Death in Chains – Director: Charles Siebert/Writers: Babs Greyhosky, Adam Armus, Nora Kay Foster
This one starts with King Sisyphus preparing to welcome a very special guest to his castle … Celesta, the embodiment of Death. Sisyphus pissed Zeus off, so he sent Celesta to claim Sisyphus’s soul, but Sisyphus isn’t ready to go without a fight. He tricks Celesta into sitting down and captures her in a chair that has manacles hidden in the arms. With Death captured, the candle she carries starts to burn down and once it
goes out, nobody will ever die again. Sisyphus’s wife (Karis) isn’t happy about him trying to cheat Death, but he’s adamant. Elsewhere, Xena and Gabi are attacked by a warlord named Toxeus, who’s out to make a reputation. Xena kills Toxeus and his men flee, but after Xena and Gabi leave, Toxeus gets up and realizes he’s immune to dying.
Hades tracks Xena down to tell her about Celesta (his sister) being captured. 
He points out that mankind will be in for eternal suffering without Death to end their pain, and says that if Celesta isn’t rescued within a day it’ll be too late. Xena and Gabi run into some people who were caught in a rockslide and Xena realizes Hades was right … only Death can end their pain. As Xena and Gabi try in vain to help the suffering victims, Gabi meets a guy named Talus (who was on his way to Corinth with some other travelers) and is immediately attracted to him. Talus likes her too and when she mentions what Sisyphus has done, Talus says he used to live in the castle and knows his way around it pretty well. Toxeus shows up and since Xena can’t kill him, she leaves him pinned under
a big tree branch. At the castle, Sisyphus taunts Celesta and Karis gives him shit for being so cruel. Sisyphus reminds her that his life is on the line. Toxeus finds his men and “kills” them to demonstrate that Death is no longer an issue. Xena (rather unwisely) told him about Sisyphus holding Celesta, so Toxeus decides he and his men will go take her for themselves. Then they’ll never have to worry about dying … and if Xena gets in their way, they’ll add her to the ranks of the undead.
Xena sends Gabi and Talus to the hospice to help people while she rides on 
for the castle. Toxeus is watching and sends some of his men to follow Xena and some to follow Gabi and Talus. After taking out the guys following her, Xena makes it into the castle by doing some gymnastics on the wall, but Sisyphus knows she’s there right away and starts preparing his elaborate traps (which are kinda his specialty). At the hospice, Gabi learns from an old woman that Xena could die if she touches Celesta, so Gabi decides to go warn Xena. “Don’t touch the living embodiment of Death” seems kinda obvious, so I think Gabi was just
looking for an excuse to join Xena. Talus knows a secret way into the castle and insists on going with Gabi. We see that Talus is having some kind of chest pains, but he hides that from Gabi. Xena runs into Sisyphus and tries to convince him to let Celesta go, but he triggers a trap and she falls down a shaft.
Xena grabs a skeleton on the wall of the shaft, but that doesn’t hold her long and she falls into the dungeon, getting knocked out by the impact. Gabi and Talus sneak into the castle and are followed by Toxeus’s men. Gabi and 
Talus take off, but they trigger a sliding stair trap and Talus falls down another chute, while Gabi keeps running. Xena wakes up and is soon joined by Talus, whose fall deposits him in the dungeon. After telling Xena why he and Gabi came to the castle, Xena hears water dripping and she and Talus head into a water pipe. Upstairs, Gabi hides from Toxeus and his men, although she’s almost given away by a curious rat. That’s nothing to the avalanche of rats Xena and Talus have to deal with in the pipe.
After getting through the rats and emerging from the pipe, Talus has another chest pain and Xena figures out he was on his way to Corinth to die. Talus says he’s not afraid to die and will still help rescue Celesta since he
believes Death is a necessary end to life. Karis overhears them talking and realizes Sisyphus is condemning people like Talus to suffer forever. Karis tries to get through to Sisyphus, even threatening to stab herself, but he won’t listen. Karis approaches Xena and Talus and offers to help them get to Celesta in time. Karis fakes Sisyphus out, letting herself get caught in her husband’s trap instead of Xena. Talus begs Sisyphus to let Death go and accept his own fate instead of condemning others to suffer. Xena reminds Sisyphus that he used to be a good king and could be again, if he chooses to do the right thing. Sisyphus finally agrees to 
free Celesta, but before they can release the manacles, Toxeus and his men come in with Gabi as a hostage. Xena offers to let Toxeus “kill” her and ends up fighting his men while Sisyphus tries to free Celesta. In the end, Xena breaks the manacles with her chakram and Celesta reclaims her candle and immediately takes the souls of Toxeus and all his men. Sisyphus figures it’s time for him to die, but Celesta gives him a reprieve (for now) and says she has to take Talus instead. Gabi is devastated, but Talus tells her he’s at peace with it. Celesta leaves with Talus and Gabi turns to Xena for comfort.
This episode is pretty good, though not spectacular. (It’s #111 on my all-time list.) It’s not a bad episode, but Gabi and Xena are separated again and Sisyphus’s character needed more development. He does return in a Hercules episode, where he tries to get out of dying again but ends up in
Tartarus, and he will come back from the dead next season in Ten Little Warlords. In real-life mythology, Sisyphus was a King of Corinth who betrayed Zeus by revealing the whereabouts of Aegina (a nymph Zeus was banging) to her father Asopus (a river god) in exchange for a freshwater spring for Corinth. Sisyphus mentions “water for Corinth” to Celesta when he tries to argue that it’s not his time yet. It seems like he might be right; if Zeus only sent Celesta to take Sisyphus’s soul because he’s pissed off at Sisyphus for ratting him out to Asopus, then it really isn’t his time to die yet. Maybe that’s why Celesta gives him a reprieve at the end; she knows he’s getting a raw deal.
This episode sometimes has the feel of an earlier one; it was apparently the third one written for this season, but was actually filmed after the next 
episode, Hooves and Harlots. You can tell because Gabi’s wearing her Amazon outfit (or a variation of it) instead of her usual long peasant outfit. Strangely, she isn’t carrying her staff and doesn’t even try to fight in this episode, which is probably why it was aired before Hooves and Harlots, since Gabi’s clothes are an easier continuity error to explain than her not fighting. In the scene at the end, where Gabi hugs Xena as Celesta takes Talus away, Xena reacts with surprise, which doesn’t make much sense after everything they’ve been through, but would fit if this episode was meant to be earlier in the season. Gabi’s quite headstrong here, coming to help
Xena against orders and almost getting killed for it. She also has her first taste of healing; she’s not very good at it and compliments Talus on his bedside manner, but she’ll come a long way in that respect by the end of the season. Talus is the typical star-crossed boyfriend-of-the-week for Gabi, and pretty much the last one. There’s Perdicus, but he’s a special case, and there’s David in Season 2, but that’s kind of a misfire. I’m also not counting “Orion” as a boyfriend-of-the-week since I don’t really get a big romantic vibe between him and Gabi.
Noticeable Things:
- Xena and Sisyphus seem to know each other already; she’s familiar with his trickery and he refers to “reliving old battles”, so maybe they fought before. The Battle of Corinth will turn out be a big deal for Xena, so that’s probably where they met, since Sisyphus is King of Corinth. Sisyphus must still think Xena’s the selfish type, since he assumes she wants to rescue Celesta because she’s a warrior and can’t vanquish her foes without Death. It never occurs to him that Xena’s motives might be more compassionate.
- This isn’t the last time we’ll see Celesta, though we’ll have to wait until almost the end of season 5 before she appears again.
- We learn that Gabi knows every line of Sophocles by heart.
Favourite Quotes:
- “It’s not how long you live that matters, it’s how well you live.” Talus convincing Sisyphus to do what’s right.
- “Of course not.” Xena’s reaction when Talus tells her Gabi wanted to warn her not to touch Death. I’m surprised she didn’t throw the word “duh” in there too.
- “When Gabrielle has her mind set on something, nothing can change it. You’ll learn that soon enough.” Xena giving Talus a succinct guide to Gabi, which is a pretty accurate description that’ll fit Gabi for the rest of the series.