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| season Two |
| A Solstice Carol : |
| A king embittered by the loss of his wife Analia thirty years ago bans celebration of the Solstice and orders his clerk Senticles, a former toy maker, to close an orphanage for failure to pay the heavy royal taxes. Hoping to shock the king into changing his ways, Xena visits him in the guise of Clotho, the Fate of the past, and shows him a floating vision of Queen Analia, in reality Gabrielle veiled and suspended by a rope. Later, disguised as Lachesis, the Fate of the present, Xena brings the king to see the effects of his cruelty on the orphanage. Mistaking the woman who heads the orphanage for Atropos, the Fate of the future, the king pleads for a second chance and has his wish granted beyond measure when she reveals herself as Analia and reconciles with her husband. |
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| The Xena Scrolls : |
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| Double roles for Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor move Xena's adventures forward to 1940s Macedonia, where the archaeologist Janic Convington (O'Connor) and her ditzy companion Melinda Pappas (Lawless) come upon the historical find of the century: The Xena Scrolls. Pappas, daughter of a renowned scholar who spent his life searching for the scrolls, proves surprisingly adept at translating fragments relating epic deeds of the Warrior Princess and her friend from Poteidaia. The scrolls have other admirers: Jacques S'er claims to be an officer in the free French Army who must guard the secrets of long-lost mystical powers from the Nazis, while a fortune hunter named John Smythe would happily kill all three for the treasure.Instead Smythe is killed by Ares, wh emerges from long repose in a tomb and demands that a descendant of Xena-Pappas-set him free to wreak new havoc in a world at war. Ares menaces Covington and Jacques S'er (who is really a timid brush salesman from New Jersey), but the spirit of Xena takes control of Pappas' body, battles Ares, and entombs him once more. |
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| Here She Comes .. Miss Amphipolis : |
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| Lucy Lawless, a former Mrs. New Zealand, enters the fictional realm of beauty pageants when Xena competes for the crown of "Miss Known World" to thwart a saboteur.But humor is king, or queen, here, as Xena, posing as Miss Amphipolis, must submit to a talent competition, survive the clawing of desperate contestants, and affect a dainty femininity to please the judges. And the winner is: Miss Artiphys, a secret transvestite, who accepts the award after the leading contestants withdraw rather than compromise their selfesteem. |
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| Destiny : |
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| The episode reveals in flashbacks the origins of Xena's fighting skills, her rise as military leader seeking only to guard her native Amphipolis, and her turn to the dark side after being betrayed by another conqueror, Julius Caesar. While commanding a pirate ship, Xena has an affair with Caesar, a Roman captive, but releases him and later greets him as a friend, only to be caught and crucified on Caesar's orders, Xena is saved by a slave girl named M'Lila whom she had once protected. But when M'Lila is killed by Roman troops while defending Xena, Xena flies into a murderous rage, declaring, "A new Xena is born today, With a new purpose in life ... death!" These memories flood back as Xena lies dying from a wound, and as her spirit leaves, a vision of M'Lila reminds her that she has a destiny to fight evil, and urges her to find a way, some way, to return to the land of the living. |
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