Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: The Wedding of Alcmene

Air Date

Monday April 29, 1996

Production Code

876822

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  8.7 Great

  Hercules' mother Alcmene announces that she is going to marry King Jason. But the festivities are threatened when Hera resurrects her Blue Priest to kill Hercules once and for all, in this episode that feels like it was designed as a season finale... hide show

  This review contains so-so spoilers.
  
  This episode feels like a reunion show. It has the return of Jason and several of the Argonauts (from 'Once A Hero'), the Blue Priest (from the TV movie 'Hercules and The Lost Kingdom', Dirce (from 'The King Of Thieves'), Deric the centaur (from the first season's 'As Darkness Falls' and the second season's 'Outcast'), the 40 virgin sisters (from the first season's 'Eye of the Beholder'), and Iphicles (from 'What's In a Name?') ... Not to mention another appearance of fast food salesman Falafel, and a cameo by Salmoneus at the end. Did I miss anybody??
  
  At the start of the episode, I thought it was an average one, with not the most interesting of stories. But as things progressed, and more and more faces from previous episodes turned up, I began to like it more.
  
  The highlight of the story is Jason and Hercules being swallowed up by another of Hera's giant sea serpents, this one called Perfidia. Unlike the first one (seen in 'Hercules and The Lost Kingdom'), this one had a body and legs too (does that still make it a serpent?). Unlike the first serpent, which was done mostly with model work, this one is entirely CGI, and for the most part, very well animated. So Herc and Jason are gobbled up inside (good job these giant serpents never chew their food!), and must find a way out. The sets inside the serpent are a cross between scary and surreal.
  
  This episode, with all of the returning characters (and the final set piece inside the serpent), this episode feels like it was designed to be the season finale, and I don't know why it wasn't used as such – it would have served much better than clip show 'The Cave Of Echoes'.
  
  All-in-all... its starts off as a rather average fare, but turns out to be an exciting, enjoyable one.

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  Jay-Spacedust Added Nov 15, 2007 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Peter Muller Deric
  • Lisa Chappell Dirce
  • Nathaniel Lees Blue Priest
  • Simone Kessell Rena
  • Brad Carpenter Amphion
  • Timothy Raby Archivus
  • Kim Michalis Lea
  • Willa O'Neill Phoebe
  • Sabine Karsenti Sera
  • Ross Harper Driver
  • Peter Morgan Spiro
  • Julie Collis Heliotrope
  • Katherine Ransom Mica
  • John Sumner Domesticles
  • Simon Prast Patronius
More Episode Cast and Crew »

• This is the second sea serpent that we have seen Hercules battle. He killed the first in the TV movie Hercules and the Lost Kingdom. [edit]
• When Iolaus runs to get Iphicles to ask him to become King of Corinth, he runs into Dirce and Falafel selling tacos. As Iolaus and Dirce are discussing their "date", the taco in Dirce's hand appears to be half-eaten, then it's all there, then it's half-eaten again. [edit]
• Just as the monster emerges to terrorize the wedding guests, who of course scatter in all directions, look carefully to the right in the scene. You can see Derek, the centaur, minus his hoofed legs. Instead, human legs (the legs of the actor) are clearly visible. [edit]

• In Memory of Jerry Siegel [edit]

• Jason: (Referring to his romance with Hercules' mother) Exactly how should I have brought up the subject to you?
  Hercules: Well, that's something you should have figured out!
  Jason: Why don't we talk about this when you're feeling a little less petulant.
  Hercules: Petulant?! He's acting like he's my father already! [edit]
• Falafel: I cater weddings. Best buffet dinner you ever ate! Cake, eight feet tall minimum. Ambrosia!
  Iolaus: Oh, you mean the food of the Gods?
  Falafel: No! A salad, with many marshmallows! [edit]
• Jason: (being eyed by a creature inside the sea serpent) What is that thing?!
  Hercules: Does it matter?! [edit]

• When the centaur Deric first arrives in Corinth for the wedding Hercules asks him if Lyla and Kefor are with him. Lyla is his wife, played by Lucy Lawless in both the episodes 'As Darkness Falls' and 'Outcast'. In addition, Deric tells Hercules that Lyla and their son are visiting his cousin Phantes. Phantes is the centaur that the amazon Ephiny married on Xena: Warrior Princess. [edit]
• Iolaus: (when asked to deliver invitations) Through rain, sleet, and snow, I'm your man.
  Often incorrectly cited as the creed of the US Postal Service, this is actually a paraphrase of the Greek Historian Herodotus, who was writing about the ancient Persian courier service. He wrote:
  "It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed." (trans. A.D. Godley 1924) [edit]