Season 5, episode 05
CAST
CREDITS
While looking for a herb to help with morning sickness Xena starts having SEVERE pains. Gabrielle takes Xena to a midwife. Xena screams and yells. She rips her clothes off. Her tummy starts poking around doing the mamba, then a skull pops up through her stomach. Xena screams. And then wakes up. Gabrielle and the midwife are right there. The midwife had given Xena a sedative. Amarice comes in. The midwife says Xena needs to rest, but Xena gets up. She says she needs to go see Yakut, the shamanness of the northern Amazons. She tells Gabrielle that was no dream; it was a premonition. She says something is trying to kill her baby. Xena, Gabrielle and Amarice ride to see the Nothern amazons. When they reach the northern Amazons. Yakut greets them. She says she saw them coming in a vision. Yakut does a ritual over Xena and says the baby is being drained of its life force in the spirit world by someone with the symbol of the shamanness. Xena realizes it is Alti.
Xena wants to go the spirit realm to fight Alti, but everyone's concerned because she is pregnant. Xena and Gabrielle have a very sweet heart-to-heart chat about it. "I love your baby like its my own," Gabrielle says. Gabrielle finally convinces Xena to let her go in her place. Gabrielle goes through some initary rites to become a shamaness. The Amazons do a lot of dancing and Xena and Gabrielle do ritual activities. Xena gives Gabrielle a dagger and tells her not to let go of it. Gabrielle asks Xena not to let go of her. Amarice watches all of this and looks very confused. She doesn’t get the idea of spiritual worlds.
Gabrielle crosses over in an indescribable sequence. She takes the dagger with her. The world stops. Alti appears in front of Gabrielle. Xena watches Gabrielle's body. Alti beats up Gabrielle. Xena tells Gabrielle to come back. Alti makes Gabrielle cut her throat. Xena pleads with Gabrielle to return. Alti counts to 10 and Gabrielle dies in the spirit world and in the real world. Xena gives Gabrielle mouth-to-mouth. Gabrielle breathes again and comes back to the real world. Gabrielle tells Xena that Alti wants the baby to be born. Xena realizes Alti wants to come back through Xena's baby. By stealing the baby’s soul and replacing it with her own.
Xena and Yakut set out to dig up Alti's skeleton. Amarice and Gabrielle take off after some special amber that will trap souls. A spiritual Amazon guards the amber, they are told. The amazon knows all and can see into your heart.
Yakut tells Xena a story.
I think this is how the story went:
Xena uncovers Alti's skeleton and finds the skull is missing. Yakut says everything is her fault. She wanted to harness Alti's powers for good and so did some shamanness stuff that apparently did not work. Xena is a little pissed.
Night. Xena wakes to find Yakut in a trance. Xena drinks the blood and follows Yakut to the spirit world. She sees someone she thinks is Yakut but it's really Alti, Xena relizes this and hits Alti hard. But Alti thrusts her hand into Xena's stomach and pulls out the soul light of Xena's baby. Yakut is all strung up and hurt. Xena threatens to follow Alti forever and ever if she hurts the baby. Alti carries the light around and tells Xena she can have the baby back if she convinces the Amazons to bring Alti back to life. Xena and Yaut return to the real world.
Gabrielle and Amarice find the cave with the amber. The spiritual amazon guardian (Chi'ah) says that Amarice isn't an Amazon; she can't go any further. Amarice runs away, very embarassed. Gabrielle gets the amber and returns outside to find Amarice. Amarice says she had no identity so she created one as an Amazon so she could be a part of something. Gabrielle and Amarice talk some more and head back to the tribe to find that Xena is really upset about her baby's soul being lost. The Amazons perform a ritual over Alti's skeleton. Xena drinks the blood and goes to the spirit world. She tells Alti that Alti has won. Alti takes Xena's hand. Alti's skeleton pulls itself together and gets up. The skeleton swallows the baby's light. Xena takes off her head to reveal her own skeleton. Yakut and Gabrielle say that Xena has taken Alti to another dreamscape. Xena comes out of her skin and the skeletons fight. Xena finally gets her baby's soul from Alti. Amarice feels the baby move inside Xena. That’s the sign to trap Alti’s spirit with the amber. Gabrielle pours the amber over the skeleton. Xena's skeleton whacks up Alti's skeleton in the dreamscape. The Amazons see a lot of wind and yelling and stuff as Alti's skeleton and soul get all hung up in the amber. Xena returns to her body. Gabrielle and Amarice talk. Gabrielle says she didn't tell Xena what the Chi'ah said. Gabrielle tells Amarice she is now one of her Amazon sisters. And Gab added a stone to her amazon necklace to repersent Amarice as one of the amazons. Amarice says she is going to stay with the northern Amazons and learn a few things. Yakut and Xena talk. Xena tells Yakut she's heading east because more people and spirits and things will be after the baby. At the very end, Xena sees a dove.
MORE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
11-07-99. From Eric C. The snake emblems throughout the shamanism episodes have real meaning. Yakut drew a serpent in the sand as the symbol of the shamaness, which Alti had on her hat and Xena on her costume from the Sin Trade episodes. Sometimes it is shown devouring its own tail. In ancient times the snake represents fertility and the beneficial power of the earth. In shamanic mysticism it is the symbol of immortality since the snake sheds its skin periodically, and this was carried into medieval alchemy as the Ouroboros, the serpent devouring itself which stands for the cycle of life and death. Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, has a snake twined around his staff, and the caduceus of Hermes, two snakes curled around a stick, has become an official symbol of medicine today
YAXI(Yet another Xena inconsistancy)
DISCLAIMER: Xena and Alti were Bad To The Bone during the production of this motion picture.
My Disclaimer: A lot of things were taken from Whoosh. I added a sentence here and there, and changed some things around.
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