Daughter of Pomira – Director: Patrick Norris/Writer: Linda McGibney
This one starts with Xena having a rather unpleasant flashback to when her army fought the Horde a decade ago (although she seems to be wearing her more modern armour in the flashback). She and Gabi are near Horde territory, which is what prompted the bitter memories. They see some Horde youngsters out hunting and notice that one of them is
a blonde girl, who Xena finds familiar. Before she can ponder it too closely, the Horde are attacked by a wild man (named Milo), but Xena stops him from killing them. Gabi finds a sling with a Roman design that one of the Horde dropped and Xena recognizes it, saying the blonde girl got it from her.
After getting rid of Milo (who’s so consumed with hatred for the Horde all he can think of is killing all of them), Xena and Gabi go to a nearby 
settlement where two old colleagues of Xena’s live (Rahl and Adiah). Xena shows them the sling and they mention how their daughter Vanessa was taken by the Horde six years ago. Xena tells them about the blonde girl they saw and they realize it must be Vanessa. Gabi promises they’ll bring her home, although Xena’s a bit more reluctant. They track some Horde to the entrance of their lair, which is in a network of tunnels and caves. Xena sneaks in to find Vanessa, but when she grabs her, Vanessa starts screaming.
Xena silences Vanessa with a variation of the Pinch and drags her into the tunnels. The Horde chase her, but Xena collapses the tunnels and finds
another way out. She leaves Vanessa with Gabi as she lays a false trail for the Horde. The Horde leader (Cirvik) is overcome with grief at her loss and Xena realizes he’s her adoptive father … and that he loves her. Gabi finds out that Vanessa can speak their language (which I assume is Greek) and tells her they’re taking her home. Vanessa says her name is P’lee and her home is with the Pomira (which is what the Horde call themselves). She also mentions that from the Pomira’s perspective, the Greeks are the bad guys, always ruining the land and wasting resources, then killing the Pomira 
when they object. Xena and Gabi still aren’t in agreement about taking Vanessa home, but they do anyway. They run into Milo on the way and he’s still an asshole (which gets him a kick in the face from Vanessa). They bring Vanessa back to the fortified village, but she doesn’t remember her parents (giving Rahl a pretty good scratch across the face) and freaks out, saying Cirvik and his people will come and kill them all.
That scares everyone and they’re ready to kill Vanessa (egged on by Milo), but Xena and Adiah won’t let them. Xena tells the mob she has a plan to annihilate the Horde, but is just buying time. Rahl seems to think his daughter is gone, but Gabi and Adiah kinda get through to Vanessa (or P’lee,
as she now prefers to be called); she wears one of her old dresses and remembers her favourite doll. Rahl screws it up when he talks shit about the Horde and when Adiah reminds him they took care of Vanessa for six years, he can’t forgive the Horde for stealing those years from them. Xena lets Gabi know her plan, which entails using Vanessa as a go-between to broker peace, since she speaks both languages. Gabi is questioning whether she did the right thing, pushing to bring Vanessa back to her parents. That night, Vanessa sneaks out (taking her doll with her), but gets caught by Milo near the wall.
Before Milo can hurt Vanessa, Xena stops him. She tells Vanessa her plan to make peace and Vanessa feels torn between her two families. The next day, the horde assemble outside the walls and Vanessa brings Rahl and Adiah out 
to meet Cirvik. Milo attacks, but Xena jumps in and ends up killing him. Vanessa tells her parents she’s going back with the Horde, but asks her mother to keep the doll, saying she’ll see it (and them) again soon. Vanessa tells Rahl and Cirvik that they’re both her fathers and Cirvik tells his people not to bother the village, since they’re family. Afterwards, Gabi is feeling a bit guilty for stirring up so much shit, but Xena points out that because of her, Vanessa now has two families, Rahl and Adiah know their daughter is alive, and there’s peace between the Greeks and the Horde for the first time ever.
This isn’t too bad of an episode, although the focus ends up more on
Vanessa than on Xena and Gabi, which is why it’s only #106 on my all-time list. Xena is still bothered by the Horde, but thanks to Gabi’s diplomacy last time they met, she’s not automatically hostile toward them, even saving them from Milo. Milo’s hatred of the Horde blinds him to anything other than revenge and, as Xena points out, Milo is basically what she would’ve become if not for Gabi. When she kills 
Milo at the end, she looks regretful, probably thinking of what a waste it was, and knowing how close she came to losing her humanity like that. So by killing Milo, Xena is symbolically breaking with her past, moving further from the monster she might’ve been. It’s interesting that Rahl also has trouble getting rid of his hatred of the Horde, but at the end it seems like he’s at least willing to try, which is more than Milo ever did.
If there’s anything that really bothers me about this episode, it’s how Xena and Gabi both flip-flop in their stances. At first, Gabi wants to bring Vanessa home and Xena is reluctant, but later Xena is sure they’re doing the right thing and Gabi is having doubts. Gabi still has a tendency to see things
in black-and-white and she certainly values family, but I can’t help wondering if she’s feeling some residual guilt about Hope. Maybe bringing Vanessa back to her family is her way of “getting things right”, since she couldn’t do that with her own daughter. Or maybe it’s Solan she’s feeling guilty about, since she was pretty adamant about Xena telling him she was his mother. It’s kinda cool at the end how Gab doesn’t realize how well everything worked out because of her and Xena has to tell her (which makes sense, since Xena promised to give Gabi more credit for her accomplishments back in Fins, Femmes, and Gems).
Noticeable Things:
- Rahl and Adiah are said to be ex-soldiers in Xena’s army (Adiah being a healer), but Xena obviously hasn’t seen them for at least six years, since that’s how long Vanessa’s been gone. It’s a bit of a stretch she’d recognize Vanessa after all that time, but I guess Xena does have a pretty good memory.
- This episode has a certain resemblance to the movie The Searchers, which also has to do with a girl who’s kidnapped and returned years later.
- Vanessa says the Horde honour the spirits of the land, the trees, the waters, and the animals. That reminds me of Gabi honouring the fish she caught in The Price; since Gabi is obviously a very spiritual person, it would’ve been interesting to see that used to establish a connection with the Horde.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I did all that? And they call you the hero.” Gabi realizing her meddling had a slew of good results for once.