Hey Guys
As you all know, I am passionate about
Xena: Warrior Princess as I'm sure some of you are, and I know Jon is because he told me so himself!
I have become completely obsessed of late with one particular episode, the fourth season episode
Takes One To Know One which is sort of like Xena's version of
Clue/Cluedo. I have always loved classic murder mysteries, I watched
Murder, She Wrote for years and even did a university course in
Detective Novels By Women Writers as part of my English/Creative Writing program. We studied authors like
Agatha Christie and
Dorothy Sayers, and unfortunately they don't write classic "whodunnits" like they used to, which is why I LOVED this Xena episode from the first time I saw it and which is why I watch it every chance I get - even though I could basically recite the episode word for word, I've seen it so many times, but it never loses its freshness for some reason.
So, if you will indulge me, and if you HAVEN'T seen this episode then come and join me for a little detective work to see "whodunnit". For those who have seen it, please don't spoil the fun for the others. I just felt like creating this little game based on this much loved episode.
CAST:*XENA (Lucy Lawless) - Warrior Princess, Former Destroyer Of Nations & Current Poster Girl For Truth And Justice. Has until sunrise to find the murderer and deliver them to Discord...or else...
Role In Episode - The Detective (NOT a suspect).*DISCORD (Meighan Desmond) - Goddess Of Retribution who threatens to take one of Xena's friends/family members at random unless she is presented with the real killer.
Role In Episode - Strong Arm Of The Law (in other words, the "trigger happy sheriff"). Is anxious to please Ares, God Of War who gave her the job - she doesn't want to mess up and is rather overeager and will stop at nothing to get the job done, even if she has to take a few innocent people out in the process.RAVENICA (Natalie Duggan) - Cruel female bounty hunter who slows down her bounties by cutting their horses tendons forcing them to be put down. Has three current people on her hit list - Xena, some other random guy, and Jett (Joxer's wicked brother).
*Role In Episode - Murder victim (who DIDN'T want her dead is the better question!) Nearly everyone had a motive and you can't say this unpleasant person didn't deserve it!ARGO (Xena's Horse) - Much beloved steed of the Warrior Princess. Thinks much like a human being, or at least Xena likes to think she does.
*Role In Episode - One of the murder victim's intended targets.AUTOLYCUS (Bruce Campbell) - King Of Thieves, a vagabond rogue who is both good-hearted deep down, but heavily spiced with mischief!
*Role In Episode - Rumoured lover and co-partner in crime with the victim, loyal but shady friend to Xena, "jock-like" foil to nerdy Joxer, and diamond thief. Is suspicious of Xena's mother whom he accuses of being the murderer because of her overprotectiveness.JOXER (Ted Raimi) - Mighty Warrior (in his own imagination that is...) who is a notorious and compulsive goof-up, but also has a good heart.
*Role In Episode - Bumbling sidekick to Xena, love-struck (without a hope in hell) with Gabrielle while at the same time contending with the love-struckness of Gab's sister directed at him, constant thorn in Minya's side, and loyal if misguided defender of his villainous twin brother Jett (only referred to, not actually in the episode), whom Ravenica mistakenly thinks Joxer is, and although Jett is on her hit list, she has "bigger fish on the line" meaning Xena so Jett/Joxer had better watch his step. Not just from Ravenica, but from Gabrielle, whose scroll he'd plagiarised to write return notes to Lila.GABRIELLE (Renee O'Connor) - Actual sidekick to Xena, once an avid fighter but with a clear conscience of goodness, now a complete pacifist.
*Role In Episode - Birthday Girl. Dr Watson to Xena's Sherlock Holmes. Staunchly loyal to Xena, loving sister to Lila, kind of like a sister to Joxer (even though he wishes for more...), and likes to do weird things with gravy. Suspicious of Autolycus. LILA (Willa O'Neill) - Gabrielle's younger much shyer sister.
*Role In Episode - Besides being the kid sister of Xena's best friend, Lila is smitten with Joxer, terrified of Discord and Ravenica (the latter not a problem for long), and an admiring friend to Minya, but is suspicious of Autolycus.MINYA (Alison Wall) - Former village farmer and stablehand. Loves horses. At one time was an aspiring "thespian".
*Role In Episode - Longtime good friend to Xena and Gabrielle. Hated Ravenica for her cruel treatment of horses. Constantly annoyed with Joxer's tiresome accusations of "It was Minya in the bedroom with the knife!" Shows great budding friendship with Lila. Like everyone else, she is suspicious of Autolycus. CYRENE (Darien Takle) - Xena's loving but rather overprotective mother. Cyrene owns the tavern where the action takes place. She is the first to supect Ravenica is a bounty hunter which sets Xena and Autolycus to wondering...Cyrene has in fact killed before - she killed her own husband (Xena's father) years ago, when in a fit of madness he tried to sacrifice his then baby daughter to Ares, God Of War.
*Role In Episode - Extremely overprotective but loving mother to Xena, is close with Gabrielle and Lila, is on good terms with Minya whom she presumably has just met, is patient with Joxer's goofiness, and is rather offended with Autolycus' suggestion that she could be a murderer.The STORY:Xena and Argo ride into her home town of Amphipolis late at night during a storm. Xena goes into a tavern which is mysteriously dark and in the gloom, the ever-alert Xena grabs someone sneaking up on her in the dark. It is Joxer, who feebly squeaks out "Surprise" while nervously staring at Xena's sword which is at his throat. At that same moment, Xena's mother Cyrene, Gabrielle's younger sister Lila, and their friend Minya leap up with lit candles illuminating the room and yell "Surprise!"
They are expecting Gabrielle whose birthday it is the next day although they thought a surprise party the night before was a neat idea - but Gabrielle isn't with Xena at that present moment. Cyrene, Lila, Minya, and Joxer seemed disappointed that Gabrielle wasn't there, and Xena seemed a little hurt. Cyrene is quick to affirm that while she is obviously glad to see her daughter, it isn't her birthday. Lila announces the surprise party was Joxer's idea to which Xena quips is no surprise. Then Xena removes the hood worn by a disguised party guest who prior to his unmasking remained silent and still while sitting at a table. As Xena correctly surmised, it is none other than Autolycus, King of Thieves. While he is a good friend, Autolycus is known for being a little shifty (OK, a LOT shifty) and Xena wonders at his real reason for being there. He's not exactly the party-boy type.
Xena tells everyone that Gabrielle (who for some unexplained reason is on a mission of her own) will be there in the morning. Xena announces she is tired, and wishes everyone a goodnight and goes to sleep in a room closer to that belonging to her mother, while Xena's own bedroom, has been mysteriously and inexplicably given to a guest. The mystery guest is Ravenica, an unknown sour-faced woman who stares viciously at Xena but says nothing upon her entering the room.
After a few hours of sleep, a violent thunderstorm wakes Xena up. Looking out the window, she sees a figure scurrying out of the stables, and sees a light in the room beyond. Then she hears a massive crash. She goes to her mother's room to check on her, but Cyrene is not there. Xena breaks into her bedroom (the reason is not clearly explained) and finds Ravenica lying on her stomach. Xena turns her over to find there is a knife sticking out of her chest. Ravenica has been murdered. But by who?
Discord appears. Ares has made her the "Goddess of Retribution". She demands satisfaction, saying one of Xena's friends must have been the killer. She gives Xena until morning to find the culprit.
Xena and her family/friends go through the dead woman's things and discover she was a bounty hunter. Actually Cyrene is the one who guess this first, so Xena has a talk with her in private. Xena asks if Cyrene has killed Ravenica the same way she was forced to kill Xena's father to protect her daughter. Cyrene explains she was in the kitchen putting water on the firecoals in the stove.
Xena is called back into the other room where a reason for Ravenica's appearance at the tavern is revealed. She was after Xena as well as some random other guy. There is also a third scroll tube which is mysteriously empty...
Minya - with great disgust - says she knows the woman. Ravenica is known to cut the tendons on horses to keep her bounties from running away. Also, Autolycus uncovers a leather pouch which is filled with rocks.
Gabrielle enters, telling Xena "We've got trouble." She then sees Ravenica's body and thinks Xena might have gotten the upper hand, as Gabrielle knew the bounty hunter was after Xena.
Autolycus questions Cyrene and accuses her of the murder to protect Xena. Autolycus goes to leave, but Discord blasts him back inside. She appears and aims an arrow at Cyrene.
Xena whirls the chakram at the flying arrow and deflects it. Gabrielle finds diamonds in the floor, dropped by Autolycus. That explains the rocks in the pouch - the King of Thieves had stolen Ravenica's diamonds and tried to cover his tracks.
It seems someone else had gone through Ravenica's belongings, someone sloppy and dumb who put Ravenica's fruit at the bottom of the bag with her maps underneath the heavier manacles and chains - in fear of being caught snooping.
Another clue pops up. Ravenica's gear mysteriously smells of lavender perfume. No bounty hunter worth her salt would wear perfume of any kind. Her prey would smell her for miles and that's not exactly stealthy.
Only one person in the room wears lavender perfume...Lila. She insists she never went through Ravenica's things no matter how they smelled.
Gabrielle, Autolycus and Xena go examine the body again. Gabrielle finds a piece of kindling in the room. Besides the knife wound, Ravenica has a rash (although this would eventually prove to be a "red herring"), and ink in her hair as well as enormous bruise on the back of her head as if she had been struck with a blunt object. Also, Xena finds three candles on the floor from the heavy chandelier overhead. Two more are ensconced in the chandelier still. However, it only holds four candles...so where did the fifth candle come from?
Xena has been hiding the key to the room, which she found in the keyhole on the inside of the door when she broke in earlier. The window locks itself automatically from the inside. How did the killer get in the room which was presumably locked by Ravenica herself shortly before her death.
Xena deduces that if she could discover who owned the knife, it could provide further clues. It was revealed to be Minya's knife that was sticking out of the Ravenica's chest. But Xena says the knife isn't what killed her!
SHOCK CONFESSION!!
Gabrielle says she killed the woman!
Gabrielle says she met up with Ravenica a few days back and put Joxer's infamous gravy recipe in her water jug to give her the trots, and that must be what killed the woman. Discord shows up with her bow and arrows again to take out Gabrielle, but Xena and Joxer stop her. Joxer even begs to take Gabrielle's place.
But Xena discovers the water bag is full, which means that Gabrielle never poisoned anyone, and as for the rash, it might be residue from the ink found in Ravenica's hair, but this was never really explained.
Xena says a bounty scroll is missing. She immediately points the finger at Joxer who stole the third scroll tube. He says he took it because the woman mistook him for his brother Jett, and ripped up a return note he was writing to Lila who it seems sent Joxer a love note doused with lavender to which he was touched, but since he is "already in love with Ga...llavanting around fighting for truth and justice". Yeah right, Joxer...we all know who you meant to say!
Joxer accidentally causes an inkwell to fly across the room and whack Ravenica in the back of the head - which although was messy, was hardly the cause of the massive bruise Xena discovered earlier.
When Joxer snuck into Ravenica's room to steal his brother's bounty scroll, he heard Autolycus and Ravenica coming into the room she was staying in. Joxer climbed out of the open window which was propped up with the kindling Gabrielle found earlier and bumped into Argo who was munching hay in her stable stall which was right outside Ravenica's window. Don't you just love Cyrene? She gave the nasty woman a room right near the stables!!
Joxer hears Ravenica accuse Autolycus of having stolen her diamonds which he denied, and thus lied about. He also claims he was in the room having a love tryst with the woman, but Joxer states that is also a lie and explains what he really heard.
Autolycus confesses that he threatened Ravenica to warn her off trying to cash in on Xena. Discord pops in with her arrows and threatens to shoot Autolycus. Xena argues with her and she disappears again with an ultimatum...
Discord: "Fine. You wanna play rough? I love rough. So here's the deal. You either hand me the killer on my next trip, or I'll take 'em all. Your friends, your family...everyone! That way I know the killer won't escape me, because none of you will!"Xena wants some more answers, this time from Minya and Lila who secretly plotted to keep Ravenica from getting the jump on Xena. Lila went to the stables with Minya's knife while Minya set up a fake conversation to make anyone who was listening think she and Lila were chatting.
Lila tried to set the woman's horse free by cutting the reins, so she couldn't follow Xena.
Ravenica caught Lila and threatened her, so Minya went to Ravenica's room after she saw the bounty hunter going out to the stables presumably to cripple Argo. Minya took a candle to make shadow puppets and talked loudly like a man to get Ravenica's attention - making it seem like two men were talking in her room - so she could draw her back inside and away from Lila. Minya ran away when Ravenica confronted her while she was still performing her little pantomime in the bedroom and thus Minya was the last person to see Ravenica alive. However, Ravenica had the knife in her own hand and had locked the door from the inside to finish the grisly deed she had tried to do in the stables.
Thus, the figure that Xena saw running back from the stables earlier was Lila, and the light in the room was because of Minya's candle - the mysterious fifth candle they found earlier.
There is a round of accusations which is kind of like a courtroom summation from Gabrielle (now cleared from the suspect list). At this point, only Xena and Gabrielle can be completely proven innocent of the murder of Ravenica.
Here is Gabrielle's reasoning and accusations as follows:
GABRIELLE: "All right! All right! Now, we've assembled the facts and
there's one thing we know beyond the shadow of a doubt to be the indisputable truth. Ravenica is dead, and someone here killed her."
AUTOLYCUS: "Tell us something we don't know."
GABRIELLE: "I could ask you the same thing, Autolycus. Tell us what we
don't know about you and Ravenica."
CYRENE: "But, Gabrielle, surely, he's already explained that."
GABRIELLE: "I think it was slightly vague...like how you explained why
you weren't in your room when Xena checked."
LILA: "Gabrielle, this is Xena's mom!"
GABRIELLE: "I know that, Lila, and you're my sister. But if there's blood on your hands..."
JOXER: "Blood! Blood! Blood! Oh no. It's just ink."
GABRIELLE: "But blood is thicker than ink, Joxer. And the same blood flows in you that flows in your deadly brother, Jett."
MINYA: "You know what they say...blood will out."
GABRIELLE: "But none of this explains why your knife was in Ravenica's chest."
AUTOLYCUS: "Yeah, that's a good point. What about that knife, huh?"
GABRIELLE: "OK, OK, all right! Those are the facts! It doesn't take an oracle to see our outcome."
AUTOLYCUS: "Right. We're all gonna die."Suddenly Discord shows up with her posse of near-naked strongmen to rough up Xena and her family and friends presumably before the Goddess of Retribution delivers final justice. There is a huge brawl, with Xena, Autolycus, and Minya kicking the crap out of Discord's men while she watches in disgust, because while these guys "might be great in bed, they're hopeless in a fight". Even Joxer lands a few lucky blows on these losers!
Meanwhile, Gabrielle (now Miss Pacifist), takes Lila and Cyrene (who aren't real fighting material) and takes cover in the kitchen. However, in a fit of "you don't want to mess with my daughter, punk", Cyrene manages to hit one guy on the head with a pot and goes after another one with a vase, but is restrained by Gabrielle who presumably is trying to protect Cyrene.
One guy tries to take out Minya with a chandelier by swinging it at her, but she ducks and then catches it and sends it right back, knocking him on his butt.
Suddenly, Xena calls out to Discord to stop the fight...because XENA KNOWS WHODUNNIT!
Xena tells Discord if she isn't satisfied with the resolution of the mystery, then she is free to take out Xena (agreeing to be held completely responsible of the murder she didn't commit to save the guilty party's life) without a fight. Discord agrees and demands that Xena re-enacts the murder in the bedroom...
SEE BELOW FOR RESOLUTION...*NOW, for those of you who want to solve the mystery based on the clues given, feel free to do so. SPOILER WARNING: I have hidden the answer in this post, but don't take a sneak peek unless you're absolutely sure you have trouble solving it on your own.CYRENE: "Xena, will this do?"
*Cyrene has just brought in a sack (probably filled with wheat or some such). This sack is meant to represent Ravenica. Xena opens the window and holds the sack out at arm's length.
XENA: "Yeah, that's perfect. You see, Lila and Minya were guilty of thinking like Ravenica."
FLASHBACK:
RAVENICA: "Look at the bright side, horse...no more hauling Xena around."
*Ravenica leans out the window adjoining the stable and reaches forward with the knife to cut Argo's tendons.
XENA: "But Argo has an instinct for danger. She knew that something was up. You see, the door was locked from the inside by Ravenica with
a key. But the window locks itself."
DISCORD: "That still doesn't explain the knife in her chest."
FLASHBACK:
*Argo lashes out with her hind legs and sends Ravenica flying back into the room. She hits her head on the chandelier which rocks and swings wildly, knocking two of the candles out of it and they land on the floor next to the one Minya dropped earlier. The knife which was sent reeling out of Ravenica's hand comes spinning down and lands in her chest.
*This is represented in the re-enactment with the bag flying back after being kicked by Argo, striking the chandelier, and landing on the floor just as the knife point strikes the bag.
XENA: "The knife probably didn't go in much past the breastplate."
DISCORD: "But it was in up to its hilt."
XENA: "Not at first."
*Xena ducks from the chandelier's return swing - just as Minya had earlier - and swings it again with full force.
FLASHBACK:
XENA'S VOICE: "A horse kick to the chest. A hit to her head...and a knife stuck in her chest. But Ravenica was still alive, until..."
*As we hear Xena's voice, we see the following flashback - Ravenica staggers to her feet, still reeling from the bump on her head and in pain from the dagger which has caused a minor surface wound but is still painful. Ravenica turns around, without realising the chandelier is making it's return swing in back of her. The chandelier hits her with full force and knocks her down in a forward position.
DISCORD: "Oh, puh-lease. Whaddya think? I'm some kind 'a moron?!"
*Discord, in a similar but less fatal manner than Ravenica, is struck on the back of the head by the chandelier's return swing and is knocked on her face. Being a Goddess, she only suffered a small headache and a lot of humiliation!
XENA: "The first hit from the chandelier knocked her down, and the second one killed her. She fell forward..."
GABRIELLE: "...right onto the knife."
*Discord rises to her feet, furious...
DISCORD: "You're telling me your horse killed her?"
XENA: "In self-defense."
AUTOLYCUS: "Ya gotta admit it...it fits like a Trojan Glove."
DISCORD: "But I can't take back a horse! I don't do animals!"
MINYA: [*under her breath to Autolycus who snickers*] "That's not what I heard."
DISCORD: [*roars with rage*] "Ah-h-h-h! This job sucks!"
*Realising she has been outwitted and defeated, Discord leaves in a huff leaving Xena and her family and friends to apologise to each other for various things, reaffirm friendships, and celebrate Gabrielle's birthday!So, did you guess WHODUNNIT! How did you like my little mystery? Well, not actually mine of course, but the idea for this game thread was!
Cheers, Mikey
PS Sorry guys for posting this again. I actually meant to edit the original post because I forgot to include the name of the actress who played Lila, and I went to edit it in and I must have pressed the *QUOTE* button by mistake. 
