Directed by Stewart Main
Written by Peter Allan Fields
Xena is reunited with her brother Toris and the two join forces to overthrow Cortese, the raider who destroyed their village many years before.
Tropes
- Being Good Sucks: After the con is revealed, Xena has to pull her punches on the castle guards since they don't know the truth about their boss.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Averted. In his first scene, Cortese states he's responsible for Xena being who she is. He even sent assassins to try to keep her from interfering in his plans.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: This is the first and last time Toris appears.
- Cruel Mercy: Xena would rather take Cortese alive so he can lose everything and rot in prison.
- The Dragon: Cortese has Malik when he's leading the bandits.
- Foil: Cortese's underlings contrast with each other. Malik is a violent thug in on the whole scheme, while Aescalus is an unaware official that can't fight worth a damn.
- Frame-Up: Cortese plans to keep his subjects happy by framing Xena as The Dragon for the bandits and having her executed. Xena spends a fair amount of time trying to avoid castle soldiers.
- It Amused Me: Cortese makes so much money on his scheme that he admits he only puts on the mask nowadays just to go rampaging for the fun of it.
- Number Two: Aescalus when Cortese is being the king. Aescalus doesn't know he's actually helping the villain, though.
- Playing Both Sides: Cortese's scheme. As bandit leader, he wreaks havoc in the kingdom and takes all kinds of spoils. As king, he demands huge taxes and the locals gladly pay up to stay safe from the bandits. However he admits that using this plan still means having citizens and soldiers that get tired of a constant conflict in which they never achieve a major victory, so he intends to frame Xena as The Dragon for the bandits and execute her as a show of force.
- Red Herring: Aescalus is suspected as being the spy.
- Remember the New Guy?: Xena has an older brother? Yes, but just for this one episode.
- Technically a subversion. Xena told Iolus she had 3 brothers
- The Reveal: Cortese is the king.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Toris wants to murder Cortese to ease his own guilt about Lyceus dying. Xena gives him the chance to try to prove that he doesn't really want to be that kind of person.
- The Scapegoat: Toris has a lot of anger for Xena over the death of their brother, but he's mainly taking it out on her because of his own guilt.
- Survivor's Guilt: Whereas Xena wanted to defend their village against Cortese, Toris proposed going to hide in the hills. Toris admits that he was thinking about himself, so when Lyceus was killed, he went into a tailspin of guilt and self-loathing.
- Unwitting Pawn: Those in the castle don't know about the con Cortese is running.
- Wham Line:
- "Then stop unless, of course, you wanna kill your brother?"
- "But Aescalus isn't the spy; the king is the spy. Recognize me, Xena? It's been a while."
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The heroes initially think that Malik has a spy inside the castle feeding them information and that that's how Cortese keeps eluding capture. They suspect Aescalus, but it turns out the king is Cortese.
