Plot summary
Following the events at Dahak's temple, Gabrielle becomes feverish and suffers rapidly worsening stomach pain. Banshees attack Xena but bow to Gabrielle, treating her as someone sacred. In a nearby village, a warrior named Caswallawn warns the inhabitants that she will bring the end of goodness, provoking a mob against her.
Xena rescues her and learns that Dahak has caused a supernatural pregnancy. They take refuge among the Warriors of the Pierced Heart, whose members disagree over whether Gabrielle and the child should be protected or killed. The pregnancy advances with impossible speed, and Xena helps her give birth before the hostile warriors can enter.
Gabrielle names her daughter Hope and insists that the baby is innocent. Xena fears that she is Dahak's means of entering the world. Two warriors initially help defend them, but Eochaid secretly admits the Banshees so they can claim the child.
While Xena drives the creatures away, Goewin is strangled with his own medallion. Xena returns to find Hope holding it and becomes convinced that the baby is already dangerous. She draws her sword, but Gabrielle wakes, takes Hope and flees.
The chase divides the two friends. Gabrielle even calls on the Banshees to obstruct Xena rather than surrender her daughter. When finally cornered, she claims that Hope attacked her and that she threw the child into an abyss.
The story reveals that this is a lie. Hope is alive in a basket floating downriver. That night Gabrielle slips away from their camp to speak a farewell to her daughter, trusting that she will survive and hoping that she will choose goodness. Xena remains unaware that Hope has been spared.
Credits
Adapted from Legendary Journeys Wiki contributors, Gabrielle's Hope. Complete episode narrative, rewritten and condensed for clarity; causal developments and the episode's ending retained. Illustrations, dialogue quotations and non-story metadata omitted.