Crusader

• When Najara removes her face cloth, Xena gives her an odd look. Almost as if to say "Oh, it's a girl!" But with Najara's prominent breasts, that isn't possible, so it must have been "Oh! It's a hottie!"
• Najara is prevented/prevents herself from killing Gabrielle by some mystical understanding that they are kindred souls.
• Najara hits on Gabrielle.
  • "You've suffered much, Gabrielle, but you've retained your good heart."
    • Saying a line like this to Gabrielle is like saying "Gabrielle, please have sex with me this instant."
    • Gabrielle reacts to this line. She even glances down for a second. (If she were looking at Najara's eyes, the glance would be to about chest level. Hmmm...)
• Najara invites Xena and Gabrielle to join her. Xena is hesitant.
  • Xena is aware of the instant bond between Gabrielle and Najara. She is, of course, jealous.
  • "The djinn think that you should come; and I would love that."
    • Gabrielle is eager to join Najara now.
• Najara and Gabrielle find some time to be alone.
  • "Are you looking for Marat's men?"
    "No, I'm just enjoying the scenery."
    "You do that, too?"
    "Yes, all the time."
    • Okay, come on. Gabrielle is so intense about striking up a conversation with this women that this is the best she can do? "Wow, you look at things too?! I don't know anybody else who looks at things. Especially the scenery?! And here we are, wandering a land which has nothing else to look at but SCENERY!!"
• Referring to the djinn, Najara says: "They're so wonderful. So full of love and goodness."
  • As is Najara and Gabrielle.
• Around the campfire (and, by the way, Xena and Gabrielle get their own campfire away from everyone else,) Najara speaks of the hospice she wishes to establish.
  • Xena glares. Why is Xena glaring so angrily? The only explanation is jealousy. Funny, it's a good explanation for most of what Xena does in this episode.
  • Gabrielle is practically drooling.
  • Xena loks at Gabrielle. It's as if she is looking back and forth between Gabrielle and Najara thinking, "I can't believe they're going at it right in front of me!"
• Najara praises Xena's caution.
  • "And you should listen to her. Don't trust me too soon. Xena is wiser in that way."
    • Xena smiles for probably the first time in this episode. (Ha! I've won this round. Gabrielle is still mine!)
• "Sleep well," says Najara to Xena and Gabrielle, returning to her own campfire.
  "Oh, we will."
  • "I don't know what to make of her," says Gabrielle as soon as they are alone.
  • Xena glares and the music is dramatically ominous. (Maybe I should kill Najara...)
• In battle, Najara catches an arrow, saving Gabrielle's life.
  • This is an intensely dramatic moment. Xena keeps looking between Gabrielle and Najara with a shocked face. She realizes she just lost Gabrielle to Najara.
• Najara gives a speech to the traders to change their evil ways, and gives a speech to the villagers she saved to forgive the slavers. During this, Gabrielle is basically jumping out of her skin due to her attraction to Najara.
• Najara shows concern over Gabrielle's welfare to Xena.
  • "Your vision of death, does it...?"
    "Yes, it includes Gabrielle."
• Gabrielle interrupts Xena and Najara's barn chit-chat.
  • She seems uncomfortable, and keeps glancing between the two. She makes sure to smile at Najara.
  • Najara invites Gabrielle and Xena to join her.
    • Gabrielle waits for Xena to answer. When she doesn't, Gabrielle says "Yes!"
    • Xena's reluctance to commit is obviously a test to see whom Gabrielle prefers.
• Xena worries about Gabrielle as they walk through the forest with Najara's army.
  • "Gabrielle, you've been awfully quiet. You alright?"
    "Yeah, I was just thinking about yesterday. Amazing." (Yesterday = Najara.)
    "Yeah, amazing." (Xena doesn't sound impressed.)
• Najara and Gabrielle ride off to bond, pretending to be looking at swans.
  • Gabrielle never rides on Argo!
  • Gabrielle wraps her arm around Najara as they ride off.
  • Gabrielle hints that she might like to stay with Najara, but her bond with Xena may be too strong.
    • "You mentioned opening a hospice," begins Gabrielle.
      "That would be a good way, too. Why don't you do that? I don't mind if you start without me."
      "You see, if I do that, then Xena and I have to go our seperate ways. She's not the hospice type."
      "Yes, I see. She's on a different path. Well, perhaps you need to commit totally to your life with Xena. You two do a lot of good."
      "We do."
  • Najara puts the moves on Gabrielle.
    • "Gabrielle, you need to make a full commitment to the light. It will give you faith that what you're doing is right."
      "The light...I need something."
  • Xena sneaks up on the two, and watches their conversation, proving her jealousy.
  • By the end of the conversation, Xena is looking very forlorn.
• Xena sacrifices her own happiness in order to preserve Gabrielle's life, and to help Gabrielle heal her soul.
  • Xena announces that she is going after Marat. Gabrielle assumes that she is coming along.
    • "When do we head out?"
      "I'm heading out before dawn. You stay with Najara."
      "Are you sure?"
      "Sure."
• Xena 'gives' Gabrielle to Najara.
  • "Najara, your hospice: why don't you start it in the village you're going to take tomorrow?"
    "Ah, now I understand. You don't plan to return after your mission against Marat. You want a place to leave Gabrielle."
    "She'll die if she stays with me. You said it would take something drastic to change our destiny. Maybe this is it."
    "As soon as she realizes you left her, you know she'll follow you."
    "I see such joy in her eyes when she talks to you about your mission. She's been looking for meaning. Think you can give it to her? (Najara smiles.) It hasn't always been good for her, being with me. I seem to hurt her."
    "I know she forgives you. I promise I'll do everything I can to justify your trust."
    "You better. Thanks."
• Xena watches Gabrielle sleeping. "Goodbye Gabrielle," she says with a pained look on her face.
• Najara ends a speech announcing the opening of a hospice by wrapping her arm around Gabrielle and saying "May the light illuminate your way."
• Gabrielle tells Najara, "I want to be initiated into the light."
  • Najara holds Gabrielle's face in her hands, then hugs her.
• Najara ends the ceremony initiating Gabrielle inot the light with a hug. (This ceremony for some reason reminds me of a marriage ceremony, albeit a new agey one.)
• Xena returns, confronting Najara about her practice of killing prisoners.
  • The intensity of Xena's questioning, the look in her eyes, her need for Najara to admit it: she wants Najara to have this flaw.
  • Najara claims stewardship over Gabrielle because of the ceremony. (It was a marriage!)
    • "Gabrielle has turned to the light; she's my responsibility now. As you said yourself, you hurt her. That's not going to happen again."
• To save Xena's life, Gabrielle throws herself onto Xena to prevent Najara from sticking a sword into her.
  • "You'll have to kill us both."
  • "I could never live with someone who killed her. There would be no going back from that."
    • Note the use of the phrase "live with."
    • It is this plea which prevents Najara from striking the killing blow.
• "She's a tough girl, but she's got a weakness. It's the same one I've got," reveals Xena to the barkeep.
  • What is the weakness? It's Gabrielle!
• Xena confronts Najara, while Gabrielle is supposedly in danger.
  • "If I can't have her, nobody's gonna have her." (Every good lie is 90% truth...maybe Xena really has snapped.)
  • "It seems a little more difficult with a millstone like her around your neck, isn't it? You probably wouldn't care if one of your soldiers died. They'd just go up to that big ol' light in the sky. But you might miss Gabrielle, huh?"
  • "If you don't mind my saying, your focus is a little off."
• Najara is given to the local authorities.
  • Xena asks, "Did you tell her about the vision?"
    "No. That would hurt her. And I don't ever want to do that."
  • As they walk away from her, Najara says "I forgive you Gabrielle."

Notes:
Jinkies! i pretty much had to write down everything said in this episode to give a thorough review! It seems like they're trying to force me out of a job, because there is no way this could be considered subtext. The whole episode is about who will win Gabrielle. It is so much more fun to watch an episode like this from a subtext point of view. It means that for the first half hour, forty five minute, there is this incredible tension between Najara and Gabrielle, as if any second they will just rip off their clothes and go at each other. Really. It was almost disturbing.
This episode also plays into the long-standing rivalry between Argo and Gabrielle, which if i remember correctly, was first brought up in the episode “The Greater Good.” What is the source of this jealousy? Perhaps Argo is privy to the intimacies of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship and feels left out of something profound. (This analysis pointed out to me by zeogold.)