Monday February 27, 1995
76604
Pride and arrogance are ugly traits ill befitting an honorable warrior. Yet Iolaus succumbed to pride as the two men made their way to Thrace. First Iolaus fought a taunting bunch of thugs and had to be rescued by Hercules. Then he took his own path toward Thrace, determined to beat his friend to the city. On the way he met Lydia and escaped several dangers, but Hera sent Nemesis to kill Iolaus for the sin of pride. Only when Iolaus committed a selfless act of friendship toward Hercules did he earn his own reprieve.
Write a Recap »Iolaus gets a tad too competetive with Hercules and brings down the wrath of Nemesis (sort of). hide show
"Pride comes before a Brawl" is a mostly light hearted one, Iolaus is suddenly back as Herc's traveling companion and the pair are headed to Thrace for "games". I absolutely adore Iolaus to pieces, his chemistry with Herc, the nimble way he fights, and his downright lovable charm. In this episode Iolaus gets a little pissy and overly competitive with Herc and the two split ways during their journey. Along the way Iolaus meets and a girl named Lydia and together they survive a band of marauders and attack by a hydra (among other things) while traveling to Thrace. The two of them have an adorable relationship for the run of the episode. I adore how they never made Iolaus the typical side-man to the handsome "hero" and allowed him to "get the girl" quite often. It would have been so ... typical to play him as Hercules' dorky underling. But anyway ... what Iolaus doesn't know is that his "pride" has brought down the wrath of the God Nemesis (who really doesn't care how thing goes for Iolaus, but is doing Hera's bidding). Herc is at odds with how to save him, but eventually his sort-of-childhood sweetheart (or so it's implied) helps-without-quite- helping Iolaus get over his pride (for Hercules' sake, as she does care about him). This episode is Iolaus heavy and Hercules light. It is probably the first time we really get to see Herc's best bud really show how much of a hero he is in his own right, not to mention intelligent and charming (ignoring the few bits where arrogance takes over him). He hasn't had much of a chance to do that as he's killed early in "Amazon Women", captured by Herc's brother in "Minotaur", and semi-killed (turned to stone) in "The Wrong Path". This time he survives the adventure without Hercules' interference and (for the first of many times) wins a pretty ladies heart in the process. Speaking of the Lady, Lydia was well played. I love funny, clever, quirky girls and that's what she was. She and Iolaus play off each other well and there's never a dull moment between the two of them. It's really nice to see under the bickering how they learn to trust and depend on each other throughout the episode.
Herc's story is mostly based on his reunion with his childhood love Nemesis (the first of many incarnations of the God) and how he changes her perspective on her "job". I have to say this was my least favorite Nemesis though as I just found something about the woman irritating. Even though (as is always funny with this particular Goddess) it's hilarious to see other people staring at Hercules and wondering about his sanity as he interacts with her as she's invisible to mortals. Nemesis (interestingly enough) had a storyline in Young Hercules where she met Herc. But while in this story it is implied he kissed her at the age of 10, in Young Hercules he was at least 17 or 18 when he met her the first time. Oh well, at least we can chalk this up to immortal gods having no real sense of time as it's unimportant when you're immortal. We can just say this is one time Hercules and Young Hercules don't clash too badly.
Falling out with Hercules over which route to take, Iolaus follows his own path but is captured by bandits, and with a young woman must make his escape - little realising that Nemesis has been sent by the Gods to kill him, in this interesting tale... hide show
Not seen since the first regular episode, 'The Wrong Path', Iolaus finally returns in this story (which was actually the third one filmed). In fact, it plays out as if it could be any episode, as he and Hercules just pan into view, as they are faced with a bunch of goons blocking access to a bridge. In fact, the next episode, 'The March to Freedom', serves more as a re-introduction to Iolaus, and in many ways feels that it should have been shown first.
In fact, Iolaus very much takes centre stage in this story as, on the way to "the games" in Thrace, he has a disagreement with Hercules, and sets off to find his own shortcut. Soon, he is trapped in a pit used by some bandits (for some unexplained reason posing as monsters – very 'Scooby-Doo'!), where he meets Lydia, who has also been trapped.
Although they are best friends, Iolaus not liking to be overshadowed by Hercules is something that also would be touched upon in several future episodes.
Rowing to the games, Hercules is visited by Nemesis, here played by Karen Witter (she would be portrayed by several actresses over the course of the series). She is an interesting character, although I'm not sure that she was cast quite perfectly here. Hercules learns that Nemesis has been sent by the Gods to kill Iolaus for being too arrogant - unable to change her mind, Herc must hope that either he or his friend can find a way out of it.
The bandits themselves are rather generic and not as interesting as they could / should have been, though that's something that strikes many episodes of both Hercules and 'Xena: Warrior Princess' on occasion.
I really like Iolaus' running gag of using "old hunters trick"s to outwit his opponents (using "an old hunters trick" for the first of many times in the series), and it showcases him as a very able warrior in his own right (better than his rather botched effort in 'The Wrong Path'). On the run from the bandits and hiding in a river, Iolaus must rescue Lydia from a giant eel, in some reasonable model work.
Hiding out in a cave, Iolaus must now battle a Hydra. First seen in the first movie, 'Hercules and the Amazon Women', it would seem that there is more than one hydra in the Hercules world. This one is more exclusively CGI-based, and looks very good – although does rather just write about and hiss while Iolaus and Lydia think of ways to defeat it!
All-in-all, this isn't really a classic, and loses its pacing and being slightly 'average' in some places, but makes for an interesting tale, and it is nice to see Michael Hurst as Iolaus take centre stage for the first time.
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