There it is. The first time Xena’s chosen someone over Gabrielle, and it goes about as well as you expect. My memories (which may be inaccurate, it’s been a loooong time) still assert that Gabby will claim jealousy as her motivator for what comes next, but I’m still calling bullshit on that until proven otherwise. I’m sticking with hurt and anger as her primary reasons, but I’m wiling to add a new one:

Fear.

This isn’t just the first time that Xena chooses someone and something over Gabrielle, it also marks the first time that Gabrielle hasn’t been able to convince Xena to pull back. She’s absolutely immutably set on this path, on murdering Ming Tien. Nothing and no one is swaying her, and I think that before this moment, Gabby would’ve laid every dinar she had that she’d always be able to persuade Xena to see things her way. Now she knows that’s not true, and her already shaky ground quakes again. If Xena can come this far and willingly fall so easily, what chance does Gabrielle have? Maybe even worse, failure to convince once opens the door to future failure. if Xena’s this steadfast in her course, what will she do if she sees through Gabrielle’s lies about Hope? Has she already? 

I think there’s a lot that goes into the choices Gabby will make next, but not least among them is a desperation to MAKE Xena see that killing Ming Tien is wrong, the end, full stop. That’s the only guarantee of safety that matters, not just for Hope, but for Gabrielle herself.

But Xena -- beautiful, bull-headed Xena, still thinks this is the naïve girl from Potidea, too innocent and pure for the world, unable to grasp these moral complexities and whose rejection Xena was always, deep down, expecting one day.