When in Rome

When Julies Caesar captures Vercinix, a freedom fighter from Gaul, Xena receives a plea from his wife to rescue him from Rome. Xena in turn captures one of Caesar's leading lieutenants, Crassus, and makes her way to Rome in a bid to trade his life for Vercinix's. After arriving in Rome and discovering more about the power struggle within the triumvirate, Xena comes to realise that Caesar needs the public relations coup of capturing Vercinix and executing him in public to further his political ambitions within Rome. Realising that Caesar will not make a deal, she and Gabrielle proceed to plan a bate and switch of Vercinix and Crassus within the prison cells in Rome. Along the way, Gabrielle has to decide whether Crassus should be given the chance to escape or if he must be lead out to almost certain slaughter at Caesars hands. While Xena is captured and forced to battle two Gladiators in the ring, Gabrielle carries out the bate and switch in the prison cells.

Forget Me Not

Something is troubling Gabrielle very deeply and as she and Joxer wait to meet up with Xena, Gabrielle decides to visit the temple of the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, to see if they can help her find the truth she cannot face. The priestess starts Gabrielle on a dreamscape journey, while Joxer who has become very worried attempts to get Gabrielle out of the temple. When Joxer finally gets in, he "rescues" Gabrielle only to find that she has no idea who she is, and has lost all her memories. As her spirit continues on its journey, Joxer tries to teach her memoryless self of whom she is. As he reads to her from her scrolls, he starts to alter the stories to avoid the bad and unpleasant things that have happened to her. As time progresses he gets a little carried away and ends up convincing the naive and innocent Gabrielle that she loves him. Meanwhile in the dreamscape, Gabrielle's spirit encounters the figure of Ares and works her way through three rivers each of which torments her with visions of her past actions. Soon she comes to realise that Ares is the key to her nightmares, but when she discovers the terrible secret at the end she must decide whether to keep her memories or to dispose of them and remain the innocent, clueless girl listening to Joxer's stories outside the temple.

Gabrielle’s memory was not harmed during the production of this……what was I saying?

Fins…Femmes…& Gems

Aphrodite arranges for some thugs to steal a valuable and precious diamond from a temple, which is in reality the power behind the North Star, so that she can start her own new constellation in the night sky. Xena and her posse (well, Gabrielle and Joxer) are close on the tails of her gang and determined to return the diamond to it's rightful place. In order to stop them, Aphrodite uses a magic potion to make the three of them obsessed by whatever they were looking at at the time. For Joxer, it is the story of Adis the ape-man; for Gabrielle it is her own reflection in a mirror and for Xena it is a fish she was holding at the time. Xena then leads them down to the shore of a lake (actually filmed at Lake Wainamu in Bethells Valley) where she proceeds to go fishing while Gabrielle preens herself incessantly and Joxer acts like an overgrown monkey Despite her obsession with fishing, Xena manages to convince Gabrielle that she should own the beautiful diamond - which leads Gabrielle to go off and grab it from Aphrodite's thugs. However they pursue her and end up loosing Xena her prized catch - something that makes her very angry indeed.

Tsunami

I found this the most boring episode of Season 3.

Gabrielle visits a fortune teller who tells her that is about to go on a long voyage with a tall dark hansom man - Xena pours scorn on the idea since they were only visiting the fishing village for supplies. However, when Gabrielle suddenly spots that Autolycus is part of a chain gang of slave being dragged onto a ship in the dock, she tries to talk to him. When the slave drivers attempt to stop her, a fight ensues on the deck of the ship and it starts to set sail. As she's about to be caught, she manages to attract Xena's attention who soon joins Gabrielle on the deck of the departing ship. As they try to find out what is going on, they discover that the slaves are bound for a diamond mine on an island and that Autolycus had meant to get captured. Things take an unexpected turn when Xena notices that Mount Etna has erupted and realises that a tidal wave is about to strike them. The ships captain attempts to change direction but it is too late and the ship is caught in the wave and is capsized. When they come too, they realise that the ship is upside down and sinking fast and Xena has to try and come up with a plan to escape before it becomes their watery tomb.