6-07 The Rheingold

(or Rhinegold)

`First air date was Nov. 13, 2000.

The episode starts out with Xena sitting beside a campfire at night. She wearing different armor
and a helmet with wings on it. Something is moving in the woods around her. She looks at a large
gold ring, then has flashbacks of pouring molten gold into a mold and casting it. Flashback is over
and a monster comes up behind her and she fights it, driving it into a cave with iron bars. As she
wraps a chain around the bars to lock it, the monster grabs her arm and pulls it between the bars.
When she snaps a lock with two birds on it and she pulls her arm out, the ring is gone. She yells
to the monster that even though it has the ring it can never use its power because the chains will
hold it for eternity.

She then climbs onto a horse, it gallops up into the air, and she rides off.

Fast forward thirty five years to the "present."

Xena and Gabrielle are in a tavern eating. A man comes in and stares at Xena. She asks if he wants
something. He says his name is Beowulf and puts a rusty looking lock with two birds on it down on
the table. Xena tells Gabrielle she has to talk to the man.