Recap / Hercules The Legendary Journeys S 0 E 1 Hercules And The Amazon Women

• Achilles' Heel: Hercules realizes they can use the torch's fire to put down the Hydra for good.
• All Amazons Want Hercules: Hippolyta does anyway
• Always a Child to Parent: Alcmene immediately becomes protective after seeing the injuries Hercules got from the Hydra. Hercules says she doesn't have to worry so much, but Alcmene says that's just how mothers are with their children.
• Armor-Piercing Question: During the "attack" on the village, Megara heads for her ex-husband's hut, but she encounters an unexpected face.
  Franco: Are you my mother?
• Baby Morph Episode: Hippolyta uses the Candle of Time to transform Hercules into a baby.
• Bait-and-Switch: Crossed with Late-Arrival Spoiler, as Hercules and Iolaus appear to be bitter enemies throwing down in the village, but it's just a playful skirmish between best friends.
• Break the Cutie: It's Franco's reaction to the death of his father that really makes Hercules want to set things right.
  Hercules: Your father was a brave man, Franco.
  Franco: But I want him back! I want him to be here!
• The Chains of Commanding: Zeus alludes to this when resisting helping Hercules change history, saying there are just so many complications involved (be it keeping the stars in order or the outraged reactions he'll get from the other gods for breaking a very big rule).
• Characterization Marches On: Being the first installment of the entire franchise, expect a fair amount of this.
  • Hercules needs to a learn a lesson about gender roles and equality, as well as acts rather casual about possible relationships (such as musing he'd have multiple wives) and even flirtatious with a couple passing women. Future installments (both on this show and Young Hercules) drop these aspects and act as if Hercules never had them in the first place, instead portraying Herc as rather open-minded, wanting a serious relationship, and otherwise extremely chaste. It's also noted that Hercules has never fallen in love before, but later outings filling out his background establish he and Nemesis were an item at some point before this adventure (having been referred to her as his first true love) and that he had multiple love interests on Young Hercules (ironically enough, including a queen of an Amazon tribe).
  • At the shrine, Iolaus is reluctant to grab the torch out of fear of angering the gods and later urges Hercules not to smash Hera's shrine for the same reasons. Though there would certainly be occasions he'd prefer to not stir the pot, Iolaus would never be portrayed as having any such reverence for the gods again, especially in a life-and-death situation.
• The Charmer: The men of the village try to talk and charm the Amazons. Zeus even gets in on it, winning over the hotheaded Lysia.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Amazons possess a candle that can show a person moments of their past. In the end, Hercules intends to use it to go back to before any of this happened, and he convinces Zeus to give it the needed push to succeed.
• Cruel Mercy: Hera possesses Hippolyta, and Hercules just can't go through with trying to hurt her. He says he'd rather die himself, so Hera spares him and forces Hippolyta to jump off a waterfall to her death.
• Death Is Cheap: The first TV-Movie is also the first time that Iolaus died. It was actually supposed to be permanent, but producers liked Michael Hurst's performance so much that they changed the ending so that Iolaus could make more appearances.
• Demonic Possession: With Hippolyta resisting her authority, Hera possesses her and leads an attack on the village. She later faces Hercules one-on-one and only exits the body when forcing Hippolyta to fall to her death.
• Dramatic Unmask: While fighting the warriors, Iolaus manages to rip the mask off of one and sees he's fighting a woman.
• Due to the Dead: In the aftermath of the final fight, the Amazons and men of the village carry Hippolyta off for a proper ritual. Hercules also assures Franco that his father was a good man.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Neither Hercules nor Iolaus appear to be familiar with the concept of Amazons, but it's later demonstrated they befriended the Telaquir tribe during their Academy days and had possessed at least some awareness of Amazons beforehand.
  • Iolaus being soon to be married is a plot-point. The fifth TV-Movie will confirm the wedding did go ahead (albeit Ania having died at some point offscreen), but the series proper will assert that Iolaus had never been married.
  • Alcmene has a rather posh house full of servants. On the series, she occasionally has a helper or two, but she has a far more mundane farm and lifestyle.
  • The featured Amazons are aligned with Hera, but all later tribes on all three shows would instead swear by Artemis.
  • The characters make the infrequent reference to Hell (such as Iolaus going "What in the hell was that?" after the Hydra is beheaded once). By the time of the series proper, Tartarus would be used for such statements instead (with "The Cave Of Echoes" even slightly changing the aforementioned line).
• "Eureka!" Moment: It's Megara telling Franco there's nothing one can do to bring back the dead that gets Hercules thinking he can use the Amazons' candle to change history.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Megara asks Hercules about a particular boy in the village, using very specific details about the kid's appearance. Hercules says Franco is fine, realizing mid-sentence she's the boy's mother and how the two communities are linked together.
• Failed a Spot Check: Averted. In the face of claims that the local women were kidnapped years ago, Hercules points out a baby that's barely a year old.
• Flashback: Hippolyta's candle causes Hercules to see moments of his past, including Zeus visiting him when he was a baby and some early training alongside Iolaus.
• Fountain of Youth: The Candle of Time allows Hippolyta to regress Hercules all the way down to babyhood, then slowly age him back up as she makes him relive important moments of his life.
• Heartbroken Badass: Hercules after Iolaus dies in his arms. Later again when Hippolyta dies.
• Hot-Blooded: Lysia has no qualms about being belligerent, especially towards Hercules. Zeus describes her as being all fire (not that he's complaining).
• Hydra Problem: Naturally when Hercules faces the Hydra and tries using his sword. It ends up growing three heads before Hercules realizes he needs a new strategy, so he tells Iolaus to grab the nearest torch.
• Ignored Aesop: After a night of sweettalking the Amazons, the men of the village expect things to go back to exactly the way they used to be. Hercules chides them for failing to grasp the true lesson in all of this and for immediately falling back on the attitudes that caused the women to leave in the first place. They are immediately shamed.
• Kill It with Fire: How Hercules disposes of the Hydra.
• Love Is a Weakness: Hera points out that possessing Hippolyta means that Hercules could actually kill her once and for all. His refusal to even risk hurting Hippolyta delights and confuses Hera.
  Hera: Who would've thought that, of all things, it would be love that kills the great Hercules?
• Man Hug: Hercules and Iolaus after playing their little game.
• Metaphorically True: Pithus and the other men claim "the beasts" took the local women away years ago. "The beasts" are Amazons, and the women simply walked out on the men to join them.
• Momma's Boy: In addition to coming home for Iolaus's wedding, Hercules also has a gift for Alcmene (spices for her cooking).
• Not Quite Dead: Hercules beheads the giant serpent and is certain that's that, only to learn he's dealing with the Hydra.
• Opt Out: Zeus advocates that Hercules just stay out of Hera's way, saying he does it all the time. Hercules is on his own when facing the possessed Hippolyta.
• Parental Favoritism: Zeus beams with pride when praising Hercules for his accomplishments.
• Parental Neglect: Zeus concedes he wasn't the father that Hercules deserved. Hercules is later skeptical of the old man offering to help out with the Amazons, to which Zeus points out the other gods are even less involved with their half-mortal offspring than he is.
• Pilot Movie: For the entire franchise
• Play-Along Prisoner: Hercules is locked up by the Amazons, but he's really only hanging around to try to figure them out. Zeus lampshades how the World's Strongest Man can't be restrained by a mere wooden cage.
• The Power of Love: Ania is a perfectly nice and sweet person, but she's also a Lethal Chef, bad with animals (making her useless on the farm), and can't sew. All Iolaus can say is that he fell in love, and he's insistent that Hercules will understand such a sensation. Hercules is dubious, only to later fall pretty hard for Hippolyta.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The time travel twist was because producers ended up really liking Michael Hurst's performance and wanting Iolaus to be featured in later installments. The only reason he doesn't appear in any of the next three TV-Movies is because there was no time to change those scripts.
• Slashed Throat: How Hera kills Pithus for trying to help Hercules.
• So Proud of You: Zeus congratulates Hercules for building such a legendary reputation for himself, saying he's always running into people talking about the heroic exploits.
• Time Travel: How Hercules saves Iolaus, Hippolyta, and Pithus.
• Witch with a Capital "B": Averted. Alcmene outright calls Hera a bitch for sending the Hydra after Hercules.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The Hydra gets the drop on Hercules and Iolaus by posing as a crying child.