From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   4-10 Key to the Kingdom   
      
   First air date was Nov. 1, 1999.   
      
       The story starts in a treasure room. Two guards bring in a large ceramic   
   statue of an upright pig. When they leave the top raises up and Autolycus is   
   in it. He gets out and goes to where a large ruby is inside a booby trapped   
   setting. He uses a mechanical device with a saw blade to cut through the   
   bottom of the stand. He then escapes through the window.   
      
       While looking through the ruby he sees Xena approaching. After some   
   stammering, he figures she is there to stop him from taking it and throws it   
   back over the wall of the city.   
      
       Xena acts kind of goofy, calling him Mr. Stinky and wants to know why he   
   threw the jewel back. Joxer comes up and tells him it's really Meg. An angry   
   Autolycus and Joxer wrestle, and yelling ''Brawl!" Xena/Meg jumps in.   
      
       They go to a tavern where they tell Autolycus they are going to steal   
   the Crown of Athena. Autolycus says Athena locked it away twenty years ago   
   after King Cleades disappeared. Meg says a guard told her where the key to   
   finding it was. Autolycus reminds them that the key is guarded by two   
   warlords – Ormestin and Kryptos. Joxer says that's why Meg is dressed as   
   Xena. Joxer's plan is take Autolycus and Xena to the warlords in chains and   
   it will give him a chance to get the key.   
      
       Autolycus says he has a better plan.   
      
       In the town of Thrasos, Autolycus and Joxer pretend to rob the tax   
   collector. Meg/Xena pretends to defeat them and they run off. She tells the   
   tax collector she wants to talk to his leader.   
      
       Meg/Xena, wearing a large leather backpack, tells the warlords she want   
   to form an army but her enemies have sent an assassin to kill them. She   
   wants to see their security arrangements. As they pass the door where the   
   key is guarded. Meg/Xena marks an urn. And she marks the direction of the   
   room on a window. Autolycus climbs in through the window, distracts the   
   guards and starts to get the key from a large chest, but only sees a baby.   
      
       Just then Meg/Xena and the warlords and guards come in and she accuses   
   him of stealing the key and has the guards take him to the dungeon. Meg/Xena   
   says the alliance is off and leaves. An old woman named Gryphia, goes to the   
   chest and the baby is gone, but she tells a guard everything is fine.   
      
       Autolycus is in the dungeon with a door-looking thing around his neck   
   and wrists (think Xena in the Green Dragon's dungeon, only a bit smaller).   
   Gryphia is there and wants to know about Xena. He tells her it was Meg not   
   Xena who stole the baby.   
      
       An old man tells Autolycus he knows he wants to steal the Crown of   
   Athena. He then tells a riddle about the crown –   
      
            The key will point to the door   
            To the crown of Athena and more.   
            Once the key opens the door   
            The child will be no more.   
      
       Autolycus escapes from the stocks and the dungeon.   
      
       Meg returns to a barn where Joxer is waiting. The baby is in the   
   backpack. She says Autolycus had a an accident. Joxer realizes Meg tricked   
   them and only wanted to kidnap the baby. She says it was all she ever   
   wanted.   
      
       The warlords find out Autolycus has escaped and they think he and Xena   
   have figured out the that the key can point to a door where the crown is.   
      
       Autolycus finds Meg in the barn and wants the baby. She sets him down,   
   and while she and Autolycus are arguing/fighting, the baby crawls out of the   
   barn. They chase after him. Guards in a chariot arrive looking for Xena.   
   Everyone fights. The baby crawls over to and gets inside the chariot. He   
   gets the reins and the horses run off. Autolycus and Meg get on a horse and   
   give chase. Joxer gets on the other one.   
      
       Meg jumps off the horse into the chariot, and it crashes. Meg and the   
   baby are okay.   
      
       Autolycus asks Meg why she wanted the baby and Meg says when she heard   
   about the baby locked up in the castle with no one to love him she had to do   
   something. Autolycus says the only way they can raise the baby is to get the   
   crown (so they will have  enough money).   
      
       Autolycus and Joxer watch and listen while Meg tells the baby a story   
   about watching the stars when she was a child and imagining they are   
   windows  of homes with little girls looking out at the other lights.   
      
       The next day when Meg changes the baby's 'trousers' she throws a soiled   
   blanket into the fire but Autolycus saves it and sees there is a map leading   
   to the crown.   
      
       They are inside an old castle. There is a door with a fancy pillow in   
   front of it. Autolycus tells Meg not to put the baby there because the baby   
   will be 'no more.'   
      
       They hear the warlords and their men coming. Autolycus brings out a   
   grappling hook and rope from somewhere and throws it up to a barred window   
   in the ceiling. He bars the door while Joxer fumbles with the rope. Then Meg   
   tires to re-hook it. The baby crawls over to the pillow and sits on it.   
      
       The door opens to reveal the Crown of Athena. Suddenly there is a golden   
   light and the baby transforms into a grown up King  Cleades.   
      
   The soldiers break in just as Meg disappears up the rope. Autolycus, Joxer   
   and Cleades fight the soldiers. Meg/Xena drops down into the fray. Autolycus   
   recognizes that it's really Xena. One of the warlords grabs the crown and   
   runs off.   
      
   Xena explains that Gryphia found her and she came to help. Cleades says he   
   was treating his people badly and Athena changed him into a baby so he could   
   see through the eyes of a child.   
      
   They go back to the castle to stop Kryptos and Ormestin from robbing the   
   treasury. Everyone fights. Cleades banishes the warlords from his kingdom.   
      
   Cleades tells them the crown was meant for his queen. It is Gryphia, who was   
   turned into an old woman to care for baby Cleades. She is now young again.   
      
   Xena finds Meg looking into the chest. Meg is sad that she no longer has a   
   baby. When Xena tells her  that one day she'll have a family of her own, Meg   
   he says she can't have children. Xena tells her that will all the lights in   
   the sky she can't believe there isn't one for Meg.   
      
   …………………..   
      
   No Gabrielle !!! Bummer !!!   
      
   I had absolutely no recollection about this episode. So I had no   
   expectations, good or bad about it. But it had no Gabrielle, not even a   
   mention of her.   
      
   A comedy episode after three serious ones.   
      
   It wasn't that bad. I always liked Meg, and when she's pretending to be Xena   
   she's even better. And it's always good to see   
   Autolycus (BTW, Bruce Campbell directed this episode. He didn't do such a   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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