When Xena (Lucy Lawless) and Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) are summoned to the village of Cormier by Meleager the Mighty (Tim Thomerson), they arrive to find that their famous warrior friend has just been convicted of murder. After battling their way past a group of hostile villagers led by Sullus (Douglas Kamo), they burst into the courthouse where Meleager stands chained. Despite Gabrielle's pleas to the court to consider Meleager's legendary courage and character, Judge Arbus (Tony Blackett) refuses to overturn the death sentence.
Back in his jail cell, Meleager tells Xena and Gabrielle he never even met the murder victim, a man named Calaman, who was killed the previous winter. Gabrielle believes Meleager's story implicitly but Xena, who has always known Arbus to be fair, has some doubts. She offers to talk to the judge and heads off towards the town square, now filled with villagers fighting over the best seats for the public hanging about to take place. Xena is further impressed with Arbus when she sees him scolding the onlookers for their callous behavior, and approaches him to learn what she can about Meleager's situation. Arbus reveals that it was the eyewitness testimony of an elderly woman (Ann Baxter) that convicted Meleager, and he calls the lady over to repeat her story. She tells Xena she saw Calaman stagger out of the stables, bleeding from a gaping wound in his chest. Just as he fell dead at her feet, Meleager ran out of the stables, holding a bloody sword in his hands.
Later that day, Gabrielle returns to the jail with a huge cart of food and wine and announces she's brought Meleager his last meal. As expected, the guards grab the cart and proceed to gorge themselves and get drunk. As soon as they doze off, Gabrielle lifts the cell keys and frees Meleager to go find his alibi, a one-eyed man he claims to have camped with the night of the murder. Meanwhile, Xena -- unaware of Gabrielle's actions -- investigates the scene of the crime. In the stables, she finds a saddle caked with blood on its underside. Reacting to a sudden commotion outside, she runs out to find Gabrielle being held hostage by an angry mob, determined to punish her for helping Meleager escape. As Xena rushes in to defend her friend, Arbus intercedes and tells Gabrielle he is holding her responsible. But when Xena insists on taking Gabrielle with her to find Meleager and bring him back, Arbus agrees. The two track Meleager along a mountain trail but just as they catch sight of him, Gabrielle shouts out a warning for him to run. When Xena starts to pursue him, Gabrielle physically blocks her path, ready to do battle against her friend if necessary. Finally, Xena gets past Gabrielle and she and Meleager square off in a furious brawl. Eventually, Meleager breaks down and confesses that he has no alibi for the night of the murder, and admits he must have committed the crime even though he was drunk at the time and can't remember anything.
On their way back to Cormier, Xena begins to question Meleager further and learns that the sword he found in his hands that night was a clumsy, skull-encrusted weapon too large for his grip. As they continue along the trail, Xena manages to thwart an attack by Sullus, who has been dispatched by Arbus to bring Meleager back to the village dead or alive. Xena chases Sullus off and the three proceed to Meleager's cave to inspect the sword he described. Once she sees the weapon, Xena is certain that Meleager is innocent. She tells her astonished companions that she met Calaman the night he died, having intervened when she saw him attacking a defenseless man named Elysha (Ranald Hendriks) with the skull-encrusted sword. In saving the victim, she was the one who wounded Calaman with his own sword. She realizes that when Calaman crawled back onto his horse, the animal must have instinctively headed back home to the stables where he crossed paths with Meleager and the elderly woman. No one could have suspected that he was already dying. Knowing that Elysha is the key to clearing Meleager's name, Xena heads off to find him and learns that "good judge" Arbus is actually not what he appears to be at all. Elysha tells her that he himself is being hunted because he has first-hand knowledge that the judge executed an innocent man strictly for the sake of his reputation. Meanwhile, Arbus, Sullus and two of their men arrive at Meleager's cave, knock the warrior unconscious and take off with him and Gabrielle. Realizing they've been captured when she returns to the cave, Xena races back to the village to stop Meleager's execution. Disguising herself in a spare set of robes pilfered from the executioner's trunk, Xena intervenes at the last moment, supporting Meleager's legs as he drops down onto her back under the gallows trap. Meleager and Gabrielle are freed, and Arbus is finally exposed as the power-mad hypocrite he really is.
Guest Starring: Tim Thomerson (Melaeger), Tony Blackett (Arbus), Douglas Kamo (Sullus), Ranald Hendriks (Elysha), Ann Baxter (Elderly Woman), Matthew Jeffs (Head Guard), Patrick Kuhtze (Other Guard), Dean Stewart (Executioner), Colin Francis (Hurried Villager), Alvin Fitisemanu (Hawker), Jonathon Acorn (Slim Man)
Starring: Lucy Lawless as Xena, Renee O'Connor as Gabrielle
Written by Paul Robert Coyle
Directed by Garth Maxwell