Tsunami – Director: John Laing/Writer: Chris Manheim
This one starts with Gabi visiting a fortune-teller, who says she’s going to meet a tall, dark man and that there’ll be danger and death. Xena is skeptical and Gabi remarks that danger and death is pretty typical for them. They separate to get supplies and Gabi notices Autolycus being loaded onto a convict ship. She tries to talk to him and gets into a fight with the guards. The ship sets off and Gabi yells for help.
Xena jumps onto the ship and meets Thaddeus, the guy taking the convicts
to work for him, and his young wife, Soraya. Thaddeus thinks all convicts are subhuman scum (and isn’t too charitable towards Gabi, since she’s friends with Autolycus), but Xena soon realizes Autolycus let himself be taken because he wants to go to the diamond mine the cons are working. Gabi makes friends with Soraya, who’s pregnant but doesn’t want Thaddeus to know. (His mother died in 
childbirth, so he doesn’t want to take any chances with Soraya’s life.) A jolt to the ship alerts Xena that something’s wrong and she notices Mount Etna erupting over the horizon. She knows a tidal wave is coming and warns everyone, but half the crew jumps overboard. A few people get below, but the rest of the crew is swept overboard when the wave hits.
The ship is smashed and driven underwater, where it floats upside-down. Xena recovers first and looks frantically for Gabi, finding Autolycus and a
couple of other prisoners (Petrides, a young kid who’s freaked out by the situation, and Macon, an asshole). Thaddeus is trapped under a crate with a broken leg and Xena finally finds Gabi, who threw herself over the captain to shield him. Gabi’s fine and helps Xena with Thaddeus, but Macon wants to get out right away and 
gets mad when Xena tells him it’s impossible. He grabs Gabi and threatens to choke her, but Xena throws a dagger that cuts the rope. (Gabi does pretty well for herself, elbowing Macon in the gut and retrieving Xena’s dagger before rejoining her.) Xena figures they can turn the ship to snag it on some underwater reefs, but Macon decides to open a door to another hold, which changes the pressure and sends them plunging even deeper.
Xena closes the door, stopping the ship’s downward motion. They manage to turn the rudder, pushing the ship onto the reefs, but it’s still pretty precarious. Macon tries to kill Thaddeus, but Soraya pounds him with a
piece of wood and everyone sides with her. Autolycus feels guilty for getting Xena and Gabi into this mess, but they don’t blame him, assuring him he’s really a good person. Xena figures they can blow up wineskins to use as air bladders and swim up beside an underwater geyser. Everybody agrees except Macon, whose constant taunts drive Petrides to try to kill him. Xena stops him, but the fight destabilizes the ship, which crashes against a reef, busting a hole in the hull.
Now they have no choice but to follow Xena’s plan and they start preparing. Petrides admits he can’t swim and tells a story about how his brother 
drowned when he was a kid. Xena gives him a pep talk to encourage him. Thaddeus tries to bribe Gabi to make sure Soraya gets out all right (not realizing that Gabi would’ve done that anyway) and Soraya gives him shit for trying to buy people … and admits she’s pregnant. They head out, Autolycus leading the way with Soraya and Thaddeus. Gabi takes the captain next, with some help from Petrides (though I’m not sure how much help he’d be if he can’t swim). Xena and Macon come last, but Macon panics and loses his wineskin. He tries to take Xena’s and she kicks his ass and leaves him for dead, but decides to go back for him. Gabi washes up on the beach to find the captain and Petrides are
fine. Just down the beach, Autolycus, Thaddeus, and Soraya are okay too, and Autolycus returns Thaddeus’s pendant that he dropped. Thaddeus says he’s going to start paying people to work his mine instead of forcing convicts to do it. Gabi finds Macon and is relieved when Xena stumbles out of the surf. Macon asks why she saved him, not understanding a simple act of compassion. Gabi reminds Xena what the fortune teller said and Xena reminds her of her own words … this is just a typical day for them.
This is a really good episode (#53 on my all-time list) even though it mostly 
takes place in one location, the dark, watery hold of the ship. That claustrophobic setting helps get the tension across and makes the episode more exciting. Autolycus is great here, coming off a bit like Xena; he’s a good person at heart, but has trouble believing that about himself. Xena was the same way before she met Gabi and it’s nice to see her paying it forward here, helping Autoycus get past his own negative self-image. And Gabi shows her true colours here too, jumping in to help Autolycus when she thinks he’s in trouble, and throwing herself over the captain during the
shipwreck. Xena jumps onto the ship without a second thought (like in Lost Mariner) and goes back to help Macon even though he tried to kill her. That shows that Gabi was right about her being a good person now—the old Xena probably wouldn’t have done that—and also shows how Xena has come to believe in her own goodness, thanks to Gabi’s influence.
The guest characters here are kind of tropes, but it works for the story. The theme seems to be how people tend to see others (and themselves) as one thing 
and have trouble letting go of their assumptions and seeing people differently. But in the end, most of them do change: Thaddeus learns that not all convicts (as he believes Autolycus to be) are bad and that his wife is tougher than she looks; Petrides learns not to let his fears rule him; and Autolycus learns that he’s not as bad as he thinks. The only one who didn’t change was Macon, possibly because he just sees himself as a scumbag and isn’t willing to change that, unlike everyone else.
Noticeable Things:
- This is obviously an homage to The Poseidon Adventure, with the upside-down ship.
- I’m not sure where this is meant to take place; they’re close to Mount Etna, which is on Sicily, so maybe they started from the Italian mainland. But what are they doing there? Gabi says they’re just passing through and denies they’re going on a voyage, but maybe she
just meant they were heading home. - Is it just me, or does that shot of Xena walking out of the water at the end look like a nod to Ursula Andress coming out of the surf in Dr. No? (Or Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, if you prefer.)
Favourite Quotes:
- “Did you hear that? She just described every day of our lives.” Gabi not getting too worked up when the fortune teller mentions danger and death.
- “She’s on a roll.” Gabi declining to jump in while Soraya is giving Thaddeus shit.
- “From you, nothing … from me, nothing less.” Xena answering when Macon asks what she expected from him.