6-02 The Haunting of Amphipolis

First airing was Oct. 9, 2000.

The story starts out with Archangels Michael and Raphael looking down on Xena, Gabrielle, and Eve
(on horseback!) on their way to Amphipolis, and saying Xena has killed most of the Olympian gods
and she is the only mortal prepared to face - this.

They arrive after dark to a long-deserted Amphipolis. They go into Cyrene's tavern and it is
equally empty, cob-webby, and littered with leaves. Eve mentions how cold it is inside. Xena goes
upstairs to check and Gabrielle goes to the back. Xena sees a vision of someone dragging Cyrene by
the arm, but they disappear. Livia lights candles and hears a deep voice say "Livia." She sees two
men dragging Cyrene toward her, and they pass through each other.

Eve tells Xena she felt Cyrene's spirit, she's dead, and in pain. She says there are other souls
there. Xena says the tavern is haunted. Eve says she can feel the realms of heaven and hell taking
sides for a battle. Xena leaves for the family mausoleum.

Gabrielle is eating fruit. Eve sees it is covered with maggots. Gabrielle runs away. Gabrielle is
washing her hands, then a maggot crawls out of her hand. Others follow. Her hands get bloody, and
suddenly both hands are bloody skeletons. Eve sees blood coming from between the stones of the
floor. She says, "In the name of Eli and the powers of heaven, I command this evil presence to be
cast out." After a couple of times, everything changes back and Gabrielle's hands are normal.

Xena finds Cyrene's burned bones on top of a tomb. A man comes in and tells her Mephistopheles sent
evil spirits to the tavern, and Cyrene went mad. When the crops failed the townies accused her of
being a witch and burned her at the stake.

Gabrielle sees a picture in a stone of the floor. She bends down to listen and hands come up
through the stones and pull her down, She is under water with (?) evil souls keeping her down. One
says she isn't the messenger. Xena sees the stone, thrusts her arm down through it and pulls
Gabrielle back up. Gabrielle is now wearing a leather bikini. She screams that her skin is burning.
They get her to a shower and she strips while letting the water cleanse her.

Xena explains about Mephistopheles and Cyrene being burned. Gabrielle tells them the evil souls
said they seek the blood of the messenger - Eve. Xena sees a vision of herself, dead Lyceus, and
her mother slapping her and blaming her for his death.

Still showering, Gabrielle's hands get bloody. Then she is bleeding where she had spikes driven
through her hands and feet when she was crucified. She falls to the floor. When she looks up her
eyes are yellow and she is possessed by Mephistopheles.

Xena sees the naked and possessed Gabrielle hanging upside down. Gabrielle dives down on her and
they roll around fighting. Xena grabs rags, dress her and tie her up. Meph-Gabrielle says since the
Olympian gods are dead it's time for his reign on earth to begin. When Eve's blood is spilled he
will be made flesh.

Mephistopheles shows Xena a vision of Cyrene being burned.

Several times Eve commands the evil to be cast out. Eventually Gabrielle is back to normal.

Eve wanders back outside. Suddenly Xena's left arm and Gabrielle's right arm are joined into one
arm connecting them. Then their legs are stuck together. They go outside to find Eve. She commands
they evil be cast out and they are disconnected.

Mephistopheles' voice tells Xena that few drops of Eve's blood will bring him into the mortal
world and Xena can fight him there, otherwise her soul, along with Cyrene's, will belong to him.

Xena tells Gabrielle she's going to fight him in the spiritual realm. She will put the Pinch on
herself and wants to show Gabrielle how to release it. Gabrielle protests, saying she doesn't know
how. Xena shows her the places on her neck, Gabrielle wants to know why she's showing her that NOW.
Xena says they have no choice, but she believes in Gabrielle.

Xena puts the Pinch on and goes into the spiral realm. She sees Cyrene bloody, with a bloody axe,
crying about killing her husband, Orestes, because she had no choice. She disappears.

Mephistopheles appears behind Xena and they fight. After a while he tells her she can't hurt him
the this realm, only if he is made flesh. But whoever kills him will have to rule over hell.

Eve goes after water to help wake up Xena.

Mephistopheles tells Xena that the right pressure in the right place may cause Eve to spill her own
blood.

Eve gets a bucket of water but a head is in it. It is the head of someone Livia decapitated. Others
that Livia had killed appear. Eve looks into a mirror and sees Livia. Livia steps out of the mirror
and tells her if she spills her own blood the souls of those she killed will be released from
torment. Eve and Livia merge and Eve is horrified. She draws Livia's sword, then drops it.

Gabrielle tries releasing the Pinch several times before she hits the right spot and Xena wakes up.
Xena tells them she's going to give Mephistopheles what he wants - Eve's blood. Gabrielle protests,
but eventually goes along with Xena's plan.

Xena gets into place next to the opening in the stones. Gabrielle holds Eve as she cuts her palm
and lets her blood drip down. Xena sends Eve and Gabrielle away.

Mephistopheles appears and she and Xena fight. He repeats that if she kills him she will have to
take his place on the throne of hell. Xean stabs him in the gut and he disappears.

Cyrene's ghost is holding hands with Eve. She says she never gave up hope. Then she disappears.

Eve asks what's wrong. Gabrielle mentions the legend about killing the king of hell and wonders
what will happen now. Xena says she has a feeling it's isn't over yet.

.........

The Halloween episode, although it was three weeks early.

One of those episodes I remembered almost nothing about, so it was almost like a new for me. And it
was a good one.

It's about time they started riding horses.

Apparently, after Cyrene's burning, everyone abandoned ship, so to speak. Unless everyone was
hiding inside their homes at night.

Kind of cool seeing Cyrene turn to a skeleton when she went through Eve.

Lots of blood on poor Gabrielle.

The fights between Mephistopheles and Xena were pretty good. A could of times I saw where Xena
could have used her Chakram but didn't - when Mephistopheles first appeared in the flesh and was
stretching, for one.

Gabrielle looked neat with her yellow/green eyes - evil for sure.

Didn't take Xena long to grab the rags to dress and tie up Gabrielle. I really liked the
dark blue, or teal, outfit Gabrielle was wearing after that. But I always liked Gabrielle in blue.
No doubt next episode she'll be back in her regular duds.

Not sure exactly what was the purpose of Xena and Gabrielle's arms and legs being
connected unless it was to hinder Xena's fighting. Kind of creepy looking, though.

In the spirit world, Cyrene was lamenting about killing her husband, Orestes. But in 'The
Furies' his name was Atrius.

When Gabrielle said, "I can't believe you're showing me this NOW," I wasn't sure if she
meant "FINALLY, after all this time!" or "Are you crazy? You expect me to learn this in one short
lesson!"

But it was nice hearing Xena tell her she believed in her.

As many times, and as hard, as Gabrielle speared Xena's neck trying to release the Pinch,
Xena's neck must be one big bruise!

Mephistopheles said the Olympian gods were dead. I guess he forgot about Aphrodite and
Cupid. How could he hope to fight THEM??

(Yes, I'm being sarcastic. But - being flesh does he have any magical powers? Would he be immune
to Cupid's Arrow? Or one of Aphrodite's love spells?)

Just like Bacchus, Mephistopheles was dumb enough to tell Xena just how and where she could kill
him! Will they NEVER learn??

Obviously, it's not over. Someone has to take over the throne of Hell. Demon Xena in 'Fallen Angel'
seemed to be doing a pretty good job. Leave it to ol' Mephistopheles to delegate when he can!

..............

Still watching the opening montage. After five years, it's nice to see something different.

No cast / crew interviews or commentaries.

Another good thing about the DVDs, you can slo-mo one frame at a time. So when naked, possessed
Gabrielle dived down on Xena I did just that. Renee's double was wearing a flesh colored, one-piece
bathing suit. But not when they were rolling around and we could see a bare butt. And she was
wearing flesh colored pasties over her nipples.

A pretty good episode, with very little to complain about (the Orestes / Atrius thing was the most
glaring).

An 8 out of 10.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

6-02 Haunting/Amphipolis . 8

6-01 Coming Home ..... 8

Total ...,........ 8