Sacrifice II

"The mother and daughter reunion. I'm all misty-eyed."

- Callisto Hope takes the form of Gabrielle and joins forces with Ares to create a race of superbeings. Hope denies Callisto her wish to die until Dahak is released onto the World and so, in her anger, joins with Xena and Gabrielle.

Summary
Inside the Halls of War, Gabrielle is amazed as she is greeted by her daughter Hope, who emerges from her cocoon looking exactly like her mother. For a second, the look that passes between the two suggests a human connection, but Hope's face suddenly distorts in rage as she summons her inhuman powers. Xena for her sword, but Hope focuses her energies on the weapon, making it fly out of Xena's hands. Xena then pulls out her chakram and is ready to let it rip when Gabrielle stops her.

Taking advantage of the hesitation, Callisto attacks Xena. As the two engage in battle, Xena attempts to reach Hope, but Hope defends herself by using her powers to make the knives and swords hanging on the walls fly towards Xena and Gabrielle. Hope then summons Callisto and the two disappear in a wall of flame. Xena is furious at Gabrielle for having stopped her from killing Hope.

Gabrielle explains that she intervened because Ares has ordered the Fates to cut Xena's life line if she destroys Hope. But Xena insists she is willing to die to rid the world of the evil daughter of Dahak. As Hope and Callisto head towards Ares' temple, Callisto reminds Hope, who is now dressed exactly like Gabrielle, that she craves oblivion above all else and expects Hope to kill her in exchange for her help.

At the shrine to Dahak, Ares addresses the evil growing flame which burns on the altar and announces his allegiance to the Dark One. Meanwhile, Werfner and Dahak's disciples round up villagers in a small town to be blood sacrifices.

Xena and Gabrielle start freeing the hostages, but Seraphin explains that their efforts are futile because sacrifices are being chosen across the land. Suddenly Ares appears only to Gabrielle and she tells him she now realizes that Hope must be destroyed no matter what the consequences. With that, Ares disappears and materializes back at his temple to find Hope and Callisto. Callisto is shocked to learn that she and the god of war are now on the same team and her dismay turns to anger when Hope refuses to disclose the location of the lethal Hind's Blood dagger and begins shamelessly flirting with Ares. Appalled, Callisto vanishes in a burst of flame.

Meanwhile, Xena, Gabrielle and Seraphin watch as hundreds of peasants are led to Dahak's shrine. Fearing she will be used to betray her god, Seraphin throws herself over the edge of a cliff. Xena is able to grab her, but is confronted by Callisto when she climbs back to safety. Hoping to strike a deal, Callisto offers to help destroy Dahak if Xena promises to kill her with the Hind's Blood dagger. Eager for Callisto to live in eternal despair, Xena declines. During this commotion, Seraphin runs off but Xena lets her go. Near Ares' temple, more hostages are being marched towards Dahak's holy grounds.

As Joxer attempts to block their path, Seraphin comes up behind him and knocks him out cold, allowing the procession to pass. Meanwhile, Gabrielle convinces Xena to allow Callisto to join forces with them while Hope finds the stone slab at Ares' temple where Hercules supposedly hid the dagger. The dagger, however, is gone. As she walks down a road, Hope runs into Joxer, who mistakes her for Gabrielle.

Later, Xena, Gabrielle and Callisto come to another village where Dahak's disciples are wreaking havoc. As Gabrielle disappears into the woods to help some of the villagers escape, Callisto continues to work her magic on the disciples. When Gabrielle returns, Xena, seeing that Callisto is still occupied, tells Gabrielle that now is the time to retrieve the dagger. But it turns out that Xena is really talking to Hope, which she quickly figures out.

Joxer and the real Gabrielle soon arrive and Ares materializes to spirit Hope away. Callisto, Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer are travelling and riding their horses, and Joxer keeps falling off. Xena then insists that the bumbling Joxer leave. He complies, but is soon picked up by Werfner, and taken into the temple as a sacrifice.

That night, Callisto and Xena at by the campfire, and Callisto expresses that its probaly the last night either one of them will see. Ares appears to Xena and she realizes that he has impregnated Hope. He has sold out his fellow gods to sire a brand new race. Gabrielle hears this and is not very happy about it.

The next day, all of the hostages arrive at Dahak's shrine. As Xena and Gabrielle look at the temple, Callisto suddenly appears and tells Xena she hasn't found the dagger and that Xena has hidden it well from her. Gabrielle hears Hope's voice calling her, and only Gabrielle hears it, she walks off to find Hope. Hope asks Gabrielle one last time to join her, but Gabrielle refuses, and says she is sorry about the poison, Hope glares at Gabrielle, and takes her hand away before walking back into the woods. Xena asks Gabrielle to stay outside the temple, but Gabrielle refuses. Xena tells Gabrielle that she is so important to her, and has made her life complete, and is a part of herself, no matter what happens.

They fight their way into the temple. Xena tosses her chakram at the fire cover above Dahak and smothers the flames. As Xena reaches the altar where Hope stands, she grabs the Hind's Blood dagger from Joxer, who has been her secret accomplice in retrieving it. Callisto appears and tosses Ares away, and tells Xena to kill Hope and then kill her. Hope stops Xena with her mental powers, but Xena fights the invisible force and slowly moves forward.

She is almost there when Ares reminds Gabrielle of Xena's fate if she kills Hope. But when Xena moves towards Hope to make the kill, Gabrielle vaults onto the altar and pushes herself and her daughter into the adjacent abyss, extinguishing Dahak's flame.

Xena is devastated and Callisto is overjoyed, claiming that seeing Gabrielle sacrifice herself has suddenly given her reason to live again. Enraged, Xena plunges the dagger into Callisto's heart. Callisto's last thoughts are Gabrielle falling into the Lava pit. Xena and Joxer look on shocked by Gabrielle's sacrifice.

Disclaimer
Gabrielle finally went off the deep end during the production of this motion picture.

Behind the Scenes

 * Shooting Dates: March 12, 1998 through March 20, 1998 (7 Day Shoot).
 * Despite being the final episode of the season to be filmed, Sacrifice Part 2 was written before part 1.
 * This episode was watched by 5.4 million viewers on its original airing, only being beaten by The X-Fileswhich had 5.8 million viewers the same night.
 * At Dragon Con in Atlanta, Steven Sears stated that the character of Werfner was based on Gollum, from Lord of the Rings.
 * The camp-fire chat with Callisto and Xena was alot longer in length, it can be seen on the Season 3 DVD set, with Gabrielle awake near-by, Callisto tells Xena that she felt nothing the day Solan died, and there was alot more deep discussions between the two.
 * Renee says that Gabrielle didn't mean to go into the pit with Hope. She was just trying to keep Xena from killing Hope, since she knew that the Fates had agreed that Xena would die if she killed Hope.
 * Lucy Lawless asked Hudson Leick not to make contact during their fight scenes because Lucy was getting married soon and didn't want any bruises.
 * Gabrielle originally wasn't going to "die" at the end, but when word of Callisto's death leaked online, they kept the original ending on the script and then killed her so that there would be a cliff hanger.
 * The idea of the six destroyers comes from the Biblical Armageddon told of in the Book of Revelations.

Key Events

 * This is the first time a god, Callisto, dies on Xena. Though it certainly won't be the last time due to season 5's storyline. Velasca was only trapped, not killed in A Necessary Evil.
 * Callisto and Ares have been important characters in the Hope/Dahak storyline which continues into season 4. However, after this episode, they do not appear again until the closing episodes of season 4 in unrelated storylines.
 * Ares also appeared in HTLJ ' s "Reunions", which premiered the same night.

Other

 * Xena's response to Callisto's request for death, "may you live forever", is in fact a deathly insult in ancient Greece, as a person who lives forever will never die a glorious death and will therefore be forgotten.
 * Chakram Count: 3
 * 1) To try and kill Hope, although she intercepts and stops it.
 * 2) To unchain a suspeneded large, round piece of metal, that Xena and Gabrielle use as a shiled to escape from Hope.
 * 3) To extinguish the fire and prevent Dahak from intervening with Xena killing Hope.
 * This episode is a cliffhanger and the storylines will be resolved in the first 3 episodes of season 4.
 * This is the only season finale to feature all five of XWP's iconic characters: Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer, Callisto and Ares.
 * Ares also featured prominently in Reunions, which aired the same night as this episode. That episode also featured Ares teaming up with a great evil, but no mention is made of his conflicting loyalties.

Guest Stars

 * Ted Raimi as Joxer
 * Kevin Smith as Ares
 * Hudson Leick as Callisto
 * Jodie Rimmer as Seraphin
 * Stephen Ure as Werfner
 * Kevin Sorbo as Hercules (archive footage, uncredited)

Gods

 * Callisto
 * Ares

Places

 * Halls of War