The Titans

What a charming episode! It is one of the first to be centred around Gabrielle's character, her process of learning, and her friendship with Xena. There are many lessons learnt by Gabrielle on this episode: about the dangers of power, and the deceiving of appearances, and the fragility and strength of friendship. Along the way, we get to see Xena jealous for the first time! Gabrielle suggests that she can sneak into the Titans's cave and get the chant that will turn them back into stone-- but Xena does not want to even hear about it: too dangerous. Too risky: she does not want to lose Gabrielle. But Gabrielle thinks she just does not trust her, and she gets upset. And Xena is clever enough to keep quiet and give her time to realise why she did it. She seems very much in control, at this point. However, Gabrielle ends up spending the night with Phyleus (although in theory, nothing happened), and at the following morning, Xena sees them together... and we can see a flint of emotion on her face. Subtle and stoic, but it does affect her! Very telling. At the end of the episode, Xena tries to talk to Gabrielle about their small rift, and they make up:

X: “Why did you risk your life by going into that cavern alone?”
G: “I wanted to make up for what I did, so that you wouldn’t hate me.”
X: “For your information, I could never hate you. Your heart’s always in the right place.”
G: “Even when I tried to rule the world with the Titans?”
X: “Everybody makes mistakes.”
G: “Well, what about when I got myself kidnapped so I could stop a war.”
X: “Hey, that took a lot of guts on your part.”
G: “What about when I, I got your horse’s reins tangled?”
X: “Look-- the point is, we’re friends. And, we shouldn't let things like that come between us. Come on. Gabrielle?”
G: “Yeah?”
X: “Don’t you ever touch my horse again.”
G: “Right.”

;)