Xena Reviews: Season 3, Episode 5

Gabrielle’s Hope – Director: Andrew Merrifield, Charles Siebert/Writer: R.J. Stewart

This one starts with Xena and Gabi still in Britannia. Gabi’s having nightmares about killing Meridien last episode and her guilt is making her puke her guts out after she wakes up. Xena tries to ease Gabi’s conscience, but her guilt over losing her blood innocence is too profound. They run into some Banshees in the woods and Xena has trouble fighting them since they can turn intangible. They refuse to attack Gabi and she shields Xena long enough for them to get away (and I don’t think Xena’s happy about hiding behind Gabi). The Banshees call after them, saying they want to protect and worship Gabi because she’s the Chosen One.

Gabi’s worried about her soul, wondering if she can ever get past the guilt of murdering someone. She thinks the Banshees’ worship might indicate some deeper evil inside her, but Xena assures her that she’s the same good person she always was. They find a port and Xena goes to book passage back to Greece with a Phoenician trader, while Gabi goes to a tavern to eat (and ends up ordering some really weird foods). A mob gathers outside the tavern and sets it on fire, trapping Gabi inside. After securing passage on the Phoenician ship, Xena is attacked by two knights of the Pierced Heart. Gabi uses her staff to vault through a high window and escape the burning tavern, but the mob starts chasing her. Xena hears her calls for help and pounds the knights, going out to find Gabi. Gabi runs into the woods but she’s cramping up and the mob catches her. Xena shows up just in time to save her and interrogates the mob, learning the knights told them to kill Gabi because she carries evil inside her. The Banshees end up grabbing Gabi again and tell her she’s carrying the child of Dahok.

Xena gets Gabi away from the Banshees and takes her to the castle of the Knights of the Pierced Heart, figuring they’ll be safe because Banshees can’t enter a dwelling unless they’re invited. Gabi’s in denial about the pregnancy, but it’s pretty obvious (Xena says she’s four months along already) and Xena can’t help wondering if the child of Dahok will be evil incarnate. Xena puts Gabi in the stable and goes to see the knights, who are debating whether Gabi’s child will be evil or not. When Gabi starts screaming, Xena goes to the stable and bars the door. The bad omens start piling up, as the sun is eclipsed, a storm gathers outside, and the animals in the stable start freaking out. Xena delivers Gabi’s baby (which looks like a perfectly normal human girl) and the storm breaks, the sun comes out, and the animals calm down. The knights bust in to kill the baby and Gabi begs Xena not to let them kill her child.

Two of the knights (Goewin and Eochaid) decide they aren’t in a baby killing mood and join Xena to oppose the other knights. While they fight, Xena gets Gabi and the baby to another room and they barricade themselves inside, joined by the two knights. Gabi names the baby Hope, but Xena’s a bit skeptical since Gabi has recovered from her pregnancy so fast and Hope is growing way faster than a normal baby. Gabi tells Xena Hope is her daughter as well as Dahok’s and warns Xena not to try to come between them. Eochaid sneaks out through a secret door and Xena follows, leaving Goewin playing with the baby while Gabi sleeps. Eochaid invites the Banshees into the castle in exchange for ruling Britannia when Dahok takes over the world. Xena pounds him and heads back to the chamber, where she finds Goewin strangled to death with his own neck chain and Hope crawling around looking innocent as can be.

Xena’s ready to waste Hope, but Gabi wakes up. Xena won’t listen to Gabi’s pleas and is convinced that Hope is a manifestation of Dahok’s evil; she even starts referring to Hope as “it” instead of “she”. Gabi won’t let Xena hurt Hope and when the Banshees bust in, she orders them to stop Xena. Xena has figured out their intangibility pattern and kicks their asses, but the fight gives Gabi time to take off on a horse with Hope. Xena follows her all night, finding she traded the horse to some guy in exchange for his rowboat. Xena buys the horse from the guy and keeps following, finally catching up to Gabi near a rocky crag. She chases Gabi up the hill, trying to convince her Hope needs to die. She hears Gabi scream and finds her on top of the hill, looking over a cliff. Gabi says Hope went crazy and attacked her and she tossed her off the cliff. Xena notices a nearby cave and hears a noise inside, so she goes to check it out. Gabi’s mad that Xena doesn’t believe her and Xena is forced to apologize when the noise turns out to be a rat. Gabi’s indignance turns out to rather ironic, since we see Hope floating down the river in a reed basket; yeah, Gabi lied about killing her. That night, Gabi wakes up and goes into the woods, praying that Hope turns out to be good. So I guess Gabi has her doubts too, but not enough to kill her own child.

This is a pretty good episode (it’s #69 on my all-time list), although I hate to see Xena and Gabi at odds like this (and it only gets worse from here). This is definitely a Gabi episode, with her trying to deal with the guilt of killing someone and then wanting to use Hope as a way to get past that guilt and start fresh. In the beginning, it seems like Gabi almost has PTSD over killing Meridien (kinda like Perdicus in Return of Callisto), but maybe some of that is Dahok’s influence growing inside her. Xena tells her that the torture her conscience is putting her through is more punishment than any authority could prescribe for her. Gabi says she wanted to break the cycle of hate and violence and be a peacemaker and a healer, but now that she’s killed, she can’t see herself that way anymore. Xena still sees Gabi as inherently good and maybe that belief in Gabi is a bit shortsighted; arguably, Xena insisting on Gabi being all innocence and light is holding her back from growing and might even make her more vulnerable to Dahok’s influence. Xena’s suspicious of that influence from the start, but she actually does support Gabi right up until Hope kills Goewin.

The Rift between Xena and Gabi really starts to open up here, with Gabi lying to Xena about killing Hope … a lie that will have dire consequences for both of them. But Xena’s single-mindedness about killing Hope isn’t exactly the most sensitive way to deal with the problem; she doesn’t seem to understand (or care) about Gabi’s maternal feelings, which are perfectly natural (and just go to illustrate Xena’s statement about Gabi’s inherent goodness). They both show bad judgment here, with Xena ignoring Gabi’s feelings and Gabi ignoring the obvious evidence that Hope is not the innocent baby she appears to be. Of course, that last scene suggests that Gabi isn’t quite sure about Hope either … she wants her to be good, but there’s definitely some doubt in her mind. The knights seem to be audience proxies, giving all the various arguments about Hope: she’s inherently evil; she may be evil or good, but only time will tell; and she’s born innocent, so she’s neither good nor evil until she grows up. The chase scenes are interesting, as we see Gabi using knowledge she gained from Xena to evade her; even Xena is impressed by her ingenuity.

Noticeable Things:

• The Knights of the Pierced Heart seem to be precursors to the Round Table; they sit around a huge table and the chamber Xena and Gabi hide in contains a sword in a stone (which Xena casually pulls out and replaces, pissing the two knights off when they can’t duplicate her feat).
• Gabi’s food cravings at the tavern (an early hint to her pregnancy) include such tasty morsels as chicken broth, cherries, beef jerky, pork livers (bloody, with some cheese melted on top), goat’s cream, and chicken gizzards fried in sheep’s lard.
• When the animals in the stable are freaking out during Hope’s impending birth, there’s one goat that’s eerily calm. That’s probably symbolic, since goats have often been associated with Satan and demons in general, including Baphomet who supposedly had the head of a goat.
• Gabi gives Hope the toy sheep Xena gave her for Solstice; we’ll be seeing that sheep again in a future episode.

Favourite Quotes:

• “Oh, we don’t have to run for it; I’m gonna slap these bitches silly.” Xena assuring Gabi she can handle the Banshees.
• “It’s not a baby, it’s a thing in the form of a baby. A dark, wicked thing that must be destroyed.” Xena telling Gabi how she really feels about her baby, with something less than her usual sensitivity.