"Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" The Gauntlet (TV Episode 1995) Poster

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6/10
Maternal instinct of Xena and a slight changing of behavior !!
elo-equipamentos7 January 2023
Xena is back again in this episode still making raids against the villages but sharing the leadership with heartless Darphus, even she has been the main leader his old partner still runs counter her order of spare women and children, one of the last raid Xena found a baby still alive, her maternal instinct raises somewhat and she takes the little one to a cave nearby, there Xena finds a woman that offer himself to suckle the baby of your own free will also takes care him for a while.

Xena turns back to settle the matter against the adamant Darphus who defies the Xena's leadership and demand her to a Gauntled where Xena got to pass hardly, the angry Darphus enjoins his death to their soldiers, the broad majority deny due Xena reach in the final line alive, even shot down by the treachery forced upon by Darphus she went back to the cave with a look of impending vengeance.

Meanwhile Hercules fully accompanied by his cousin Irolan, they find out Salmoneus caught in a trap hanging upside down by a rope, hearing the news from the eloquent and loudmouth Salmoneus they figure out the next village where they will strikes again, thus they headed to there meeting a man from the last raided village where his wife and baby were killed by the Darphus and Xena's mercenaries, finally Xena Crossing their path, a fight between Hercules and Xena is unavoidable and aftermath Hercules has a bone to pick with the bloodthirsty Darphus.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2023 / Source: DVD / How many: 1 / Rating: 6.5.
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10/10
Important episode. This is the one where Xena changes.
reb-warrior27 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
If you're a Xena fan and want to check out the crossover episodes, don't miss this one. In my opinion it's the most important crossover episode. This is the one where Xena changes. A very significant moment in the character's journey and her path to redemption.

Xena seems wary of her lifestyle when this begins. She stops one of her soldiers from killing a baby after they attacked a village. Later Darphus takes over the army and Xena walks the gauntlet and survives. I think when she walks the gauntlet that maybe her life flashed before her eyes. They didn't show this. This is only my opinion based on the character. I'm thinking she didn't like what she saw.

It's interesting in retrospect watching Xena take in the baby. She seems uncomfortable. Salmoneus ends up bringing a nanny to look after him.

Later Hercules tracks Xena down and they fight. A few things I want to point out here. One is that Salmoneus never gets enough credit for a seeing a different side to Xena. He points this out to Hercules. I think Salmoneus' words actually do have an affect on Hercules when he decides to give her another chance.

The next thing I want to point out is that sometimes I see people saying Xena changed because of Hercules. No, Xena changed because of Xena. Hercules himself points out in the next episode that she had already started to change when she saved the baby. What Hercules did was give her another chance and support her change. Later, when they developed the character more in her own series, we learn there were other things that affected her change.

Finally, the third thing I wanted to point out is the fight with Xena that Hercules won. Yes he did. But he wouldn't have won if his cousin hadn't of interfered. It's right there in the episode for anyone to see.

Later Xena comes to Hercules' aid and helps him to defeat Darphus and her former army.

This is a dark episode and probably the darkness in the series. It may be hard to see a woman, Xena, get beat-up by a bunch of male soldiers. But the silver lining is she that survives. The only person ever to do that. Yes, a woman! She earns a certain respect from her former soldiers when they refuse to kill her upon Darphus' demand. It also helps to have Salmoneus in this episode. He helps to lighten things up a bit and has some comical banter with Xena. There's some good action and Lucy Lawless is great as a dark and brooding Xena. 10/10
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