HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS: "SURPRISE" (1996)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

Though there had already been trading of guest-stars on the linked serials of HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS and XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS, this third-season episode of the former show was the first one to include a coordination of disparate plot-actions. 

Said plot started in the XENA episode "Intimate Stranger," reviewed with the rest of the show's second season here. Ares helps the spirit of dead Callisto-- her body slain in a quicksand pit earlier-- escape Tartarus, take over Xena's body, and send the warrior princess's soul to the underworld. With Hades' blessing, Xena appears back on Earth, but somehow she's in Callisto's body, though there's no mention of the villainess's corpse being reborn. Even after Callisto's spirit goes back to Hades, Xena's spirit has to remain in the Callisto-body, wherever it came from, for one more episode before the heroine gets her regular body back.

Where does the Callisto-body go? Don't ask the writer of "Surprise," but he uses the same "body from nowhere" trope. At the opening, Callisto's shade is once more in Tartarus. Hera, the godly enemy of Hercules, offers the demented evildoer a day's freedom on Earth, in which she can obtain immortality and (eventually) revenge on Xena, if she'll just dispose of Zeus' illegitimate son. Callisto accepts the bargain, and just like that, she's back on Earth with a living body.

The Barbie-haired badass proceeds to poison Hercules' family and friends, who have gathered to give the hero a surprise birthday party. To cure the afflicted ones, Hercules has to voyage to the Labyrinth of the Gods, wherein one can find the Tree of Life, whose apples can cancel out the poison's effects. Callisto needs Hercules' strength to offset the intruder-traps in the Labyrinth, and supposedly she can help him reach the Tree, though in actual practice she doesn't seem all that helpful there. Once Callisto reaches the Tree, the apples-- possibly a reference to the Apples of the Hesperides-- will make the villainess immortal. (Why the same fruit doesn't make any of the poison-victims immortal too is never explained.) 

Anyway, after do-gooder and do-badder make their way through assorted unimaginative perils, Callisto traps Hercules and tries to reach the Tree alone. He escapes the trap, but she manages to eat an apple, which gives her enough of a power-upgrade to fight the demigod. Hercules still wins and escapes, leaving Callisto to her fate-- though of course she survives to menace the Xenaverse in the episode "The Quest."

Though the writer supplied ample dialogue in which Callisto and Hercules bounced their respective worldviews off one another, it all fell flat because Hercules just doesn't have Xena's dark side. I only rate the episode as "fair" because of its role in the transformation of the Callisto character. Oh, and just so the other actors aren't restricted to lying prone on the floor, they all have various nightmares, all of which are also unimaginative.