Plot summary
With Xena away, Aphrodite sets out to break the match between Princess Ileandra and Prince Sarpedon. Their marriage would lead their fathers to remove temples dedicated to her. Accepting Cupid's challenge, she chooses Joxer as the unlikely rival who will disrupt the wedding.
A spell controlled by a bell transforms Joxer into a confident, highly skilled warrior. The next ring reverses it, leaving him unaware of what he has done. After he rescues Ileandra from attackers, she falls for his enchanted persona. Gabrielle is baffled by his alternating brilliance and incompetence.
Aphrodite repeatedly intervenes to renew the spell. Sarpedon discovers Ileandra's attraction and fights Joxer, while news of the rivalry turns the two royal families against one another. When a bell leaves Joxer helpless in front of the king's soldiers, he and Gabrielle are arrested and condemned.
Gabrielle identifies Aphrodite as the cause and asks her to end the enchantment, but the goddess refuses. With Joxer's execution approaching, Gabrielle rings a large bell and restores his fighting abilities long enough for him to escape.
She then directs the battle into Aphrodite's temple. Seeing her own statues and possessions being destroyed, Aphrodite finally lifts the spell. Ileandra and Sarpedon are reunited, and the marriage can proceed without Joxer's interference.
Afterward Joxer is ashamed that his heroism depended on magic. Xena reassures him that the gods could only bring out qualities already present within him. The encouragement does not make him any less awkward, but it gives his brief transformation a meaning beyond Aphrodite's manipulation.
Credits
Adapted from Legendary Journeys Wiki contributors, For Him the Bell Tolls. Complete episode narrative, rewritten and condensed for clarity; causal developments and the episode's ending retained. Illustrations, dialogue quotations and non-story metadata omitted.