What are your favorite episodes of Xena?
Oh thank you for the opportunity to gush about the best show ever made. Xena is a show that’s almost hard to talk about individual episodes for me because I have opened my third eye and now the whole show functions in movements. Season 1 is messy and I’d only really say it gets good in the second half. That roughness continues until halfway through s2, when the show kills Gabrielle’s compulsory heterosexuality and she marries Xena. After that the show is nonstop greatness until season 5, where Kurtzman and Orci were given the reins and nearly ruined the show, until near the end where Tapert and co reclaimed it and returned the show to dark drama. And season 6 is a victory lap, unfortunately shorn of much of the supporting cast but still committed to lesbian adventures through war and heartbreak. Now with no fucks given as to subtext being even vaguely deniable. I’m going to try and avoid stepping on your toes re favorite episodes, but honestly any episode from s2-4 or much of 6 has a chance of being on my list.
Here She Comes... Miss Amphipolis: genuinely a super risky and exciting episode that pushed the shows connection to gay communities further, starring hiv positive trans actress Karen Dior. She and Xena kiss!
Been There, Done That: I love a timeloop episode and even more when it was 80s-90s syndicated tv type timeloop where it was half horrifying and half wacky shenanigans. Xena kills Joxer in this episode and sleeps without remorse for the rest of the show. I love her
The Debt 1 and 2: Xena’s first ex girlfriend episode. Lao Ma is the first woman we meet in her timeline to think “I could fix her” and she was almost right. A great tragedy, Xena was almost empress-consort of China
One Against an Army: Xena did 300 years earlier and better. Also Gabrielle was sick and Xena was being gay and angsty the whole time. It’s practically a whump fic all by itself.
Adventures in the Sin Trade 1 and 2: s4 is crazy good, starts incredibly strongly. Xena ex girlfriend, evil variety, is introduced with Alti, who thought “I can make her worse.” And she was right.
A Family Affair: the gay metaphor here with xena hanging with her girlfriend’s homophobic parents, and then oh no it’s a monster in the woods. Ugh it rules.
The Ides of March: one of the best season finales ever made. They die looking into each other’s eyes and swearing eternal love
A Friend in Need 1 and 2: controversial episodes for good reason, the show shouldn’t have ended like that. But also Xena ex girlfriend third variant, what if Gabrielle ruined Xena’s life instead of offering her a new way. I love Akemi and I think Xena’s type for younger women is hilarious.
When Fates Collide: Katherine Fugate decided to make the ultimate alt timeline Xena episode and it’s a gay fantasia. Would that she had written 15 more episodes
Fins, Femmes & Gems: wacky adventures in mind alteration.
A Day in the Life: wacky adventures in married life
There are so many more great episodes. All the doppelgänger episodes. Prison episodes. Weirdly sexy episodes. Thief adventures, anachronistic comedies, parodies, gross slapstick shenanigans, adventures through various religions, time travel, musicals. The best show ever made. I’m not joking or exaggerating. Everyone has to watch Xena.
