Plot summary
Xerxes, ruler of Argos, arrests a group of citizens after several claim to be the rebel leader known as the Black Wolf. Xena learns that her childhood acquaintance Flora is among them and promises Flora's mother that she will help.
Pretending to work for Xerxes, Xena offers to identify the rebel leader for a reward. She stages her own capture and enters the prison, where Flora refuses to leave without the rest of the resistance. Gabrielle tries to get herself arrested too, but her efforts initially send the merchant Salmoneus into the dungeon instead.
Xerxes' security minister Koulos nearly drowns Xena while attempting to intimidate the prisoners. She escapes the trap and persuades Flora's lover Diomedes to cooperate in a larger breakout. Using materials gathered by Salmoneus, the prisoners make weapons and netting and overpower their guards.
The escape fails when Xerxes is waiting outside. Back in the dungeon, Diomedes accuses Xena of betrayal and fights her. She defeats him without killing him and exposes another prisoner, Parnassus, as the informer.
When Koulos threatens Salmoneus, Flora reveals that she herself is the Black Wolf. Xena had already suspected the truth. She maintains her cover long enough to accompany Xerxes to Flora's public execution. There she and Gabrielle free the rebels, who turn on their captors and defeat the ruler. Xena's scheme succeeds by protecting the whole group rather than simply taking Flora out of prison.
Credits
Adapted from Legendary Journeys Wiki contributors, The Black Wolf. Complete episode narrative, rewritten and condensed for clarity; causal developments and the episode's ending retained. Illustrations, dialogue quotations and non-story metadata omitted.