There are four episodes in which Joxer played a major part that did show him to be sort-of heroic. His apparent love for Gabby and his desire to have Xena look at him as at least someone who is “capable” was the motivating factor.
First, in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Joxer carries the head of Orpheus, whose body was separated by the evil Bacchus. We never know how Joxer comes into possession of the living head, or how Orpheus thinks Joxer is the man for such an important job. The gist: Joxer must reunite Orpheus with his body and stop Bacchus from getting his small army of Bacchae before they contaminate everyone with the typical vampire-bite infection. Those bitten become Bacchae and kill others, too. Only women can be Bacchae.
Joxer does help Xena, since he is the only one of the four who can play the lyre, which was stolen. That must be recovered so Orpheus can sing, distract Bacchus, and then Xena can kill the “god” with a bone from a Dryad. During the battle scene in the cave, Joxer does climb the rocks and play the lyre. He was afraid in the cave, as he was in the graveyard, too, but kept going.
Xena does succeed because Joxer did what he had to do. He is scared off at the end by Xena and Gabby saying they are off on another adventure, worse than meeting Bacchus. Joxer remembers his mom’s “birthday” and runs off, acting scared again.
In Return of Callisto, Joxer knows that Callisto murders Gabby’s husband, Perdicus, and wants to help Xena and her go after Callisto. Gabby pretends to go back home to grieve while Xena and Joxer carry out the revenge. Joxer and Xena have a plan. Xena sneaks into the cave where Cal and her men are “asleep” and falls into the trap. Xena is put into the chair Cal was in, while Gabby is tied to the stake and will be burned alive.
Joxer enters the scene, and is hit in the shoulder with an arrow. This scene allows Xena to take her Chakram back from Callisto, using her foot and flipping it into the air, cutting her bonds. The big fight ensues, and Gabby is cut free by the Chakram.
Later, Joxer is told how good a job he did by Xena. Without his help and willingness to die, all three would have died.
In Sacrifice 2, Joxer is given the job of acting like a fool, which came easily to him. The Hindsblood Dagger is the focal point here, and Xena says she needs it to kill Hope. Really, anything can kill a half-goddess, since she was wounded by the Chakram early on. Plus, Gabby poisoned Hope, when Hope was about 12 years old. So, the Dagger was a red herring here. The only use it could have was for Callisto to kill herself with it, or for Xena to use it to keep Ares at bay, since it can kill gods. When Xena and Gabby fight their way into the cave, Ares still does nothing but say he won’t let Xena get to Hope. He could have become invisible and stopped her, but does nothing.
Joxer got the Dagger from Xena, who got it from Gabby, who got it from its place in the rock railing at a temple. Hercules pounded the Dagger into the rock to make sure nobody would ever get it, but Gabby, who could not even crack a walnut in The Titans, is able to get the blade out.
Joxer conveniently gets captured by being hit on the head and is taken as a captive to be sacrificed. He is not searched, and still has the Dagger. Later as the fight is going on, he is hit and knocked out again as Xena calls for the Dagger. He wakes up and throws it to Xena who advances towards Hope and Ares with it.
Gabby grabs Hope and jumps into the lava, “killing” themselves, or so we thought. In reality, Hope could have been killed with the Chakram (or any other object), since she could not stop it the first time she was hit with it.
In EVE, Joxer dies trying to save Gabby from Xena’s evil daughter, Eve/Livia. Gabby is tied up, and an older Joxer, after the 25-year sleep Gabby and Xena went through, blocks the dagger thrust by Livia, saving Gabby. Livia could have struck again and killed Gabby, but does not. Joxer’s final sacrifice did show him to be a hero, though Xena says that she didn’t need his help. She could have used the Chakram on Livia. Even Gabby cannot be grateful, since she says there was no need of his sacrifice. She cannot even say she loves him as he dies. I felt that the two women should have praised him and made his sacrifice the main point. Instead, he was shown just to be a bumbler, getting in the way of the PLAN again.
In conclusion, saving Xena and Gabby from Bacchus, saving Gabby from Livia, risking his life with the Hindsblood Dagger, and saving Xena and Gabby from Callisto in the cave, all showed him to be brave “at heart.”
Joxer was needed as comic relief, and did that pretty well, though in some episodes, as in Takes One to Know One, he was just plain obnoxious, repeating endlessly “Minia did it in the bedroom with the knife!” That wore off after the tenth time. It was like listening to someone who repeats the punchline to a joke about ten times. The laughs wear off by then.
Gary in Vermont.