Giant Killer – Director: Gary Jones/Writer: Terence Winter
This one starts with Xena and Gabi strolling through a Giants’ graveyard, which is weird because Giants don’t bury their dead, so they’re surrounded by huge skeletons and scattered bones. Xena tells Gabi about a battle ten years ago against a Giant named Gareth and how she was saved by a friend. Now she’s meeting the friend at the graveyard. The friend turns out to be another Giant named Goliath, which freaks Gabi out a bit, so she goes for a walk. Goliath tells Xena he’s working as a mercenary to get money so he can go after Gareth (who killed Goliath’s family in the battle ten
years ago). Xena tries to tell him how hollow revenge and bitterness are, but he won’t listen. Gabi runs into some Philistines herding a bunch of captured Israelites and they try to grab her too. An Israelite named David tries to help, but gets pounded. Gabi takes on the Philistine leader (Dagon) and gets taken down, but Xena shows up and starts kicking ass. When Goliath arrives, he tells Dagon that Xena is his friend and Dagon says Xena’s welcome in their camp. Turns out Goliath is working for the Philistines against the Israelites.
Dagon locks the Israelites up and invites Xena and Gabi to dinner. He goes on about how the Israelites are trying to take the Philistines’ land and how 
they’re poaching food. When Xena points out the Israelites are starving, Dagon says they should be better at resource management and points out that they can always serve the Philistines (as virtual slaves, though he doesn’t put it that way). Dagon offers Xena a job, but she turns him down (and pretends not to notice Gabi stuffing food into her bag). Gabi takes the food to the Israelites, but they don’t trust her because of all the bad things David’s heard about Xena. (I guess news of Xena’s face turn hasn’t gotten to them yet.) Some guards come in and find a partially-dug escape tunnel, so they haul the Israelites
outside. Xena is talking to Goliath, trying to make him see he’s fighting for the wrong side. But his need to get revenge on Gareth has clouded his judgement and he only cares about getting enough money to go after Gareth. Gabi tries to talk Dagon out of slaughtering the Israelites, but he wants to make an example of someone, so he decides to execute David. Gabi throws herself over David, thinking that’ll change Dagon’s mind, but he tells the executioner to go ahead and kill both of them.
Xena shows up to stop the execution and starts pounding Philistines. Dagon sends an alarm call for Goliath, but when he shows up he just watches, not wanting to fight Xena. Xena and Gabi pound the Philistines and help the Israelites escape. When they get to the Israelite camp, Saul thanks Xena for 
saving his sons, David and Jonathan, who will be the next Israelite leader. David apologizes for thinking the worst of Xena. Back at the Philistine camp, Dagon gives Goliath shit for not stopping the Israelite escape and Goliath wonders if he should switch sides. Dagon cements his loyalty by promising to tell him where Gareth is once the Israelites are defeated. Jonathan tells everyone the Philistines are coming (with Goliath), so Xena tells him to send word that they’ll settle everything through a battle of champions: her against Goliath. Xena knows a Giant’s weak spot is between his eyes, and she’s prepared to kill Goliath if she has to.
That night, David and Gabi bond over their love of writing and Gabi seems to have a crush on David … until she meets his fiancée, Sarah. Gabi goes to
find Xena, who tells her how Goliath saved her life ten years ago, leaving his family vulnerable to Gareth’s attack. Xena feels guilty about Goliath losing his family because of her, but knows she has to kill him if she can, since he’s fighting for the wrong side. Gabi tries to comfort her as they watch a storm through the window. The next day, the Philistines show up and Goliath is wearing a helmet to protect his vulnerable spot. So much for Xena’s plan. As Goliath tries to 
smash Xena, the Philistines make a surprise attack. Jonathan ends up getting killed and the Israelites are forced to retreat, followed by Xena after she throws salt in Goliath’s eyes. In a nearby cave, the Israelites are demoralized at the loss of Jonathan and Xena realizes she can’t fight Goliath because they need a hero of their own. David comes to the same conclusion and volunteers to fight Goliath.
Xena meets Goliath in the Giants’ graveyard and tries to talk him out of fighting, but he wants revenge on Gareth too much. Neither of them thinks of the other as an enemy, but that’s how things have turned out and they
say goodbye to each other. Gabi talks to David about monotheism and he recites a Psalm for her (the 23rd Psalm, to be specific). Xena has an idea on how to deal with Goliath’s helmet and has a bunch of Israelites with polished shields waiting. But when the armies meet, it’s cloudy and David is forced to dodge Goliath’s blows until his prayers are answered and the sun comes out. The shields reflect the sun into Goliath’s eyes, which is somehow magnified by the helmet; I’m not exactly 
sure what the reasoning is here, but the reflected sunlight gets Goliath to remove his helmet and David kills him with his sling. The Israelites rout the Philistines (although Dagon gets away) and Xena gets a last word with Goliath, who still regrets not being able to avenge his family. Later, Xena walks through the Giants’ graveyard, hoping Goliath can hear her thoughts and that he was reunited with his family in the afterlife.
This isn’t really that great of an episode (it’s #129 on my all-time list, although it maybe could move up a little bit). The main problem is that there’s no real suspense; we know from the Bible that David will beat
Goliath, so the fight is anti-climactic. Xena does get to contribute with her plan to get Goliath’s helmet off, but really her main function is to angst over having to fight her friend (especially since she feels guilty for him losing his family while helping her ten years ago). Lucy does Xena’s anguish well, but it’s all a bit boring in the end. And to be honest, Goliath isn’t exactly the most menacing Giant I’ve ever seen.
Xena says she and Goliath met ten years ago (so nine years before the series started) while her army was fighting Gareth; did that happen before Xena met Caesar? There’s no mention of Borias, so it could be pre-Caesar, 
especially if Xena’s army was in its conquering phase at the time. I’m not sure where this is supposed to take place. They mention the desert and the Israelites and Philistines lived in the Middle East, so maybe this is set there. If this is supposed to be the same place where Xena’s army fought Gareth, she must’ve ranged pretty widely in her conquering days. And if this is meant to take place in the Middle East, it might explain why news of Xena being a good guy now hasn’t reached them yet. It’s kinda sad that this episode deals with a land dispute in the Middle East and that’s a fight that’s still going on after all these years.
The whole thing between Gabi and David is a little weird to me. David almost comes off as another boyfriend-of-the-week, except that whole thing kinda stopped in Season 1 (plus David is not actually interested in Gabi, unlike most boyfriends-of-the-week). But for me, Gabi’s attraction to
David seems a bit forced; when they first bond, it’s over their mutual love of writing, which makes sense … Gabi always gravitates toward fellow writers, probably because that’s something she can’t talk to Xena about (since Xena has no interest in the subject). So Gabi and David being friends makes sense, and Gabi throwing herself over him at the execution isn’t necessarily a romantic gesture … Gabi would do that for anyone she thought was being falsely executed. But later, she suddenly has the hots for him and gets all awkward 
when she meets Sarah. I can’t help wondering if her sudden attraction to David was put in solely to blunt the impact of the scene between her and Xena that takes place immediately afterwards. Gabi tries to comfort Xena when she’s feeling guilty about opposing Goliath and ends up holding her hand. It’s almost like the writer is saying “Don’t worry, Gabi’s not gay for Xena; she was just drooling over David two minutes ago, remember?” Maybe I’m reaching, but I think it’s a hell of a coincidence that Gabi’s weird, awkward crush on David manifests right before her sweet, emotional (and much more believable) moment with Xena.
Noticeable Things:
- I guess these Israelites haven’t been in contact with the ones from Royal Couple of Thieves or Altared States, or they’d know Xena fights for good now.
- Dagon escapes at the end of this episode, much like Agis did in Warrior … Princess … Tramp. I wonder if there were plans to bring either of them back? If so, it never happened.
- In the Bible, David and Jonathan weren’t brothers; Jonathan was Saul’s son, but David wasn’t, and Jonathan wasn’t killed by Goliath. Also, I think David knocked Goliath down with the sling stone, then cut his head off with Goliath’s own sword. I guess that would’ve been a bit much here.
- Originally, Xena went after Gareth and killed him to avenge Goliath’s family at the end of this episode. But the episode ran long and the creators figured two Giant fights would be redundant, so the footage of Xena fighting Gareth was saved and used in A Day in the Life.