ALTARED STATES

A boy named Ikus is sent away from home by his mother to hide. He runs to the lake where Xena and Gabrielle happen to be fishing. (Was that a cheeky moment??) Anyway, Xena helps save him from his chasers -his family?! Karl Urban makes his debut as Ikus' older and more jealous brother. He and the band of believers are trying to sacrifice Ikus. (This is a spitting image of the Abraham and Isaac story). Xena goes to talk with the father herself. "God has commanded it," he explains of the sacrifice. He is, however, very unwilling to go through with such violence. Meanwhile, back in a cave, Gabrielle eats some of Ikus' nutbread -which she doesn't realize was spiked. Xena enters to discover Gabrielle drugged and Ike missing. Soon, Ikus is taken to the altar. Xena intercepts! It turns out that Ikus' father was being drugged, too. The brother shows up and has Xena and Gabrielle thrown into a well which they eventually climb out of. Ikus himself thinks they should obey! We learn the brother is causing the thundering and voices of "God" with a primitive megaphone. But the voice who, in the end, commands the hand to stay is a mystery.... "Killing Ikus isn't the will of any God."