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An excellent episode that mixes high drama with some good giggles. Gabrielle and Xena encounter some thugs leading to a discussion between them on fighting. Gabrielle is keen to learn to use a sword, but Xena doesn`t want her to as she knows how it can change things. They enter a town where Gabrielle is kidnapped by priests of Morpheus. She is given tests that should result in her losing her blood innocence and killing. This will result in her own death. Xena attempts to save her by entering a dreamscape that involve her facing her many victims. She must make it through to save Gabrielle.
The early humourous moments, including Gabrielle`s famous dangerous breasts joke are a sharp contrast to the peril that follows for our favourite bard. Xena again has to reflect on her past crimes, a common theme for the whole series, but her reaction to the `ghosts` that she meets in the dreamscape show that she is trying to come to terms with it. Her words to Gabrielle at the beginning and the end of the episode seem at odds with the Warrior Princess; she tells Gabrielle to run if she can rather than fight, and talks about how killing someone changes you forever. Xena does NOT have a casual attitude to killing, but it is a necessity at times, and one that she is prepared for, whilst also being aware of the implications of taking a life. This theme was picked up in season 2`s Remember Nothing and again later in series 3, where we hear the words at the end of this episode spoken again - `everything changes, everything...`
Guest star Nathaniel Lees appears in future episode Destiny, he was also in a Herc movie with Renee O`Connor and The Gauntlet. Shopkeeper Sydney Jackson reappears as Vidalis in Blind Faith. A good episode.
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