Original Airdate: 6 November 2013 Written by: Guy Andrews Directed by: Andy Wilson Recurring cast: Vera Rossakoff
Tropes:
Absence of Evidence: Alice Cunningham's dog is extremely calm, despite the strange man who invaded her room...
Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Like the rest of the series, the episode injects a lot of angst that was not in the original short stories. Poirot is wracked with guilt after a young woman he assured of his protection was murdered under his watch, and his meeting with Countess Rossakoff in Switzerland reminds him of his loneliness. The lecture he receives from the villain at the end doesn't help matters.
Adaptational Distillation: This episode adapts the 12 Herculean-themed cases that Poirot undertook before his decision to retire and reduces it to one single case.
Alice Cunningham appears to be obsessed with Poirot, when she was originally characterised by her complete lack of interest in him.
Countess Rossakoff did not really like Alice in the original story. Due to them being mother and daughter in this version, she is now protective of her to the point of giving up her life for her child.
Adaptational Villainy: Alice Cunningham is changed from a drug peddler to a sadistic serial killer, and the true identity of Marrascaud (who was originally a Parisian gangster).
In Name Only: The Labours of Hercules was originally a collection of 12 short stories connected only thematically. The adaptation used one over-arching plot that partially involves a painting named "The Labours of Hercules" and only slightly resembles a handful of the short stories.
Larynx Dissonance: Poirot pulls this off at the end when he imitates Marrascaud/Alice Cunningham's voice in the denouement.
Pragmatic Adaptation: The episode is a combination of 12 short stories, most of which appear in some form to form a new plot:
The main plot combines "The Arcadian Deer" (Williamson and Nita), "The Erymanthian Boar" (Marrascaud), "The Stymphalean Birds" (the Clayton marriage), "The Girdle of Hypollita" (the stolen paintings), and "The Capture of Cerebus" (Countess Rossakoff and Alice Cunningham). Other stories receive only passing references—for example, the set-up for Waring's stay in Switzerland comes from "The Augean Stables."
As a result, there are multiple Composite Characters, most notably Alice Cunningham/Marrascaud.
Dr. Lutz is now a psychoanalyst and a fence instead of a cosmetic surgeon.
Public Domain Soundtrack: The piano piece that Dr. Lutz plays as Poirot, Countess Rossakoff and Alice play "snap" (a card game) is Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
Related in the Adaptation: Alice Cunningham becomes Countess Vera Rosakoff's biological daughter, instead of merely her would-be daughter-in-law. When Alice is arrested for her crimes as Marrascaud, the Countess begs Poirot to spare her daughter, as he had once done for the Countess herself. When Poirot refuses, Countess Rosakoff allows herself to be arrested alongside her daughter, even though she (apparently) took no part in Alice's schemes.
Rewatch Bonus: Alice's mindgames with Poirot becomes obvious on a second viewing, as does her admiration of Marrascaud. It also becomes clear that when she was talking to her dog about Marrascaud ("If you were the greatest criminal brain in the known universe, and you had just torn the internal organs out of a beautiful young girl, where would you go to catch your breath?") she was not being hypothetical.
You Just Told Me: Played with: it's Poirot who mistakenly reveals an important piece of information to someone he thinks is the right person, but most certainly is not.
