6-11 Dangerous Prey

First airing was Jan 22, 2001.

The story starts out with an Amazon running through some woods, looking over her shoulder
occasionally. It is Marga, the queen. She trips and her hand goes into a small bear trap. Someone
dressed in black walks up to her. She escapes and runs away but he throws a triangle shaped
Chakram-weapon and hits her on the back of the leg. She tells him to kill her but he says she will
deliver a message before she dies.

Xena and Gabrielle ride into a deserted camp. They dismount and look around. Xena yells out that
they've come in peace. Varia comes out and wants to know what Xena is doing there. Xena says Marga
invited them. Another Amazon says that their warriors keep ending up missing in the Sacred Canyon.
Marga went to find out why. Varia doesn't want Xena's help. The other Amazon says Marga told them
not to go after her. Varia is impatient and wants to go, and she does.

Xena goes after her after but finds Marga first. She tells Xena to protect Varia and she gives Xena
her necklace. Varia runs up as Marga dies. Xena sees a triangular cut on her shoulder. And words
are carved into her skin. Xena reads it and it is a challenge to the Amazons.

They take Marga back to camp and Xena tells Gabrielle she died from internal injuries. She was
meant to crawl back to camp before she died. Varia is gone again and Xena tells Gabrielle to stay
with the Amazons and she goes after her.

Varia is caught by the feet in a snare and is hanging upside down. Several men come out and one
says Prince Morloch will be pleased. The have two-headed spears and start to cut her down. Xena's
Chakram cuts the heads off the spears and they attack her. She uses the shafts to fight them off.
One of them, Raczar, is watching her closely. One of the men steps into another snare trap and is
hanging upside down. Xena defeats the others, tells Varia to watch the hanging man, and goes after
Raczar but he escapes on horseback. The hanging man has taken poison and dies. Xena berates Varia
for not watching him closer.

Varia says she is going after them but Xena tells her the woods are full of traps and she promised
Marga she would protect Varia. She says she doesn't need protecting. Xena uses her sword to cut the
chain of another trap with some kind of ring on it. She throws it at Varia and the ring goes around
her neck with Xena holding the chain. She drags Varia off behind her.

Morloch puts on a blindfold and has three of his men attack with swords. He defeats them easily.
Raczar comes in and tells him about a one-of-a-kind Amazon.

Xena is still dragging Varia. Varia punches Xena in the mouth and Xena tells her she will let that
one go. Varia screams she hates Xena and Xena tells her it won't be the last time she says that.
And drags her off again.

Morloch is telling Raczar he's hunted every kind of animal then started hunting Amazons but was
disappointed. Raczar assures him this one is different.

A storm hits and Xena and Varia take shelter in an old fortress. Xena takes the collar off Varia
and she attacks Xena. Xena has no trouble defending herself. She throws Varia against a short stone
column, but when she tries to help her up, Varia attacks again. Varia ends up falling through the
floor but barely hangs onto the side to keep from falling down into a chasm. Xena offers her hand
but Varia refuses. She starts to fall and Xena throws the chain down to her and she grabs it. Xena
pulls Varia back up and her attitude had changed and she's ready to do what Xena says, mostly.

Morloch's men are going through the woods. Xena drops down on the last one. He is carrying a keg of
some kind of flammable liquid. She ties him up high on a tree and she and Varia watch from a
distance as the rest of them try to get him down. They are looking for the leader. Xena feels
something isn't right. Off to their side, Morloch and Raczar are watching Xena and Varia. They move
out of sight then Xena comes back into Morloch's view. He doesn't see the Chakram and knows
something's not right. Xena in Varia's clothes throws her Chakram and knocks down a man she thinks
is Morloch but it isn't. He's standing at the entrance to a cave and invites Xena inside, and goes
in.

Xena and Varia change clothes again and Xena goes inside while telling Varia to wait outside.

Xena and Morloch taunt each other as they introduce themselves. He throws his triangle and Xena
throws her Chakram, They both ricochet off the walls. Varia comes inside with the keg and distracts
Xena, who gets cut on her shoulder. Morloch catches Varia and starts to kill her but Xena throws
her Chakram and breaks his sword.

The rest of Morloch's men come into the cave and he tells them to kill the girl but leave Xena to
him. They shoot arrows at Varia, then see her boots around a corner. When they pick them up, a
green flame ignites the barrel of flammable liquid and huge fiery explosion kills everyone but
Morloch and Raczar. Xena and Varia are outside. Xena tells Varia she knows Morloch is still alive
and says she's tired of being the prey.

They are looking down on Morloch's camp and Xena realizes he could see them coming. She and Varia
are going to sneak around behind the camp. Varia sees a bow and arrow trap and she thinks Xena is
going to get hit and trips it herself. She is shot in the lower leg.

Morloch has his men setting fire to the woods. Two of them can't hear him calling them so he has
Raczar shoot a fire arrow to start the woods burning, and burns up his own men.

Varia knows she is slowing Xena down and tells her to leave her behind to save the other Amazons.
Xena won't leave her. She pulls a tree down by a vine hanging from it and loops it around a smaller
tree. She tells Varia to get on, then cuts the vine and catapults Varia over the flames. Morloch
has Raczar release a catapult and a net opens up, trapping Varia and she falls to the ground. Xena
runs through the fire yelling for Varia. Morloch tells his men to take Varia to the arena.

The arena is surrounded by red fabric. There is a very high square structure made of logs with a
log platform on top with Varia tied to another log. Xena and Morloch square off. They swordfight
some. Xena nicks Morloch's cheek and he cuts her shoulder.

They spin and jump to the sides of the structure. They swordfight between the logs. Morloch knocks
a log loose and Xena has to try to keep the tower from falling over and killing Varia. She uses her
body to support it as Morloch is on top and tries to kill her. She jams a log in place and flips to
the top. No Morloch. She cuts Varia loose and tells her to take off.

When Varia jumps down, Morloch is behind Xena. He tells her this is the fight he's been searching
for his whole life. Xena realizes that and stops fighting. She jumps down as he yells to her that
she will fight him. As she walks away he throws the pole Varia was tied to down at her. She avoids
it.

When he dives down at her, she flips the pole up and he is impaled and dies. She and Varia go back
to the camp.

Marga is on a funeral pyre. Xena gives her the necklace and Gabrielle tells her she is the new
leader of the Amazons. She tells Xena she will forever be in her debt. And she tells Marga she will
make her proud.

........

The half-way point in the season.

I have mixed emotions about this episode. Some things I liked and some things I didn't.

Why wouldn't the Amazons take to the trees when they were looking for their sisters? They could
avoid the traps on the ground. I thought that was their strategy.

Of course I missed seeing Gabrielle. Since I never watch the credits, it was only three or four
years ago that I learned she directed this episode, and that was why she was not in it so much.

I never did see what Marga saw in Varia (her potential). Maybe they were lovers.

Her change of attitude after Xena saved her from falling seem awfully quick.

Don't know what kind of trap it was supposed to be, but the collar seemed to go on pretty fast. I
thought it was just some way to keep the trapped from getting away.

How lucky can Morloch be? He guesses just where and when to use the catapult to trap Varia in the
net.

For some reason I didn't particularly like the fight on the tower. About the only thing I did like
was Xena using her amazing strength to keep it from falling over.

Whatever happened to Raczar?

Varia reminded me of Amarice. But much hotter! She's a looker for sure.

Xena was WAY HOT when she put on Varia's clothes!! Too bad she didn't keep them on longer.

I liked the way Xena and Morloch tried to out-think each other. Xena won when she refused to fight
any more. But - if he liked the hunt so much, why not just stalk her and kill her as he would an
animal?

I think Xena used her Chakram more this episode than in any other. If it had split while they were
in the cave, one of the halves might have taken out ol' Morloch before he knew what hit him.

I liked the title, although I never really thought about it until now.

I can't understand why Gabrielle was ignored by Varia at the beginning. After all, Gabrielle still
is a queen, of sorts. And why did Gabrielle allow it. She was strangely silent.

The message cut into Marga's skin was creepy, and effective!

........

There were interviews with Lucy, Rob and Rene