Xena: Warrior Princess, Season Three, Episodes One to 11

Aug 27, 2011
Steve Rogerson

Season three of Xena: Warrior Princess - Photo by Steve Rogerson

A look back at the first half of season three of cult TV classic Xena: Warrior Princess starring Lucy Lawless and Renée O'Connor.

The third season of New Zealand fantasy drama Xena: Warrior Princess saw the show reach a new level of darkness as the relationship between Xena (played by New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless) and Gabrielle (played by Renée O’Connor) was put under immense strain by a double betrayal. Though there was still humour in the programme, this was overshadowed by a far more serious arc.

Regulars Kevin Smith as Ares, Darien Takle as Xena’s mother Cyrene, Ted Raimi as Joxer, Karl Urban as Caesar, Bruce Campbell as Autolycus, Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite, Alison Wall as Minya, Hudson Leick as Callisto, Danielle Cormack as Ephiny and David Taylor as Solan returned in the first half of season three.

There were 22 episodes in season three and it was first broadcast from September 1997 until March 1998.

Xena Season Three, Episodes One to Four

Season three starts off strong with “The Furies” in which Ares convinces the Furies to make Xena insane. To lift the curse, she must avenge the murder of her father, which is a bit tricky when she is out of her mind. The episode raises the possibility that Ares really is Xena’s father.

In a version of Groundhog Day, “Been There, Done That” sees Xena trying to change events to stop Joxer dying, but each time it turns out wrong in a different way. Xena, in “The Dirty Half Dozen”, puts together a gang of criminals to go up against Ares, who has fitted out an army of warriors with a new super-strong metal for armour and weapons.

One of the most pivotal episodes of all time was “The Deliverer” in which Xena and Gabrielle travel to Britannia to join up with Boadicea (played by Jennifer Ward-Lealand) in her battle against Caesar. Here they meet up with members of the Church of the One True God, a cult that Ares wants destroyed. The one god turns out to be Dahak – the devil – and the cult members trick Gabrielle into killing, thus losing her blood innocence and allowing Dahak to impregnate her, though she doesn’t know it yet.

Xena Season Three, Episodes Five to Seven

In “Gabrielle’s Hope”, Gabrielle finds herself being worshipped by banshees who tell her she is carrying the child of darkness. The culmination of a much accelerated pregnancy sees Gabrielle give birth to a baby girl, whom she calls Hope. Xena wants to kill the baby, whom she thinks in evil, but Gabrielle tricks her into believing the baby is already dead whereas really she has sent her down the river in a basket.

The two parts of “The Debt” see Xena and Gabrielle travelling east to Mongolia so Xena can repay a debt to her former mentor Lao Ma (played by Jacqueline Kim) and kill Ming T’ien (played by Daniel Lim as a child and by Daniel Sing as an adult). En route, she tells Gabrielle the story that led to the mission. Gabrielle though prevents Xena from killing him and Ming T’ien reacts by sentencing her to death. Xena discovers the hidden powers of the now dead Lao Ma to escape and kill Ming T’ien, but she lies to Gabrielle and says that she didn’t. They now have a lie each.

Xena Season Three, Episodes Eight to 11

After the darkness of “The Debt”, it was time for a little light relief. It turns out Joxer has an identical twin brother, Jett, and in “The King of Assassins” he is revealed to be an assassin. Gabrielle teams up with Autolycus and the real Joxer to find out what he is up to, which turns out to be trying to kill Cleopatra (played by Gina Torres). The fun continued in “Warrior…Priestess…Tramp” where yet another Xena look-alike turns up, this one called Leah, a virgin priestess. And, as the title suggests, Meg appears, along with Joxer and that annoying song. Much of the action takes place in a brothel and there are double entendres galore. There were more laughs in “The Quill is Mightier…” when Aphrodite, annoyed that Xena was becoming more popular than she, blames Gabrielle for spreading Xena’s fame through her stories and so gives her the power of destiny. Xena wannabe Minya makes an appearance.

After three episodes of light relief, the darkness returns big time in “Maternal Instincts” when Gabrielle’s daughter Hope, now a small child played by Amy Morrison, frees Callisto from the lava pit. Xena and Gabrielle have come to join the celebrations of a centaur treaty and Xena is thus reunited with her son Solan. While Ephiny guards the other children from Callisto, Xena sends Solan somewhere safe. Gabrielle decides to send Hope there too, and Hope kills Solan. Xena realises Gabrielle had lied to her and that had led to her son’s death. Despite Gabrielle poisoning Hope at the end, the relationship looks over.

Lesbian Subtext

In “Been There, Done That”, there is a lovely scene where Gabrielle and Xena stroke each other as they lie together. And in the same episode, Gabrielle looks embarrassed when Joxer asks Xena if that is a hickey (love bite) on her neck. However, most of the subtext in this half season is negative, and even when at the end of part two of “The Debt” they both declare their love for each other it is on the back of a double lie, Gabrielle having told Xena that she had killed Hope and Xena having told Gabrielle that she didn’t kill Ming T’ien. The first of the lies ended up stretching their relationship beyond breaking point in “Maternal Instincts”.

Actor Spotlight: Darien Takle

New Zealand actress Darien Takle made her first of eight appearances in Xena in the very first episode in season one – “Sins of the Past”. The episode “The Furies” was her only appearance in the third series. Xena was her only recurring TV role, but her film credits include Heavenly Creatures, The Ugly and The Lost Tribe. She won an Afta New Zealand Film & TV award for her role of Loma in the 2004 film Christmas.

Xena Trivia

“The Deliverer” marked the first, albeit brief, appearance of New Zealand actress Meighan Desmond as Discord, a role that she would play in three more episodes of Xena as well as in seven episodes each of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Young Hercules. The same episode also showed Xena’s role in the creation of Stonehenge and the following episode sees Xena accidentally removing King Arthur’s sword from the stone.

The phrase “the way” was to become incredibly significant within the Xena story, and it was first uttered by Lao Ma in “The Debt”.

After her role as Cleopatra, Gina Torres went on to star in the TV series Cleopatra 2525 but not before she’d made a few appearances in Hercules as Nebula.

Xena: Warrior Princess is listed as one of the ten best fantasy television shows of all time.