A Friend In Need
Now that Xena: Warrior Princess has finished airing across the US, we reveal what happens in the show's concluding two-hour extravaganza.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 23
A Friend in Need opens on a forest campsite, where Xena and Gabrielle are quietly chatting about their next adventure. They are approached by a young Japanese monk, Kenji, who tells Xena of a beautiful ghost named Akimi who has sent him to find the Warrior Princess.
The name Akimi stirs up memories for Xena, and it’s not long before she and Gabrielle are on a ship bound for the Japanese town of Higuchi, which the Lord of the Dark Land, Yudoshi, plans to enslave with his servant Akimi’s help.
We discover via flashback sequences that on her last visit to Japan, Xena and Borias set out to rescue Akimi, a rich man's daughter, from a Chinese warlord. Xena murdered the kidnapper and his men, and Akimi became her devoted student and friend, and travelled with her for some time.
Back in the present, Xena and Gabrielle arrive at Higuchi harbour only to find that the city is ablaze. Swimming to shore, the two women fight their way to a water tower, where they are able to release liquid to quell the burning town.
In flashback sequences, we discover that Akimi persuaded Xena to teach her the killing neck pinch - which, upon arrival home, she then used to kill her father in order to avenge the deaths of the rest of her family. Akimi then begged Xena to restore her honour by decapitating her and taking her ashes to the family shrine in Higuchi, and when Xena refused, Akimi committed hara-kiri.
In the present, Xena is confronted by Harugata, an old man known as “the killer of ghosts”, who asks Xena how she’ll feel when she faces the ghosts of those she killed in Higuchi. Xena recounts to a stunned Gabrielle via flashback sequences how the townspeople of Higuchi attempted to stop her from honouring Akimi’s memory as she stumbled drunkenly through the town to the shrine with Akimi’s ashes. Xena tripped and the urn shattered, and the enraged Warrior Princess started a fire which killed 40,000 townspeople.
What’s worse, the spirit of Akimi’s father was rejected by the underworld and he became Lord Yudoshi, the eater of souls, who has now enslaved the dead townsfolk. Although Gabrielle tries to tell Xena it was simply a horrible accident, Xena is stricken with guilt, and vows to put right her mistake.
Alone with Xena, Harugata tells the Warrior Princess that only another ghost can destroy the Dark Lord Yudoshi, and Xena realises that she must become a ghost in order to fight him... Keeping her plan to herself, she teaches Gabrielle her battle skills and killing pinch, and before she departs, tells her that if she only had 30 seconds to live, she'd want to spend them looking into Gabrielle's eyes...
As Gabrielle and Kenji lead a contingent of soldiers against an approaching mortal army, Xena buries her armour in the woods and rushes into battle, slaying soldiers left, right and centre while hallucinating that Gabrielle is looking into her eyes, until she is struck down for the last time in the living world...
Gabrielle finds Xena's bloodied chakram but refuses to believe that her friend is dead. Meanwhile, in the underworld, Xena is reunited with the delighted and adoring Akimi, but notes that this version of the underworld feels odd. It turns out that their bodies are an illusion created by Yudoshi - while they are here, they are in his power. Summoned by the tinkling bells on the anklet of one of the geisha ghosts, Yudoshi blasts in and tortures Xena, and tells her that she will serve him for eternity as a whore, luring souls to sate his appetite...
Alone with Akimi, Xena confides her intent to kill Yudoshi. However, when she realizes she is being spied upon by the other geisha ghosts, she runs into the woods... and encounters Gabrielle. The two women embrace, but Gabrielle soon realises that Xena is dead. Xena promises to find a way to come back after she's destroyed Yudoshi.
Harugata and Kenji arrive on the scene and Harugata dispatches the spying geisha ghost and Xena catches the magic anklet which can give her the power to summon Yudoshi. Kenji tells Gabrielle that the only way to bring Xena back is to find her body and scatter her ashes on the side of Mt. Fuji before the sunset of the following day. Gabrielle vows to do this, and to help protect her, Akimi paints an elaborate tattoo of a dragon on Gabrielle’s back.
Going off in search of Xena’s body, Gabrielle is horrified to discover it strung up on display in the army’s camp, and has to battle the enemy commander who dealt the final blow in order to gain possession of it.
Xena, meanwhile, has used the anklet to summon Yudoshi, who soon decapitates Kenji and deals Harugata a fatal blow. Xena uses Harugata’s ghostkilling katana to cut off Yudoshi's arm and impale the demon, but Yudoshi flees to Mt. Fuji in order to use the Spring of Strength to heal himself.
As Xena heads for Mt. Fuji, Gabrielle has already arrived with her friend's ashes only to find the enemy commander is there waiting for her. Xena arrives to battle Yudoshi, but Akimi has got to him first, and tries to kill him with the sacred katana. But Yudoshi is too strong and sucks in his daughter’s soul.
Gabrielle sees Xena lying hurt and is able to ward off Yudoshi's advances thanks to Akimi's tattoo long enough to kiss some of the healing spring water into Xena's mouth. With revived strength, Xena resumes the fight and, after a prolonged battle, is victorious. With Yudoshi's ghost slain, all of the souls he has eaten flee joyously into the sky. Akimi pauses to thank Xena and tell her that she has redeemed Akimi, the lost 40,000 and even Xena herself.
All Gabrielle now has to do is pour Xcna's ashes into the sacred stream just before the sun sets, but Xena stops her, explaining gently (and tearfully) to Gabrielle that in order for the 40,000 souls to be at peace, Xena must stay dead - otherwise, the souls will be lost forever.
As much as Xena would like Gabrielle to bring her back, she cannot do it. Gabrielle is grief-stricken, but Xena vows that she will always be with Gabrielle. As the sun sets, Xena vanishes.
Alone on the deck of a ship returning home, Gabrielle holds the jar of Xena's ashes aloft. “Your journey has brought you to the farthest edges of the Earth,” she says as she prepares to cast them into the ocean. But suddenly, Xena appears at her side, her hand on Gabrielle’s shoulder. “And where I’ll always remain - in your heart.”
Xena kisses her friend’s forehead and says finally, “Wherever you go, I'm at your side.”
“I knew you’d say that,” replies Gabrielle, and she is left alone on the deck of the ship as it sails off towards the horizon…