A Friend in Need Part I – Director: Rob Tapert/Story: Rob Tapert, R.J. Stewart/Teleplay: R.J. Stewart
This one starts with Xena and Gabi discussing their future (with Xena suggesting they head to Egypt for some new adventures). They’re interrupted by a Japanese monk (Kenji) who brings a message for Xena from Akemi, a name she recognizes. Kenji tells her how he and another monk stopped at a teahouse where
Akemi and two other girls tried to seduce them. The other monk gave in to temptation, but Kenji resisted. A demon (Yodoshi) showed up to claim their souls, but Akemi helped Kenji escape and gave him a sacred katana, telling him to take it to Xena and ask her to help defeat the demon.
On a ship to Jappa, Gabi learns some new sword techniques from Kenji, who 
tells her that Akemi is actually a ghost. Xena tells Gabi about her own adventures in Jappa and we get a flashback to a time when Xena and Borias were still in Chin. They heard about a girl (Akemi) who’d been kidnapped by a warlord named Kao and decided to return her to Jappa for a big reward from her rich father. Kao isn’t inclined to sell her, so Xena uses the Pinch to kill him. Akemi is eager to go with Xena, almost like she was expecting her, and is certain that Xena will not only become her teacher but her lover. Xena does start
teaching Akemi on the trip to Jappa and Borias drops them off so Xena can get the reward from Akemi’s father. While travelling, Xena listens to the sounds around her, which Akemi equates with the kami, the nature spirits, though Xena can only see the martial applications of that skill. Akemi professes her love for Xena, but in the present Xena admits to Gabi that Akemi broke her heart.
We get more flashbacks as Xena and Akemi visit the grave of Akemi’s 
grandfather. Akemi tells Xena she needs a better sword, so they go to a forge to get the sacred katana (even though women aren’t allowed to own katana). Xena pounds everyone at the forge and claims the katana. Xena and Akemi get closer (I’m pretty sure they’re banging, although you kinda have to read between the lines to see it) and Akemi convinces Xena to teach her the Pinch. In the present, Gabi is pissed off that Xena showed Akemi the Pinch after only a few weeks
together and still hasn’t shown her yet. They’re interrupted when they notice that Higuchi village is under siege and in danger of burning to the ground. They go ashore and Xena tells Gabi she’ll follow her lead. After some acrobatics, they manage to empty a water tower over the village, dousing the flames.
Gabi brings up the Pinch again and we get another flashback. Xena and Akemi show up at the palace of Akemi’s father (Yodoshi), but instead of 
asking for a reward, Akemi uses the Pinch to kill him (because he killed the rest of her family). Xena soon realizes that Akemi played her; there’s no reward and everything Akemi learned from her was just to get back at her father. Akemi commits seppuku, asking Xena to use the sacred katana to decapitate her, and to bury her ashes with her family in Higuchi. Xena is obviously in love with Akemi, but she fulfills her final wish anyway, cutting her head off. In the present, Harakuta (also known as the Ghost Killer) confronts Xena, accusing her of destroying Higuchi. Xena recalls how she brought Akemi’s ashes there to bury, but the villagers opposed her (since Akemi had committed patricide). Drunken Xena
fought them and Akemi’s ashes were spilled and blew away, so Xena used her fire-breathing trick to punish some of them before stumbling off. Harakuta tells her the fire raged out of control, burning the village and killing 40,000 people. Kenji says Yodoshi’s spirit is too powerful to die and that he became a demon, ingesting the souls of the 40,000 people who died in the fire and preventing them from passing to the afterlife. Naturally, Xena feels guilty and vows to set things right.
Later, Xena teaches Gabi to listen like she does and they hear several armies 
approaching. Harakuta tells Xena that he hasn’t been able to kill Yodoshi because only another ghost can kill him now that he’s so powerful. Xena teaches Gabi the Pinch and tells her she loves her. She sends Gabi and Kenji off to lead a foray against the armies, but neither of them know she’s planning to sacrifice her life so she can kill Yodoshi.
This is technically a pretty good episode, although it’s mostly set-up for the next—and final—episode of the series (which is why it’s only #102 on my all-time list). It’s interesting to see this missing bit of Xena’s past. It must take place after her legs were healed, but before her pregnancy. Borias is
kind of a dick here, so maybe he didn’t really change until the pregnancy. But Akemi’s betrayal of Xena could explain why she was so reluctant to let herself love Borias … she was afraid of opening herself up to the pain of betrayal again. One of Xena’s first lessons to Akemi was to “trust no one”. But she didn’t follow her own advice, so she did trust (and even love) Akemi and ended up getting screwed over. It also explains why she didn’t want to teach Gabi the Pinch, because she’d feel responsible if Gabi used (or misused) it on someone (which Gabi actually understands once she hears about Akemi’s betrayal).
Speaking of Gabi, it’s cool to see how far she’s come here. When Xena’s talking about Akemi, Gabi shows no signs of jealousy like she had for Lao Ma. And during the fire in Higuchi, Xena asks Gabi how she would handle it 
and eagerly follows her lead, saying that Gabi way of handling things isn’t what she’d have done, but it worked just the same. It’s almost like the fire was Gabi’s final exam after her long apprenticeship with Xena. I’ve mentioned before that I thought Xena has been slowly imparting all of her knowledge to Gabi since they first met, and this seems to be the culmination of that (with the Pinch being the last bit of knowledge for Xena to pass along). Gabi even manages a perfect double flip, something we’ve never seen her do before. I guess she’s been practicing since One Against an Army.
Noticeable Things:
- We finally get an explanation for the scar on Xena’s upper chest: she was pushed into a spear point in the forge fight.
- Gabi mentions she got the idea to get to the water tower from some acrobats she’d seen somewhere. In Chin, maybe?
- In the flashback where Xena’s drunk and bringing Akemi’s ashes to Higuchi, her hair is really short and ragged, like she hacked it off herself, and she’s wearing some weird kabuki-type makeup.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Gabrielle, if I only had thirty seconds to live, this is how I’d want to spend them … looking into your eyes.” Xena telling Gabi how much she loves her (and saying goodbye, although Gabi doesn’t know that yet).