A Family Affair – Director: Doug Lefler/Story: Liz Friedman, Chris Manhein/Teleplay: Chris Manheim
This one starts with a shepherd looking for his lost dog in the woods. He finds it, but he and the dog are both killed by … something. In Dahok’s Temple, Joxer is leaving flowers by the lava pit where Gabi died, but he gets a shock when Xena climbs out of the pit and tells him Gabi is still alive. Xena decides to check in Poteidaia to see if Gabi’s family has heard from her. When they get there, Joxer gets distracted by a puppet show, while Xena runs into Gabi in the marketplace.
Xena and Joxer are both happy to see Gabi alive, although Xena and Gabi’s
reunion is curiously subdued for people who love each other so much. Xena says there’s an aura of danger around Gabi, who tells her there’s been trouble in Poteidaia lately. They soon learn of the dead shepherd and Gabi says this is the first time a person has been killed; usually it’s just animals. Gabi brings them home and Xena’s not exactly welcomed with open arms by her family (although they do seem to like Joxer, especially Lila). Later in the barn, Xena and Gabi wait for the monster (using a dead animal as bait), but when it attacks, it’s stronger than anticipated. 
Gabi just stands there watching as the monster grabs Xena, but she gets free and it chases them to the house. The monster tries to get in, which gives us a horror movie vibe reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead and Evil Dead (appropriately), but the monster is driven off when the sun rises. Xena tells Joxer that the monster is the Destroyer (Dahok’s grandkid) and that the person they’ve been hanging out with all day isn’t Gabi … it’s Hope.
Xena explains things to Joxer and tells him they have to play along to keep
Gabi’s family safe. She pretends she wounded the Destroyer, wanting Hope to go check on it so she can follow her. She sends Joxer out to count sheep to keep him out of the way. Hope decides to have some fun by killing Lila, but Xena catches up to them. Hope pretends to be in trouble, luring Lila out onto a crumbling bridge before taking off. Xena saves Lila and goes to find Hope, who’s 
checking the Destroyer for wounds. She doesn’t find any and realizes Xena was lying, which means she knows who Hope really is. The Destroyer tries to hug Hope and ends up cutting her leg. Xena sees Hope walking in the woods and so does Joxer (who fell asleep counting the sheep, naturally). They each chase after Hope, but it turns out they’re following two different people: Joxer is chasing Hope (who knocks him out easily), while Xena comes face to face with … Gabrielle.
Xena and Gabi have a (genuine) tearful reunion and Gabi learns Hope is still alive. Gabi’s worried about her family, but Xena has a plan to kill Hope and the Destroyer. Hope is one step ahead of them, pretending Xena beat the shit
out of her, and since Gabi’s family still believe Hope is Gabi, they’re pretty pissed off at Xena. She’s ready to force the issue until Hope surreptitiously threatens Gabi’s family (using her telekinesis to point swords at their backs) and mentions Joxer being in trouble. Xena goes to save Joxer, who’s trussed up outside the Destroyer’s lair. Gabi is hiding in the barn, but when she sees her mom crying she sneaks into the house to tell Lila what’s going on. Hope figures it out and confronts Gabi. Xena finds Joxer and frees him, then leads the Destroyer back to Gabi’s place.
Hope and Gabi talk and Gabi takes off the first chance she gets. The Destroyer corners Xena in the 
barn and starts pounding her, but Gabi shows up and pretends to be Hope. Despite her revulsion, she hugs him and that distracts him long enough for Xena to jam her sword in his back. When the real Hope comes in, the Destroyer (mad with pain) assumes she betrayed him and stabs her to the heart. He realizes his mistake, but it’s too late; Hope and the Destroyer die in each other’s arms. Later, Xena and Gabi talk and renew their commitment to each other.
This is a great episode (it’s #6 on my all-time list and could even sneak into the top five), showing how much Xena and Gabi care for each other and how
they can overcome anything as long as they stick together. Renee does a great job here playing Gabi and Hope, and manages to differentiate between them with her voice and facial expressions. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to believe Hope is Gabi in the early scenes, but if you watch closely there’s definitely something weird about “Gabi” (especially when she just stands there watching the Destroyer 
pound Xena … the real Gabi would never do that). And even without Hope’s wounds in the later scenes, we’d still be able to tell who was who. I think Xena knows (or at least suspects) pretty much right from the start, which is why her first reunion with “Gabrielle” is so underwhelming; she said she sensed an aura on danger around Gabi and I think that was her instincts warning her that this wasn’t the real Gabi. Contrast that to Xena’s reunion in the woods with the genuine article, which has so much emotion on both sides.
And for me, that’s the best part of this episode: seeing Xena and Gabi back together after Xena thought she’d lost her. You can see the love between them and their conversation at the end just reinforces that. I think it’s kinda
like their “Defining the Relationship” talk; they’re both having trouble deciding what path to take in life, but they realize it doesn’t matter as long as they walk it together. The whole theme of finding their Way will continue throughout the season, as will Xena’s worry that she’s bad for Gabi (which is reinforced by the vision of their deaths Alti showed her … something Xena won’t reveal to Gabi for quite a while). Gabi’s father accuses Xena of corrupting Gabi and changing her for the worse. Xena has definitely changed Gabi, but I’d say it’s for the 
better … and that change goes both ways; Xena tells Gabi she is her Way and that pretty much sums up the mutual influence they’ve had on each other. There’s a recurring motif in this episode of circles: Gabi says she feels like she’s in a rut, experiencing the same stuff over and over with a slightly new patina on it; we see repeated shots of the windmill at Gabi’s place; and there are pinwheels at the marketplace and in the window of Gabi and Lila’s bedroom.
Another theme is the love of family and not just between Gabi and her
family. The Destroyer wants Hope’s love (he keeps trying to hug her) and Hope still wants Gabi’s love. Maybe that’s part of why she came to see Gabi’s family, to try to understand that kind of love. The ironic thing is, Gabi really does love Hope on some level (and tells her that), but knows she has to be stopped to protect the world from Dahok’s influence. When Hope and the Destroyer are dying, Gabi steps forward like she wants to go to them, probably feeling guilty. Xena holds her back, but that guilt will haunt Gabi for at least the 
next couple of years. Some fans wonder how Gabi and Hope survived falling into the lava pit. Hope tells Gabi Dahok saved her (which makes sense) and Gabi says she remembers falling, then waking up injured in a hospice and sending word to Xena (who apparently didn’t bother to stop in Poteidaia or Amphipolis during her trips to and from the Northern Amazons). I figure Gabi landed in a niche like she said, probably breaking her leg or hip, and had to crawl out through a fissure. It probably took her hours (or days), with a long recovery period after she was found and taken to the hospice. We’ll get a different explanation in the final season for Gabi’s survival, but it’s so stupid I don’t even want to think about it.
Noticeable Things:
- When Xena tells Hope she had a vision of Gabi being alive, Hope seems kinda surprised; maybe she really believed Gabi was dead?
- Gabi’s family have a millstone in their barn (run by windmill power), which seems rather extravagant for simple farmers. Maybe Herodotus is the miller for Poteidaia, or maybe they’re well-off. The Destroyer throws the millstone at Xena, but at the end of the episode it’s fixed (most likely by Xena).
- If you’re wondering about Ares’ deal with the Fates about Xena dying if she kills Hope, Xena says that deal was nullified after Hope was thought to be dead (and says it wouldn’t stop her killing Hope anyway).
- If you look closely at the double chase in the woods (which is an homage to a similar scene in Silence of the Lambs), there’s one shot where Hope doesn’t have the cut on her leg, a hint that it’s the real Gabi.
- When Xena frees Joxer outside the Destroyer’s lair, she does a Fonzie move, hitting the wall to make her chakram fall into her hand.
Favourite Quotes:
- “You know, any sister of Gabrielle’s is a part of her family.” Joxer being all smooth with Lila (which apparently works, as we’ll see she has a thing for him later in the season).
- “I’m searching for answers, too. But how we look for them doesn’t matter…as long as we look for them together…you and me.” Xena affirming her commitment to Gabi in a few words. Judging by how Gabi sits down and hugs her, I think she’s on board.