The Black Wolf – Director: Mario Di Leo/Writer: Alan Jay Glueckman
This one starts with some soldiers collecting taxes (in other words, shaking people down for their last dinar) in a village. A bunch of freedom fighters dressed in black show up to pound the soldiers and claim to be working with the Black Wolf, a local hero who opposes Xerxes, the greedy king. Xerxes is tired of the Black Wolf and his followers ruining his plans, so he rounds up as many sympathizers as he can and asks who the Black Wolf is. They do the Spartacus thing, each claiming to be the Black Wolf, so Xerxes arrests all of
them and says he’ll execute them all if the Black Wolf doesn’t come forward within a week. Xena shows up in town, looking for new shoes for Argo. She stops the guards from beating a woman who turns out to be Hermia, a woman from Amphipolis. Hermia tells Xena her daughter (Flora, who’s a childhood friend of Xena’s) is hot for one of the Black Wolves and got herself tossed in the dungeons with them. Xena promises to get Flora out.
Xerxes urges his security chief (Koulos) to find the Black Wolf so he can execute him and quell the rebellious thoughts his people are having. Xena shows up and offers to root out the Black Wolf for a price. Koulos doesn’t 
trust her, but Xena says if they make a show of arresting her for defending a Black Wolf sympathizer, it’ll make the prisoners trust her. Xerxes likes that idea and agrees to hire her. After Xena leaves, we find out Koulos already has a mole inside the prison, but naturally Xena doesn’t know that. The next day, Xena defends a Black Wolf sympathizer and Koulos captures her (actually she surrenders after knocking him around a bit), throwing her into the dungeons. Gabi shows up in town looking for Xena and learns she’s been arrested, but is told the only way to see a prisoner is to become one yourself. In the dungeon, Xena sees Flora and tells her she’s there to get her out, but Flora won’t leave without her boyfriend (Diomedes) and the rest of the Black Wolves. Xena agrees to get everyone out, but Diomedes doesn’t trust
her. Outside, Gabi decides to get herself thrown into the dungeon by tossing tomatoes at some guards. She runs into Salmoneus, who’s doing his usual huckster thing trying to sell Black Wolf memorabilia. When Gabi throws a tomato, the guards assume it was Salmoneus and drag him away, even though Gabi insists it was her. In the dungeon, Koulos tries to force the Black Wolf to reveal himself by throwing Xena in a pit and filling it with water.
Xena busts out of the pit and Koulos warns the Black Wolves that they’d 
better give up their leader fast. Salmoneus is thrown into the dungeon and Xena assigns him to collect people’s belts as part of her plan. Xena knows the Black Wolves have been digging a tunnel (which they’re hiding behind a ratty blanket … it’s certainly no Raquel Welch poster) and warns them the guards will figure it out pretty soon. She tells them her plan and gets everyone working on it. Xena and Flora reminisce about their childhood in Amphipolis and we find out Xena used to tease Flora by offering to pull her up into a tree, then
pulling her hand away at the last second. Flora still doesn’t understand why Xena did that to her and Xena won’t explain; she just says she thinks of Flora as a sister. They toss some ropes made of belts up to an air-hole and hide up there, ambushing the guards when they come in with the food. They defeat the guards, but Xena thinks it’s too easy and she’s right … Koulos is waiting outside with more guards and thanks Xena for betraying the Black Wolves.
Xena talks to Xerxes and tells him she engineered the escape to get the Black Wolves to trust her so she could find out who the leader is. Xena 
now knows Koulos has an inside man in the dungeon, but he won’t tell her who it is. Xerxes gives her another chance to find out who the Black Wolf is, although he doesn’t think the rebels will trust Xena now that she’s betrayed them. Xena’s thrown back in the dungeon just in time to keep Salmoneus from getting pounded (for being her friend) and Diomedes isn’t too happy to see her. He attacks and she kicks his ass, but spares his life. That convinces most of the Black Wolves that she’s not really the traitor. Gabi finally gets into the dungeon (by throwing gruel all over a guard) and manages to bring Xena’s whip and chakram with her. Flora tells Xena she finally gets why she always pulled
her hand back in the tree … she wanted to teach Flora to have faith in herself instead of always looking for a hand from others. Xena has figured something else out too—Flora’s the Black Wolf. With some help from Gabi and Salmoneus, they root out the traitor and he calls the guards to get him out of the dungeon. Koulos gets impatient and decides to put Salmoneus in the water-filled pit, reasoning that the Black Wolf won’t let an innocent person die. Xena saves Salmoneus by giving up Flora as the Black Wolf, telling her to have faith.
Xerxes congratulates Xena for finding the Black Wolf and invites her to attend Flora’s execution in the town square. Gabi lets everyone in on Xena’s plan, convincing Diomedes to go along with it by mentioning the tree story 
from Flora’s childhood. Just before Flora gets her head chopped off, Gabi tosses Xena the chakram and Xena cuts off the axe head and frees all the prisoners from their chains. A big fight breaks out and Xerxes ends up impaled on the broken axe handle, while Xena pounds Koulos and the other Black Wolves take out the rest of the guards. Flora says they have enough reasonable people in the local government that they should be able to restore order pretty soon. Flora is reunited with her mom and thanks Xena for everything.
I’m not really all that fond of this episode (it’s #127 on my all-time list). Technically, it’s not bad, I just find it kinda boring; there are long stretches where it just gets tedious for me. All the scenes with Gabi are good (especially after she gets into the dungeon) and the big fight at the end is pretty cool, but everything else just drags for me. The prison scenes just
aren’t that compelling; even the stuff between Xena and Flora is basically pointless. It feels like they’re trying to make some big philosophical point with the whole “Xena and Flora in the tree” thing, but I’m not sure if it really comes across. I guess the lesson is you need to trust yourself instead of looking for others to help you, but I’m not sure how that fits in with the episode overall. I suppose Flora must’ve gotten something out of it, since she ended up being the Black Wolf and fighting against oppression. She does kick some ass in the big fight too, so she’s obviously not so passive anymore.
As I said, I like all the scenes with Gabi, although I have to admit I’m not a big fan of Salmoneus; he just comes off as too much of a huckster, like a stereotypical used-car salesman. Gabi’s really good here though; once again, she refuses to be left behind and decides to get herself thrown into prison just in case Xena needs 
her help. (Although in reality, throwing gruel on a guard probably would’ve earned Gabi a heavy beating … or worse.) Gabi is resourceful enough to smuggle Xena’s chakram and whip in and tells Xena she knew Xena would need her help but would be too proud to ask. That fits with Xena’s lesson to Flora about doing things for yourself; that’s one lesson Xena never had to teach Gabi, since Gabi is always willing to take chances and trust in herself. Gabi’s the type of person who would’ve tried over and over until she could climb the tree on her own; that could be why she and Xena get along so well … for all their differences, they’re very much alike.
Noticeable Things:
- Xena impresses Xerxes by mentioning that she killed Mezentius in
The Path Not Taken. - We get that stock shot of the castle again for Xerxes’ stronghold.
- Two guards are playing Rock, Parchment, Dagger outside the prison.
- Gabi is wearing her Amazon outfit here, but she doesn’t have her staff. She does get hold of another staff and participates in the big fight at the end, so she’s definitely not just a spectator anymore.
- Tomatoes are from the New World, so they wouldn’t have existed in Ancient Greece. I think Xena takes place in a parallel world, with a somewhat different timeline (and geography), so anachronisms like that aren’t really a big deal. In later episodes we’ll see (or hear about) corn, chili peppers, and chocolate, all of which came to Europe from the New World after Columbus.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I have many skills.” Xena letting Diomedes know she’s good at embroidery. This is the first time Xena uses this phrase, but it certainly won’t be the last.
- “You know you wouldn’t be here in the first place if you’d kept your hands off my tomatoes.” Gabi being literal about Salmoneus screwing up her plans earlier. Xena takes it a different way and gives Salmoneus a death-stare.
- “You have a friend?” Salmoneus, incredulous when Xena introduces Gabi as her friend. Salmoneus met Xena in the Hercules episodes where she began her redemption and she was a lot more … intense back then.
