Just when I thought it was safe to put my Xena reviews behind me, they go and broadcast the "Director's Cut" of the final episode, "A Friend In Need." According to who you believe, there is something like fifteen to twenty minutes of additional footage beyond what was originally broadcast.

Will that change the dismal outcome of this incredibly disappointing story? Of course not. The ending was Rob Tapert's idea, and his being the director only ensures the "Director's Cut" to end the same way. However, in television time, twenty minutes is a lot of time and could allow for further subtleties in the script or help explain some of the murkier plot elements (like what, exactly, does Xena see in that traitorous bitch Akemi?).

In this review, I will try to concentrate on the new footage and how it affects the perception of the episode. If you want to see my complete, two-part review of the original "A Friend In Need," it is posted on my web site (www.ricks-studio.com). I won't pretend this is a frame-by-frame analysis. I've seen "Friend In Need" four times now, and I'll simply be comparing the "Director's Cut" to my own memory with the aide of Oxygen's on-screen cues! They did do one smart thing that really helped write this review: each additional major scene was labeled "Director's cut exclusive" in the Black Banner. My spider sense went off a few times even though the scene wasn't labeled "Director's cut." I think there were several minor edits that went by quickly--slightly longer glances from characters, a line of dialogue or a different fade here and there.

I still feel my original review holds up, and I hold my opinion that FIN was a great idea bungled in execution and permanently marred by that horrid ending. After a few months, I have found that the grisly end of Xena now colors all aspects of the show. How can you watch Xena and Gabrielle playfully frolicking in, say, "A Day In the Life," and not feel an incredible sense of melancholy? When I see Xena meet Gabrielle the first time in "Sins of the Past," I want to weep. Every time they express their love for each other and knowledge of their eternal union, I get the creeps. I keep thinking I'll get used to the end, but every time I watch it, I get almost physically ill. That explains why I've waited so long to review this. I've got to be emotionally ready.

So, hold your nose to avoid the stink, and let's jump into "A Friend In Need: the Director's Cut."

First off, I'd like to thank the Black Banner channel for putting a low pitched whine throughout the airing of this episode. As if my teeth weren't enough on edge already. And why such a grainy picture and noisy sound? And of course this would not be a prudent time to turn off the intrusive Black Banner itself for this special presentation, but I digress....

The first difference is immediately apparent. We've found the lost credits! No introductory teaser this week, but they jump right into the normal season six opening credits. In the original, the story started immediately, and the credits were simply scrolled below the action. It already feels more like a Xena episode. "In a time of ancient gods, warlords, kings and producers-who-think-they-can-write-and-direct-too, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. Her name was Gabrielle...." Oops, I'm slipping off into fantasy land here.

Xena whistles at the campfire to help draw Kenji to their location. Don't remember that from before. Cute.

When the two monks enter the tea house, there is added footage of the second monk in a hot tub, and it is much more obvious what kind of pleasures are being offered here, as the geishas' hands disappear beneath the roiling waters. It makes the tea house seem just a bit naughtier than before, setting a more ominous tone from the start. Although not flagged by Oxygen, I don't recall the voice-over narration by Kenji. He explains a bit about why he and the other monk behave differently when offered the sins of the tea house. A nice touch which shows Kenji's piety and (unfounded) respect for the women he meets there, contrasted with the other monk's instant immersion in physical gratification.

In a nice transition shot, as Akemi hands the sacred Katana sword to Kenji, it seamlessly blends into Kenji handing the sword to Xena. Very nice. When Kenji tells Xena she must go to Higuchi, Xena and Gabrielle exchange dialogue in which Gabrielle promises to follow Xena anywhere. This very nicely mirrors the same speech, with the characters reversed, heard at the end when Gabrielle decides to go to Egypt next and Xena says she'll follow (in a more ghostly sense). Not a plot revelation, but it is touches like this that elevate simple television writing into a poetic art form. These mirrorings and reimaginings provide the rhythms and rhymes that television often doesn't have time to deal with. A shame things like this end up on the cutting room floor.

On board the ship, on the way to Jappa, there is additional footage of Gabrielle and Kenji circling each other as he teaches her battle techniques. This duplicates footage of Gabrielle and the samurai later on where they spend more time circling each other than actually fighting. Another poetic touch that ended up falling to time constraints.

Also on shipboard in the past, we have additional footage of Akemi practicing her poetry, only to be distracted by Borias, standing to the side and glaring at her. Unlike Xena, Borias can smell a rat, and he and Akemi trade distrustful glances. This provides a further underscoring of their characters and their instant dislike of each other.

For all the subtext fans out there, a very juicy line was axed. As Xena begins to tell Gabrielle about her travels with Akemi, she admits that while she looked for ransom, "I was to learn my heart was seeking something else" (i.e., Akemi). Xena, admitting to a little dabbling in the lesbian arts in her wild young days? That really took some ambiguity out of the following scenes! And just what did she have in mind when she first picked up Gabrielle at the series' beginning?

During the scene in which Akemi takes Xena to get Katana, the master swordsman says Akemi's master must be a mighty samurai. In the original, Akemi looks around and Xena's in the door saying "Oh, no, I'm just a girl in search of a really good sword." In this cut, there is a long transition shot from Akemi's look across the room to Xena, who hesitates in the doorway. This was perhaps better left out, as it merely broke the flow of words leading to Xena's dramatic entrance. Plus, we didn't get to see her weave unsteadily in the door first, which made her look a little too flawed somehow. Minor point.

Next, we get a rather lengthy scene which was cut. As Xena and Gabrielle jump overboard to swim into an embattled Higuchi, we cut to Yodoshi blowing into the tea house again. It's interesting how the other geishas all scatter in alarm, while Akemi remains relatively unmoved by his intrusion. Yodoshi, who is almost voiceless through most of the episode, crouches down in front of Akemi and thanks her for getting Katana into Xena's hands. He claims his troops are attacking Higuchi, and he will get Xena and the sword when she falls into the battle. This provides a rather different view of Yodoshi, who proves he has a bit of a brain in that brawny body of his. Unfortunately for him, he underestimates Xena's ability to save Higuchi from his take over. We also get to see Akemi showing a little more backbone than usual, as she normally cowers before displays of raw power, be it Yodoshi's or Xena's. Although we didn't need this information to enhance our understanding of the episode, we see layers of both characters here that were only hinted at before. A liked this addition a lot.

Next up is a very surreal scene in which we first meet Xena's eventual killer, the samurai with the bad accent. He seems to be more than just a samurai, since he says a good general knows when to back off. He is apparently speaking of himself as the general, so he is the commander Yodoshi has sent to burn Higuchi and capture Xena and Katana. While this scene provides an excellent introduction to the character and a foreshadowing of his future involvement (and thus makes his appearance in Xena's beheading scene seem less random), it seems rather surreal in nature. Xena is standing on top of the water tower with Gabrielle, having just released the water to put out the burning town. The general is on horseback, seen at ground level. He appears to look straight over at Xena, and she, in a separate screen, appears to look levelly at him (the two aren't shown together on camera at any time). This mimics the final battle scene between Xena and Yodoshi at the fountain where spatial location is somewhat ambiguous at best. One second, Xena and Gabrielle are at the bottom of a cliff, yet in the next scene, they are just a hop from the fountain itself at the top of the cliff. Things believed to be near each other prove to be far apart, and vice versa. And lastly, if he's the enemy and is vowing to come back to finish the job, shouldn't Xena take a second and hack this guy to ribbons? She just smiles at Gabrielle and lets the general ride off to provide Gabrielle numerous headaches in the next hour. Very bizarre and confusing. No wonder it was cut, but introducing the general before the death scene was a good idea.

We have a bit more footage of Xena being brought down by the mob as she takes Akemi's ashes through Higuchi. When the urn is knocked to the ground and the ashes scattered to the wind, we see more of Xena moaning for Akemi and looking drunkenly at the remains being blown away from her. An editing decision, this short scene neither adds nor subtracts anything from the original.

Next up, we find a couple of restored edits when Xena teaches Gabrielle how to "listen behind the sounds." There is additional footage of Gabrielle turning to face Xena, which is no big deal. The second edit had Xena referring to the general they met in the water tower scene. With the general's scene cut, as mentioned before, they had to take out this reference as well.

After Xena teaches Gabrielle how to put on the pinch move, we get another little snipped bit. After camera angles focusing closely on Xena and Gabrielle's faces, we suddenly see them from across the room. Xena appears bowed over with the knowledge of her doom, while Gabrielle confusedly reaches out to touch her. Nothing much, but another nice touch that adds more shading to the previous exposition. Xena's weakness before her doom and Gabrielle's loving friendship are shown in a physical sense. Then, as before, the Ghost Killer enters the room and calls Xena to action.

Another minor cut as a linking scene between the pinch scene and the preparation for battle scene is placed back. Just a view of a fog-enshrouded lake. Pretty and mood-setting (the quiet before the storm), yet hardly essential for the furthering of the plot.

Where there was previously the divide between Part One and Part Two, here we are greeted by a smooth fade from Xena watching Gabrielle walk off to battle at the end of Part One, and Xena burying her old armor at the start of Part Two. Knowing what's about to happen, I find I almost miss the commercial break. Aren't we rushing to Xena's death a bit quickly here? Let's slow it down!

A quick, beautiful, but unessential shot of Xena running through the sunbeam-raked jungle as the battle drums call out.

After previously meeting the general, the entire battle sequence is different, even though it's the same basic editing as before. We see glimpses of the general at several points, and knowing who he is this time really sets the spine tingling with each sighting. He's not just a random samurai who steps out of the crowd, but a known enemy heavy, providing the rhyming scheme for this scene as he reappears in several shots. Now, he's menacing in new ways.

Then, new fight footage is inserted. We see Xena putting on some really excellent moves as she takes out a great number of attacking soldiers. We see her causing much more carnage among the enemy before going down. And a beautiful touch was restored when Xena kicks a knife into the air, and it very nearly kills the general who is observing from the side. If only it had worked! I'm seeing that eliminating all these references to the general had really neutered his role in the episode. This whole strand should've been left in as it really improves the drama. It was a real loss when this whole segment was cut.

Next up, as Gabrielle finds Xena's bloody chakram after the battle, we see additional footage of her eyes looking down a blood-soaked trail off into the mist. No biggie, but it did make Xena's disappearance at that point more ominous for Gabrielle.

After Yodoshi "welcomes" Xena to his tea house with a brutal display, we find Xena and Akemi outside. There is additional dialogue of them plotting together. Xena reminds Akemi that she is here on Akemi's business. Akemi stresses that Yodoshi is growing stronger with each day, implying that to delay Xena's plan could prove fatal. Xena also mentions that she needs to meet with someone to put her plan into action. I believe she's referring to the Ghost Killer, but it almost sounds like she means Gabrielle. By Xena's surprised reaction to later encountering Gabrielle in the woods, I'd say she probably means Ghost Killer. Next, Xena again makes with the come-on to Akemi, saying she can hear her heart beating. She can also hear every one of Yodoshi's "clumsy foot falls." We get much more sense here that Xena's plan is going well and it's under her control. Restoring this scene really clarifies a lot of the dialogue and with it, the character's intentions. They really hacked up this bit to fit it in the final cut.

We are treated to more footage of Xena running through the woods, followed closely by Miyuki, Yodoshi's spy in the tea house. Then we see Kenji and Gabrielle planning a bit more, with Gabrielle conjecturing that the samurai probably have Xena held captive. The additional running part was not necessary, but the bit of extra dialogue between Kenji and Gabrielle help flesh out what's going on back at their end (and in Gabrielle's head).

As Gabrielle is getting painfully tattooed by Akemi, we have additional footage of the Ghost Killer simultaneously praying over the Katana, showing all the group preparing for their battles ahead. You knew this was going on originally, but the prayer scenes helped intercut the tattoo scenes nicely and provide a bit more rhythm to the sequence over all, providing more a meditative feeling than previously. It also helped to underline the fact that Gabrielle's tattoo was more than a body decoration (how dare Akemi mar Gabrielle's fine young back like that!), but also a spiritual weapon to be used in Yodoshi's eventual defeat, as we see later at the fountain. The sword blessing scenes show Kenji holding up the sword reverently to Ghost Killer, and again the artistic side was sacrificed. These short images create a beautiful prelude to the sword ultimately being offered to Gabrielle in the same kind of gesture. The edits restored are small, but their removal really messed up a fine flow of imagery here, as well as playing down the spirituality of the Katana.

In the original version, once Gabrielle retrieves Xena's body, she has to fight the general for Xena's head. Nice thing to be writing about on this fine Saturday evening! Once they agree to duel, rather than cutting straight to their crossed blades, we see the storm raging overhead, and the two rain-soaked participants hunker down in the mud and glare at each other with such loathing I can barely describe it. I can't remember when I've seen a look that evil (through its very lack of overt expression) cross Gabrielle's face. Perhaps a bit of Hope's mother showing through? The two nod to each other, unwilling to bow enough to let their eyes down for a moment. Each is waiting for the other to show weakness. A great deleted scene, which though short, spoke volumes, much of it in Renee's incomparable non-vocal acting style. One complaint, however. As the two combatants circle in the rain, we are treated to a very delicate piece of film making. We see deeply into their eyes, see each turn of a wrist or twist of a foot in the mud. The action is very slow and protracted, drawing out our sense of dread to the breaking point. Meanwhile, Oxygen is giving us the history of the samurai warriors in the Black Banner to distract our attention. Show some respect, please! There were plenty of less obtrusive moments to educate us with that.

Although unlabeled by Oxygen, I believe I saw a much more graphic shot of Kenji's beheading by Yodoshi in the big tea house fight scene. You could actually see his head coming off his body. I think I would've remembered that. Gross, but appropriate to the story being told. These were indeed violent times and death could be sudden and cruel, even when you're not fighting an evil spirit. Definitely ups the Yodoshi-is-evil quotient.

When we return from commercial and Yodoshi is gone for the moment, we get a short extra bit of dialogue from the dying Ghost Killer. He adds that there is "only one reason" for Katana failing to kill Yodoshi, and that is that Yodoshi is drinking from the magic fountain and had additional strength. All this does is reinforce the fact that Ghost Killer is certain of the fact. In the original cut, it sounds more like he's offering up a likely guess, more than a decisive observation. He also tells her that his soul is about to join all those others trapped by Yodoshi. Now Xena knows someone on the "other side," giving it a slightly more personal connection for her. Nice bit of filming, but not essential clips.

Next up is a very important major scene that was entirely dropped from the final version. At first we see how the characters travel so quickly to the fountain. The injured Yodoshi turns into smoke and inhabits a hawk's body to fly there. Very beautifully done, showing the hawk with flames reflected in its eye as Yodoshi/hawk prepares to fly off. Xena and Akemi notice his departure, although how they know the hawk is Yodoshi is not explained. When Xena asks if they can go the same way, Akemi finally breaks down and admits she tricked Xena and Xena cannot return to life without sacrificing all those lost souls she's so suddenly concerned about. We don't actually hear Akemi's speech, only the preparation and then a cut to Xena's concerned reaction, so we don't know what was said, but we know Xena's plans have been radically altered for the worse. This was a major loss in the editing room and provides the only foreshadowing as to what awaits at the end of the program.

Then we see Gabrielle riding along with Xena's urn. A nice bit of verbal interplay between Gabrielle and the general was cut. The general appears and shoots Gabrielle's horse out from under her. Then, in a new twist, he tells Gabrielle she will regret not removing his head earlier for a warrior's death. "It's not too late to put that right," is Gabrielle's spunky reply! Nice one, Gabs.

There is additional footage of Xena and Akemi, as an owl and some other smaller bird respectively, flying above the landscape. The whole flying part seems to have been omitted, which was unfortunate as it was a poetic idea in keeping with the story as well as being visually arresting. The two here are seen to be watching from above as Yodoshi finds the fountain and turns it on with his sword used as a key. Good scene. Now we know how Xena came to spring upon Yodoshi so suddenly, since she crept up in owl form. And when Akemi suddenly appears on the scene, we get a nice special effects clip of her bird descending to earth and turning back into Akemi's form.

Next is a short extension of the scene where Yodoshi is on the ground, injured, and Xena runs up to the fountain, now ice, to try to get some of the magic water. The additional bit simply shows her looking quickly about to assess the situation. No loss in trimming that, although it does allow the viewer a second to catch their breath and put the action in order.

Unfortunately, after this, the ending plays out virtually the same. The final big fight between Yodoshi and Xena, Gabrielle's excellent chakram toss to finally give the general his just desserts, and of course the whole travesty of dropping the ashes in the fountain brings this otherwise good episode to the bottom of the dung heap. Xena and Gabrielle both act totally out of character to lead us to an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion to the series. The only noticeable edit is that the "Director's Cut" doesn't include the overhead scene of the boat with Gabrielle shown crossing the sea alone on the deck. We at least are left with a final image of the two of them together, in some sense. But Xena's death is still devastating.

So, was this better or worse than the originally aired episode? I have to say this was much better. As outlined above, there were artistic touches that were removed, and those bits of rhyming are the elements that bring a story up to mythic, or bardic, status. There were good story ideas that were scuttled, like the introductory scenes of the general and the beautiful scenes of the characters taking bird form. And it was an absolute crime that they cut out the scene in which Akemi admits her treachery. At least this showed her to be sorry for her misleading deed (if we are to believe the conniving bitch's story), and she didn't come off as quite the cold-hearted bitch we've come to hate. But she remains a bitch none-the-less. A couple of scenes, like the quiet talk between Xena and Akemi outside the tea house, had their dialogue butchered by the editing, and the lines flow more smoothly and truthfully from the characters. Yes, I'll call this the definitive version.

But that ending. Oh, that ending. As I said at the beginning, I didn't expect the outcome to be different, and for all the improvements shown here, the story is still brutal for anyone who has come to love these two women over the last six years.

If you are the type who feels "A Friend In Need" is an assault to Xena's legacy, that Rob Tapert is one step away from the anti-Christ, and you've vowed never to watch it again, this new edit won't change your mind. But for anyone who can find the good that surfaces in much of the episode prior to the final scene, it provides a superior and more artistic vision of the series finale. And I actually found myself enjoying the viewing of this episode for the first time. Having Oxygen label most of the new footage allowed me to relax and think about what the new footage was adding, rather than spend all my time racking my mind for comparisons to the original broadcast. It was more of a game and less of a tragedy this time out. I won't change my original rating of the episode, but I will say the additional footage rates a thumbs-up.
Rick(Gabriologist since the late 20th Century)
Visit my web site at www.ricks-studio.com for Episode Reviews,
Humorous Quotes, and other Xena-themed writing!

"You betrayed me again, Rob. No matter what life you live, you'll always be scum. Not even editing could change that." --Xena
"I feel like burning a loom for some reason, Xena." --Gabrielle