Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Season 3
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Season 2
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
301: Mercenary 1996 September 30
(First watched 2025-08-19) Last season we had a Terminator episode, now half of this episode was essentially Tremors. It's kind of amazing what they can shoehorn into this setting.
Rare gray area for this show. Usually it's just... Hercules Good, Bad Guy Bad, yada yada, justice! But here we have a man who was hired to kill as vigilante justice for other deaths, facing a sham trial of his own. They try to add to it by making the man who was killed a friend of Hercules, but he seems to have hundreds of offscreen friends so it doesn't mean much to us.
302: Doomsday 1996 October 7
(First watched 2025-08-24) This franchise playing loosey-goosey with time does allow them a lot of freedom to do whatever they want around old material. Adaptation of a specific myth? Sure. A followup story taking place the next year? That's what we've got here. Daedalus, in a bad place thanks to the death of Icarus, is designing weapons being used by a bad king. Including some... battle suits. If this were fifteen years later I'd say they were taking inspiration from Iron Man, but he wasn't very influential in the 90s. A viewer at the time might compare these "megoliths" to the lifting mech thingy Ripley uses in Aliens?
Daedalus's other notable invention? A "silly, nutty" substance that definitely wasn't the trademarked Silly Putty.
Hercules's sidekick for the story was a nosy reporter. Didn't we just see this character type in last season's finale? A mere two episodes ago?
303: Love Takes a Holiday 1996 October 14
(First watched 2025-08-25) Not just a Hercules-lite episode, but a Hercules-not-at-all episode. Just an Iolaus adventure beginning to end.
Last episode we saw Hercules fighting big machines, and we see something not dissimilar here. Not large mechs, but suits of armor designed by a god and animated by godly forces. And as a guy with no godly powers, Iolaus does a fair job of putting a stop to them.
The basic premise was pretty interesting. A town unfrozen after 50 years, everyone still just realizing what's happened. As soon as Iolaus said his father was from this area I had a pretty good idea where it was going, I'm just glad he was able to figure things out before he did something stupid like fall in love with his grandmother.
So Hephaestus and Aphrodite say they haven't seen each other for hundreds of years, but Aphrodite also refers to Hercules as her big brother. He's no hundreds of years old, though. Is this just the way she phrases things due to him _appearing_ older with his human-like aging?
Enjoyed Iolaus's callback of "Bitchin'", which Aphrodite introduced him to in her first appearance on the show.
304: Mummy Dearest 1996 October 21
(First watched 2025-08-29) They set it up with shots of things like the pyramids, so I was wondering just how far Hercules had traveled this time. But no, instead some Egyptians traveling close to him. And of course, Salmoneus there to get caught up in things by buying a cursed mummy for his House of Horrors.
Apart from the unusual Egyptian influence, kind of a middle-of-the-road episode. I was kind of hoping for the Egyptian stuff to go a bit farther. Like, how does the Egyptian pantheon of gods work with the reality of the Greek gods we see appearing on the show? Are they another group, or would we see familiar gods working there under a different name?
305: Not Fade Away 1996 October 28
(First watched 2025-09-01) Hercules sure finds a way to cheat death a lot for his friends. Except, y'know, his wife and kids. Didn't Iolaus end up "dead" when turned to stone by the she-demon too? He's becoming a regular guest down there.
How to follow up your Terminator ripoff story? By making a story where the previous antagonist joins good to face off against an even stronger terminator enforcer. Not Terminator-y, but the new fire enforcer is noted martial arts actress Cynthia Rothrock.
The first enforcer episode, I didn't buy the way he finally won. This time... I don't buy the way he finally won. So she gets stabbed, and flames start spewing out. Then he blocks the spewing flames with a shield, and once pressed right up against her, she explodes. But wouldn't that just put the situation back to how it was before she was stabbed?
Part that made me laugh: Hercules suggests his mom and Jason will be safe hiding in a cave, and immediately upon entering the cave they find themselves cornered by the bad enforcer.
306: Monster Child in the Promised Land 1996 November 4
(First watched 2025-09-06) On the subject of wife and kids, Iolaus said "You know? I have got a great life, but, uh--
sometimes-- I can't help thinking I'm missing out on something." This makes it sound less like his dead wife and alive son have been retconned from existence, than that the MIB have erased his memories of them.
Another "Yep, this is Hercules TLJ" character name: Klepto.
That baby was one ugly monster, but so were its siblings.
307: The Green-Eyed Monster 1996 November 11
(First watched 2025-09-09) Second role for Karl Urban, following up being the bad son in a not-Abraham story over on Xena. Instead playing a big buff Cupid who turns into a cheap CG monster when he gets jealous.
The end wrapup felt a bit... quick. Making Psyche immortal was a solution to the problem of gods loving mortals, sure... but at that point she and Cupid had only ever talked for a few minutes. Maybe that's a bit fast to be deciding on eternal marriage?
Hercules says he hasn't seen his mother and Jason since their wedding, but they were on the episode with the enforcers just a few weeks back. I assume this is another case of episode being shown in a different order than made, but why does that seem to happen so much with this show and its sister show?
308: Prince Hercules 1996 November 18
(First watched 2025-09-12) The premise seemed a bit too easy on Hera's part. If she can so easily conk him and cause him to lose his memories, it only seems a marginal additional effort to like... kill him entirely by dropping something on him. Or knock him unconscious and bury him. Whatever.
Also, the plan to make him think he's someone else so he'll pledge himself to Hera... seems like a bit of a copout, but maybe I'm coming at this too philosophically. If you make Hercules forget he's Hercules and then he pledges himself to Hera, it's not really _Hercules_ pledging himself to Hera. Legally he'd get excused by way of... temporary insanity or something. But the gods' rules aren't very just, I suppose.
Quite enjoyed how people just kept referring to Iolaus as the purple man.
309: A Star to Guide Them 1996 December 9
(First watched 2025-09-16) In the last Xena I watched I said the people at the end were Joseph/Mary/Jesus in all but name, and this pulls the same. Iolaus and a few other guys having mystical dreams from a high power and in the end are implied to be the wise men of legend visiting Jesus's birth.
Early in the episode Iolaus is kind of down about only being seen as Hercules's sidekick and wondering when he himself will be seen as doing something important. Ignoring the past times he's done just that, this episode seems like it's supposed to answer that question... but I don't think I'd agree. God only had to send out three dreams, and since one of them was Iolaus he knew he'd get Hercules as part of the package. Maybe it would be a godly faux-pas to _directly_ call on a demigod son of Zeus for assistance.
310: The Lady and the Dragon 1997 January 13
(First watched 2025-09-22) I don't know if I've put it down in words here before, but with as many brawls as they get into in this show I've wished there could be a bit more to them. It's a bit much to expect, but like if Jackie Chan was fight coordinator there'd be more interesting stuff going on in these repeated beats. And while this wasn't exactly Jackie Chan, I highly approve of the silly meat fight Iolaus gets into, including sausage links as nunchaku and meat getting sliced by weapons and landing on bread.
I want to knock Iolaus for so swiftly falling for the ~widow of his friend, but in the end I guess she deserves much of the credit/blame, apparently having tricked several heroic men into dying in fights against a dragon.
311: Long Live the King 1997 January 20
(First watched 2025-09-27) Another Hercules-lite episode, a direct sequel to the last one. Much the same as then, Iolaus makes for a pretty fun leading man. This time his identical cousin kicked the bucket, though, so is that the end of this particular sub-series?
Subtitles made Orestes's death kind of amusing, in that it straight up said "[expires]".
Goofy name of the episode: the doctor, Illegibus.
312: Surprise 1997 January 27
(First watched 2025-10-03) Another ~crossover episode with Xena, without actually featuring the leads.
Given the rules of how the world seems to work within this franchise, I think Callisto had one of the best threats I've seen. If Hercules intentionally sends her back to the underworld, she'll find his dead kids and make their afterlife hell.
This episode is another case of "everything is extremely close". So there's a prominent labyrinth with a godly treasure aaaand it just happens to be within a few hours (at most) walking distance of Corinth where Hercules is meeting with his family and friends (and Falafel).
313: Encounter 1997 February 3
(First watched 2025-10-10) YET AGAIN Hercules falls deeply in love with someone he's barely interacted with, then leaves immediately.
Strife is an unusual god. I presume they'll be back.
I sometimes joke about how many actors have multiple roles in this franchise, and especially that Hercules has half-brothers on both of his parents' sides played by the same actor... but Iphicles (seen last episode) and Ares (seen this episode) really do look quite different. Changing up the head hair and facial hair goes a long way.
Speaking of actors in different roles, the woman Hercules fell in love with this episode is the same woman he fell in love with five episodes ago. Maybe Hercules just has a type.
314: When a Man Loves a Woman 1997 February 10
(First watched 2025-10-20) OK, so surprisingly a direct continuation. At the end of the last episode it seemed Hercules was saying his goodbyes, but I guess by the beginning of this one he'd had second thoughts. So he actually decides to propose to her, and... Hercules's marital situation is really a big mess. His wife and kids died 2-3 years ago (if a season is a year), and he's been able to visit them on several occasions. So it feels more to me like they're just quarantined from each other for an indefinite period of time. Given that, how could Hercules be surprised how upset Deianeira was when he told her he wanted to get remarried?
Surprisingly to me, the wedding actually went through, with the consequences of Hercules losing his powers and Serena no longer being a Hind (which really solved some of the potential problem she was worried about). Buuut I'm pretty sure he's not a weak married man for another three seasons, so I'm assuming something goes wrong in the near future.
Separately... Joxer. I usually enjoy characters from one show going to the other, helping sell the idea of a shared universe, but he really didn't do anything in this episode so it felt like a waste.
315: Judgment Day 1997 February 17
(First watched 2025-12-09) OK, so I wasn't expecting the change in the status quo to last long, but I was still pretty surprised that Hercules's new wife died before the episode was a quarter through. At first I thought it was just part of a dream, but nope.
Zeus shows up near the end, and it's totally understandable why Hercules can't stand the guy anymore. Hercules is like "That's the second time you've let someone murder my family!" and Zeus is like "What, not even a thank you for your powers back?"
After the first time Hercules's family was murdered it was hard to think he'd be able to form further long-term attachments, and boy that really must be burned for him now.
A silly Hercules-power note, but I thought it was amusing how at the end he just places Serena's necklace on her grave and smacks it with his hand to embed it in the rock.
This was another crossover episode with Xena and Gabrielle showing up, which I did not expect. But it worked well. Both a direct continuation of the last episode, and a continuation of the longer Xena story thread of Ares trying to get her to turn back to her old ways.
316: The Lost City 1997 February 24
(First watched 2025-12-22) Another no-Hercules-at-all episode. From a series story standpoint, this makes enough sense. Hercules did just lose his wife (AGAIN), so giving him an episode off to grieve before throwing him back into another adventure of the week seems fair enough. Looking at the wiki, though, I see it was originally written as an episode for Hercules and not Iolaus so... just worked out that way, I guess.
After watching this episode, it struck me that it's just as old now as the 60s hippy tropes were at the time of this episode's creation.
317: Les Contemptibles 1997 April 7
(First watched 2026-04-02) Man, this franchise is weird. You don't go into an episode of Hercules expecting 1789 France.
So it was a clip show... but this franchise does clip shows weird, too. Generally they're the type of thing you do to produce a cheap episode, but in this case the framing story is full of entirely atypical locations, costumes, props, which must've cost a pretty penny.
The intentionally exaggerated bad French accents were quite amusing.
318: Reign of Terror 1997 April 14
(First watched 2026-04-07) That crazy king is why the kingdom needs a 25th amendment.
319: The End of the Beginning 1997 April 21
321: A Rock and a Hard Place 1997 May 5
Contents > Franchises > Xenaverse > Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Contents > Television Seasons > Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Seasons
Contents > Television Seasons > Television Seasons by Year > 1996 Television Seasons
Contents > Television Seasons > Television Seasons by Year > 1997 Television Seasons
Contents > Television Shows
Contents > Time > Years > 1996
Contents > Time > Years > 1997