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Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Season 4 Episode 22

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9.3

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AIRED: 5/11/98

While Iolaus paid a visit to his mother, Hercules explored Olympus. He was hurt to learn the real reason his father had brought him there: Zeus needed protection from Hera and the other Gods, who were conspiring against him. But Hercules couldn't turn his back on his father. Then Zeus allowed Hera to rip away his Godhood in order to save Alcmene's spirit from eternal hell. Hercules went to the dark side of Olympus, where he overcame Apollo and Hera in battle. Zeus' Godhood was restored, Alcmene returned to the Elysian Fields, and Hercules became a half-mortal again.

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Fan Episode Reviews (1)

Hercules has agreed to join father Zeus as a God of Olympus, but soon learns that his father had an ulterior motive for inviting him. Meanwhile, Iolaus visits his mother whom he hasn't seen for many years, in this reasonable season finale...moreless

9.2

By Jay-Spacedust, Feb 12, 2011

This review contains mild spoilers.

This is a pretty good season finale that has been building up over the previous couple of episodes that sees Hercules joining his father Zeus as a God of Olympus.

Having only been seen as a pair of evil eyes in the sky since the very first television movie, here we finally get to meet Hera, as played by Meg Foster. I personally was delighted to see Foster in the role, as she had played another great villainess in the 1987 big-screen version of 'Masters of the Universe', another swords & sorcery franchise of which I am a big fan (yeas really!).

Kevin Sorbo has more to do in this story, as his health was steadily improving. Even so, some of the story is given over to Iolaus, who visits his mother, who he has not seen for several years, and his new step-father.

The episode seems to be setting itself up to be a season cliffhanger, like 'Xena: Warrior Princess'' 'Sacrifice II', but it turns out that everything is wrapped up neatly here by the end of the episode.

Here in the United Kingdom, Channel 5 bizarrely broadcast this episode as the FIRST episode of the fourth season (never mind that none of the events leading up to the episode had not even been shown yet)!

(They went on to repeat it in its correct position at the end of the season. Incidentally, this was one of the last episodes of the series that the broadcast; Other than a couple of one-off fifth season episodes shown in the middle of the night, they abandoned showing the series soon after).

Anyway, all-in-all, this episode serves as a quite good ending to a so-so season.

---Fourth season overview---

I think it would be fair to say that the fourth season isn't exactly the best year of the series. Even before Kevin Sorbo's health problems, the season had already offered up some dud episodes (such as the poor opener, 'Beanstalks and Bad Eggs').

When Sorbo's health took a turn for the worse mid-way through the season, a number of stories working around his absence had to hurridly be written. Some of these ('Yes, Virginia, There Is A Hercules' and the various Young Hercules stories) worked well, where as others (such as 'Porkules' and 'One Fowl Day') were terrible.

As I mention above, I like the Young Hercules stories, and think that Ian Bohen makes a great Young Herc. They are good episodes even if they do verge on overusing the concept too much in a single season. Surely even the most casual of viewer must start to notice the lack of action from the adult Hercules in the second half of the season!

By this point, 'Xena: Warrior Princess' had very much overtaken the show in popularity. That series was dishing up dark and well constructed storylines, whereas 'Hercules' was producing a number of silly and in some cases, very childish episodes (again, 'Porkules' and 'One Fowl Day' stand out).

The highlights of the season are defiantly 'Stranger in a Strange World', and its semi-sequel 'Armageddon Now' and 'Armageddon Now Part II'.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Kevin Sorbo	Hercules
Michael Hurst O.N.Z.M.	Iolaus

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Roy Dotrice	Zeus	Guest Star
Scott Michaelson	Apollo	Guest Star
Meg Foster	Hera	Guest Star
Kevin Smith (II)	Ares	Recurring Role
Liddy Holloway	Alcmene	Recurring Role
Jeffrey Thomas	Jason	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (5)
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- This episode marks the last appearance of Alcmene on the series.
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- This is the first time we see Hera in her natural physical form, outside of the animated movie. Previously, she has always inhabited the body of another or appeared as ghostly eyes with a disembodied voice.
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- Nitpick: Apollo refers to Hera as his "mom." But in Greek mythology, Leto was his and Artemis's mother, not Hera.
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- This is the last appearance of any regular Greek gods on Hercules until mid-season five's "Redemption".
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- Iolaus's new stepfather was first mentioned in "Not Fade Away".
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QUOTES (4)
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- Zeus: You've had my protection since you were a boy. You owe me the same.
  Hercules: I owe you? You have permitted the greatest sorrows of my life. Where was your protection then? I owe you nothing!
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- Hera: Believe it or not, I once loved your father and your father loved me, until something else caught his eye. As strong as our bond was, it couldn't compete with his fascination with mankind.
  Hercules: Oh, please, Hera. You have never loved anyone but yourself. You couldn't stand to lose your power over Zeus, so you made sure the world felt your pain.
  Hera: I wanted Zeus to understand what he had done to me. The world was incidental.
  Hercules: Not to me.
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- Erytheia: I always wanted you to go out into the world, make a life, Iolaus, and I'm glad you did. I just thought I'd be a bigger part of it.
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- Hera: (spying on the mortal Zeus) Wouldn't you know he'd end up with a bimbo!
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NOTES (2)
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- In the United Kingdom, Channel 5 bizarrely broadcast this episode as the FIRST episode of the fourth season. They eventually repeated the episode in its correct position at the end of the season, which was also one of the last first-run episodes that they broadcast before abandoning their run of the series.
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- Disclaimer: Zeus' godhood was not harmed during the production of this motion picture, although his short stint as a mortal was somewhat intoxicating.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- This episode is loosely based on a mythological incident in which Hera successfully rallied the other Olympians against Zeus. When the plot failed, Zeus suspended her between Olympus and heaven with anvils tied to her feet.
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