4-11 Daughter of Pomira

First air date Jan 18, 1999.
The story starts out with Xena having flashbacks of a brutal battle between her army and
a band of barbarians, who turn out to be the Horde. When one of Xena's men calls for a retreat, she
stabs him in the gut with a knife, then realizing the battle is going against them, she calls for
the retreat.
Back to the present and she is telling Gabrielle about the fight. She intends to take a
different route to go around the battlefield. Suddenly they duck down because they see three Horde
men a young Horde girl. Two Horde hatchets fly past them and kill one of the Horde. A man tries to
take the scalp from another Horde when Xena interferes. The three remaining Horde escape in a
dugout canoe. Xena says the girl looks familiar. Gabrielle finds a leather sling with a Roman
design. Xena says they got it from her.

Xena says they will go the parents to see if she could be their daughter. Milo wants to
kill them all and collect the scalps for the bounty.

Xena and Gabrielle go the fortified village where Raul and his wife live. They tell Xena
the Horde kidnapped their daughter, Vanessa, six years ago. Gabrielle says she and Xena will find
her and bring her back.

Milo wants to go with Xena and Gabrielle to hunt down the horde, but Xena tells him to
get lost.

Xena tells Gabrielle that getting Vanessa back could start trouble, but Gabrielle says
she deserves to be with parents who love her.

It is night and they are following a band of Horde. Gabrielle steps on a twig, snapping it. The
Horde backtrack but they are hiding in a tree. They follow them to a hidden entrance to a cave.

Xena disguises herself as a female Horde. When Vanessa goes for water at a spring, Xena follows.
But when she says she is there to rescue her, Vanessa starts to scream. Xena puts a variation of
the Pinch on her neck to keep her from screaming, then drags her away as the Horde chase after.

They crawl down a small tunnel. One of the Horde throws a hatchet and Xena catches it,
then throws her Chakram to make it cause a cave in to stop the persuers. She then uses the hatchet
to break through up to the surface. She has Gabrielle take Vanessa to the river while she lays a
false trail with the sling Vanessa had.

While waiting for Xena, Gabrielle tries to talk to Vanessa. When she finally gets her
voice back, she tells Gabrielle he name is Pilee (or Pelee, or P'lee). She says the Horde call
themselves Pomira and they honor life. Xena says they have a funny way of showing it -- they killed
hundreds. Pilee says the other people are killers, of trees and earth. But when the Pomira tell
them to go away, they kill the Pomira.

Xena is having second thoughts about taking Vanessa, but Gabrielle is adamant about
taking her to her parents.

When they get back to the village, Pilee tells everyone one her 'father' Cirvik will come
to get her and kill everyone.

Xena talks to the townspeople and tells them killing Vanessa won't stop the Horde, that
they must prepare to fight them to total annihilation.

Later, Vanessa is wearing a blue dress but when Raul tries to bond with her, she
scratches his face, and he decides she is a savage.

Xena tells Gabrielle that Vanessa is the only way to forge peace between the town and the
Horde since she is the only one who can speak both languages. Gabrielle is confused about how
things are working out. Xena tells her Pilee wasn't a slave but the Horde chieftain loves her.

At night Vanessa is sneaking away, She has a sword and starts to kill her parents, but
instead takes a doll and leaves. Milo almost kills her but Xena stops him. She tells Vanessa if she
doesn't help many will die on both sides.

The next day the Horde tribe are outside the village calling for Pilee. Xena tells
someone to open the gates. Then Vanessa, her parents and others walk outside to meet the Horde.
Suddenly Milo jumps up from a hidden foxhole and starts to kill Cirvik. Xena flips off the top of
the wall to land between them. She and Milo fight. He gives her a pretty good run for her money.
But in the end Xena stabs him in the gut.

Pilee tells everyone she has two fathers, and decides to go with Cirvik but says she will
come back to visit. Cirvik yells to his men that there will be no war since they are all family
now.

Gabrielle is convinced it was wrong to interfere, but Xena tells her that now Vanessa's
parents know she is alive, and there is now peace with the villagers and the Pomira.

...........

Didn't remember too much about this episode. I can see why. I didn't think too much of
it. It had a couple of good things, like the fight right at the beginning, and Xena's silencing
Vanessa with a modified Pinch to the neck. And the Chakram's 90 degree turn upward to cause the
cave in.

Once more it looked like Gabrielle was going to screw things up because she didn't use
"good judgment" (Hope, Solan's death, the Green Dragon), but in the end she was vindicated (this
time).

But she sure was certain Xena was going to go along with her non-plan to get Vanessa back
(but what was Xena going to do - tell them no?).

It felt kind of like Gabrielle was giving Xena low blows when she kept bringing up the fact that
children need to be with their REAL parents.

I was surprised Pilee put on the dress, washed her face, and combed her hair with no
protest/tantrum.

What I didn't care for or didn't think made sense -

How did Xena recognize Vanessa after six years with her face painted red and the wild
hair? And, surely, the sling wasn't a one-of-a-kind.

How did Xena know there were no other blond Horde girls?

But I think the worst was the fight with Milo. Even though he had two hatchets, a sword
and a knife he never should have given Xena the trouble he did. And the worst of the worst - when
they both jumped up to kick each other, they drove each other back ten or fifteen feet through the
air - how lame was THAT?! I would have expected something like that between Xena and Callisto, or
Xena and Ares, but with Milo???? But I did think Xena saying "I hate that" was kind of funny. I
also liked Xena using her sword to deflect the first hatchet Milo threw at her.

There haven't been any extras with the last few eps (interviews), probably because they
weren't that important to the overall season scenario.

This episode didn't do a whole lot for me. Maybe if I had a more maternal instinct I
would have liked it more. I was considering giving this one a 6, but the few small things I did
like (like the flashback-Xena realizing ten seconds after she killed the guy who wanted to retreat
that things were going badly for them and she screamed out to retreat) bumped it up to a 7 out of
10.

++++++++++++++++++

4-11 Daughter of Pomira ----------------- 7

4-10 Key to the Kingdom ---------------- 7.5

4-09 Past Imperfect ----------------------- 8.5

4-08 Crusader ------------------------------ 8

4-07 Locked Up and Tied Down ------- 8

4-06 A Tale of Two Muses -------------- 7.5

4-05 A Good Day ------------------------- 7

4-04 In Sickness and in Hell ------------ 8

4-03 A Family Affair --------------------- 7

4-02 Adventures in the Sin Trade II -- 9

40-1 Adventures in the Sin Trade I ---- 8

Average Rating ---------------------------- 7.8