Directed by Michael Levine
Written by Terence Winter
Xena protects a helpless infant doomed by a prophecy that identifies him as a future threat to the King.
Tropes
- Booze Flamethrower: Xena, performed by Lucy Lawless herself! She will use this technique on occasion throughout the series.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Gregor gets a son and heir, while Pandora gets a surrogate family and a home.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: Invoked by Xena after infiltrating Gregor's private quarters.
- Meaningful Name: At Xena's suggestion, the baby is named Gabriel in honor of Gabrielle.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Pandora kicks herself for protecting the baby instead of the box.
- No Animals Were Harmed: Or specifically, babies. This is the first episode with similar disclaimers near the end of the credits scroll-down. These continue through the end of the series.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Gregor is mourning the loss of both his wife and son during childbirth.Gregor: My boy, my only son. What's become of your father, child? The man your mother called husband? I would have valued your life greater than my own. And now another child's life is in my hands. Why were you taken from me?
- Properly Paranoid: Xena suspects whoever sent the baby down the river in a basket had a reason beyond simply abandoning the child.
- Prophecy Twist: The oracle's prophecy dictates that the next ruler will not be of Gregor's line. Everyone assumes this means a future conqueror, but Xena figures out the baby is meant to be raised by Gregor as an adopted son.
- Race Against the Clock: The lock on Pandora's Box can only be reset by one of her bloodline, and it will otherwise open on its own at midnight, thus causing hope to escape. The box has actually been empty all along, but Xena reasons that everyone has hope because they believe it's in the box.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Pandora is the granddaughter of the Pandora who opened the box and thus tasked with guarding it. She laments having to pay for being born into the wrong family.
- Twisting the Prophecy: A king reluctantly orders the deaths of all newborn baby boys, fearing a prophecy that a boy born during that period would replace him as king. Xena eventually convinces the king to raise the kid prophesied to replace him as his son, so that when he does replace him, it will be as his heir, not as his conqueror.
- Would Hurt a Child: Gregor struggles with the idea of harming a baby, even one destined to be his enemy. Nemos doesn't share his hesitation.
