I just watched the Hercules/Xena eps, and it's clear to me - she was playing him all along. She got a hard on for him, that's very clearly her entire motivation. She has a totally different personality from how she appears on her own show, esp. in flashbacks. When she meets Herc, she's all high-pitched voice, soft and vulnerable and uncertain. The way she pretended to be a damsel in distress when she met Iolaus is how she is compared to her normal self in all those 3 episodes. She's all, "Hercules, you're so big and strong, you unchained my heart..." It was necessary, you see, because Herc's got scruples and he wouldn't sleep with a bad girl. Then the second she gets him alone, she jumps his bones. And for the record, SHE'S ON TOP. And in the post-coital scene, she's sitting up on a rock and he's sitting on the ground by her feet, hugging her legs while she's patting his head. Who do you think spanked whom? But I could that Xena might let Herc play dominant in bed, because she well knew who's really in control, and he's such a fuzzy bunny anyway, it was probably hilarious to her. I bet that if Xena ever did let someone top her, it'd only be someone like Herc.

Anyway, after she's had him, she lost interest pretty quickly. He was all, "Please stay..." and she was, "Nope, sorry, things to atone for, places to see, people to do. Don't get me wrong, you were great, but I'd really prefer a petite little blonde."