From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   2-20 The Price   
      
             First aid date April 28, 1997   
      
             The story starts out with Xena and Gabrielle fishing on the shore   
   of a river. When Gabrielle reaches down for a fish, a wounded man grabs her   
   arm. He says his garrison was under attack by the Horde. Xena looks shocked   
   then tells Gabrielle to grab her stuff and run.   
      
             They seem to be surrounded by the Horde, but Xena fights off a few   
   of them then she and Gabrielle run back to the river, jump into a canoe and   
   paddle off. They are followed by another canoe and Xena throws her Chakram   
   to slice a hole in the side of it and it sinks. They see dead soldiers   
   floating by with hatchet-like weapons sticking out of them   
      
             They stop again and Xena tells Gabrielle she and her men fought   
   the Horde. Some were in a ravine and by the time they got to them, they had   
   been skinned alive and only bones were left. And they surround their enemies   
   like a pack of dogs. She tells Gabrielle things are going to get worse,   
   especially what she (Xena) will have to do to get them to safety.   
      
             As they paddle again they see men tied to logs in and X shape.   
   Xena tells Gabrielle thy can't stop to help because they're already dead.   
   But one man swims out to them and Gabrielle grabs him. As they paddle to   
   shore, a group to the soldiers attack the Horde and rescue them. They all go   
   to the garrison, manned by Athenian soldiers.   
      
             Xena sees that the men have lost all hope. When they discover she   
   is Xena, they begin to rally behind her. She tells them they're not going to   
   let the bastards defeat the elite of the Athenian army, and they begin to   
   chant her name.   
      
             Gabrielle goes into the hospital is told the doctors have been   
   killed. She takes over and begins issuing orders to the walking wounded.   
      
             Xena talks to Mercer and Menticles, the two top ranking soldiers.   
   She tells him the men have to feel like they are doing something until   
   reinforcements come. Mercer tells her the dead soldiers in the river are the   
   reinforcements.   
      
             Xena goes into the hospital and tells Gabrielle that the walking   
   wounded are needed to fight. And to save the food for them and not the badly   
   wounded. Gabrielle can't understand Xena's attitude. Xena asks Gabrielle   
   what she expected from war - glamour? That there are no good choices, only   
   lesser degrees of evil   
      
             Xena has the soldiers go outside the garrison walls and the Horde   
   attack. They run back inside with some of the Horde following. When they are   
   inside archers kill most of them. One escapes and Xena throws a hatchet into   
   the Horde's back, much to Gabrielle's distress.   
      
             Xena sends Mercer to bring back reinforcements, and she devises   
   smoke bombs to cover his attempt. But the Horde uses the smoke to attack.   
   One of the Horde is captured and Xena interrogates him even though he can't   
   speak her language. Gabrielle witnesses Xena putting the Pinch on him, and   
   Gabrielle tells her it is murder. Xena orders back to the hospital, but   
   takes the Pinch off and has him chained in the supply room.   
      
             When Gabrielle goes there for water, she hears him calling for   
   'kaltaka'. she realizes it means water and is not a god the dying Horde are   
   calling out to. She gives him some water.   
      
             Gabrielle decided if they are going to die she is going to die her   
   way and gets outside the walls and begins giving the dying Horde water. The   
   rest of them see her doing that, and thinking it is a truce, began to gather   
   up their dead. Xena sees this and tells her men to do the same.   
      
             Mercer comes crawling back, wounded, without reinforcements.   
      
             Xena send some of the walking wounded with food to Gabrielle for   
   the more badly wounded soldiers.   
      
             Xena has the Horde prisoner brought to her. She has him untied and   
   gives him his weapon. He tries to fight anyone but Xena. She realizes he   
   thinks he isn't worthy of fighting her and releases him.   
      
             Xena goes to the hospital to apologize to Gabrielle, saying she   
   was blinded by fear and hatred.   
      
             The Horde return with their leader. He has two teethed looking   
   weapons. Xena goes out to fight him. She defeats him but doesn't kill him.   
   While she is waling back to the garrison, the chieftain of the Horde is   
   killed by his own men and they all leave.   
      
             Xena says they'll be back one day, and she hopes they will have a   
   'Gabrielle."   
      
   ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''   
      
             For some reason, I was expecting not to like this episode. From   
   what I remembered, I couldn't understand why Xena was so afraid of the   
   Horde. I'm still not sure.   
      
   From what I could tell, the Athenian soldiers killed just as many of the   
   Horde as the Horde killed soldiers.   
      
             And I don't understand why Gabrielle was so shocked at Xena's   
   return to her dark side. If this episode had come near the beginning of the   
   first season and not near the end of the second (is it almost here   
   ALREADY?), I could see why. But she was at Troy with Xena, watched as Xena   
   was almost killed with a poisonous dart, went through the problems with   
   Callisto (including the murder of Perdicus),  was in the Temple of Healing   
   during the Mitoan-Thessalian War, was hunted by Velasca, and many other   
   dangers. So why was she surprised that Xena called upon all her experience   
   and battle tactics to save them?   
      
   And Xena DID warn her!   
      
             Xena must have been zigzagging the canoe, because sometimes they   
   were forty or fifty yards away from the shore behind them, and sometimes   
   only five or ten.   
      
             The Horde didn't seem to be sophisticated, manufacturing people,   
   so where did their metallic (bronze or iron) hatchets come from?   
      
             And why doesn't Xena use her Chakram more? Considering how deadly   
   it is supposed to be, she sure doesn't use it much.   
      
               But there were a few things I liked -   
      
             *Gabrielle talking to the fish she just caught:   
      
           "Well fought, friend fish.  Know that I don't do this for   
   pleasure -- only to live."   
             Xena:  "Don't talk to your breakfast."   
             Gabrielle:  "You'll go to a far, far better place."   
      
             *Gabrielle knowing what she has to do to help the wounded   
   soldiers: "Here we go again."   
      
             *Xena telling the Athenian soldiers, "We're gonna kill 'em all!"   
      
             *Gabrielle trying to stand up to Xena concerning the wounded   
   soldiers.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)