Blind Faith – Director: Josh Becker/Writers: Adam Armus, Nora Kaye Foster
This one starts with Gabi and Xena in a village, where Gabi decides to do some shopping while Xena goes for lunch. Gabi gets jumped by a guy named Palaemon and when Xena comes to look for her, Palaemon tells her he killed Gabi and now he’s going to kill Xena too.
Xena fights Palaemon and learns he’s a weird sort of Xena fanboy; he’s studied Xena’s career (and fighting style) for years and now he wants to kill her for the bragging rights. During the fight, Xena accidentally gets some
sumac dye in her eyes, but Palaemon refuses to kill her, saying there’d be no glory in it. She pounds him and interrogates him, thinking his lack of ruthlessness means he didn’t kill Gabi and probably knows where to find her. She puts the Pinch on him, but he calls her bluff and she’s forced to remove it, since he’s her only link to Gabi. Xena ties him to a board and drags him along as she goes to look for Gabi. We see that Xena’s having trouble with her eyesight, although Palaemon hasn’t noticed yet. Palaemon admits he sold Gabi to some people who were looking for someone just like her, but he refuses to say who 
bought her. Gabi is taken to a castle, where she meets Apex, the guy who ordered the kidnapping. Apex tells her she’s to be the bride of King Solus and shows her paintings of the King’s previous wives, all of whom look like Gabi. Gabi is taken away and Apex tells Vidalis (a stereotypical Queer Eye makeover guy) he’d better turn Gabi into Queen material or else. Apex’s men find Xena and Palaemon on the road and attack them, trying to kill Palaemon as well as Xena. She frees him and they fight off the men, but Palaemon realizes Xena is blind.
Palaemon again refuses to fight Xena, saying killing a blind warrior won’t win him any acclaim. Xena uses some manacles dropped by their attackers to chain herself to Palaemon, telling him he’d better lead her to Gabi if he wants to be freed. In the castle, Gabi’s escape attempt is foiled and she
meets Vidalis, who criticizes pretty much everything about her (her walk, her dishpan hands, her “peasant muscle”, her accent), which kinda pisses her off. Since there’s no way out, she decides to play along for the moment. On the road, Palaemon tells Xena who he sold Gabi to and she wonders why they’d want a peasant girl for a Queen, figuring there must be more to it. Palaemon asks about Xena’s blindness and she tells him it was the sumac dye and it can be cured by palm oil and Egyptian senna. Palaemon suggests they head for Athens to get the senna, but Xena won’t abandon Gabi. Palaemon is impressed with her skills and praises her warrior past, but she warns him not to emulate who she used to 
be. At the castle, Gabi is introduced to the court as the King’s betrothed (apparently they have to approve her) and they accept her even though she screws up her curtsey. (It might have something to do with the dress she’s wearing, which really highlights her … assets.) After the party, we see Apex has prepared a coffin with Gabi’s likeness on it. Xena and Palaemon encounter Apex’s men again and head for the forest to lose them. Xena runs right off the edge of a cliff above a raging river and to keep from dragging Palaemon with her she unlocks the manacles, saying there’s no reason they both have to die. Before Palaemon can react, Xena undoes her manacle and plummets toward the river.
Xena grabs a vine and Palaemon promises to pull her up and help find Gabi as long as she agrees to fight him when her sight returns. Xena’s in no position to argue, so she agrees. In the castle, Vidalis tutors Gabi on being a lady and she appeals to his romantic side, telling him she can’t marry the
King because she loves someone else. Vidalis finally agrees to sneak her in to see the King. Palaemon leads Xena toward Solus’s castle, but the way he keeps praising her bloodlust in her warrior days pisses her off. Gabi tries to talk to the King, but soon realizes he’s dead. Apex tells her the King died in an accident a few days ago and by some convoluted law, Apex can become King if the King dies without heirs but with a wife. Apex adds that ancient proclamation 
requires the Queen to go to the afterlife with the King; I’m not sure if he’s serious, or just being facetious. Probably the latter, since he plans to tell the people that Gabi and the king died accidentally. Xena and Palaemon sneak into the castle and she calls him on his macho bullshit, pointing out he lacks the killer instinct (and even suggesting he may never have killed anyone). Gabi and Solus are “married”, in a ceremony that’s distinctly lacking in romance, since the dead King is propped up on a stick and Gabi is bound and gagged. After the ceremony, Gabi and the King are thrown into their coffins.
Xena and Palaemon find Vidalis chained up and he offers to lead them to the crematorium, where Gabi has been taken. The King’s coffin goes into the fire first and Gabi’s is sent in next. Xena, Palaemon, and Vidalis get to the crematorium and Xena vaults over the guards and heads inside, leaving
Palaemon to fight them (with a little help from Vidalis). Apex realizes Xena is blind and orders his men to attack, but she kicks their asses and pulls Gabi’s coffin away from the fire. Apex tries to take off, but Vidalis knocks him out. Xena saves Gabi, who immediately knows something’s wrong with Xena’s eyes. Xena explains what happened and says it’s too late to go to Athens for Egyptian senna. Vidalis mentions he has Egyptian senna in his garden (because apparently 
you can’t make a good face cream without it). Gabi administers the solution to Xena and we get the expected line about Gabi being a sight for sore eyes. Palaemon tells Xena he’s learned a lot from her and wants to try being a good guy for a while. Vidalis decides to tag along, thinking he’ll make a pretty good sidekick (and maybe more) for Palaemon. Vidalis says goodbye to Gabi, getting in one last dig about her hands. Gabi really gets mad when she finds out Xena can do a proper curtsey.
I really like this episode (it’s #35 on my all-time list), although I can’t quite articulate why. It’s one of those episodes (Key to the Kingdom and Little
Problems also fall into this category) that just give me a good feeling when I watch it. By all rights, I shouldn’t like this one since it separates Xena and Gabi (which I usually hate) and makes Gabi the Damsel in Distress (which was fine for early Season 1, but shouldn’t be happening now). And the whole thing with Gabi being kidnapped to be Queen makes no sense. We see depictions of the previous Queens, all of whom look like Gabi, but Apex says the people have to 
approve the choice of Queen; does that mean the people of this kingdom have a type? And the convoluted laws about succession depending on whether the King dies with or without an heir, married or unmarried, don’t really make sense either. I wondered if the King’s death wasn’t an accident, but I’m assuming if Apex had him killed, he’d have made sure to marry him off ahead of time. The fact that he had to scramble to find Gabi at the last minute suggests the King’s accident really was an accident.
But this one works for me anyway; maybe it’s how Xena manages to teach Palaemon a lesson without really meaning to. Sure, she lectures him and
gives him advice, but her main focus is on Gabi. Maybe that’s what really gets through to him in the end; actions speak louder than words after all, so maybe seeing Xena willing to lose her sight to save Gabi (not to mention being ready to sacrifice herself to avoid dragging him over the cliff) is what makes Palaemon change his ways in the end. Xena gets the true measure of Palaemon right away, when he doesn’t take advantage of the sumac is her eyes during their first fight. I’m not sure 
if she’s right about him never having killed anyone; he’s obviously a skilled fighter and has a scar across his face, so he must’ve been in plenty of fights. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s killed people, but being in that many fights, it might to hard to avoid it. Xena knows Palaemon is full of shit when he claims to have killed Krakus of Pyla … because she’s the one who killed Krakus. I guess that isn’t generally known, or Palaemon (the ultimate Xena fanboy) would’ve chosen a different victim to brag about.
One reason I definitely like this episode is because it confirms (for me anyway) that Gabi has romantic feelings toward Xena. We see it at the end, when Xena pulls Gabi out of the coffin; as soon as Gabi realizes Xena is blind, she immediately forgets her own predicament and asks what she can
do to help Xena. And when Gabi’s first taken, she tells Vidalis that she’s close friends with Xena, who won’t take kindly to all this forced marriage stuff; is Gabi implying she and Xena are more than friends? It could just be a ploy to gain her freedom, but when talking to Vidalis later, she says, “I can’t marry the King because my heart belongs to another. And even though I can’t be with them right now, I’m not ready to be with anyone else.” There’s a lot of discussion among fans over whether Gabi says “them” (presumably referring to Xena), or “him” (which I guess would mean she’s still pining for Perdicus). I cranked the volume way up for that line and she definitely says “them” (and people who were on set at the time have apparently confirmed that). Of course, that 
raises the question of why Gabi can’t be with Xena right now. As I mentioned in last episode’s review, I think maybe Xena (who was the first one to develop romantic feelings and has been in favour of taking things to the next level) may have pulled back from the idea of a romance with Gabi, probably afraid that she’ll end up hurting Gabi. (It’s possible they even had a conversation about it between episodes, something I wrote a fanfic story about.) So now Gabi’s on board with the romance (willing to take the risk of being hurt because she’s realized she’s in love with Xena), but Xena’s backing off. That doesn’t mean Xena’s feelings have changed, she just doesn’t want to hurt Gabi. Over the next few episodes, we’ll see that Gabi does have feelings for Xena and is trying to convince her to stop worrying so much and give their romance a chance.
Noticeable Things:
- Gabi shows her skill at talking extends to haggling, as she bargains a guy down from 5 dinars to 2 for a scarf. We’ll see more of that skill in future episodes.
- Gabi is understandably reluctant to become the bride of someone she’s never met, but when Apex shows her a naked statue of the King,
she’s quite taken with him … especially his dick. - While sneaking into the castle, Xena catches the chakram even though she’s blind. She seems to be listening for its return, but I’ve often wondered if there’s a mystical bond that she uses to control the chakram.
- When trying to escape, Apex calls Vidalis a fruitcake (you can clearly read his lips), but it’s dubbed to “fishcake”. I guess they didn’t want to be too homophobic, which seems remarkably woke for 1997.
- When nerding out over Xena’s warlord past, Palaemon mentions her massacring troops at Corinth and setting oil reserves on fire at Byblotia to burn the city, neither of which are pleasant memories to Xena.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Be careful, Palaemon … we all eventually become what we pretend we are.” Xena telling Palaemon he might want to stop acting like such an asshole or he might actually become one.
- “Yeah, well, I’m more of a redhead, really.” Gabi trying to convince Apex that she’s not the innocuous blue-eyed blonde they’re looking for.
- “Thrace? Macedonia? What does it matter? Backwoods is backwards, as they say.” Vidalis criticizing Gabi’s peasant dialect.
- “Leather, huh? Bold choice.” Vidalis commenting on Xena’s fashion sense.