Studio head B.S. Hollinsfoffer is not pleased with the current direction of the series. At risk of being canceled, Rob Tapert takes his dysfunctional team on a corporate retreat to Camp Wannachuck in order to think up new story ideas. Kevin Sorbo (secretly the still-alive Hercules) also goes and provides a number of ideas (all secretly his own adventures). Unfortunately, someone at the camp is trying to kill all of them. Kevin has to protect his friends and figure out who is behind the plot – all while trying to maintain his secret.
Summary[]
Ares visits "Kevin Sorbo"
Killing Iolaus--Acme-Style
Hercules' spiritual side
Hercules in Ireland: That's chic
Campfire Stories
Sunny Day un-masked
B.S. Hollinsfoffer is reviewing a HTLJ episode ("One Fowl Day") and is remarking how bad the production has been and he wants more adventure, romance, and Salmoneus, otherwise their show will be scrapped and then proceeds to throw Robert Tapert out of the office.
Tapert then tells Melissa Blake and Liz Friedman, to call the crew...this is an "emergency."
Turns out, he is calling them all out to go on a week-long retreat at Camp WannaChuck to think up new ideas. En route, Kevin Sorbo/Hercules has pushes Ares out of his car.
At the camp, the leader introduces herself as Sunny Day and talks about what the camp will do to encourage co-operation, but just then a "fight" breaks out with Jerry Patrick Brown threatening to kill Tapert, Paul Robert Coyle trying to hold him back, and Melissa and Liz pushing Tapert towards him (to get killed) but Sunny Day comes between them all pushing them apart and then tells them about their first activity-- a good producer must trust his employees, so he has to fall off the edge of a table and his employees will all catch him so does not break something.....he finally does so and just at the last moment all the crew members withdraw their hands (intentionally) and he falls down and is presumable knocked unconscious, but just after Paul takes his money, he wakes with a "vision" for the new season: kill off Iolaus. Liz sarcastically remarks how original that idea is – they have only killed him twice already.
Paul freaks out and just then Kevin/Hercules arrives and Paul tells him everything but Kevin/Hercules blurts that Iolaus lived to be a hundred, to which Tapert asks what he is talking about, then Kevin brushes it aside...and says if Iolaus has to die...again...then let it be in a heroic way that we want...is...on the show... and suggests the Gilgamesh storyline.
The crew gets so emotional and they all love it. Just then Sunny Day arrives and asks if anyone is hungry..it is time for lunch.
Just then, we see poison being poured in the stew (Hera's theme playing in the background) and then Sunny Day carries it away, with the fearsome-looking cook Norma Bates onlooking (note that Sunny Day is humming the Xena theme song as she takes the pot out!) as the plates are being passed around, Kevin/Hercules feigns over-enthusiasm at the prospect of food and drops his hands on the table, which breaks and all the dishes come crashing down...so they cannot eat that anymore, to which Kevin/Hercules "apologizes" and Sunny Day goes to shake his hand because he took responsibility for his fault.
Next is the sweat lodge, they are discussing more ideas, Kevin/Hercules suggests the Celtic Pantheon storyline and once again they all love it, then suddenly the door is barred/locked from the outside...locking them all in the sweat lodge, Kevin/Hercules then creates a distraction and gives the door a hard swift push and it falls out, to which he makes it look like it was just a weak door.
After they get out they are all sitting around the fire engrossed in their own thoughts, Paul is scared witless that someone is trying to kill them, Liz is ticked that "Ellen" was canceled, Kevin/Hercules is worrying that if things keep going this way he will not be able to keep his identity a secret etc. When Tapert gets back to thinking about new scripts/stories.....they all stare at Kevin/Hercules........for some more ideas, then he suggests other gods that actually care about humans...and therefore the Norse (Asgard)/Baldar storyline.
Melissa remarks it was almost like he was THERE the way he tells these ideas...to which Kevin/Hercules replies..."I read a lot"....Tapert decides they have enough material they should pack up and get back to work, when Sunny Day arrives with a gun and forces them into an old abandoned mine-cave.
Just then as they are about to get their heads blown off, Kevin/Hercules thinks of yet another storyline, about the Dahak-inhibiting Iolaus......first by asking who is the one who would be most unlikely to betray Hercules......they come up with.................Falafel...........which....is not really what he had in mind (Iolaus...OF COURSE), just then Norma Bates storms in and Kevin/Hercules takes this opportunity to grab Sunny Day's hand (holding the gun) but she shoots, but the bullet ricochets of boulders until it hits a beam and Kevin/Hercules has to lift it up and support it with a log, while the others are dodging boulders (so nobody noticed "Kevin's superhuman strength"), Tapert then asks Sunny why and Kevin/Hercules says "allow me" and walks up to Sunny and pulls her mask off revealing none other than B.S. Hollinsfoffer (meanwhile Norma has her under cuffs).
They ask how he knew and he says he first sensed something when he smelt something funny in the stew, so he broke the table so no one gets sick; second, he heard what was clearly a man's voice singing around the second cabin outside yet only saw Sunny when he took a look; third and finally in the sweat lodge Norma sneakily slipped a note saying "Sunny Day is B.S. Hollinsfoffer". Then they ask who is Norma, who reveals herself as the security, she knew there was a traitor in the midst but could not yet pick it out.
Ares then appears and says a few words where it was mentioned that Hollinsfoffer was offered his own studio by Ares. Ares ends his statements by telling Hollinsfoffer that he will never work in that town again (just because he is always wanted to say that). After Ares leaves, Melissa freaks out asking if she is the ONLY one who is bothered that Ares, the god of war is REAL, which must mean there must be a real Hercules too. All eyes turn to Kevin/Hercules, but he quckly denies saying he is "just an actor." Kevin then looks at the camera and raises his eyebrows.
Disclaimer[]
- Due to circumstances beyond our control, some staff members were ridiculed, laughed at and generally made fools of during the production of this motion picture.
Background Information[]
- Featured clips in order: "One Fowl Day", "Faith", "Resurrection", "Render Unto Caesar", "Norse By Norsevest", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bridge" and "Darkness Rising".
- B.S. Hollinsfoffer openly mocks "Porkules", "One Fowl Day" and the fourth season to Rob Tapert.
- This is Robert Trebor's final appearance on the series.
- When he first appears, Ares is holding a Hercules action figure.
- Not counting the clips, Iolaus does not appear in this episode.
- When Rob proposes killing off Iolaus, he's telling Paul (played by Hurst, who plays Iolaus) to his face.
- After Rob proposes the idea, Liz says they've done that "twice already." (Presumably, Hercules and the Amazon Women isn't counted because though Iolaus did die, he was saved by time travel as opposed to being resurrected.)
- Kevin/Hercules let's it slip that "Iolaus lived to be a hundred years old." This slyly foreshadows the character's return in "Revelations".
- The melodramatic unmasking of the villain, the group's shock and B.S. saying, "I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!" are all references to Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo franchise.
- This episode strongly implies that Dahak was the one aiding Loki in "Norse By Norsevest" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bridge", something that was also heavily implied but never directly confirmed in more serious episodes.
- One of B.S.'s demands to Rob is to "see Salmoneus in more episodes." B.S. is played by Robert Trebor, who plays Salmoneus. Yet Trebor never appears in the series after this episode.
- Hercules's immortality and super strength are confirmed in this episode, both having been implied in "Yes, Virginia, There is a Hercules".
- Ares's presence in the modern era is explained in "The Xena Scrolls" and "You Are There".
- Norma Bates's appearances are accompanied by Hera's recognizable leitmotif, an obvious attempt at misdirection. Bates herself is played by Tamara Gorski, a hint that the character is more heroic than she appears.
- Norma Bates shares a name with a character in Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho (1960). The immediate previous Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest (1959), was parodied in the title of "Norse By Norsevest" three episodes earlier (and part of the clip show).
- This is the only "uber" episode of either series in which Renée O'Connor plays a character who is neither Gabrielle, nor a blood relative, clone, or alternate universe version of her.
- The name Sunny Day is suggestive of numerous "007 girls" in the James Bond franchise - Honey Ryder, Pussy Galore, Mary Goodnight, Holly Goodhead, Bibi Dahl, May Day, etc.
Memorable Quotations[]
"I'm just an actor."
- –Kevin Sorbo/Hercules
Rob: "Oh."
Liz: "My."
Jerry: [excitedly] "God!"
Melissa: "Of."
Paul: "War."
- –After Ares reveals himself
"Sometimes I'm so brilliant it's frightening."
"Well, ya got it half right."
- –Rob Tapert and Melissa Blake
"Wherever there's television, there'll always be B.S.!"
"He's got that right."
- –B.S. Hollinsfoffer and Hercules
"Eeny… meeny… miny… die!"
- –Jerry Patrick Brown
"What about those cheesy blue screen effects? They look so fake."
- –Ares criticizes the series
"Ares, what do you want?"
"Merchandising rights."
"Get in line."
"I deserve some compensation for the weekly slander I have to endure."
- –Hercules and Ares
"Afraid she just hasn't been the same since Ginger Spice left the group."
"Dear God in Heaven, say it ain't so!"
- –Sunny Day and Jerry Patrick Brown
"And I've always wanted to say this, but… you will never work in this town again."
- –Ares
"Well, would you look at that?"
"What?"
"This is where you get out." (kicks him out of the car)
"Hey! You son of a—!" (car horn)
"You should always wear your seatbelt."
- –Hercules and Ares while driving on the interstate
"Hey, Kevin, how do feel about wrestling Xena on pay-per-view?"
- –Rob Tapert
Links and References[]
Stars[]
Guest Stars[]
- Robert Trebor as B.S. Hollinsfoffer
- Tamara Gorski as Norma Bates
- Kevin Smith as Jerry Patrick Brown & Ares
- Lisa Chappell as Melissa Blake
- Hudson Leick as Liz Friedman
- Renee O'Connor as Sunny Day
People[]
Gods[]
Places[]
[]
| << Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 >> | ||||||
| #01 | Faith | #09 | For Those of You Just Joining Us | #17 | The Academy | |||
| #02 | Descent | #10 | Let There Be Light | #18 | Love on the Rocks | |||
| #03 | Resurrection | #11 | Redemption | #19 | Once Upon a Future King | |||
| #04 | Genies and Grecians and Geeks, Oh My | #12 | Sky High | #20 | Fade Out | |||
| #05 | Render Unto Caesar | #13 | Stranger and Stranger | #21 | My Best Girl's Wedding | |||
| #06 | Norse By Norsevest | #14 | Just Passing Through | #22 | Revelations | |||
| #07 | Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bridge | #15 | Greece is Burning | |||||
| #08 | Darkness Rising | #16 | We'll Always Have Cyprus | |||||