From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
                                           6.6 The Abyss   
      
   The first airing was Nov 6, 2000.   
      
   The story starts with Virgil and a man named Hosep running through the woods   
   being chased by men wearing boar's heads and skins.  Hosep's foot gets   
   caught in a trap and is carried away by the men. Virgil follows them.   
      
       Gabrielle has a bow and arrow and shoots at a deer, and misses. She   
   isn't happy about it. Xena tells her they can have fish instead. Gabrielle   
   decides to get their boat ready so they can meet with Virgil and Hosep.   
      
       They are on the river and see Virgil's campsite and land the canoe. It   
   is deserted. Gabrielle notices there is blood everywhere. Xena finds a sword   
   with a skull on it and says they escaped in their canoes while running for   
   their lives.   
      
       Virgil sees Hosep tied around a pole used for a spit and he is covered   
   with mud and being cooked alive. Virgil runs away.   
      
       X&G are back in the canoe. Gabrielle yells for Virgil. She is still   
   blaming herself for killing Korah. She says she has the reflexes of a   
   warrior but not the judgment. She yells for Virgil again.  They find   
   Virgil's canoe broken to pieces. Xena says they are being watched. They keep   
   heading down river towards a waterfall.   
      
       Virgil is caught by the cannibals and taken back to their camp.   
      
       Gabrielle says if she had listened to her heart maybe Korah would still   
   be alive. Xena says she's glad she can trust Gabrielle with her life,   
   especially now.   
      
   And two spears or swords come up through the bottom of the boat. X&G fight   
   off two of the cannibals, then head toward shore. They have many cannibals   
   to fight. Once again, Gabrielle hesitates to kill, and gets stabbed in the   
   side. She is picked up by one of them, carried to the river, and is thrown   
   in. Xena dives in to save her.   
      
       Gabrielle's foot is caught on underwater branches and goes under. Xena   
   finally finds her and swims her to a cave in the side of the cliff. Xena   
   tells her they were cannibals. She has to use her knife to get a broken   
   piece of blade from the wound. She tells Gabrielle she can't see Korah's   
   face every time she fights. Xena tells her to try to stay warm. And leaves.   
      
       Xena tries climbing up the cliff, but the cannibals throw rocks down on   
   her and she falls back into the river. Back in the cave, Gabrielle's wound   
   is getting infected.   
      
       Virgil tries telling the cannibals Xena is coming after him, but they   
   don't seem to care (or understand).   
      
       Gabrielle is getting delirious from the fever. She thinks Xena is Hope   
   and tells her she loves her and would never hurt her because she is her   
   child. Xena starts crying and says she understands – everything.   
      
       Virgil is thrown into a jail with a skinny man named Rubio. There is a   
   lot of food in there. It is to fatten up Virgil. He tells Rubio Xena will   
   come for him.   
      
       A storm rages and the river rises, starting to flood the cave. Xena   
   tells Gabrielle she is going to get her out of there. Gabrielle says she has   
   a last wish – she doesn't want to be buried with the Amazons, but with Xena   
   because she is a part of her and she loves her. Gabrielle says (getting   
   stabbed) is her fault. Xena tells her she set Gabrielle on a path she was   
   never meant to walk. Gabrielle says any path is okay as long as she's with   
   Xena.   
      
       Xena ties Gabrielle to her back with a stout vine and climbs up the face   
   of the cliff. Gabrielle is shivering with fever and the cold. She tells   
   Gabrielle to trust her, then gives out her war cry, bringing the cannibals   
   to find Gabrielle. They carry her back and put her inside the jail with   
   Virgil. Xena kills two of the cannibals and puts on the boar's head  and   
   skin.   
      
       The cannibals come into the jail and put Gabrielle on a bed/table. One   
   of them (the witch doctor?) pours liquid down her throat to make her still.   
   He chants over her and sprinkles stuff on her wound. Then they leave.   
      
       Xena sneaks into the camp, looks around, then leaves. She goes to the   
   top of the waterfall and using her Chakram, chops down two trees and   
   releases boulders. She uses her sword to cut down more trees, damming the   
   river. She ties a vine around some boulders and ties it to a tree.   
      
       Gabrielle's fever breaks, then cannibals come to get her. They tie her   
   feet and arms together around a pole and start smearing mud over her body.   
   Then they put a large reed in her mouth so she can breath. Virgil yells out   
   Gabrielle's name so loud Xena hears it and comes running. She throws her   
   Chakram around and it kills a bunch of them, and also frees Gabrielle, who   
   then uses the pole to fight with. Xena spits fire. And she tells Gabrielle   
   to free Virgil and to go to the horses. Gabrielle does that and, as Virgil   
   fights, she drags Rubio after her.   
      
       They all get on the horses and get away to the top of the falls.   
      
       Xena says she is going back to lure the  cannibals to the bottom of the   
   falls, and when she yells, Gabrielle is to cut the rope. She tells Rubio to   
   take the horses and get away. Four of the cannibals are sneaking around.   
      
       Xena war cries again and she is chased by the rest of them. When her   
   back is against the waterfall cliff she repeatedly  yells for Gabrielle, but   
   Gabrielle and Virgil are too busy fighting. Gabrielle makes the choice to   
   kill the cannibals, and finally uses her sais to cut the vine.   
      
       The dam is washed over the falls and Xena jumps to the cliff wall to   
   escape the falling water and debris. The cannibals are drowned and she   
   climbs back up to Gabrielle.   
      
       Back at the cannibal camp, Gabrielle is clean again. Xena asks how she   
   is "upstairs". Gabrielle says she will learn to live with her mistakes.   
      
       ……………………..   
      
       Not too shabby. Not a good as Gurkhan or Legacy, but not bad.   
      
       At first I thought the cannibals were just more of the Horde, since the   
   head cannibal looked like one of the head Horde.   
      
       Poor old Hosep should have been wearing a red shirt, it was so obvious.   
   (If this inside joke escapes you, I'll explain it at the end.) BTW, just who   
   WAS Hosep?   
      
       I liked the deer hunting outfit Gabrielle was wearing at the beginning.   
   I wonder where it went (Xena's too).   
      
       Pretty good fight against the cannibals when Gabrielle got stabbed.   
   Although Xena seems to do better in the camp when the whole tribe is after   
   her. And that fight was very good.   
      
       Xena carrying Gabrielle up the cliff was cool. I'd rather see those   
   kinds of feats of strength rather than the sooper dooper back flips to the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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