King Con – Director: Janet Greek/Writer: Chris Manheim
Joxer wins some money at a casino and the owner (Titus) sends goons after him to get it back. But two con men (Rafe and Eldon) run into Joxer outside and con him out of the money (and Eldon steals his sword). Xena and Gabi (who has hurt her ankle again) are coming to meet Joxer, but find the goons pounding him. The goons take off but Joxer is almost dead from the beating and Xena vows to make whoever is behind it pay.
In a tavern, Xena notices Rafe and Eldon have Joxer’s sword and learns
about how they conned him. Eldon says Titus is probably the one who had Joxer pounded, since he hates to lose money. (Although I’m not sure why a casino owner would get that worked up over 100 dinars.) Xena forces them to help get back at Titus and Rafe bets Eldon that he can get Xena to kiss him. Titus finds out his son (Leo) didn’t recover the money and left Joxer alive, so he sends him to look for Joxer. Xena brings Rafe and Eldon to the healing temple where they’re hiding 
Joxer and tells them she’s going to take Titus for everything he has, offering half of it if they help. Rafe seems to feel guilty about Joxer’s injuries, but that could just be a way of getting closer to Xena so he can win the bet. Xena and Rafe practice dicing and Xena tells him she knows about the bet. Xena gets on a hot streak at the dice table, which pisses Titus off. While he’s distracted, Gabi sneaks into his office, but she makes too much noise and Titus’s guards catch her.
Xena pounds the guards and tells Titus she’s going to take him for everything he owns, including a ruby necklace he’s very fond of. Later, Gabi
mentions to Xena how hot Rafe is and says bad boys like him are just her type. Meanwhile, Joxer feels guilty about letting them fight his battles for him and wants to leave the temple, but Gabi won’t let him. Titus tells Leo to find Joxer, but first gets him to take the ruby necklace to a safer place. Eldon and Gabi are watching the casino and Eldon tells Gabi about the bet, and that Rafe just doubled it. Xena and her crew con Leo out of the necklace, but when they get back to the temple, Joxer’s gone.
Eldon’s ready to bail out, but Rafe insists they keep helping. Rafe tries to 
call off the bet and Eldon figures he’s fallen for Xena, which makes Rafe reinstate the bet just to prove him wrong. While looking for Joxer, Gabi tells Xena about the bet, but Xena reveals she already knew about it. They find Leo and his men with Joxer and pound them, taking Leo so they can use him to force Titus into a winner-take-all card game. Xena and Rafe practice cheating with cards and almost end up making out. Eldon goes to Titus to tell him about the rigged card game.
When Xena challenges Titus to the card game in exchange for Leo, Titus calls her bluff, knowing she won’t kill him. Eldon reveals his betrayal and
stabs Rafe when he attacks him. Right before Rafe dies, he kisses Xena and she doesn’t seem too bothered by it. Now that Rafe is dead (and Titus pulls an ace out of Xena’s hair), Titus figures he can win the game, so he forces Xena to go through with it. But Xena ends up winning (with four aces) and Titus freaks. Rafe turns out to be alive and 
Eldon turns out to still be on their side, so the four of them pound Titus and his guards. Later, they explain the whole con to Joxer and Eldon tries to pay off the bet. But Rafe says he technically didn’t win, since he kissed Xena not the other way around. Eldon figures Rafe is conning him again and refuses to take the money back. Rafe says goodbye to Xena and after he leaves, she sees that he left the money on the altar of the healing temple.
This is one of my least favourite episodes (#133 on my all-time list), mostly because Xena and Gabi both act so out of character here. Xena’s attraction
to Rafe makes no sense (whether he’s her type or not) and Gabi encouraging her to pursue something with him makes even less sense. If this was Season 1 maybe I could see it, but halfway through Season 3? Xena and Gabi are definitely in love with each other at this point, so their behaviour is completely ridiculous. Even if Xena wasn’t in love with Gabi, I can’t see her going for a guy like Rafe, who’s basically a less sincere version of Autolycus; if Xena didn’t fall for him, why 
would she go for Rafe? A lot of fans compare this episode to Ulysses (another illogical Xena romance), but for me this episode is way worse because I can at least come up with an explanation for Xena’s attraction to Ulysses (Poseidon cast a spell on her). I can’t really think of any reason for Xena’s behaviour here, unless she was stringing Rafe along to see how far he’d go to win the bet … but that doesn’t fit because in the scene where they almost kiss, it looks like Xena initiates it. And there’s no explanation at all for Gabi to be encouraging Xena to go after Rafe, especially considering how jealous she was of Xena and Ulysses.
This episode was apparently based on The Sting, which is a really good movie, but it just doesn’t work here. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to feel sorry for Rafe in the end because everyone assumes the worst of him even
when he’s being sincere. But he’s lived his whole life lying and conning people, so what did he expect? The only slight redeeming feature I can find in this episode is seeing Gabi hopping around on one foot during the fight scenes. This episode was filmed right after One Against an Army, where Renee hurt her ankle for real when a stuntman landed on it. The episodes were shown out of order, so they had to add some dialogue about Gabi injuring her ankle again, but Renee really was hurt and she still managed to do the fight scenes really well.
Noticeable Things:
- Some fans thought Joxer’s beating was a bit too savage, but Chris
Manheim said it had to be over the top so Xena would be sufficiently motivated to go after Titus. - Xena tells Rafe she used to gamble (and mentions it as one of her many skills). I’m not sure if she was cheating when she threw the dice, or if she really was using some kind of skill. In The Furies, Xena expressed discomfort at wagering with Gabi, so I wonder if she maybe went overboard with gambling in the past and that’s why she’s reluctant to do it now. That might’ve been something to explore, but I don’t think it’s ever mentioned again.
- There’s a scene in the teaser where Gabi tells Xena she knows what she’s thinking … and her guesses are apparently quite accurate. I think that’s more evidence of just how close they’ve gotten.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Not true … I don’t like you at all.” Xena’s letting Rafe know exactly how she feels about him.
- “What’re you gonna do, bleed on them?” Gabi telling Joxer he’s not quite ready to confront the guys who pounded him.