So, the main points here (see plot summary) are Joxer's first (accidental) kill and how it affects him and the son of the man he killed plus Najara's manipulation of Gabrielle. Neither is executed particularly well. But, first, the biggest problem: How is it possible that Arman has reached adulthood without hearing the truth about his father from anyone? This is never explained. With Joxer, the writers go through pretty much every cliché there is when writing a character who is experiencing guilt and gets support from his friends: "The guilt of killing never goes away - nor should it. But your first kill is definitely the worst," teaches Xena. WHAT? This implies - and there is no way reasoning around it - that killing gets easier when done again, so in Xena's wisdom, Joxer has already gone through the worst. Nice! And how does Xena live with her countless kills? "I have no choice," she replies. And that's as far as the writers can explore the subject clearly too difficult for them. As for Najara, how convenient that she has at least heard of Xena and Gabrielle meeting Eli (if she is lying about meeting Eli herself), which is necessary for her to keep manipulating Gabrielle "not to stray from that path". The plot takes all the predictable turns: Arman wows to kill the man who killed his father, Joxer fails to tell him the truth, Najara manipulates Arman to let him discover the truth, but after initial rage, Arman forgives Joxer, leaving Najara - who's true nature the writers have now stupidly revealed to the viewers too early - to try to lure Gabrielle away from Xena, and that fails too. All that is left is a titanic showdown between Xena and Najara. Ironically, this least original element in the episode is the one that works best: it's a non-stop 2 minute 21 second (PAL-time) climactic match that is truly exhilarating. Sadly, the rest of the episode is not of the same quality.
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