Xena: Warrior Princess
A Friend in Need Part II (2)
Monday 18 June 2001 on Syndicated

Since Xena must be dead to fight Yodoshi, she allows a samurai and his warriors to kill her. Gabrielle learns that she can bring Xena back to life by burning her body and putting the ashes in a magic spring before sunset on the second day. Gabrielle fights the samurai for Xena's body. She then...

RJ's Xena episode The Ides of March ends with Xena and Gabrielle crucified. He was worried that the children who watched the show would be upset by that season ending cliffhanger, so he had their spirits come out of their bodies at the very end and head into a bright white light. (edit) RJ's favorite line that he wrote for Xena was, "Love is a trick that nature plays to get us to reproduce." This is a paraphrase of the German philosopher Schopenhauer. (edit) R.J. wrote the screenplay for the 2003 feature film The Rundown starring The Rock. (edit) R.J. wrote the screenplay for the 1994 feature film Major League 2. (edit) As the head writer for Xena, he told his staff to write Xena as if she were Clint Eastwood with boobs. (edit)

RJ: (on writing for the show "Xena") Rob Tapert created the series idea and wrote the story for the first episode. I was hired to write the pilot, make Xena a good girl, and create the character of Gabrielle. (edit) R.J.: I didn't know whether I wanted to be known for Xena: Warrior Princess. Then I started thinking, 'What have you always wanted to do? You've always wanted to tell grand tales. You love adventure. You wanted your shot at being the head writer on a show, this is your shot'. By the time I got around to saying yes, I think my agent was a little surprised. (edit) R.J.: (on his enjoyment of "Xena") My favorite part of the show is the relationships, but when I talk to people out there they say they love the mythological aspects of the show. I enjoy using the mythology, too. And, to tell you the truth, after five seasons on the air, we even now sometimes create our own mythos. That`s also very fun. (edit) R.J.: It's interesting my two favorite American writers are women- Emily Dickinson and Flannery O'Connor. There are not many writers who have 'sliced my soul', as Dostoyevsky would say, but these two have. (edit) R.J.: (on writing female characters) Novel writing, I think, is more of an internal thing. A man writing a woman or vice versa maybe has to go a farther distance to get there. I think with the screen it is behavioral. I can observe female behavior. Therefore, I can love it and cherish it and try to reflect it in my writing. (edit)

Writer
Xena: Warrior Princess Callisto	Xena: Warrior Princess The Ides of March

Other
Xena: Warrior Princess Destiny (1) Teleplay	Xena: Warrior Princess A Friend in Need Part II (2) Teleplay
Xena: Warrior Princess The Debt (1) Teleplay	Xena: Warrior Princess Motherhood Teleplay
Xena: Warrior Princess A Friend in Need Part I (1) Teleplay	Xena: Warrior Princess Who's Gurkhan? Teleplay