SYNOPSIS:
This synopsis is by Liz Sheppard--.
Hercules , Iolaus, and Jason are enjoying themselves by fishing. They
place bets on the fishing and Herc wins(btw, Herc got a new haircut.
It's...different..). They start talking about Medea.
Back in time: Herc and Iolaus visit king Jason, who's lonely being king.
Herc and Jason start arguing about how good of a king is Jason and they
settle it by having a chariot race. Herc's winning, but sees a young girl
in front of Jason's chariot, so he jumps and saves her. She says her name
is Chloe and that her family was killed by a Gidra. Herc with his two
buddies decide to kill the Gidra.
While traveling around, Iolaus and Jason pick on Herc because of his
virginity. He's saving himself for someone special. Iolaus, a teenager of
many skills, senses a naked girl..at least she's naked under her clothes.
Two perverts and a virgin plan to investigate, but find Medea holding a
knife to Iolaus' neck. She decides to join them in their monster slaying
adventure.
Medea and Herc start flirting and talking about bad fathers. Iolaus and
Jason stare in awe at the cute couple. They find the usual defenseless
village being sacked by thugs and so they decide to take up 2 minutes and
10 seconds(I timed it) for a fight scene. The four get thanked and junk
when a screaming woman comes out with her dead child. Herc couldn't help
him, but Medea does this healing thing on the kid and he lives.
Medea says she's a witch of some kind and she and Herc flirt some more
with the perverts getting disgusted(they wish it was them who were flirting
with her). Medea plans to stand up to her step-father, but when they reach
the village, it already destroyed by the Gidra.
OK, they're on a boat. Medea tries to score with Herc, but he plans to
stay a virgin for a little while longer, ya know they're rare. Once off the
boat, the four slipt up, with Medea going with Jason. She flirts and tries
to score with Jason(the little tramp), but Herc finds them and freaks out.
Jason tries to talk to Herc, but Herc beats him up. Iolaus confesses it's
hard to be Herc's friend, but he's a better for knowing him, and other crap.
Medea tries to heal Jason's wounds, but he won't let her. She runs off and
meets Hera(in the body of the Chloe kid) in the woods. Medea must split up
Jason and Herc so she can get power. Medea goes to help Jason but
Hera/Chloe nukes the king and vanishes. Medea heals Jason and they go to
help Herc and Iolaus with the Gidra.
Herc and Iolaus meet the Gidra: a two-headed, fire breathing, poison
tipped tail, looking a little like an alligator, poorly made excuse for a
puppet. Jason and Medea come by with Jason actually helping and Medea
standing behind a rock with her knife. Yadda yadda, they kill it, Hera pops
in disappointed and make Medea disappear, hence killing her, I guess. Jason
and Herc say their thank yous and apologies and junk.
Present day..sort of...: The trio is cooking their fish and saying they
all felt Medea's wounds.
COMMENTARY 1:
This commentary is by KSZoneW-.
Despite the fact this may have been a last minute episode due to Sorbos
injury, it was a very good one. Some seem not to like the idea of "Young Hercules" while others don't mind
but don't like the Young Hercules episodes of Hercules TLJ. Personally, I had no problem with the episode
and the previous one, and am looking forward to the 2 hour movie [pilot for series this fall]. The characters
where good and much like Hercules and Iolaus. Jason seem like the oldest one which is good since in
HTLJ, he is much older than Herc and Iolaus.
Young Hercules was much like older Hercules, in that he wanted to find the
perfect woman before losing his virginity. He was a hero and respected women, even though he was ticked
at Medea, when she started to seduce Jason. That is normal with younger people, even if its Hercules. Ian
Bohens fighting skills look good and his spinging of the robber and punch him move was just as good as
Kevin Sorbos. He had a good show of anger and was the serious one of the group. He was also like his
olderself, with his refusal to go farther than a kiss with Medea.
Young Iolaus was the comedian of the group and did a great job. Dean O'
Gorman has done an excellent job as Iolaus. His humor and lines about "Perverts hanging out in the woods"
was one of his best lines. Its weird and not unusual how the youngsters want to protect Medea from people
like themselves. Gorman does a great job. I look forward to his role as Iolaus in the upcoming series. Its also
weird how Iolaus has always been the sidekick and feels even more "Not Used" than his does in his grown
up role. All 3 seem to not be wellknown in there younger years.
Young Jason was okay. Corbin does a decent job at acting out Jason and
seems to be the womanizer of the trio. He's a king and is "best" in his own mind. He does have humor and
seems to want to remain friends to Hercules and Iolaus, despite Medeas spell. Jason does fight with a
sword more than Hercules and Iolaus, which is how older Jason usually fights in his older days in such HTLJ
episodes as =91Once a Hero" and "Not Fade Away". Jason will probally be the guy who holds the team
together and sometimes feel more superior over them, since he's older and a king. He seems to be the
"good guy to the max" since he wanted to help pass the law in Corinth, where younger citizens and small
children needed a curfue.
Medea was the one in trouble. She had fighting parents, much like Xe
na in her younger days [Hinted in "The Furies" episode in season 3]. Medea was helping Hera and ended up
becoming one of those characters that changes sides because of love and her knowing what was wrong.
Medea risked being hurt by Hera, when she saved Jason from death, but ended up sacrificing herself when
she healed Jason and led him to help Herc and Iolaus defeat The Gihdra. Hera did take Medea away but
Herc won the fight and Medeas heart, will Nemises be mad now after all she also was a teen love of
Hercules !? Idea for a "Young Hercules" episode for the actual series. This episode takes place after the
movie, because of the mention of Ares and the snake in the cavern, which will apear in the movie due out
soon. I persume this was supposed to be a Young Hercules episode but because of Sorbos injury, it was
turned into an episode.
The monster was not the best but was pretty nasty and one of those who
needed to be killed and was not some nice creature. Gihdra was a two headed aligator with a huge body,
and looked like a Oriental type monster, which of course it was. It did not move which upset some but it was
pretty cool in a way. The fire it breathed really made Iolaus dirty and I think Flat Earth did an excellent job for
the H/X episodes that aired for the week of 1/27/98 since both had some great special effects and cgi. The
Gihdra was destroyed by Herc and his friends choking it down, however with monsters, there can always be
more than one. I thought the idea of the Gihdra killing everyone and hurting everyone build up a good
storyline to have the heros destroy it, and made Hercules and Medeas struggle more intresting, as Herc
wanted to tell Medea off for hours, but knew he had to save everyone by killing The Gihdra first.
The land seemed much like in HTLJ and XWP with a mention of Arcadia,
where Xena stayed shortly before she turned good. The people dressed the same. The beach sceen where
Herc and Jason have a chariot race was intresting and showed that the chariot races was a popular thing
for youngsters back than, instead of a fight. Why did the "All New" graphic have some red/brown color in it"
instead of the usual light golden color ? I find that weird. I really do comentate on the entire episode.
This episode was pretty much a regular episode, meaning it was not light
or dark. It was not light because it did have a intense storyline and some teen/early adult like language and
talk. A lot of sex talk in the first 15-20 minutes of the episode. The kissing sceen on the boat, between Herc
and Medea became a small liplock sceen. The ending fight was pretty instense as well as Young Hercules
almost knocking Medea out. It was more dark than light. It had a happy ending but the rising action was
more mysterious and dark at times. I would say this episode had a little of everything. It was a fun episode
and fit perfect to air the same week as XWP's "Maternal Instincts". Both delt with children and where
intense. "Medea Culpa" gets 5 out of 5 stars. I hope they stick to HTLJ episodes and don't show anymore
Yng Hercules episode, untill the series, the YH flashbacks are good but take away ideas for the series and
may cause bad ratings and less intrest in the YH series and movie. This one is for ages 10 and up. I would
have to say this was of the better episodes this season. All 3 New episodes "Hammer, Trial, and Culpa"
where good. Next weeks "Men in Pink" is also good and will be a comedy break before a two week episode
with a dark theme and a lot of action and intensity. Both XWP and HTLJ have musical eps for the next
week. XWP has "Bitter Suite" and HTLJ's "MiP" is filled with some musical stuff and some dancing.
COMMENTARY 2:
This commentary is by Nikalaos.
Ok, overall, I'd have to say this was a pretty cool episode, from the lanky
beauty Medea to the alligator/scorpion/dragon Ghidra thing. And what about
Hera in the shape of the little girl? I think that chick could give Hope a
run for her money. What was this week, children trick the big-kids? We got
naughty Hopie and Cal offing some dear old buds of Xena, and then Hera takes
the form of a child to get Herc's attention. Fun, fun, fun!
Now, I'm no expert on acting, but I happen to think the guys and gal did
pretty darn good in this ep - the character roles did resemble younger, more
immature, hornier versions of the future people, and some of the little quirks
made it realistic. For instance, Jason is obviously older than both Herc and
Iolaus (he married Alcmene, duh!) and it felt a little weird when the actors
all looked about the same age - upper teens or so. But then Herc mentioned
that he may be younger than Jason, but he wasn't stupid after their little
brawl, and that set my mind at ease. If they're gonna ignore the story Jason
told in "Once a Hero", at least they kept his age right.
Medea was an interesting character, one of those Lao-Ma types, hard and
cool
on the outside, yet has a soft spot somewhere. You can tell she could be a
bad chick the way she flirts with Hercules, seeming only interested in getting
to know him. The jealousy bt that erupted because of her was fun, and it
really explored Hercules' cluelessness about being "better" than everyone. I
like the little conversation Iolaus has with him.
Back to the little quirks that help convince us these guys *are* actually
Hercules, Iolaus, and Jason: When Iolaus gets scorched by the Ghidra, his
face all sooty, in some poses he really does look like Michael Hurst from
seasons back when he was struck by lightning. Ian Huges is convincing as a
young Hercules - same modest temperment, but still not mature enough to know
how he affects people. When Medea snaps at him about being "just the guy to
remove" the chip on her shoulder, he mutters, dissatisfied, "Only trying to
make conversation." And you can really imagine Kev saying it. And look for
the pain in his eyes when the hottie Medea vanishes at the end - very
convincing and very much like the adult Herc. I could only pick out one major
inconsistency, and that was that young Jason has blue eyes and the adult has
brown. Hmm . . . the HercStaff didn't have anymore contacts?
Other fun little things were Iolaus' conversation with Jason down below on the
boat. The "Mr. Virtuous is losing his virtuosity . . ." made my mind flash
back to "Warrior . . . priestess . . . Tramp". LOL. It's so funny how Medea
seems so cool and confident and Herc is sort of a puppy dog. When she strts
crying after discovering the murder of her family, she says, "Now I'm crying .
. ." and he responds, "You don't have to be tough around me." all while trying
to figure out where his hand goes if he wants to comfort her, timidly brushing
back her hair awkwardly, etc.
And my favorite line in the show:
JASON: I thought you said she was naked.
IOLAUS: She *is* naked - under her clothes.
