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| - Gabrielle learns the impossible — she is with child. The baby is growing fast and is born within a couple of days. Gabrielle immediately gains a maternal instinct towards the child, but Xena isn't convinced of its innocence.
- The show opens with Gabrielle dreaming about killing Meridian (the woman she stabbed in THE DELIVERER). Xena holds her when she wakes and tries to calm her. They gather their things and begin walking through the woods. Gabrielle is feeling very ill and leans on Xena. Suddenly three winged women come swooping down and attack Xena. She cannot fight them off because they hit hard and then become like air. But they do not attack Gabrielle. They say they want to worship Gabrielle because she is the chosen one. Xena and Gabrielle arrive at a village, and Xena leaves Gabrielle at a tavern while she goes to see about finding a boat to take them back to Greece. Gabrielle suddenly regains her appetite and eats chicken livers, sheep guts, etc. The villagers surround the tavern and set it on fire, calling Gabrielle a witch. Gabrielle pole-vaults out of the building. Xena, meanwhile, had found passage to Greece, but had been set upon by several knights with swords. She fought them off and then ran after Gabrielle, who by this time is fleeing through the woods with the town chasing her. Xena jumps in front of the villagers and stops them. Gabrielle disappears. Xena follows her into the woods and finds the banshees worshiping her. They tell Gabrielle she is going to have a child. Xena gets Gabrielle away from the banshees and they flee to a castle. The banshees cannot enter the castle unless they're invited. Xena takes Gabrielle to the stable and lays her down. Her pregnancy has progressed quickly; she's in her 4th or 5th month when Xena sets out to find the knights of the castle (think Arthurian legends here). She listens as the knights argue about Gabrielle. One says she "beams innocence" while another claims that what is inside of her is evil incarnate. Xena bursts in and asks for explanations. Gabrielle screams. She has gone into labor. Xena races to her friend, locks the knights out of the stable and delivers the baby. It is a girl. The knights bash in the door and two of them side with Xena in protecting Gabrielle and the baby. Within a day's time the child is crawling. Gabrielle names her Hope. Xena worries that the child is evil. Gabrielle warns Xena not to come between her and her daughter. One of the two soldiers makes a deal with the banshees to let them in; Xena catches him. When she returns to a sleeping Gabrielle, the other knight, and the baby, she finds the knight dead. The baby is playing with a trinket that belonged to the knight. Xena raises her sword to kill the baby and Gabrielle wakes up. The banshees burst in and Gabrielle tells them to attack Xena. Gabrielle runs off, and Xena chases her. Xena finally catches up to her as Gabrielle climbs a rocky hill. She yells up at Gabrielle pleading with her to stop the evil by killing the baby. Then Gabrielle screams "Xena" and Xena runs up the hill. Gabrielle says the child turned on her and tried to strangle her and Gabrielle threw her over a cliff. There is a cave close by and Xena does not believe Gabrielle at first. She apologizes when she sees there is no baby hidden in the cave. The camera cuts to a shot of a basket with a baby in it floating down the river below the hill. Gabrielle and Xena have made camp and Xena is asleep. Gabrielle leaves and talks to the winds, to her daughter, saying she knows she'll be ok and for her to be good.
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