2-14 A Necessary Evil

First air date Feb. 10, 1997
The episode starts out with the new Amazon Queen mask being presented to
Gabrielle. She in turn offers it to Ephiny to rule while she (Gabrielle) is
traveling with Xena. Suddenly a badly wounded Velasca shows up saying the
mask was supposed to be hers. Xena says she's wounded and needs help.
Velasca opens a small leather pouch and takes out a piece of Ambrosia, eats
it and turns into a god. She throws lighting bolts at everyone, trying to
get Gabrielle. Everyone runs away.

Xena tells Ephiny she needs as many Amazons she can get to slow Velasca down
while she and Gabrielle get away.

Xena tells Gabrielle they need an immortal to kill an immortal and she knows
where to get one.

Cut to Callisto trapped in a cave with no way to get out. She is immortal
from eating an apple from the Tree of Life (Hercules episode "Surprise") and
she was imprisoned for eternity by Hercules.

Gabrielle can't believe Xena wants to free Callisto, and suggests they get
Hercules. Xena says there isn't time to find him.

I really like this episode. It's my favorite of the Destiny, Quest, NE
trilogy, mostly because of the interactions between Callisto and
Gabrielle. LOL! This was Callisto at her finest when it comes to
toying with someone.

There are some things to nitpick though:

- I didn't like Velasca as much in this ep as I did in Quest. She
seemed more like a charicature (sp?) than a character. As David
mentioned, why wouldn't she eat the ambrosia before getting to the
village? That didn't make sense. And the tornado thing.... bleh!

David E. Milligan wrote:

That got a big grin out of me too. :)

That scene actually bugs me. But I think it's a play on Mel Gibson's
Lethal Weapon guy.

"David E. Milligan" bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:uvdoh.20170$n57.11135@bignews3.bellsouth.net:

[chakramed]

. . .

That doesn't bother me as much as Xena's reaction, or rather lack of.
Velasca removes the ambrosia from her pouch, displays it, prattles on about
it. Xena could have saved them all a lot of trouble if she'd just chakramed
Velasca's hand off to stop her from eating it.

Remember in The Quest, when Gabby and Auto show up in the place where the
ambrosia was, Velasca says that she is glad they are there to witness the
creation of a god? I can only assume that she wanted everyone to witness her
transformation. However, I'm surprised that she was in good enough physical
shape to even make it back to the village. She had fallen quite a distance
from the top of the rope, landed on a very hard surface, with spikes or
something sticking up. You'd think she would have been too badly injured to
be able to walk back.

We saw the amount that had fallen in The Quest (although Xena didn't) and
how much Velsaca ate in this ep. Doesn't seem like there was much, if
anything, left over for Callisto. Maybe Xena just made...

Ahroo wrote:

Nice call. That's certainly logical based on what we know from the
show. Velasca's still kind of stupid for doing it but at least it
makes sense in regards to her character.

THE QUEST (37/213) [new show]
A NECESSARY EVIL (38/214) [new show]
FOR HIM THE BELL TOLLS (40/216) [new show]

Wow. I hate to be happy about something bad happening to a person but
these are all episodes that I like.