Seeds of Faith

Seeds Of Faith

Written by George Strayton & Tom Oneill
Directed by Garth Maxwell

Synopsis and commentary:
A group of villagers are standing around discussing making war on the gods. The discussion begins to turn violent, but Xena and Gabrielle suddenly appear. Gabrielle over-reacts and beats up a whole bunch of the villagers. When everyone calms down and Xena chastizes Gabrielle, Ares appears.

"I wish I'd known you were looking for a father," he remarks, looking at Xena's very pregnant figure.
"I'm not."
"Oh? Well, somebody clearly got the job."
"Yeah, Gabrielle."
"I would have paid to see that!"

Xena and Gabrielle are (rightly) curious as to what the god of war is doing at a village squabble. They find out that he fears the Twilight Of The Gods is at hand. (Isn't that some sort of wrestling event?)
Xena and Gabrielle meet up with Eli, who is preaching that mortals must take their destinies away from the gods and follow their own futures. It is a war of peace. Ares, warned by one of his minions that this is happening, appears and warns Eli that he is risking his own life by preaching such sermons. While Gabrielle and Eli are chatting, he confesses to her "At least you've got Xena to buoy you in these times of doubt." Xena decides that she's gonna stick around and protect Eli, especially when she hears that Ares' army is marching on the town. Callisto appears to Xena and warns her not to interfere with Eli's cause. He must walk this path alone.
Eli, however, is not as relaxed as he ought to be. He is in fact praying up a storm because he is worried. Callisto appears to him and tells him to chill. It is all for the greater good. Xena asks Gabrielle to guard Eli while she goes to take care of Ares' army. Xena meets up with the army at a rope bridge. Of course, one would think "Hey, all she needs to do is cut down the bridge and all is well." Right? Well, Xena doesn't do things the easy way. (Personally, I blame her pregnancy.) She jumps out into the middle of the bridge, kills about ten guys, cuts the bridge down WHILE she is standing on it, and THEN jumps back to where she was. This, ladies and gentlemen, is an inefficient warrior. Meanwhile back at the vilage, Ares confronts Eli. Gabrielle tries to interfere, but Eli dissuades her. This is for him. Eli turns back to Ares, and is run through with Ares' sword.
Xena returns and freaks out at Gabrielle for not defending Eli. Gabrielle, upset, takes off. Ares catches up with Gabrielle and tries to woo her to his side. She seems to think about it seriously. (Guess what, though? Sorry to spoil the end of the episode for you but she DOES NOT fall for it! Gasp!) Eli is cremated. Callisto appears to Xena, trying to persuade her not to participate in the events that are unfolding. "I realize you may never believe this, but I care about Gabrielle. And you." Xena convinces Callisto to take her to the Dagger Of Helios, which can kill a god. (For those of you paying attention, this dagger is from the episode "The Quest" and was the key to getting Ambrosia. It was never mentioned then that it could kill a god.)
Ares is making speaches to the villagers who once followed Eli. Gabrielle shows up and decides to attack Ares. (Must've slipped her mind that HE'S A GOD!) "I thought you'd given up on Xena" comments Ares. "It would take more than you to do that," she retorts. They duke it out. Xena arrives and threatens Ares with the dagger, which he is afraid of, even though he can DISAPPEAR AT WILL! She and Ares agree to spare each other. Callisto arrives to say to Xena and Gabrielle "Your enduring faith in one another is the greatest miracle of all," which I thought was a nice thing to say. Then Callisto reveals that she is, in fact, the father of Xena's child so that she can be reincarnated in it. Her soul then enters Xena's child. Now, if the child has been soulless this entire time, the what the hell was Alti doing several episodes ago. She had stolen the child's soul! Does the kid now have two souls? Was that perhaps some squatter soul which has since moved on to other bodies? Or do the writers, perhaps, pay no attention to what they are doing. (Remember, they still haven't explained how Gabrielle came back from the dead in the begining of season four!!! "Woops, slipped out mind!")

Disclaimer: Thanks to Eli's non-violent ways, many people lost their lives during the production of this motion picture.