Plot summary
Unable to resume writing her scrolls, Gabrielle talks through her day with Aphrodite while Xena sleeps nearby. Her account begins with a wager: Xena insists that pregnancy has not made her irritable, and Gabrielle challenges her to go a day without losing her temper.
While washing Argo, Gabrielle uses water belonging to Lachrymose, the god of despair. The horse shrinks to the size of a pony. Gabrielle offers to make the humorless god laugh in exchange for restoring her. Stories from earlier adventures fail, and she delays telling Xena what happened.
Argo escapes, forcing Gabrielle to search the town. When she challenges Lachrymose's ability to reverse the spell, he shrinks her too. Joxer discovers the tiny Gabrielle and tries to help. He tells Lachrymose the unhappy story of his own life, distracting him long enough for Gabrielle to regain her size.
Xena finally sees the miniature Argo and confronts her friends in a tavern. An argument becomes a pie fight involving the entire room. Lachrymose watches until Xena causes a pie to fall onto him. To everyone's surprise, he laughs. Argo returns to normal.
Retelling the events does more than explain the day's chaos. Gabrielle realizes that preparing for Xena's child has left her neglecting the things that make her feel like herself. Writing is not simply a record of who she is; it is something she needs and something she can eventually share with the baby.
She thanks Aphrodite and begins a new scroll. Later Xena claims victory in their wager, only to be struck by another unexplained pie as laughter sounds nearby.
Credits
Adapted from Legendary Journeys Wiki contributors, Punch Lines. Complete episode narrative, rewritten and condensed for clarity; causal developments and the episode's ending retained. Illustrations, dialogue quotations and non-story metadata omitted.