is There  A Doctor In the House?' (Xena pounding on Gabrielle's chest).   
   And 'Ties That Bind' (Xena telling Gabrielle their friendship binds them   
   closer than blood).   
      
   Despite all the unanswered questions and all the other things that didn't   
   quite make sense, I still loved this one, and especially Lucy and Renee's   
   performances, so I gave it a 9 out of 10.   
      
   And one last thing -- there was talk of another Janice and Mel ep, but it   
   never happened - a REAL shame!!   
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)