From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   3.7 The Debt II   
      
   First air date Nov 10, 1997.   
      
   This episode starts out with a few scenes from the previous one, "The Debt."   
      
   The story starts out with Gabrielle telling Ming T'ien she wants to see Xena   
   but he says a prisoner charged with a capital offense can't have visitors.   
   Gabrielle says he told her that he would let Xena go, but he says if he   
   does, Xena will just return to try to kill him.   
      
   Cut to Xena with a huge pillory around her neck, about 4 feet square (3.5   
   meters sq). Just before she is thrown into a shaft going down to the   
   dungeon, a guard says he heard she was betrayed by a friend. Xena says no,   
   not by a friend. She lands in the dungeon, filled with water almost up to   
   her waist.   
      
   Back to Gabrielle and Ming T'ien eating. Gabrielle is worried that Xena is   
   thinking of her and needs to explain. Ming T'ien says murder is in Xena's   
   blood, in her soul. And what Xena did to him as a child taught him how to   
   rule.   
      
   Flashback to the past when Xena ransoms Ming T'ien to Ming Tzu.   
      
   Then back to Ming T'ien and Gabrielle. He says his father is dead. And if   
   Gabrielle hadn't betrayed Xena he wouldn't be emperor but one of Xena's   
   victims.   
      
   Down in the dungeon prisoners are giving Xena clothes as a tribute to her   
   attempted assassination. One man says he knew Lao Ma and witnessed her   
   execution. Another says if she really had the great powers they thought she   
   had she wouldn't have died.   
      
   Xena says she DID have powers.   
      
   Flashback to Xena and Lao Ma. Xena breaks a vase on a table with her foot.   
   Lao Ma breaks it with the force of her mind and offers to teach Xena. Xena   
   tries but can't. Lao Ma says Xena has to stop desiring and stop hating. She   
   tells Xena she has to serve someone. Xena says she can serve Lao Ma, but she   
   tells her it has to be someone she hates. And Ming Tzu is coming to dinner.   
   At first Xena balks, then agrees.   
      
   During dinner Xena is tempted to kill Ming Tzu, but doesn't. Ming T'ien   
   recognizes her but says nothing.   
      
   Ming Tzu is worried about Borias being too powerful since he received the   
   horses in exchange for Xena.   
      
   After Ming Tzu leaves, Lao Ma takes Xena to see her husband, Lao Tzu, who is   
   barely alive. She says he was a tyrant, but in his name she is going to make   
   him a beloved ruler. Xena can't understand how Lao Ma can give him credit   
   for what she is doing. Lao Ma says it doesn't matter as long as good is   
   being done.   
      
   Then she tells Xena that Ming T'ien is her son.   
      
   Back to the present. Xena is in front of Ming T'ien and Gabrielle is yelling   
   at her to say if he lets her go she will leave and never try to kill Ming   
   T'ien. Xena says nothing. Gabrielle stoops down to plead with Xena,   
   caressing her cheek, but Xena flinches away. A tear runs down Xena's cheek.   
      
   Ming T'ien sentences Xena to death.   
      
   Then Ming T'ien tells Gabrielle it didn't matter, he was going to have Xena   
   executed anyway. But now she can visit Xena.   
      
   Down in the dungeon, Gabrielle tells Xena she thought she was saving her but   
   instead got her condemned to death. And she knows that Xena hates her.   
      
   Xena moves closer to Gabrielle, then asks her to scratch her nose. Gabrielle   
   breaks down in tears, scratches her nose, then caresses her cheek again,   
   which Xena lovingly accepts, and says she was mad at her, but could never   
   hate Gabrielle..   
      
   Gabrielle says she now knows why  Xena had to kill Ming T'ien – it was Lao   
   Ma's last request and she saved Xena's life. But Xena says she saved her   
   soul and spirit.   
      
   Flashback to Xena and Lao Ma. Xena is lying on a bench while Lao Ma moves   
   her hands above Xena legs. Then she has Xena stand and her legs are healed.   
   Xena runs and flips off a far wall. Lao Ma has a length of cloth fly   
   thorough the air to encircle Xena. As it wraps around her it draws her to   
   Lao Ma. Then they are floating in the air in a kind of ethereal dance.   
      
   Suddenly Borias comes in and the spell is broken.   
      
   Back to Xena and Gabrielle, and Xena says that was the moment she could have   
   followed Lao Ma's way, but instead let her hatred of Borias re-emerge.   
      
   Flashback to Xena attacking Borias and finally Lao Ma uses her mind power to   
   throw Xena across the room.   
      
   Xena and Borias are facing each other and Lao Ma tells them that there is   
   going to be a three way alliance between her, Ming Tzu and Borias, and Xena   
   will be a part of it. She will be Lao Ma's warrior princess, and Xena will   
   have to beg Ming Tzu's forgiveness.   
      
   She leaves Xena and Borias alone, who take the opportunity to re-ignite   
   their lust for each other.   
      
   At the meeting Ming Tzu doesn't want to go along with Xena's part in the   
   plan, saying she is already his. Borias also stakes his claim to her, as   
   does Lao Ma. Xena says she belongs to herself, but suggests a game of chance   
   to see who gets her, and a body part from each of the losers, like a hand.   
      
   They throw the dice and Xena wins. Borias offers her his heart. Xena then   
   wants Ming Tzu's and stabs him as Borias kills his guard. Xena starts to   
   kill Ming T'ien, but Lao Ma intervenes and throws Xena and Borias around the   
   room with her mind power.   
      
   Back to Xena and Gabrielle  in the dungeon. Xena says it was years before   
   she realized what Lao Ma wanted from her, and that was the debt she owed   
   her.   
      
   Xena is taken to same wooden altar Lao Ma was killed on. As Xena lies there,   
   images of Lao Ma and all the things she told her flash through her mind.   
   Just as the executioner starts to kill her with a scythe-like knife to the   
   forehead, the power of La Ma comes to Xena and she makes the executioner's   
   other knives fly through the air and kill him. The irons binding her wrists   
   open and Xena gets up and begins fighting off the guards. She then uses the   
   power to start destroying the palace. Gabrielle helps everyone get out.   
      
   Ming T'ien crawls out from the rubble and says to Xena he has something to   
   tell her. Xena sends Gabrielle away. He says he killed Lao Ma himself. Xena   
   says she was his  mother and he replies that he knew it, and knew she   
   wouldn't use her powers against her little boy. He gives Xena the lethal   
   hairpin from Lao Ma. Then he says he cut her heart out.   
      
   When Gabrielle returns Xena is talking to Ming T'ien as he sits on his   
   throne. She tells him he lost face with his people and they won't follow him   
   anymore. She takes the book of Loa Tzu's sayings and she and Gabrielle   
   leave.   
      
   Gabrielle tells Xena she loves her, and Xena says it back.   
      
   And then we see the hair pin sticking out of Ming T'ien's right temple. Xena   
   killed him after all, and let Gabrielle  believe she didn't.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)