5-08 Little Problems

First air date was Nov. 22, 1999.

The story starts out with a band of thugs/warriors/soldiers looting one of Aphrodite's
temples. A very pregnant-looking Xena and Gabrielle come in and fight them off. The leader, Sandor,
is wearing an arm band that Xena recognizes as belonging to Tharon, someone she thought was dead.
She tells Sandor to tell Tharon to stop looting, etc., or she will finish what she started.
Aphrodite appears and takes X&G into another part of the temple where some 'sisters' are
ministering to sick people. Xena sees an unconscious little girl and asks about her. Aphrodite says
her name is Daphne and she's been like that since she got there and she lost her will to live. She
says her mother is dead and her father comes by every morning on the way to work.

Xena talks to Daphne and says if she could trade places with her, she would. Aphrodite
takes her at her word and switches them, but the spell isn't complete and both souls are in
Daphne's body. She wakes up as her dad gets there and he takes her home. Aphrodite says she will
figure out what went wrong. Xena is unconscious.

Sandor tells Tharon what Xena said. He tells Sandor to scour the town and find Xena.

Daphne and her father get home and Daphne is looking for her mother. After his hemming
and hawing, she figures out her mother is dead.

Aphrodite is looking at scrolls for a spell to reverse her spell. She says if they can't
put Xena back into her body by sundown her soul will stay in Daphne forever. Plus she wants to go
to the Gemini Club to see Castor and Pollux. Gabrielle remembers that Castor carries magic oil that
will separate them in times of battle. Gabrielle makes Aphrodite promise not to use her magic
anymore that day.

Daphne wakes up and when she looks in the mirror she sees Xena. Xena tells her she needs
to start talking to her dad.

Gabrielle drags Xena's body into a cave while Aphrodite watches. Sandor and his men
arrive to get Xena's body. Aphrodite is insulted by Gabrielle's remarks and disappears. Gabrielle
has to fight off the gang by using a rope as a whip. The second time they attack, she sets the end
on fire and snaps it at them again. They all run off.

Aphrodite reappears and Gabrielle asks her to seal the cave so no one can get to Xena's
body. Then they leave for the Gemini Club.

Daphne and dad are in the town market. Daphne sees Xena's reflection in everything and
Xena tells her to talk to her father. She sees daisies and dad tells her they were her mother's
favorite flowers. A horse and wagon run away and Xena takes over Daphne's body, jumps on the
horse's back and saves the day. Daphne's dad is clueless and they go home. Sandor sees this and is
suspicious.

Gabrielle and Aphrodite try to get into the Gemini Club but it's for twins only.
Gabrielle has a plan.

Sandor tells Tharon that Xena is in the little girl's body. He tells Sandor to go get
her.

Back home, Xena tells Daphne, AGAIN, to talk to her dad. Daphne asks what happened to her
mother but he won't tell her and she runs out of the house and away.

Gabrielle and Aphrodite come back to the club dressed and Bruna and Hilda, Swedish
Siamese twins. The are let into the club. They see two women wrestling in a ring.

Daphne found her mother's grave and says she want to be with her. Sandor finds her and
says it can be arranged. Xena takes over her body again and beats up the gang again.

Gabrielle/Aphrodite find Castor and Pollux and see the oil hanging in a pouch from
Castor's belt. They talk to them and arrange to have an oil wrestling match against them.

Back home Daphne is practicing the butt-kicking moves. Xena's reflection tells her she
has to grow up faster than she thought. And she and her dad are going to have to take care of each
other.

Tharon is disappointed at Sandor and tells him they will lure Xena to them.

Daphne is cooking and Xena tells her she never knew HER dad, that he wasn't a very good
man, but she misses the idea of him. And that Daphne and her dad are lucky to have each other.

Gabrielle/Aphrodite are in the ring to wrestle Castor and Pollux. Eventually they are
found out and Gabrielle grabs the oil and she and Aphrodite run away with it.

Daphne is fishing on some rocks next to the sea. She remembers she fell in and her mother
drowned trying to save her. She blames herself for her mother's death.

When her father goes looking for her Sandor and his men knock him out and take him to
Tharon.

Xena is trying to tell Daphne she isn't to blame for her mother's death. Gabrielle finds
her and tells Daphne she needs to talk to Xena. She shows Xena a scroll from Tharon saying he will
kill the dad by sundown if she doesn't give herself up. Xena/Daphne tells Aphrodite to get her body
and meet them at Tharon's castle.

Tharon tells the dad he wants Daphne. The dad doesn't understand why.

Xena/Daphne put the Pinch on one of the thugs to find out where Sandor is.

Xena/Daphne comes into the castle, finds dad, and breaks off the finger of a skeleton
and unlocks the shackles on him. Xena lets Daphne take over and she and dad have the 'meaningful
talk.' Gabrielle tells them the coast is clear.

As they run away, an iron gate drops down trapping Daphne with Tharon while Gabrielle and
dad have to fight off soldiers.

Xena takes over Daphne's body again and fights Tharon. Eventually he falls over the wall
of the castle.

Aphrodite has Xena's body and they start to pour the oil on her. Xena and Daphne find
Gabrielle and dad after the battle is over. He thanks her for saving his daughter.

When they start to go Daphne asks Xena if she'll ever see her again. Xena says every time
she looks in the mirror.

Aphrodite disappears. Gabrielle asks Xena what it's like being young again. Xena says is
some ways harder than being an adult. Gabrielle says something about when Xena's child becomes
teenager and Xena says not to say the 'T' word.

The episode ends with X&G walking along the beach. So where was Argo?

..........

And it just gets worse and worse. "Little Problems"? How about 'Big Problems" with most
of this season?

Aphrodite can't protect her own temples?

No one in the back room heard anything up front and went to investigate?

If Daphne came into the temple unconscious, how did Aphrodite know she had lost her will to live?

Tharon's face mask - can you say goofy?

Just HOW many times does Xena have to tell Daphne to talk to her dad? Does anyone
remember those broken records that skipped and skipped and skipped and skipped, ad infinitum?

What was the reason Xena/Daphne threw pie-pan looking dish that knocked down two ends of
a clothes line? Nothing happened except the horse was now dragging the line of clothes along.

The dad fights better than soldiers? And just using one of Gabrielle's sais?

Aphrodite was even more useless than she normally is. I like her, but after a while it
gets kind of tiring.

Everybody just happens to be in the right place at the right time - X&G at Aphrodite's
temple. Sandor and thugs find the cave where Gabrielle took Xena's body. And they're in the
marketplace as Xena/Daphne stops the horse. Daphne stumbles over her mother's grave. Sandor and
thugs find dad looking for Daphne.

A skeleton finger as a skeleton key?

Okay, it wasn't ALL bad. There were some things that were kind of funny or clever.

Gabrielle and Aphrodite's Swedish accents were kind of funny. And the horns on their
helmets locked for a moment and Aphrodite's helmet almost covered her eyes, but they kept on with
the scene.

The little girl was cute.

Gabrielle's getting more inventive all the time with her fighting - using the rope and then setting
the end on fire. And grabbing the sword, and then using the mace at the same time. Maybe she should
abandon the sais altogether.

A skeleton finger as a skeleton key. (It was stupid and clever at the same time, so I
listed it twice.)

And Bruna/Gabrielle's rant when she and Aphrodite are exposed as non-Siamese twins -

Pollux: "Hey, you're not twins!"

Hilda: "We're not?! (to Bruna) You lied to me?!"

Castor: "Hey, what happened to your accents?!"

Bruna: "It-it-it comes and goes."

Announcer: "What's going on, here?!"

Gabrielle: "All right. It's a shameless exploitation of the female form. That's what.
You should all be ashamed!"

.........

I know they had to let Lucy take it easy, but surely they could have come up with a
better story than this one. It's odd but all of the reviewers on Whoosh liked this episode! One of
them even said "This comedy made me laugh the most since 'Been There, Done That'."

And another one said, "All in all, this was an extremely entertaining show." And later on, she
said, "So far, this season has not given me a really bad episode. They have stayed with a format,
they have followed it and it is really working. Let's hope they don't change halfway through the
season."

Are we watching the SAME shows in the same season??

No commentary or interviews. Most likely everyone was in hiding.

When Gabrielle told them the coast was clear, it reminded me of the old joke (anything to
take my mind off this episode). A man answers the phone, listens for a few seconds then says, "how
the hell should I know?" His wife asks who was on the phone. He says, "It was a wrong number. The
guy must have wanted the weather bureau because he asked if the coast was clear."

Another 6 out of 10.

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

5-08 Little Problems .. 6

5-07 Back In The Bottle . 6

5-06 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 ...... 7.3