From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   2-17 The Execution   
      
       First air date was April 17, 1997.   
      
       We start out with Xena and Gabrielle entering a village talking about a   
   note Meleager sent to Gabrielle about needing them to come. People are   
   running to go to court. Several men exit a tavern and when Xena tells them   
   she's a friend of Meleager, they attack and she and Gabrielle have to fight   
   them off. On  a hunch, Xena goes to the courtroom and finds that Meleager   
   has been found guilty of cold blooded murder.   
      
       Gabrielle tries defending him without hearing the testimony against him,   
   but Judge Arbus has already condemned him to hang when all the sand in a   
   glass bowl falls through a narrow opening into another one.  Xena says she's   
   heard that he is a fair judge.   
      
       In prison, Meleager tells Gabrielle he is innocent, and he was with a   
   one-eyed man when the murder was committed.   
      
       Xena talks to Arbus about the trial, and a woman tells them that she saw   
   the man die and Meleager ran away with the bloody sword.   
      
       Gabrielle insists Meleager is innocent but Xena has her doubts.   
      
       Gabrielle brings Meleager's last supper to him but the guards eat it   
   instead, including spiked wine. When they're asleep, Gabrielle frees   
   Meleager, but she is caught.   
      
       Next we see Gabrielle in the middle of a crowd. Xena intervenes to save   
   her from lynching. She tells Arbus she'll go after Meleager but Gabrielle is   
   coming with her. He agrees.   
      
       Xena and Gabrielle catch up to Meleager, with Gabrielle riding behind   
   Xena. She yells out for Meleager to run. Before Xena can run after him,   
   Gabrielle bars her way and tries to talk her into forgetting about going   
   after him. Xena flips over Gabrielle and takes off after Meleager, doing   
   handsprings and flips along the way.   
      
       She catches up to him and they throw their swords down and fight hand to   
   hand, Meleager giving almost as good as Xena.   
      
      Gabrielle runs up and threatens Xena with her staff. But Meleager says   
   there was no one-eyed man, he lied. He was drunk and doesn't remember what   
   happened. When he tries to apologize, Gabrielle ignores him.   
      
       They camp for the night. Xena tells Gabrielle she puts people on a   
   pedestal and when they fall so do her expectations of them. Gabrielle goes   
   to Meleager.   
      
      The next day when Meleager describes the man's sword, Xena wants to go   
   the cave Meleager was in to look at it. Then someone is shooting at Meleager   
   with a crossbow. Xena catches two arrows with her hands and one with her   
   mouth, then goes after the shooter. They leave him hanging in a tree.   
      
      When Xena sees the sword she says it was her, not Meleager, who killed   
   the man. She fought him as he was attacking a man.   
      
      She goes after the man who is hiding where she told him to. She finds him   
   and is taking him back, but when he sees they are going to the town he says   
   Arbus is after him because he (the man) knows that Arbus executed an   
   innocent man. He runs away.   
   Gabrielle and Meleager stay in the cave. They are captured by Arbus and a   
   few other men and taken back to jail.   
      
      Meleager wants Gabrielle to write out his will, and he leaves everything   
   to her.   
      
      Meleager is taken out to be executed. The Executioner pulls the lever and   
   Meleager is hanged.  He is brought inside where Arbus fills out the death   
   certificate. Meleager "comes back to life" and accuses Arbus of hanging an   
   innocent man. Arbus says he doesn't care how many innocent men die, if he   
   passes judgment it makes it right. In a flashback we see that Xena caught   
   Meleager on her shoulders and he pretended to be dead.   
      
      Xena and Meleager take Arbus (in chains) back to jail where they free   
   Gabrielle.   
      
     As they leave they see the woman witness with a noose around the neck of a   
   doll. Gabrielle says she hopes when she's that age she'll be knitting socks.   
   Xena tells her that people in their line of work never get to be that age.   
      
   ………………….   
      
   Not a bad episode. Xena/Lucy is back to the action fighting health.   
      
   *I liked –   
   that Gabrielle stood up to Xena about believing that Meleager was innocent.   
   But I was afraid that she would be proved wrong. It seems to me that as the   
   seasons progress, Gabrielle is blamed for a lot of things (rightly or not) –   
   death of Solan, killing (the prince?) in a sandstorm, and a few others.   
      
   Xena catching the third arrow with her teeth.   
      
   Gabrielle hitting the same guy over and over on the head at the beginning of   
   the ep.   
      
   Cool looking Executioner.   
      
   *Liked Not so Much –   
      
   Xena doing all the flips and handsprings chasing Meleager, seems like a REAL   
   waste of energy.   
      
   The extended flip up into the tree to catch the crossbowman.   
      
   …………   
      
   As I said, not a bad episode, but not as good as some of the earlier ones.   
   The best I could do is give this one a 6 out of 10.   
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)