“In a time of ancient Gods, Warlords and Kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero...”

This rather cheesy but memorable bit of opening credit narration is of course from Xena: Warrior Princess, the fantasy/adventure series that ran from 1995 to 2001. Glancing at the user comments over at the IMDB, one discovers that opinion about the series is greatly divided. Respondents run the gamut from “Milton Berle Couldn't Have Come Up With A Better Comedy” and “Tongue-in-cheek simple minded nonsense” to “the best TV show I've ever seen” and “the thinking person's fantasy/action show.” While I can’t say I share either of these extreme viewpoints, I do like Xena a great deal, even the bad parts – and I gotta be honest, some of those were very, very bad. Can anyone honestly say they enjoyed the episode where Gabrielle thought she was a mermaid? Ye Gods, that was truly awful (it was “Married With Fishsticks”, in case you were wondering).

But whether you liked the show or not, there’s no denying it became a full-on cultural phenomenon. Xena (New Zealand native Lucy Lawless) started out as little more than another ‘villain of the week’ in the first season of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The story goes that the execs at Universal TV, eager to create a new show to build on Hercules’ success, saw some early footage of Lawless kickin’ ass in her leather warrior get-up and decided that they had found their star. The problem was that Xena was a villain, a ruthless bitch who was out to kill Hercules. The show’s writers changed the character rather substantially for her next appearance in the two-part finale of Hercules’ first season, making her more misguided than evil and ultimately coming to her senses with the help of good ol’ Herc.

Season 1 of Xena began with an episode entitled "Sins of the Past", wherein Xena tried to make amends for her evil life by fighting a vicious warlord (who was once one of her lieutenants and a former lover), in spite of open hostility from the people she was trying to help. This was a story that would typify the first couple of seasons of the show, with the hordes of anonymous ‘warlord of the week’ characters leading to obvious questions like ‘just how many guys were Xena’s second-in-command anyway?’ and ‘did she really screw all of them?’ The first episode also saddled Xena with a sidekick, Gabrielle (Texan actress Renee O’Connor), an intelligent, frumpy, idealistic young woman who would serve as Xena’s conscience.

As the show progressed, changes inevitably began to occur. Gabrielle got less frumpy and learned to fight a bit during seasons 1 and 3, and suddenly towards the end of season 4 got a new haircut and became a stone-cold hottie. By the start of season 5 Gabby had become almost as much of a fighting badass as Xena, something that I suspect had rather more to do with Lucy Lawless’ real-life pregnancy than any particular story arc. And despite all evidence to the contrary (such as babies, marriages and numerous heterosexual relationships for both characters) a large section of the show’s fanbase decided that the characters were gayer than a San Francisco Pride march – leading to endless internet discussions of each episode’s ‘subtext’ and some of the most terrifying fan-fiction ever written.

But all good things come to an end, and after six seasons Xena was brought to a close. The final two-parter “A Friend in Need” aired in June 2001. It proved to be rather controversial, with many die-hard fans still refusing to acknowledge it’s existence. The episode was later released on DVD in a long-form director’s cut, which I am reviewing here. So without further ado let’s get to the beginning of the end; “In a time of ancient Gods...”

Like many episodes this one begins with Xena and Gabrielle sitting around a campfire and shooting the breeze. But in this case the discussion is a trifle more philosophical than usual, with talk of where their adventures might take them next. Their reflections are interrupted by the intrusion of a Buddhist monk, Kenji (Mac Jeffrey Ong). He has travelled from Japan and brought Xena a magnificent Katana sword. He relates how one night he and another monk sought shelter in a remote tea house, where three lovely young women waited to tend to their, ahem, every need. One woman summoned a terrifying demonic creature with a Kabuki-esque painted face who swallowed up the second monk, but another of the women, Akemi (Michelle Ang) helped Kenji escape with the Katana and bid him take it to Xena. This news is clearly troubling to our heroine, who immediately decides to go to Japan. Loyal Gabrielle naturally agrees to go along.

On the long sea-voyage, Gabrielle splits her time between Katana lessons from Kenji and listening to Xena relate the story of how she met Akemi. During her Ee-vil days in Qin (Ancient China, as previously revealed in the classic 2-part episode “The Debt” ), Xena met a warlord who was holding the kidnapped Akemi prisoner. Ever on the lookout for an Ee-vil opportunity, Xena killed the warlord and abandoning her old flame and partner Borias (Marton Csokas, XXX), took Akemi back to Japan to claim her ransom. But the lovely, spiritual Akemi seemed to have been expecting Xena, and offered many insights into the vicious warrior’s character that Xena herself wouldn’t realise for many years. Almost in spite of herself, Xena took Akemi as a student as she later would with Gabrielle.

As they travel through the wintry countryside, Akemi informs Xena that a warrior of her stature needs a proper sword rather than the crappy Greek letter opener she’s been carrying around, so they go to a forge and Xena beats her way to The Great Katana (the sword Kenji brought her earlier... that is, pre-flashback, but later chronologically. Damn non-linear storytelling). Xena and Akemi then start getting decidedly mystical (and also rather subtext-heavy, let’s not beat around the, um, bush). Gabrielle is surprised to learn that around this time Xena taught Akemi her lethal neck pinch, which can kill a man in seconds. Gabrielle has never been shown this particularly deadly skill.

Their flashback-time is interrupted when they arrive at the port city of Haiguchi, under attack from enemy forces and in flames. Xena and Gabrielle swim ashore and attempt to help, but Xena seems uncertain of what to do. She appeals to Gabrielle for help, who devises an ingenious and acrobatic method of emptying the town’s water tower - complete with series-trademark Once Upon A Time In China-style ladder spinning. The attacking general knows when he’s beaten, and retreats.

The town saved, Xena continues her flashback reel, detailing how she and Akemi arrived at Akemi’s home, anly for the young girl to use the pinch to kill her father Yodoshi (Adrian Brown), an evil man responsible for the death of the rest of her family. Akemi then implores Xena for help in committing Hari-Kiri. Later Xena, distraught and drunk, attempts to take Akemi’s ashes to the family’s shrine, but comes under attack from the hostile townsfolk of Haiguchi. Akemi’s urn is shattered and the enraged Xena accidentally starts a fire which wipes out 40,000 people - this last information imparted by Harugato (Kuzuhiro Muroyama). Harugato is a Ghost-Killer, a spiritual warrior who fights to release dead souls before they can be swallowed by Yodoshi - that’s right, the Ee-vil spirit of Akemi’s father is the Kabuki-lookin’ dude from the beginning of the film, now determined to kill as many people as possible to fuel his hunger, which is why his mortal army was attacking Haiguchi. Xena, devastated by these revelations, vows to put things right.

Xena, kitted out in a snazzy new Samurai bikini, finally teaches the reluctant Gabrielle her neck pinch, before sending her (and the rest of Harugato’s forces) off in the wrong direction. The reason is clear to us viewers even if not to the characters; Xena is going to take on Yodoshi’s army single-handedly. And she makes quite a good job of it too, destroying their gunpowder cache and wiping out several hundred troops in one giant explosion, before reverting to more traditional ‘hacking them to pieces’ methods. But the sheer weight of numbers proves too much, and Xena is eventually cut down by a phalanx of arrows.

Gabrielle finds Xena’s bloodied chakram (that’s her nifty killer-Frisbee gadget for those who don’t know), though Xena’s body is nowhere to be found. But Xena’s spirit is rather more visible, now residing in Akemi’s tea house. Xena’s ghost reveals to Gabrielle that she and Harugato planned her death, because only another spirit can kill Yodoshi and free the souls trapped within him. Gabrielle is determined to find a way to bring Xena back to life - after all, both Xena and Gabby came back from the dead a good 3 times each before the end of the series - and Kenji obliges. There is a spring of power on the slope of Mount Fuji, and if Xena’s ashes are poured into it before sunset on the second day after death, she will be restored to life. So while Xena plots to destroy Yodoshi, Gabrielle sets out to find Xena’s body - but first, she gets a rather fetching protective dragon tattoo from Akemi.

Gabrielle finds the enemy camp and Xena’s defiled corpse. She is challenged by Yodoshi’s general, but thanks to her training by Xena she defeats him, but refuses to give him an honourable warrior’s death. Meanwhile Xena summons Yodoshi to the tea house, but he turns out to be much more powerful than expected, and kills both Harugato and Kenji. It is apparent that he has been drinking from the spring on Mount Fuji, and when Xena manages to injure him he heads back to it’s rejuvenating waters - just as Gabrielle is heading the same way with Xena’s ashes.

Yodoshi uses the spring to restore himself and swallows Akemi before trying to kill Gabrielle. Fortunately her tattoo protects her, and she is able to give some of the spring water to the weakened Xena - by giving her a big, lingering smacker on the lips, subtext fans! Xena and Yodoshi battle furiously over Mount Fuji while Gabrielle duels with that pesky general. Gabby eventually kills him using Xena’s chakram - the first time she throws it in the entire series - and Xena ultimately defeats Yodoshi, redeeming the thousands of souls he’s taken, including the dead of Haiguchi and Akemi.

With the sun setting fast, Gabrielle prepares to restore Xena to life, but the Warrior Princess stops her. The final twist is revealed; for the souls of Haiguchi to remain free, they must also have been avenged and Xena is required to stay dead. Gabrielle, now with all of Xena’s skills, sets off alone to new adventures.

So it’s fairly clear why some fans want to pretend this episode never happened, even creating faux-season seven episodes where Xena and Gabrielle carried on wandering the Earth as normal but were now having rampant girl-on-girl sex every night. Personally I like how the episode played out, it seemed like a fitting conclusion to Xena’s story arc. The passing of the torch to Gabrielle was something that had been on the cards for a while, what with two season’s-worth of being just as ass-kicking as Xena.

The other major problem seems to have been the inclusion of Michelle Ang as Akemi. I guess the folks on the DVD audio commentary put it best; having spent the whole series assuming that Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship was purely platonic, they then gave the Warrior Princess an ex-girlfriend. Thus poor Akemi ended up as a subject of fans’ indignation that Xena‘s same-sex cherry, as it were, was not reserved for Gabrielle. The sad thing is that Ang (one of several Xena alumni who also worked on the Australian soap opera Neighbours) is actually pretty good in the role, and is certainly plenty easy on the eye.

Fans of Hong Kong movies will probably have noticed that the plot bears a striking similarity to the great Tsui Hark production A Chinese Ghost Story. Michelle Ang is a stand-in for Joey Wong and the Soul-Killer is a carbon-copy of Wu Ma’s spiritual swordsman. This is nothing new of course, both Xena and Hercules were used by producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert to get their love of Asian action films on (see below). And why not, given that Hark was clearly influenced by their film The Evil Dead? In fact Xena was a much more faithful homage to Hong Kong movies than the dadblasted Matrix, and about four years earlier as well. The team do a excellent job with the action in this episode, with Renee O’Connor looking particularly flexible.

While this wasn’t my favourite episode of the series (that remains “The Debt”) it was still among the better ones, and a fine conclusion until the Xena movie comes along. For now, what better way to end a review set in the World of Xena than with a quote from its finest character; the dashing, ingenious Autolycus, King of Thieves (Bruce Campbell): “Distract me? A beautiful woman lying naked in a bathtub? Ahahahahah! ...where was I?"

Dave Thomas, 9^th May 2004

Many episodes used Hong Kong films as a source for their action, including:

The Bride With White Hair - the classic scene where Brigitte Lin is forced to endure a horrific beating before she leaves her clan is echoed when Xena is forced out of her army during the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episode “The Gauntlet.”

Fong Sai Yuk - the first episode featured a battle where Xena and the evil Draco (Jay Laga'aia from Star Wars: Episode II) fought while standing on the heads of a crowd of onlookers, a scene wholeheartedly nicked from the aforementioned Jet Li classic.

Once Upon A Time In China - the classic ladder fight from the climax of Tsui Hark’s seminal wire-fu movie was copied virtually shot-for-shot in season 1’s “Callisto” and subsequently re-done about once per season.

A Chinese Ghost Story - several times, including the finale, but most famously in season 3’s excellent two-part episode “The Debt”, which featured a full complement of spiritual blasts, flying cloth kung fu and a recreation of the film’s classic ‘underwater kiss’ scene, this time between Xena and her mentor Lao Ma (Jacqueline Kim).

Dragon Inn - from Tsui Hark’s enjoyable remake of the classic King Hu film, the ‘clothes stealing’ fight between Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung shows up in the season 4 premiere “Adventures in the Sin Trade”, this time between Xena and the smokin‘-hot Amazon queen Cyane (Vicky Pratt).

Tai-Chi Master - Michelle Yeoh’s table/stilt battle from the Yuen Woo Ping classic made an appearance in the terrific season 4 episode “Crusader”, between Xena and religious nutcase Najara (Kathryn Morris).

Once Upon A Time In China II/Once Upon A Time In China And America - another great season 4 episode called “Between the Lines” saw Xena utilising Donnie Yen and Xiong Xin Xin‘s famous ‘cloth pole’ technique.