From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   3-13  One Against An Army   
      
       First air date Feb 9, 1998.   
      
       The story starts out with Gabrielle trying to perfect Xena's forward   
   flip. She handsprings off her staff lashed between two small trees. Then she   
   tries it without the staff. She lands wrong and sprains her ankle.   
      
   While cooling Gabrielle's ankle in a spring, a man runs up and says a huge   
   army with tall ships landed and destroyed the army in Marathon. Xena guesses   
   they are Persians, and if they reach Athens then Greece is lost. So, or   
   course, Xena is going to stop them.   
   Xena tells the man to run to Athens to warn them.   
      
   Gabrielle is riding Argo with her foot wrapped up. Xena plans to cause a   
   landslide to slow them down, so the Persian army will have to go the long   
   way around a mountain. Gabrielle asks about Xena's power she had in Chin.   
   Xena says it's gone.   
      
   A soldier tries to take Argo. Xena disarms him. He says he is a Spartan   
   soldier who deserted when the Persian army attacked Marathon. Xena asks him   
   about his home village in Sparta.   
      
   A Persian scouting party is spotted. Xena tells Argo to take Gabrielle into   
   the woods for safety. Xena attacks the Persians. The Spartan is frozen with   
   fear. Gabrielle rides to save him. Then while running away a Persian archer   
   shoots Gabrielle in the back.   
   Xena breaks off the back of the arrow and pushes it through Gabrielle, then   
   cauterizes the wound. Xena smells poison on the arrow head. Xena puts a   
   poultice on it until they can get to Tripolis and some medicine.   
      
   Xena tells the Spartan about the landslide and sends him ahead to Tripolis   
   to tell the militia to get ready. After he leaves, Xena tells Gabrielle the   
   Spartan is a Persian spy, and now they will think there really is a   
   landslide.   
      
   When Xena and Gabrielle get to Tripolis, it has been burned down by the   
   villagers to keep the Persians from getting anything useful. Xena goes into   
   the physician's hut but the bottle of serum/antidote is broken. Xena wants   
   to take Gabrielle to Thessaly where there is medicine, but Gabrielle tells   
   Xena they need to stay there to slow down the Persian army as she told the   
   runner sent to Athens she would do.   
      
   Xena takes Gabrielle to the armory where she has hidden a crate of weapons.   
      
   Gabrielle starts coughing up blood. Xena says the arrow grazed her lung.   
   Gabrielle says she just ran out of time.   
      
   Xena is preparing a litter to take Gabrielle away but once again Gabrielle   
   refuses, citing Xena's principle of  the greater good.   
      
   While Gabrielle is sleeping Xena tries the mind power on a vase but can't   
   make it work.   
      
   Gabrielle is feverish and dreaming and is talking in her sleep, saying what   
   she told Xena when they first met in Poteidaia.   
   Gabrielle finishes by saying she wants to be just like Xena. Xena, watching   
   her, sheds a tear and says she wants to be like Gabrielle.   
      
   The Persian army attacks the armory and Xena fights them off. A soldier   
   drops down through the roof behind Xena and cuts her throat with his sword.   
   Gabrielle wakes up suddenly; it was a bad dream.   
      
   For a third time, Xena insists they are leaving. Gabrielle says she knows   
   she is going to die, and accepted it might happen when they first started   
   traveling together, and she isn't afraid. Xena comments on Gabrielle's   
   bravery.   
      
   Xena releases Argo and makes her run off.   
      
   Xena carries Gabrielle up to the loft and puts a cauldron of boiling oil or   
   tar up there with her, and tells Gabrielle if the soldiers come up after her   
   to pour it on them. Gabrielle balks, but Xena tells her if they are coming   
   after her then they have gotten past her (Xena).   
      
   Gabrielle tells Xena about her dream and says to watch out for a man with a   
   double-edged sword. Gabrielle then apologizes for her betrayal in Chin. Xena   
   says they are past that now, Gabrielle is her friend and family. They   
   embrace and say I love you, both expecting they will die.   
      
   The Persians attack. Gabrielle's dream comes true, except when the solder   
   drops down through the roof, Xena back flips over him and kills him.   
      
   While fighting, Xena spits fire, uses her Chakram, her sword, and a   
   spiked-ball chain mace to fight off the soldiers. She throws the mace up to   
   stick in a roof beam. She climbs up it, kicking the soldiers in the face,   
   and tells Gabrielle to dump the pot of oil on them. Xena climbs on up and   
   breaks thorough to the roof and fights soldiers there. She get a cut on her   
   upper arm.   
      
   Xena looks down to see the "Spartan" is back and is about to kill Gabrielle   
   with a knife. She drops back down inside and kills him  Then she drops back   
   to the floor to fight some more. An archer shoots at her but she catches the   
   poisoned arrow, then plunges it into a soldier. Xena watches him crawl to a   
   pack where the antidote is.   
      
   She faces the regrouped soldiers and tells them to go back home that there   
   are thousands just like her. The Persians retreat.   
      
   Xena climbs up to the loft to give Gabrielle the antidote but has to fight   
   off a couple more soldiers.   
      
   Gabrielle asks if they are dead. Xena gives her the antidote and lies down   
   beside her to rest.   
      
   ……………………..   
      
   How do the writers keep coming up with such great episodes?   
      
   Although there wasn't a lot of action for Renee (poor Lucy!), they both gave   
   such outstanding performances, it would be hard (impossible) to say which   
   one gave the better one.   
      
   And there were just SO MANY great, poignant scenes between the dying   
   Gabrielle and Xena. I won't include the lines of every scene, but some just   
   have to be repeated.*   
      
   *Xena:  "I am not going to let you die.  I can still get you to Thessaly and   
   the antidote."   
       Gabrielle:  "And then what?  What happens to Athens?  What's my life   
   worth then?"   
       Xena:  "First things first."   
       Gabrielle:  "The first thing is the greater good -- you taught me that.   
   You taught me that there are things in life worth dying for -- things that   
   hold a higher meaning than our own existence."   
       Xena:  "Not your existence."   
       Gabrielle:  "Why?  'Cause I'm your friend?"   
       Xena:  "Yes!"   
       Gabrielle:  "Well then, honor my memory.  We both know that I'm right.   
   This is right.*   
      
               [Gabrielle talks like she is already dead! Talk about your   
   pessimism!]   
      
   *Gabrielle: I know that I'm going to die—I accept that. Why can't you?  A   
   long time ago, I accepted the consequences of our life together -- that it   
   might one day come to this.  It has.  I'm not afraid."   
       Xena:  "You always said that I was the brave one.  Look at you now. If   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)