The Deliverer – Director: Oley Sassone/Writer: Steven L. Sears
This one starts with Ares and his protégée (and possibly lover) Discord arguing about some new god whose monotheistic religion could threaten the Olympians. Ares assures Discord he has someone very skilled in mind to destroy a major
temple to this god. While travelling, Xena and Gabi run into some soldiers taking prisoners back to Britannia. Xena’s not too bothered until she learns the prisoners oppose Caesar; that gets her attention and she sets them free. The leader (Khrafstar) tells her he was recruiting mercenaries for Boadicea to fight Caesar in Britannia. Xena knows Boadicea from way back and tells Khrafstar she’ll come with him to defeat Caesar.
As they head north, Khrafstar tells Gabi about his one god (who can’t be named), but she’s a bit skeptical, since the Greek gods haven’t impressed 
her too much. They find a boat to take them to Britannia, but before they embark, Ares shows up. He mentions the one god to Xena, saying he’s evil and needs to be defeated. Ares tells Xena she has to destroy the one god’s temple (currently held by Caesar’s troops), but Xena’s not inclined to do Ares any favours, saying he’s just scared the Olympians will be supplanted by a new god the same way they overthrew the Titans. On the boat, Khrafstar tells Gabi more about his god and she seems somewhat intrigued, since Khrafstar makes it sound like his god is all about love and forgiveness. Xena tells Gabi about her history with
Boadicea: they were allies, but Xena was just using her because she needed the troops, and she ended up betraying Boadicea and trying to kill her. When the boat lands, Roman troops tell them to leave or they’ll be killed and Xena pretends to agree, but signals someone nearby by bouncing sunlight off her sword. The Romans figure out that the boat didn’t turn around and quickly find its landing spot. But Boadicea shows up and fights the Romans, helped by Xena and the mercenaries. When some of the Romans retreat, they run into Gabi and Khrafstar in the woods and capture them.
Boadicea’s men know about Gabi’s capture, but Boadicea doesn’t tell Xena 
because she doesn’t trust her and she needs her help against Caesar. Xena figures out Gabi’s missing and gets pissed off, telling Boadicea they have to rescue Gabi and goad Caesar into one huge battle where he commits all his forces. Caesar knows Gabi and Xena are close and plans to use her to draw Xena out, telling Gabi that Xena’s emotions are her weakness. Khrafstar tells Gabi more about his god and how his faith made him turn away from violence, something Gabi can appreciate. Caesar takes Khrafstar and Gabi out and has them put on crosses, ordering their legs to be broken (as he did with Xena in Destiny).
Xena and Boadicea’s troops pop out of holes dug in the turf and take down Caesar’s men before they can hurt Gabi or Khrafstar. Caesar is watching and gets pissed off, throwing a spear at Xena. She breaks it up with her chakram,
sending a shard back into Caesar’s hand. That makes him mad enough to bring all his forces to bear against Xena and Boadicea … just as Xena expected. Xena and Boadicea plan to split Caesar’s forces and force him to fight uphill, but have to take the temple he holds on one of the hills. Ares shows up again, urging Xena to destroy the temple after it’s taken. She refuses to do what he wants, not trusting his motives. They take the temple and Xena and Boadicea head out to prepare for the battle. Khrafstar and his followers (and Gabi) are left to reoccupy the 
temple. They start a ritual, led by a woman named Meridien, but it soon turns weird when they start talking about blood sacrifices. Khrafstar is strapped to the altar and Meridien prepares to sacrifice him, but Gabi busts loose and starts kicking ass. She uses the knife to cut Khrafstar loose, but when Meridien tries to kill him, Gabi ends up stabbing her. Turns out Khrafstar was never a victim, he’s the head priest and Gabi killing Meridien was the plan all along, since they needed to sacrifice her blood innocence to bring their god (who we now know is called Dahok) to Earth.
As they prepare to fight Caesar, Xena notices dark clouds over the temple and realizes Gabi is in trouble. She abandons the battle and heads to the temple, finding Meridien dead on the altar and Gabi totally freaked out. Gabi admits she killed Meridien (which bothers Xena almost as much as it does Gabi) and Khrafstar tells Xena about Dahok and how Gabi’s innocence will
make him manifest. The altar explodes and tendrils of fire emerge, pulling Gabi toward the flames shooting from below. Khrafstar turns into a demon (the Deliverer) and fights Xena, who’s trying to get Gabi out of the flames. Xena tosses the Deliverer into the flames (which quenches them) and grabs Gabi before she falls into the pit. The temple starts falling down and explodes around them, but Xena finds shelter in a corner and they survive the destruction. Gabi’s pretty freaked out though, saying everything has changed now that she’s killed someone.
This is a pretty good episode, even though it’s only #95 on my all-time list. My biggest problem with it is that Gabi is pretty passive throughout. I can’t 
blame her for getting sucked in by Khrafstar’s bullshit (the audience falls for it too), but she’s basically just a pawn here, not really getting to do anything (we don’t even see her fight). We do get some interesting stuff about Xena’s background and we see just how much her hatred of Caesar still drives her. The writing is really clever, with a double fake-out in the episode: we’re led to believe (along with the characters) that the one god Khrafstar is talking about is the god of the Israelites, whose worship we’ve seen before. Khrafstar’s talk about love and non-violence sucks the audience in the same way it does Gabi. And the second fake-out is on the audience too, making us think that the confrontation between Xena and Caesar (and Boadicea) is the most
important part of the story, but it’s not; that’s really the B-story. The main story is about Gabi, but we don’t realize that (nor does Xena) until it’s too late. Some fans were pissed off that the story suddenly cut away from the impending battle and we never got to see what happened, but that’s kinda the point of the episode … the battle doesn’t matter, it’s what happens to Gabi that’s really important. (In a later episode, it’s mentioned that Boadicea won the battle, although Caesar tries to downplay the loss as unimportant.)
As I said, Xena’s hatred of Caesar blinds her to everything. Her much-vaunted focus doesn’t do her any favours here, as it makes her focus on Caesar to the exclusion of everything else. If she’d been a little less single-minded, she might have been more suspicious of Khrafstar and stopped Gabi from being hurt (something Khrafstar points out to Xena with glee). 
And Xena’s focus on Caesar makes her ignore Ares’ warnings too; granted she doesn’t have much reason to trust him, but if she’d listened it would’ve saved a lot of grief for Gabi (and a lot more to come, for both of them). The strange thing is, Xena and Caesar are very much alike. He’s certain he can predict exactly what she’ll do, because she’s ruled by emotion: her hatred of him and her affection for Gabi. And she goads him into committing all his forces because she knows his ego won’t let him walk away. So each of them can see the flaws in each other, but are blind to those same flaws in themselves. The one thing Caesar couldn’t have predicted was Xena abandoning the battle because he doesn’t understand that her love for Gabi outweighs her hatred for him.
The big thing in this episode is Gabi losing her blood innocence and killing for the first time. There’s a debate among fans about whether Gabi killing Meridien should “count” or not; some say it was accidental (it kinda looks like Meridien throws herself onto the knife Gabi’s holding) or justified
(since she was trying to save Khrafstar). But I don’t think the circumstances matter; it’s how Gabi feels about it that counts. She feels guilty and that gives Dahok what he needs to go after her. It’s the same with Xena letting Callisto die in Return of Callisto, or Joxer’s first kill in The Convert … if they feel guilty about it, that’s what really matters, not whether it’s justified or not. It almost seems like Xena’s more worked up about Gabi losing her blood innocence than Gabi herself is. I get the feeling Xena sees a lot of herself in Gabi and maybe trying to keep Gabi innocent (as far as killing goes) is Xena’s way of giving herself a second chance, almost living vicariously through Gabi and trying to get it right the second time around. 
That’s not really fair to Gabi and arguably, if Xena had been less protective and allowed Gabi to experience more violence first hand, maybe it wouldn’t have hurt so much when she finally killed someone. It seems like quite a coincidence that Khrafstar just happened to run into Xena and Gabi; I can’t help wondering if Dahok knew about Gabi (and her purity of heart) all along and arranged for Khrafstar to be in the right place at the right time. That would explain how Khrafstar knew exactly what to say to lure Gabi in. (I don’t think Gabi has any romantic interest in Khrafstar—she’s definitely in love with Xena at this point—she’s just intrigued by his philosophy.) Anyway, this is the beginning of the Rift, which will pull Xena and Gabi apart and test their love for each other over the next half-season.
Noticeable Things:
- When we first see Xena and Gabi, Gabi is philosophizing again. This time, it sounds like she’s coming up with some kind of atomic theory … maybe Democritus stole it from her.
- In real life, Boadicea never fought Caesar, since she wasn’t around in his time, although she did lead a revolt against the Romans around A.D. 60.
- This episode is Discord’s first appearance on Xena. When she’s talking to Ares, he mentions some new metal he wants to give to “a chosen few”, suggesting that this episode should come before Dirty Half Dozen.
- When they’re heading north, Xena is leading Argo, but once they get
to Britannia, Argo isn’t seen again. Did Xena leave her in northern Gaul before they went on the boat? - At the end when the temple falls apart, the remains end up looking like Stonehenge, although the real Stonehenge is much older than Caesar’s time.
Favourite Quotations:
- “Xena taught me that if you let someone take advantage of you, they will.” Gabi pushing back against Khrafstar’s non-violent philosophy after they’re captured by Caesar.
- “Timing … we’ve got to work on timing.” Gabi after Xena saves her from having her legs broken at the very last second.