SYNOPSIS:
Synopsis by Hawk.
The story opens with scenes of a volcano about to erupt. It has
panicked the villages who live below and Herc and Ephiny have begun to
help them evacuate. Herc decides to try and divert the volcano's flow.
He shows Ephiny several buckets he has hidden away. Inside the buckets
are several crystals that are submerged with water. We learn that the
crystals came from Atlantis and that unless they are cooled by the
water, they will overheat and explode. Of course, even if this were
true, the small amount of water he had cooling them would soon boil and
the crystals would overheat and explode. But this is fantasy and so it
works! His plan is to climb near the top of the volcano and place the
crystals in a certain location that will allow them to blow a hole open
into the side of the volcano. This will allow the lava to flow
harmlessly down to the sea and away from the village.
He needs four volunteers to help he and Ephiny. What he gets is two of
the roughest looking scumbags you ever wanted to see. One was an
ex-soldier and the other looks like some thug who wants to be a hero.
Then a young man volunteers. Herc is somewhat concerned about his age,
but the lad assures him that he's old enough to help. The rest of the
men assembled refuse to help. Herc still needs one guy to help though.
Now, a twist is thrown into out little story whereby a certain man named
Kerth has been captured and sentenced to hang for killing the son of a
Centaur named Nagus. And although the volcano is about to blow, a group
of thugs seem intent on hanging this man instead of helping evacuate the
villagers. Nagus wants blood more than anything at this point. So Herc
goes and talks to the criminal. He convinces the guy to come along and
help them carry the crystals up the mountain. In return, Herc promises
to put in a good word for him and perhaps the villagers will reconsider
hanging him.
So they begin to travel up the volcano with four wagonloads of these
unstable crystals. They have to avoid all manner of obstacles; rocks,
geysers and the like along the way. Herc walks ahead and clears a path
so that the wagons can ride more smoothly. One of the men steps on a
heat vent and scalding water burst forth, lifting the guy into the air.
Of course it kills him but it also manages to scare the horses. A
couple of wagons take off and one threatens to overrun the youngest of
the men. Herc dives at the guy and the wagon runs off the road and
explodes. Now Kerth thinks Herc and the others are all dead, so he
decides to take off. Ephiny, however, isn't about to let him get away.
Then Herc and the young man crawl out of the wreckage shaken, but alive.
Along the way, Herc and Kerth talk and we learn that Kerth didn't really
mean to kill Nagus' son. He was drunk, got into a fight and
accidentally killed him. Herc points out that his mistake was in
getting drunk and getting into a fight.
Meanwhile Ephiny and the younger man are talking. We learn that this
guy is a farmer and only came along to prove to his father that he was
more than just a farmer. Ephiny tells him to go home; that the world
needs farmers. Surprisingly this kid bolts at this opportunity. Some
hero.
So now there is only Herc, Ephiny and Kerth. Herc continues to lead the
way, tossing paper-mache boulders out of their path while the two
remaining wagons follow. Water is sloshing out of the buckets and the
crystals are threatening to overheat and explode. Then Kerth looks down
and sees his wagon's wheel just roll off! It just rolled off! The
wagon threatens to tip over, but Herc runs up and stablizes it. So now
they have to move all the crystals over to Ephiny's wagon.
We find that the gang who had tried to hang Kerth are following along
and Nagus is with them. They begin to shoot arrows at the wagons and
Herc rips off a board from a wagon and uses it to deflect the arrows,
while Ephiny runs up to attack the gang. In the confusion, Kerth
unhitches a plow horse and rides away.
Ephiny does a great job in this ep. She's looking good, showing no
signs that she's recently recovered from her broken arm that Xena
recently gave her. She got longer hair, a new suit of armor and shows
some moves I've never seen. Predictably, the thugs attack her one at a
time, so she dispatches them easily. Finally the leader shoots his
crossbow at her but he misses. Ephiny dives for cover, plucks a long
blade from a plant and strips in a certain way as to launch a sliver of
the blade toward this guy. The needle pierces his hand and he runs off
like the coward he is. Nice moves Eph!
Now, Kern gets thrown from his horse and who should find him but Nagus.
He starts to attack, but Ephiny shows up and Nagus turns and goes away.
Is Ephiny cool or what? Later they all get back to the wagons and we
learn that the last remaining horse has sustained an injury during the
fight. An arrow has pierced its shoulder and there is no way it can
pull the wagon up the slope. So they decide to try and convince Nagus
to help.
I don't really understand why the strongest man in the universe can't
pull it himself and Nagus asks him that very question. Strangely
enough, Herc avoids the questions and somehow convinces this centaur to
help. During their talk, we learn that Nagus' son had fallen in with
these thugs and he feels like a bad father. Meanwhile Ephiny has to
keep Kerth from running away again by telling him that since he took a
life, he owes the world a life in return.
So now they are all together and off they go. Ephiny and Herc clearing
a path and Nagus pulling the final wagon. Kerth is along for the ride.
At this point the thugs decide to abandon their leader, so they run off
and the leader thug is all alone. He still wants to kill Kerth. I was
beginning to think that maybe he really killed Nagus' son and was afraid
Kerth would remember it, so that's why he wanted Kerth dead.
Herc and the gang now have to cross this rickety old bridge. They
decide the best thing to do is to carry the crystals across while Nagus
pulls the wagon alone. Just to make things more interesting, the
volcano rumbles and the ground begins to shake. They have very little
time so they gather up all the crystals and head over. Predictably
Kerth slips and almost falls but Herc catches him. Then he takes
another step and nearly falls again! He drops a couple of crystals and
the explosion rocks the bridge, threatening to toss them all into the
gorge below.
At this point, the last remaining thug cuts the rope supporting the
bridge. More crystals fall and explode, rocking the bridge even more.
One side collapses and Ephiny hurts her leg but still no one falls.
Nagus sees the thug and attacks him while Kerth saves Ephiny and they
get off the Bridge. Herc goes back to help Nagus because this little
gangster is beating the crap out of Nagus. Their melee pushes the wagon
(still hitched to Nagus) toward the edge of the gorge and it threatens
to pull him over with it. Herc beats up the thug, unhitches the wagon
and allows it to drop into the gorge. It explodes upon impact, but good
old Nagus is spared.
Now they take some of the rope from the bridge and they tie the crystal
onto Nagus who carries them the rest of the way up the slope. There is
some type of racial overtones going on between Nagus and Kerth and this
part is really pretty dumb at this point. I think the volcano rumbled
and Kerth said "Woa". This seems to have upset Nagus because he's
horse-like. Get it? Yeah…me too. Kind of like watching a football
game and a player breaks open. Someone in the crowd yells "Look at that
boy go" and some of the minorities decide to get upset over this. I
thought this was dumb just like I think this part of the episode was
dumb and had nothing to do with the plot other than to try and make
Kerth look like more of a jerk.
So anyway they finally reach the area just below the crater where they
want to place the crystals. Only they've now lost so many crystals that
Herc doesn't think that they have enough to do the job. So he decides
to send them below while he goes on to the crater to throw the remaining
crystals in. Nagus intervenes and tells Herc that he cannot survive
it. Even if he did, the lava flow would kill him. During the argument,
Kerth takes all the crystals and slips away. They see him heading
toward the summit and so Herc and Nagus run.
Kerth doesn't just throw the crystals in however. He jumps in! I never
quite understood his reasoning unless the guy had so little to live for
that he decided to kill himself. But he jumped in and the explosion
opened a hole allowing the lava to flow harmlessly into the sea. The
village is spared! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back in the village, things are back to normal. Herc and Nagus talk
some about forgiveness and all that "moral of the story" stuff and
Ephiny goes home. The end.
Actually this was a pretty good story! Yeah, it had a few flaws and it
wasn't part of an on-going saga like the Dahak thing. But perhaps we
need a break from that sort of stuff. It was good, not great. I liked
it.
COMMENTARY:
This commentary is by Xorys.
It was nice seeing Ephiny again (she's always
been one of my favourite characters). She seems to have changed quite a
bit, though - I wasn't even quite sure it was her when I first saw her on
the promo last week.
The plot was a rip off from a couple of fairly often done movie concepts:
"condemned men freed from jail for a special mission" + "must transport the
truckload of dynamite through the dangerous terrain", with a few other
borrowed elements thrown in too. It was a bit formulaic, but I would rate
it a fairly good HTLJ ep overall. It kept my attention throughout, though I
would probably have wandered a bit if it hadn't been for Ephiny. And I
actually got quite sucked in by the ending, with Kerth's climbing up to
throw the crystals into the crater, and the "He'll never make it!" "He
already has." dialogue (yeah, I know it's not exactly entirely original -
but it still brought a tear to my eye, even with, perhaps even partially
because of, Kevin's flat delivery).
It was nice that they at least made a slight nod to plot continuity by
having Ephiny say "I'm sorry about Iolaus" when she first met Herc... but
his response hardly seem adequate. And how come no one even mentioned
Morrigan?
Ephiny's arms seems to have healed up quite nicely, anyhow... And Xenon
must be getting a big boy now. I liked the bit when Ephiny was fixing the
horse's hoof, and she said conversationally "My son just hates it when I
have to change his shoes!" How unlike the home life of our own dear Queen!
WHERE HAVE I SEEN YOU BEFORE?
By Xorys.
And who was who in Sky High?
Perhaps the most intriguing familiarity was Kerth, the convicted man - he
was played by Jonathon Roberts, who should be very familiar to Xena fans as
the wannabe world-beater Agathon from The Dirty Half Dozen.
Clint Sharplin, who played Opakas, the gang leader with the really bad
teeth, has previously been seen as Kenickus (also a weasely gang leader, if
memory serves) in Regrets I've Had A Few, and a Celtic Villager in
Resurrection. He can also be seen playing a character called Nicely in the
1998 movie Heaven, a thriller, which co-stars Karl Urban (Cupid, Julius
Caesar).
Jonathan Bell-Booth who played Zek, has appeared in several previous eps...
he played Brother #1 in As Darkness Falls (an ep in which Lucy Lawless
played Lyla, the Centaur Deric's wife), a Highwayman in Gladiator (which
guest starred Tony Todd), and First Centaur in Centaur Mentor Journey. He
was also seen in the X:WP ep The Black Wolf as the Chief Guard.
Taungaroa Emile, who played Liesas (as best as I can make out the
spelling), previously appeared as Ximenos in the ep Ares (the one that had
a monster, rather than Kevin Smith, as Ares). He was also in New Zealand
film Once Were Warriors, with several other actors who've visited the
Xenaverse.
James Gaylyn as the Centaur Nagus, Paul Appleby as Pretur, and Darian Siley
as the first Gang Kid are all new to us, as far as I know.
Paradas was played by William Smith... there is a William Smith in Dumb &
Dumber, but I'm not sure if this was the same person.
And of course Ephiny was played, as always, by the charming and forceful
Danielle Cormack, who can also be seen in the ep Les Contemptibles as Lady
Marie de Valle. She has also appeared on the New Zealand soap Shortland
Street, as have most Kiwi actors (but not, as was pointed out to me, Lucy
Lawless...) Danielle also appeared in two episodes of the series High Tide,
playing "Jill McMillan" in the episode "Dead Heat", and "Meghan Kelly" in
the episode "Sitting Ducks". At the movies, Danielle can be seen in
Channeling Baby (with Joel Tobeck, known to us as Strife, and Amber
Sainsbury who we saw as Regina in the HTLJ ep Lost City), in Via Satellite,
in Siam Sunset, in Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, in A Game with No
Rules, and in The Last Tattoo... unfortunately all of these essentially New
Zealand "art" pictures, and they're pretty hard to find in Northern parts.
Sky High was written by Paul Robert Coyle who has previously written the
HTLJ eps End of the Beginning, Regrets I've Had A Few, Stranger in A
Strange World, If I Had A Hammer, Armageddon Now (both parts), War Wounds,
Top God, Genies and Grecians and Geeks, Oh My! and Norse by Norsevest
(Story). He also wrote the XWP eps Ten Little Warlords, A Necessary Evil,
The Execution and Sacrifice Part 2.
The ep was directed by John Laing, who previously directed Hercules On
Trial, Render Unto Caesar, and Norse by Norsevest, and also directed the
XWP eps When in Rome... and Tsunami.
TALES OF THE HERCAVERSE
From Carla Capizzi. This episode is apparently an homage to a 1961 film "The Devil at 4 O'Clock," which starred Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra. That too involved an erupting volcano threatening a village, and a mixed bag of good guys and bad guys hauling explosives up a mountain to save the day. Some survive, some do not -- but the
villagers are saved.
From Tami. Danielle looks incredible with long hair. Every time I see her as time
passes, she's looking better and better. Ephiny has a new sword. It's different from the swords I've seen Amazons use in the past. For one thing, the hilt design is different and there is no labrys (i think that's the word) on it. A note: Centaurs wear shoes. Xenon hates it when Ephiny has to change his shoes. I didn't know this. I only knew that they didn't eat hay (XWP - H&H). I'm beginning to think that everybody in RenPic's universe can do gravity defying leaps and somersaults. But it was really cool (and so Amazon ) when Ephiny used a plant to turn the baddie leader away during a fight (she had lost her sword).
LINKS:
Coming soon
