From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   3-01 The Furies   
      
       First air date Aug. 29, 1997.   
      
       The episode starts out with three scantily clad women dancing in front   
   of Ares. He finally tells the leader, Alecto, that he wants them to render a   
   judgment against Xena. They are The Furies. They vote and find her guilty of   
   all charges (although there really was only one). At Ares' request, they   
   sentence her to persecution and madness.   
      
       Next we see Xena and Gabrielle having a race, with Gabrielle getting a   
   head start. Xena does a series of back flips, then one large one, and wins.   
   A bunch of thugs appear and tell Xena there is a bounty on her head. They   
   start to fight then the madness sets in and Xena starts acting goofy while   
   she fights. She and Gabrielle beat the thugs. Gabrielle has to remind Xena   
   to use the Pinch on one of them. He says the bounty was put on by the priest   
   of the Furies' temple. Xena calls Gabrielle Mavis several times.   
   Gabrielle figures out that the Furies are the cause and suggests they go to   
   the temple to find out why. Xena back flips onto her horse facing the wrong   
   way and sets off leaving Gabrielle behind.   
      
   They are camping for the night and Gabrielle is trying to guess why Xena is   
   being punished. She beds down for the night. She wakes up and Xena is gone   
   but her clothes are left. She finds Xena facing a group of women and   
   children and she is telling them they mush be punished for crucifying women   
   and children. Gabrielle tells her that all that are there are women and   
   children. She takes Xena away.   
      
   At the temple the priest tells them that Xena is being punished because she   
   never sought revenge for the murder of her father. And she will remain mad   
   until she avenges his death.   
      
   Xena runs away through a forest and sees Bacchus, a ghostly Dryad that she   
   tries to fight, and finally Callisto. She starts to fight her, but it's   
   Gabrielle. Xena ties Gabrielle to a tree with vines, then leaves.   
      
   Xena enters a town (later we discover it's Amphipolis) talking to herself   
   and her arms flailing. She meets the same thugs and she spins in a circle,   
   knocking all of them out.   
      
   Xena goes to the tavern owned by her mother, Cyrene. Gabrielle catches up to   
   her. Cyrene confesses to Gabrielle  that she was the one who killed Xena's   
   father when Xena was seven. He came home drunk from the temple of Ares and   
   was going to sacrifice Xena to Ares. Cyrene killed him with an axe.   
      
   Gabrielle goes to the next town to see Orestes, who killed his mother to   
   avenge his father's murder.   
      
   Xena realizes she doesn't want to go through life going from lunacy to   
   moments of sanity. She goes to a cliff to commit suicide but Ares stops her.   
   He tells her that if she kills Cyrene she (Xena) will be reborn into a world   
   of true choice. Xena finally agrees but wants the Furies to witness it. Ares   
   agrees and Xena goes to get Cyrene. She makes Cyrene tell her about the   
   night she was conceived, and if it was good. Cyrene tells her her father was   
   away at war, then just showed up one night.   
      
   Gabrielle finds Oresta in an asylum. For killing his mother he was punished   
   with madness. Gabrielle has to get back to tell Xena before she kills   
   Cyrene.   
      
   Cyrene is manacled on an altar, and Xena starts to stab her with a large   
   dagger. Gabrielle runs in to tell her but Ares grabs her and puts his hand   
   over her mouth.   
      
   Xena starts again but then stops, saying Cyrene couldn't have killed her   
   father because he is alive. Then she accuses Ares of being her father, which   
   he denies repeatedly. Xena says if she is half god as she claims, then she   
   should be able to win in a fight against Ares.   
      
   They fight on a dozen or so flagpoles stuck out of a wall. Eventually Xena   
   disarms Ares and declares victory. The Furies agree with Xena and lift the   
   madness.   
      
   Just before he leaves, Ares asks if Xena really thinks he is her father. She   
   says it doesn't matter because the Furies do. He says she was brilliant and   
   if she was his daughter he would be proud of her.   
      
   Later at a campfire, Cyrene tries to apologize to Xena for taking her father   
   away from her, but she says she saved her life and Xena owes her thanks.   
      
   ……………………   
      
   Not sure how I want to rate this one. For the most part is was very good.   
   Xena's dark madness was done really well. Some of her best work, IMO.   
      
   What I didn't like the goofy madness -- The Three Stooges act in the   
   beginning, the cartoon sound effects, calling Gabrielle Mavis, Xena playing   
   with her Chakram, and jumping on her horse backward, etc.   
      
   When it started out I thought it was going to be another comic episode. But   
   when Xena was threatening to deliver retribution in flames to the women and   
   children, it took much darker turn, including Xena asking Gabrielle, "I'm in   
   trouble, aren’t I?"   
      
   And that is my problem with this episode. If they were going to start out   
   with slapstick humor they should have stayed with it.   
      
   But since it ended up a serious story, it should have begun that way. Xena   
   could have fought off the thugs in her madness without resorting to the   
   silly things she was doing.   
      
   Even Xena's moments of lucidity still had enough oddness that we knew they   
   wouldn't last. And still she was sharp/clever/intelligent enough to know   
   that when Ares showed up he had to be behind it.   
      
   But it wasn't all about Xena. I did like Gabrielle using her staff to help   
   fight off the thugs. I've noticed that sometimes she is just about as   
   effective as Xena. A staff is a really effective weapon. In the real world I   
   can see broken jaws and noses, concussions, dislocated knees. But in every   
   other scene it appeared then disappeared. It's too bad she didn't have more   
   air time but I guess that with Ares and Cyrene there wasn't much for her to   
   do.   
      
   I guess the Furies were okay, although the blonde, Alecto, wasn't my   
   favorite. Either one of the others I would have preferred get the lead.   
   Can't complain about the outfits, though.   
      
   The fight between Xena and Ares – I’m still trying to decide about that. On   
   the one hand, Ares is a god, he shouldn't have ANY trouble defeating Xena.   
   He should be ten, twenty times her strength and her speed. And the only way   
   Xena could beat him would be if she was, indeed, a demigod. (Hades was   
   always my candidate as Xena's real father.)   
      
   This set of DVDs has commentaries and interviews, and Steven Sears (I think)   
   said there was a discussion about this, and the consensus was that Xena   
   shouldn't be like Hercules, but just be an ordinary person with some very   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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