THE FIRE DOWN BELOW
aka Nemeses Of...

GUEST STARS, CAST & CREDITS
AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
SYNOPSIS by CR
COMMENTARY by CR
MUSIC USED
TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER

AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
1st release: 11/06/95
An AA average of Unavailiabe
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1)
(2)
(3)

2nd release: 05/20/96
An AA average of 5.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) STAR TREK DS9 9th with 5.7
(2) HERCULES 15th with 5.0
(3) XENA 18th with 4.4

3rd release: 12/23/96
An AA average of 5.0
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) XENA 13th with 5.1
(2) HERCULES 15th with 5.0
(3) STAR TREK DS9 16th with 4.9
(4) BAYWATCH 18th with 4.8

SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis by CR.

Hercules is wrestling in a charity match, which he wins, of course. A woman, Ayora, comes up to him and tries to persuade him to go with her to Orestia to see Salmoneus. Salmoneus is rolling in money and wants to share his good fortune with Herc. Herc refuses Ayora's enticements.

Salmoneus is hauling priceless antique vases and artwork out of a cave and selling it in Orestia, at huge profits. As he leaves the cave with an especially beautiful small bronze, the cave entrance suddenly collapses behind him.

Herc finds broken pottery on the trail, and finds the owner lying under a tree that fell on him. As he releases the man, the man dies, and Herc sees a curious three-pronged mark on the vase the man had been clutching.

Herc enters a tavern and sees a man with another beautiful vase. Herc is trying to examine the vase, but its owner takes exception and a brawl breaks out. The vase has the three-pronged mark. The man says he bought the vase from Salmoneus. Leaving the tavern, Herc hurries past high snow-capped mountains and rivers in deep bush-clad valleys (in reality the Southern Alps in New Zealand) towards Orestia.

A white dove lands and turns into a beautiful woman, Nemesis, carrying a bow. She approaches the cave where Sal's associate Purces is supervising the removal of more treasure. She shoots arrows at his feet until he admits he's been stealing; he backs into one of the pick-swinging workmen with fatal results. "Justice has been served" says Nemesis and walks away.

Salmoneus is hustled into the palace of a sinister hooded figure, Zandar, who is masterminding the art-selling operation. Sal is worried by Purces death, but Zandar tells him to just get on with his selling.

Later, Sal is in his bath, surrounded by beautiful women. He drops strings of pearls into the water and they all jump in to get them. Herc arrives to break up the little celebration; he tells Sal that the treasure belongs to Hera, who will probably want Salmoneus dead. The legend is that when King Ores was in power, there was a rebellion against Hera; he wiped out everyone involved, and Hera rewarded him with the treasure. Before Ores could get to it, Herc helped overthrow him. Hera left the treasure where it was to test the Orestians' loyalty.

On the trail, a ruffian is dragging two children away to sell as slaves when Nemesis appears, and forces him with some fancy shooting to leave the children to their mother and run off. (At least, it's supposed to be fancy shooting, but she's rather slow on the draw). The villain wounds her slightly with his knife in the exchange.

Salmoneus tells Herc he was approached by Purces, now deceased, on behalf of 'another gentleman', with a propostion to sell the treasure. Sal is telling how Purces was killed by a woman who went after him with a bow and arrow, when Nemesis walks in, smiles at Herc, and disappears. That is, Salmoneus can't see her any more, Herc can, and she leads Hercules on a chase through the market. Herc surprises her and catches her, after a long kiss Herc says "We need to talk" and pulls her offscreen. Nemesis: "Talk?" (Considering that Nemesis tells Herc - albeit untruthfully - in a later epsiode that he's the father of her baby Evander, maybe they do more than talk).

Ayora is confronting Zander, who scorns her for failing to entice Hercules to Orestia. Ayora realises Zander plans to kill Salmoneus as well as Hercules.

Nemesis and Herc reappear, Nemesis saying "You're awfully stern for someone who was having such a good time a few minutes ago", which seems to remove all doubt. I should have 'talks' like that. Herc says "My friend saw you", which presumably is a sign of impending doom for any mortal. Nemesis says she hasn't decided what to do with Sal yet; though Hera sent her, Nemesis now decides for herself whether anyone deserves execution. Herc finally notices Nemesis' hand is hurt; she says she can be hurt when in human form, which she takes when seeking the truth. She says Herc can't save Salmoneus this time; he must pay for his greed. She turns into a dove and flies off.

As Herc runs back he is set upon by thugs for no apparent reason; presumably employed by Zandar.

Herc rushes into Salmoneus' villa to see Nemesis pointing an arrow at Salmoneus. Herc tells her Salmoneus didn't steal the treasure, he was led to it. Herc persuades Nemesis to check on Zandar instead.

In Hera's temple, Zandar is confessing the failure of his warriors against Hercules. "They're here - both of them. Hercules to meet his death; Nemesis to determine whether she lives or dies". Nemesis is obviously on trial, though she doesn't know it yet. Hera gives Zandar a better weapon - Pyro, a figure of flame. (Lots of impressive lava and fire effects).

Hercules tries to warn Nemesis that the gods won't let her decide who is guilty and who not. By sparing Salmoneus she may have signed her own death warrant. Nemesis ignores this and tells Herc to take care of Salmoneus and she'll take care of Zandar.

Nemesis confronts Zandar, but as she goes to kill him, one of his men lassoes her. Zandar tells her she has failed Hera's test and will die along with Salmoneus and Hercules.

Salmoneus is trying to get the 'girls' to help him take the treasure back, but they walk out on him, led by Ayora. Only Syreeta tries to comfort him, but he rejects her. In Salmoneus' villa, Herc notices smoke coming from the cellar. He goes down the steps and is confronted by Pyro, who promises to toast Herc as he did his family. Sal runs out of his villa, into the clutches of Zandar.

Nemesis, tied up in Zandar's cellar, decides she's going to have to get free the hard way. She knocks over an axe which just misses her and cuts her ropes.

Herc battles the CGI Pyro in the cellar. Zandar is going to throw Sal down into the cellar when Nemesis appears and scares off his thugs. Zandar runs into the strong room and slams the brass door; Nemesis splits the door with a salvo of arrows. Zandar runs down the steps into the cellar, but Pyro fails to recognise him and turns him into a fireball. Hercules traps Pyro in a barrel and cuts off his air supply, extinguishing him.

Hercules, Nemesis and Salmoneus have a happy reunion. As they walk out of the building, Syreeta is there to meet Salmoneus. She says "You look like you need a bath". Sal: "My house is full of smoke". Syreeta: "Mine isn't". They walk off together. How does Salmoneus do that?

Nemesis gives Hercules a goodbye kiss and flies away to find what comes next in her life.

COMMENTARY:

This commentary is by CR.

Lots of beautiful women in this episode (you could hardly fail to notice them!). Nemesis, Syreeta, and Salmoneus' other female friends. Salmoneus' bath scene with them must be the fantasy of every juvenile male, of whatever age.

Nemesis' story was the most interesting part of the plot. Nemesis is obviously an ongoing character in HTLJ, she evidently has some past history with Herc, (Pride Comes Before a Brawl), and she appears again in The Enforcer and Two Men and a Baby (and possibly other episodes, I don't know).

However, Nemesis, though very nice to look at, didn't quite seem sinister enough for the bringer of divine justice. She was slow on the draw with the arrows, too. A bit of CGI or camera trickery would've helped in that department; why didn't RenPic use it? They used enough CGI on Pyro, a far less interesting character. Pyro was, however, at least thoroughly convincing (unlike many of HTLJ's Season Two monsters).

The episode had almost too many protagonists in it. Nemesis, Zandar and Pyro - any one of them could have provided a worthy opponent to Hercules, masterminded by Hera. However, it all worked, and made for an interesting story that never flagged.

The background scenery was spectacular in the usual style of second-season HTLJ; the deep valleys and snow-covered mountains are the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. Most of the countryside in ordinary outdoor sequences, however, is within easy reach of Auckland, North Island.

This was one of the more interesting episodes of the HTLJ second season.

MUSIC USED

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Original Television Soundtrack. Joseph LoDuca. Uni/Varese Sarabande; ASIN: B0000014XJ.

(12) Fight With Pyro

TRANSCRIPT

Click here to read a transcript of THE FIRE DOWN BELOW.

DISCLAIMER

No Completely-Engulfed-in-Flames-Evil-Dudes were harmed during the production of this motion picture.