5-06 Purity

First airing was Nov. 9, 1999.
The episode starts with Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer sleeping out in the open. Gabrielle and Xena wake
up because they hear something. It is a monk from the Xo (or Zo) monastery whose tongue has been
cut out. As he dies, he gives Xena a paper with Chinese writing on it. The note says 'the hawk and
the dove must become one with the wisdom.' Xena says it's from Lao Ma. Gabrielle mentions that
she's been dead for years. Xena decides they have to find the Book of Wisdom they hid the last time
they were in Chin.

They arrive in an abandoned village with a huge crater in it. They don't know what caused it. Then
they see two rockets crash into the monastery up on the hill. They rush to help fight the soldiers.
Xena uses her Chakram to destroy two rockets, then catches another one, turns it around and sends
it back to where it came from. A woman dressed in red helps them and the soldiers run off. The
woman tells Xena she is Lao Ma's daughter, Pao Ssu. She tells them the explosive is black powder,
an ancient Chin formula, and the kings of Chin have forbidden to have it produced, but now someone
has done it. Xena says something about hearing about it in legend.

They go into a room in the monastery where Xena hid the book in a cabinet, but it's gone. As they
leave to find it, Xena has Joxer put another book into her saddlebags in secret. Xena tells
Gabrielle to take a sample of the (apparently unburned) black powder to a market and buy all the
spices she can to discover the third secret ingredient in the powder (besides sulphur and
charcoal).

Xena and Pao Ssu go after whoever took the book. They send their horses in a different direction to
throw off whoever has been following them.

In the market, Joxer and Gabrielle buy spices. Gabrielle and Joxer buy oriental clothes to blend
in. Joxer lets it slip he has the black powder and they are imprisoned.

Xena and Pao go into a cave and find a woman with the book. It is K'ao Hsing, Pao Ssu's twin
sister. Xena puts the book into her saddle bag. They argue over the book and Xena realizes Pao is
the evil sister. They fight, Pao throws small explosive that knocks Xena down and she grabs the
(wrong) book from the saddle bag and escapes.

Gabrielle and Joxer are wearing the same large blocks Xena had when Ming Tien imprisoned her,
except they are stuck in one place. Gabrielle uses her foot to go down into Joxer's pants to
retrieve the small bag of powder. She tosses it to her hand, pours it on the lock. Does the same
with a rock and makes a spark, opening the lock so they can escape.

Xena and K'ao are walking down a path in the woods and Xena has flashbacks of running from the dogs
and Lao Ma saving her. She is nostalgic about Lao Ma. Next they are in Lao Ma's home and Xena has
more flashbacks.

Gabrielle and Joxer run into Pao, who tells them Xena sent her to find them.

Xena and K'ao recite some of the passages from the Book that they remember. Pao calls them out. She
has Gabrielle and Joxer tied up with barrels of powder surrounding each of them. She says if she
doesn't get the book, she will light two trails of powder leading to each of them and they will
die. K'ao gives Pao the book to prevent bloodshed, but she lights the powder anyway. Xena flips to
the one with Gabrielle and stomps it out. She throws her Chakram and frees Joxer before the
explosion

Back inside in Lao Ma's kitchen, Joxer finally figures out the formula and they have the back
powder they need.

K'ao is having doubts about her ability to face Pao. Xena gives her a pep talk. She tells her the
purity of compassion is what they need to defeat Pao. K'ao realizes the hawk is Xena and not Pao.

Pao is able to acquire the Book's powers from her purity of evil, and she explodes some rocks.

Joxer and Gabrielle are making rockets.

Xena and K'ao face Pao in the empty army camp. Pao is wearing some extra-fancy clothes with her
hair done up.

The soldiers see Gabrielle and Joxer setting up the rockets. Gabrielle fights most of them off. The
general tells his men to fire rockets at Xena.

Pao throws red death rays at X and K, but they catch and neutralize them. Xena keeps telling Pao
that Lao Ma sent them away to protect them. Pao's hatred for her mother is fading and robbing her
of her power. She throws one more large death ray. X and K catch it then throw it back at her. She
is knocked back into the area where all the powder is stored and a rocket hits it and the camp
explodes.

Gabrielle and Joxer are relieved to see X & K walking out of the flames.

K'ao tells Xena she can't feel the power any more. Xena tells her it will return when she needs it.
K'ao tells Xena she is the strongest women she ever met. Xena says she didn't know her mother. K'ao
calls Xena her sister.

The story ends with the four of them walking away to somewhere.

..........

Not a bad as I expected. Going down the list -

Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer must have gotten to bed pretty late because it looked like broad daylight
when they woke up.

They must have been in Chin already because I'm sure the monk didn't travel all the way to Greece
with his tongue cut out.

Xena still remembers how to read Chinese. (And Joxer and Gabrielle can speak it!)

Neat trick - catching the rocket, turning it around, and then letting it return to sender. Xena's
many skills never cease to amaze.

If Xena was going to hide the Book of Wisdom, why not someplace like in a strongbox buried
somewhere? (And didn't Gabrielle say something about protecting it when they left Chin way back in
The Debt II? Got tired of carrying it around, I guess.)

I guess they had plenty of money. Not only were they buying a ton of spices, but Gabrielle and
Joxer were able to buy some new and pretty fancy clothes (as was Xena).

Gabrielle has a pretty talented foot - able to find a small sack down in Joxer's pants, able to
toss the bag right up to her hand, AND do the same with a rock she probably couldn't even see. Got
some skills of her own. Good thing lock was so flimsy - broke it open with no powder burns on
Gabrielle's hand.

Joxer, ever the gentleman - telling Xena to save Gabrielle. The things we do for love.

Gabrielle sure was kicking some ass in this episode. She's come a long way, baby!

I thought the death rays were ??? - something. But I guess the old standby - fireballs, were
getting old.

Clever of Xena to tell Pao about Lao Ma's sacrifice to save her and K'ao from ---who? A young Ming
Tien? From Ming Tzu? I assume the twins were born first before Lao Ma was bought (?) by Ming Tzu.

And speaking of Lao Ma, one of the reviewers on Whoosh brought up a valid, and humorous line of
reasoning - "Gabby brings up an important point. Lao Ma has been dead for years. Xena kinda brushes
her off, but I got to wondering. Did Lao Ma leave behind a note for every eventuality? Do the monks
in this temple have a list of possible calamities, with an index of which note to send Xena? --
'Hmmm, Looks like an evil warlord has the secret to gunpowder, we gotta send Xena note 47-B. Hey
you, in the red shirt, you're going on a trip.' "

Xena told K'ao she first met Lao Ma in the woods when Ming Tzu's dogs were chasing her, but she
didn't. She met her with Borias when Lao Ma came to their camp to put together a treaty with them.

The roles of Pao Ssu and K'ao Hsing were played by the same woman - Marie Matiko. It sure fooled
ME! Whoever did the make up sure knew what she/he was doing.

The goofy hat Joxer bought with the dingle balls on it reminded me of the Halloween sombrero Giles
was wearing in the S4 Buffy episode 'Fear Itself.'

Despite being about 6 months pregnant, Lucy still did her share of the fighting.

I actually liked this episode more than I thought I would. A 7.5 out of 10.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

50-6 Purity ...... 7.5

5-05 Them Bones ... 8.5

5-04 Animal Attraction .. 6.5

5-03 Succession ........ 7

5-02 Chakram ..... 8.5

5-01 Fallen Angel ..... 8.5

Average ...... 7.8