Friend in Need Part I

The Debts. The India arc. The Ring cycle. I love it when XWP gets epic, when they make everything new for a new land, new people, and new legends to serve as story fodder. I think it's a little strange to go somewhere new for the end of the whole show, but I can run with it, especially when the result looks as majorly cool as this does.

Since a lot of the storyline has yet to be tied up, since I've always thought about this and we now have all the pieces we're going to get, and since Demeter requested it (ha ha), here's the best timeline I can suss out of Xena's life:

• Amphipolis and Cortese's raid (Death Mask, Remember Nothing)
• Piracy, meeting Caesar (Destiny)
• Chin - Borias, Lao Ma (Debt)
• Timbuktu/the Thunderdome Amazons - Alti, Cyane (Adventures in the Sin Trade)
• Japa - Akemi (Friend in Need)
  (Note: the previous two could be in either order, but I'm guessing that Japa came second, because by then Xena seems in charge over Borias)
• Battle of Corinth - Borias croaks, Solan arrives and goes (Past Imperfect)
• Hercules, Darphus, and the Gauntlet - the show starts

[Interesting postscript: I've since heard tell that Xena's official timeline is as follows. I take heart that I was close!

• Amphipolis and Cortese's raid (Death Mask, Remember Nothing)
• Piracy, meeting Caesar (Destiny)
• Chin - Borias, Lao Ma (Debt)
• Japa - Akemi (Friend in Need)
• Timbuktu/the Thunderdome Amazons - Alti, Cyane (Adventures in the Sin Trade)
• Battle of Corinth - Borias croaks, Solan arrives and goes (Past Imperfect)
• Xena goes Norse for the Ring cycle (Rheingold, Ring, Valkyrie)
• Hercules, Darphus, and the Gauntlet - the show starts]

I got some laughs this episode by counting how many different ways the city's name is pronounced - half of them by Gabrielle over the course of the episode. Higuchi? Heegurchee? Hiyggucci?

The monk's story sounds like an old "You can stay in my farmhouse tonight to avoid the storm, just don't sleep with my beautiful daughters" joke. I wondered for a moment if we would get a punchline.

Yodoshi gets the coolest monster entrance I've seen in a long time. Creepy soul-swallowing burp that guy has! I guess 40,000+ souls gives you a pretty nasty case of heartburn.

Loved the compensatory glamor shots of Gabrielle on the boat: Gab's arms, her shoulders, a foot... all lovely distraction from the abs that are three months pregnant during this episode's shooting and can't be shown in their usual loving detail. And also to make up for it, Xena dons a seppuku-ready-belly-baring outfit by the end of the episode. Those abs have big shoes to fill!

Give the monk some serious points for getting the "she's a ghost" drop on Gabrielle in sword practice. That was a pretty nifty move.

How do you make a country's name into it's XenaVerse counterpart? Drop the last sound. China is Chin, Japan is being called Japa. I'm surprised they didn't call them Brittani and Egyp.

Akemi is one amusingly, astonishingly precocious kid! She gets a gorgeous introduction with her bow nicely displaying all the folds of her robe, to be brought up by the toe of Xena's boot. And the gal has Xena's number before she even gets through the door.

Overriding series theme alert! "You'll take me with you. You'll teach me everything you know." The only difference between this line from Akemi and Gabrielle's first lines to Xena are that while Gabrielle pleads, Akemi prophesies. Gabrielle was another Akemi, another student full of love. And when Xena teaches Gabrielle the pinch, she tells her not once but two times that it's because she wants to "teach you everything I know." My money says that with the pinch, Xena figures she's done that with Gabrielle.

Borias has learned to play excellent counterpoint to Xena. That warlord dude really was stupid for not heeding their good cop-bad cop "take the money and run" routine.

Nasty arm breaks and crunches in that first fight against the warlord who had Akemi. Notice that Borias doesn't even bother with lending a finger to the fight. He's busy stealing the guy's tea.

In fact, Borias doesn't get to do much in this episode beyond laughing patronizingly. But he's so cool when he does it, that I don't really mind.

Xena flunks her first teaching attempt, but does well when she doesn't mean to as she tells Akemi about listening. Interesting contrast here: Xena hears war. Akemi hears the future/the spirits (oh no! the djinn!). Gabrielle used to hear the spirits - she had a touch of prophecy back in the early days, but now she hears war. Gabrielle really has traveled from Akemi all the way to Xena.

All hear the poetry of Akemi:

Yesterday
The moon took lodging on my sleeve
Today
I have hope for even the broken-hearted stars

It takes quite a kid to lead a partially-rabid Warrior Princess on a trail of bread crumbs, first to a dead granddad (to get vengeance-blessing), then to get a katana (suitable for proper seppuku) and then to daddy, to finally show that rabid princess why they've been traipsing all over the countryside. Akemi is most definitely the one in charge as she and Xena cover the Japa terrain.

RabidXena is always kind of funny to watch. Loved her "Oooo. Gimme gimme!" line when a katana destroys her sword.

Funny fight moment: Most guys go down with one Xena-punch. The big hulk of a guy takes five. Xena even checks her fist as if to make sure it's still working.

Lucy Lawless really does have a mark on her chest where they gave Xena that wound during the fight for the katana. Cute touch to explain it now, but was it really necessary? I've never sat up nights wondering how Xena might have gotten a mark I don't generally see on the show. Maybe it'll be important next week.

Shame on the blacksmith for dishonoring himself by going after Akemi. That dishonor must have been slowing him down; it must be why it took him about five minutes to finish his sword swing at her.

How did the ghost Akemi end up with the katana? We don't see it at all after Akemi's death. If I'd had to guess, I'd have said it was back at the family home lying in the dirt next to a very old stain of blood.

All hear the poetry of Akemi:

In a flurry of snow
Two breaths of wind unite
And become as one
And then disappear into each other

"Snow falling on cedars." I haven't read the book or seen the movie, so the only context I can give for this quote is that it's a peaceful moment in a story about an interracial (and doomed) love story. So it COULD be a reference to the book/movie, but I don't know for sure.

Akemi points out that Xena is a master of war who knows no words for love. But then she points out a way that Xena can show love by teaching war, with the pinch. And Xena's still doing it nearly 50 years later with Gabrielle.

Continuity alert: Despite Gabrielle's protests, Xena did teach Gabrielle the pinch, or at least how to remove it, in Haunting of Amphipolis. ("I can't believe you're showing me this now!")

Xena decides to let Gabrielle take the lead in a battle for a change. I saw two possible themes in that; a proving of Gab's ability, and a willingness by Xena to be the taught instead of the teacher. Whatever it was, Gabrielle hatches the most complex plan ever for climbing a water tower:

1. Swing to an awning.
2. Trampoline to a roof.
3. Run to another building.
4. Knock over a ladder.
5. Vault to a third building.
6. Xena swings on a pole, Gab walks a tightrope to a ladder.
7. Ride the ladder to the tower.

The water tower spray was pretty cool and a nifty idea, but I wasn't sure that it was worth quite the hubbub that it got. The army retreated and the city was declared saved, even though all they did was spray water around and get some of the fire (although not all of it, from what I saw). The scene was fun, but I didn't quite get the importance of it. Neat example of teamwork, though.

I'd be interested in hearing more about what the heck Yodoshi had against Akemi's family. Was Akemi's mother not his wife, that they all got such horrible treatment? Did Akemi get sold into slavery instead of kidnapped as Xena and Borias had heard?

Even as a rabid warlord, Xena always has her focus on her goals. "WHAT ABOUT THE RANSOM?!?!" "I don't suppose there's any inheritance in this?!?"

The smoke effect that was used between scenes was pretty neat, especially when it became blood after Akemi's death.

How on earth did the monk get back in Higuchi? Last we saw, he was on the boat that Xena and Gabrielle had to ditch because it wasn't going to go anywhere near the city battle. Next thing you know, the monk shows up in town dry as tinder. Th' heck?

My favorite visual of this whole episode is when Xena stumbles, drunk and half-mad with grief, through the streets of Higuchi with Akemi's ashes. She's gaunt, with short, wild hair, her face covered in white tear-streaked makeup and painted-on eyebrows that look like horns. (Was the makeup some drunks in a tavern having kabuki fun with Xena, or was the white a mark of mourning?) She honest-to-God looks like a ghost or demon staggering through the streets. What an amazing image.

Bummer news: Akemi doesn't make it to her family resting place, so it fits that she joins the rest of Higuchi's souls in Yodoshi's grasp. (Although I'm not sure why Yodoshi ended up in Higuchi.) It also fits that she'd get a special job of bringing him more victims, just for spite.

40,000 people killed with one fire-breath? When every town we've seen so far has maybe a few dozen people in it? I cry bull puckey. The number's only that big to make Xena's actions more imperative. She wouldn't be tempted to kill herself off for the sake of 20 people. But for 40,000, we have a mandate... and a highly improbable setup.

And while I'm quibbling with that motivation, wouldn't saving the town from a fire-bombing be some pretty decent karmic payback for setting a blaze that took the town? Ah well, no arguing with moral imperatives, I guess.

Gabrielle says "I understand why you would never teach me the pinch." Then explain it to me! So Gab can't kill anyone with it? A bit late for worrying about that, Xena.

"If I only had thirty seconds to live, this is how I would want to live them; looking into your eyes. Always remember I love you." Homina! It doesn't get much more heart-felt than that. I'm amazed that the idea of Xena dying could still hold the slightest punch after how many times we've seen it happen already, but darn if this didn't tug my heart-strings.

Gabrielle gets the Oblivious award of the week, though, for being so baffled at what Xena's trying to do. Granted, it's been a while since Xena's tried to foist Gabrielle off for her own good, but it's still happened so many times that you'd think the bard would recognize it by now.

Even the sad home music and the samurai armor at the end are perfect. Xena's in gold with a convenient open belly for easy access. Gabrielle is in black and ready for butt- kicking action.

We're left at the end of this episode in only the halfway point of the story, and yet the ending *seems* to be a foregone conclusion. Xena's going to off herself so she can become a ghost and kill Yodoshi. The episode has given Gabrielle lots of time to prove that she is now very capable of fighting the good fight on her own. Xena needs to amend 40,000 souls in torment. But since we're only at the halfway point, there's still lots of room for maneuvering. Let's start with this: only a ghost can kill Yodoshi? Here's a brainstorm: *Akemi's a ghost.* Has been for 50 years. Maybe Xena ought to stop making it all about her and let the kid finally off her pop for good.

Whatever's going to happen, I'm looking forward to the wrapup. So far, this episode has really cooked, and I'm buckled in for the blaze of glory finish, which can start... right about now. Any time now. Any minute. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, FIVE MORE DAYS?!?

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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