2-13 The Quest

(Or Destiny, Part 2)

First air date Feb 3, 1997

The episode starts out with Gabrielle waking up from a nightmare. Next to
her is a very fancy sarcophagus with Xena's body in it. She says she has the
same nightmare every night and every morning wishes it was a dream.

Four or five thugs show up and want Xena's body for possible bounty.
Gabrielle fights them off with her staff. The leader gets up and Iolaus
shows up and beats him up. He realizes Xena is dead.

Gabrielle says she want to hate Xena for leaving her. Iolaus asks what
Gabrielle would want to say to her. She says her life was empty before Xena
came along, she's learned lessons, and she loves Xena. Iolaus tells her she
just did. He leaves to give the bad news to Hercules.

Gabrielle has Argo pulling the sarcophagus. They are in a forest and Amazons
drop from the trees. One of them is Ephiny. She tells Gabrielle that Queen
Melosa was killed in a challenge from Velasca. Velasca steps up and says she
is now the queen.

They go back to the Amazon village.

We are now in a temple and a hooded man pulls over a stand where the dagger
of Helios is on display. He hides in a cabinet where the dagger is locked
up. It is Autolycus, and he steals the dagger. We hear Xena's war cry and
suddenly he has to steal a map. Xena has taken over his body. Later when he
looks into a barrel of water he sees Xena. She wants him to steal her body
before it can be burned on a funeral pyre.

Ephiny tells Gabrielle that Velasca wants to make war on the centaurs to
take back some land. Gabrielle says Velasca shouldn't be queen.

Velasca tells Gabrielle that she (Gabrielle) has neither the training nor
birthright to lead the Amazons. Gabrielle says she will think about it.

Xena tells Autolycus that she needs him to use the map and the dagger of
Helios to get to the ambrosia so she can return to her body.

Gabrielle is with Xena's sarcophagus and tells her she has to move on with a
life without her. She will take Xena's ashes back to Amphipolis and then
return to rule the Amazons.

Gabrielle accept the new mask as queen and Velasca says she has no right to
be queen, and stomps off mad.

Autolycus is with the sarcophagus and Gabrielle finds him. He says Xena is
inside him but Gabrielle thinks he wants her body for bounty and has him
thrown in the Amazon 'jail.' The funeral pyre is lit, and Xena takes over
Autolycus' body. He/she throws the Chakram then whistles for Argo.
Autolycus/Xena uses the bull whip to wrap around the handle and drags it off
the pyre and away. Gabrielle realizes it IS Xena and hops on for a ride.

Velasca says Gabrielle is a traitor and must be killed. Ephiny and a few of
Gabrielle's supporters are put in the 'jail.'

When they are alone, Xena takes over Autolycus' body again. She tells
Gabrielle to close her eyes and when she opens them in some kind of
dreamscape and Xena is in front of her. She tells Gabrielle she must get
the ambrosia. She leans down to kiss Gabrielle, then it is Autolycus kissing
Gabrielle.

Gabrielle and Autolycus put the sarcophagus in the river to float downstream
and they'll get it later.

Gabrielle and Autolycus go into the cave entrance of the hall of ambrosia
where the ambrosia is hidden. But Velasca and some Amazons capture them
before they can get it. Velasca tortures Autolycus, then sees the dagger of
Helios in his boot and realizes it is the key. She goes back to the cave.
Autolycus is thrown into the jail with a broken arm. But he manages to pick
the lock and they escape. Gabrielle tells Velasca to go after Xena's
sarcophagus and she and Autolycus go after Velasca.

Velasca uses the dagger to open a hidden compartment in the ceiling and the
ambrosia falls into a fire. Xena takes over Gabrielle's body and they fight
on ropes hanging from the ceiling. Velasca falls to the floor onto spikes.

A piece of ambrosia has fallen into Gabrielle's top. She takes it out and
puts it into Xena's mouth and she is brought back to life.

We see another piece of ambrosia fall and Velasca's hand creeping toward it.

Just before he leaves, Autolycus and Xena talk. She says she knows inside he
is really a nice person.

Gabrielle tells Xena that when Xena was inside her, she felt that Xena was
warm and friendly and loving.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Another great episode. Lots of good stuff in this one - Gabrielle really
kicking ass defending Xena's body.

Autolycus was a real hoot, as usual. Always glad to see him around.

Liked Gabrielle's Amazon queen outfit. Much better looking than her green
top outfit.

Normally, I don't tike Iolaus, but he wasn't so bad here, of course he took
off pretty quickly.

A couple of nice scenes with Gabrielle talking to Xena.

And the almost kiss between Xena and Gabrielle, and the real kiss between
Autolycus and Gabrielle (how lucky can you GET?!?!), and he gets to feel
Gabrielle's butt (how lucky can you GET?!?!).

And another evil female foe - Velasca. Wonder how she and Callisto would
react to each other. Join together or fight as rivals?

.......

And as usual, things to pick at -

Where did Gabrielle get the sarcophagus? Particularly with one with Xena's
breastplate carved into it.

Even though I was glad to see Iolaus go, wouldn't he volunteer to go along
with Gabrielle, at least part of the way?

I'm surprised that Gabrielle and Ephiny didn't have more supporters.

Can't quite understand the whole ambrosia bit: It was hidden in a place that
would assure that it would fall into the fire. Wouldn't ambrosia be kind of
un-destroyable since it is god food? Unless the fire was god fire.

Xena/Gabrielle threw the Chakram the first time to cut the rope Velasca was
climbing, then it where did it go? And if X/G caught it, why not throw it
again and again to keep Velasca from getting to the top?

........

And despite those few things, I still liked this one - an 8 out of 10.

.......

A final note - someone asked Renee about the kiss between Gabrielle and
Xena, and if it was really real. She said, "Well, we didn't actually smooch,
but we had the shot and we came in very close together. We were definitely
there. We were in front of a blue screen. They wanted to make it
heaven-like. That's why there probably wasn't any shadow [on Gabrielle's
face from Xena]. But we were definitely there together."