A volcano threatens to erupt and destroy an entire village. Hercules plans to use exploding crystals from Atlantis to divert the lava flow into the sea. Ephiny helps him recruit people from the village to help, including a condemned man named Kurth. It turns out that Kurth was to be put to death for murdering a Centaur, whose father and old gang want to see that sentence carried out immediately. Now, in addition to stopping the volcano, Hercules and Ephiny have to fend off attacks that threaten their mission.
Summary
The story opens with scenes of a volcano about to erupt. It has panicked the villages who live below and Hercules and Ephiny have begun to help them evacuate. Hercules decides to try and divert the volcano's flow. He shows Ephiny several buckets he has hidden away. Inside the buckets are several crystals that are submerged with water. We learn that the crystals came from Atlantis and that unless they are cooled by the water, they will overheat and explode. Of course, even if this were true, the small amount of water he had cooling them would soon boil and the crystals would overheat and explode. But this is fantasy and so it works! His plan is to climb near the top of the volcano and place the crystals in a certain location that will allow them to blow a hole open into the side of the volcano. This will allow the lava to flow harmlessly down to the sea and away from the village.
He needs four volunteers to help he and Ephiny. What he gets is two of the roughest looking scumbags you ever wanted to see. One was an ex-soldier and the other looks like some thug who wants to be a hero. Then a young man volunteers. Hercules is somewhat concerned about his age, but the lad assures him that he is old enough to help. The rest of the men assembled refuse to help. Hercules still needs one guy to help though.
Now, a twist is thrown into out little story whereby a certain man named Kurth has been captured and sentenced to hang for killing the son of a Centaur named Nagus. And although the volcano is about to blow, a group of thugs seem intent on hanging this man instead of helping evacuate the villagers. Nagus wants blood more than anything at this point. So Hercules goes and talks to the criminal. He convinces the guy to come along and help them carry the crystals up the mountain. In return, Hercules promises to put in a good word for him and perhaps the villagers will reconsider hanging him.
So they begin to travel up the volcano with four wagon loads of these unstable crystals. They have to avoid all manner of obstacles: rocks, geysers and the like along the way. Hercules walks ahead and clears a path so that the wagons can ride more smoothly. One of the men steps on a heat vent and scalding water burst forth, lifting the guy into the air. Of course it kills him but it also manages to scare the horses. A couple of wagons take off and one threatens to overrun the youngest of the men. Hercules dives at the guy and the wagon runs off the road and explodes. Now Kurth thinks Hercules and the others are all dead, so he decides to take off. Ephiny, however, is not about to let him get away. Then Hercules and the young man crawl out of the wreckage shaken, but alive.
Along the way, Hercules and Kurth talk and we learn that Kurth did not really mean to kill Nagus' son. He was drunk, got into a fight and accidentally killed him. Hercules points out that his mistake was in getting drunk and getting into a fight.
Meanwhile Ephiny and the younger man are talking. We learn that this guy is a farmer and only came along to prove to his father that he was more than just a farmer. Ephiny tells him to go home: that the world needs farmers. Surprisingly this kid bolts at this opportunity. Some hero.
So now there is only Hercules, Ephiny and Kurth. Hercules continues to lead the way, tossing papier-mache boulders out of their path while the two remaining wagons follow. Water is sloshing out of the buckets and the crystals are threatening to overheat and explode. Then Kurth looks down and sees his wagon's wheel just roll off! It just rolled off! The wagon threatens to tip over, but Hercules runs up and stablizes it. So now they have to move all the crystals over to Ephiny's wagon.
We find that the gang who had tried to hang Kurth are following along and Nagus is with them. They begin to shoot arrows at the wagons and Hercules rips off a board from a wagon and uses it to deflect the arrows, while Ephiny runs up to attack the gang. In the confusion, Kurth unhitches a plow horse and rides away.
Ephiny does a great job in this ep. She is looking good, showing no signs that she has recently recovered from her broken arm that Xena recently gave her. She got longer hair, a new suit of armor and shows some moves I've never seen. Predictably, the thugs attack her one at a time, so she dispatches them easily. Finally the leader shoots his crossbow at her but he misses. Ephiny dives for cover, plucks a long blade from a plant and strips in a certain way as to launch a sliver of the blade toward this guy. The needle pierces his hand and he runs off like the coward he is. Nice moves Eph!
Now, Kern gets thrown from his horse and who should find him but Nagus. He starts to attack, but Ephiny shows up and Nagus turns and goes away. Is Ephiny cool or what? Later they all get back to the wagons and we learn that the last remaining horse has sustained an injury during the fight. An arrow has pierced its shoulder and there is no way it can pull the wagon up the slope. So they decide to try and convince Nagus to help.
I don't really understand why the strongest man in the universe can't pull it himself and Nagus asks him that very question. Strangely enough, Hercules avoids the questions and somehow convinces this centaur to help. During their talk, we learn that Nagus' son had fallen in with these thugs and he feels like a bad father. Meanwhile Ephiny has to keep Kurth from running away again by telling him that since he took a life, he owes the world a life in return.
So now they are all together and off they go. Ephiny and Hercules clearing a path and Nagus pulling the final wagon. Kurth is along for the ride. At this point the thugs decide to abandon their leader, so they run off and the leader thug is all alone. He still wants to kill Kurth. I was beginning to think that maybe he really killed Nagus' son and was afraid Kurth would remember it, so that is why he wanted Kurth dead.
Hercules and the gang now have to cross this rickety old bridge. They decide the best thing to do is to carry the crystals across while Nagus pulls the wagon alone. Just to make things more interesting, the volcano rumbles and the ground begins to shake. They have very little time so they gather up all the crystals and head over. Predictably Kurth slips and almost falls but Hercules catches him. Then he takes another step and nearly falls again! He drops a couple of crystals and the explosion rocks the bridge, threatening to toss them all into the gorge below.
At this point, the last remaining thug cuts the rope supporting the bridge. More crystals fall and explode, rocking the bridge even more. One side collapses and Ephiny hurts her leg but still no one falls. Nagus sees the thug and attacks him while Kurth saves Ephiny and they get off the Bridge. Hercules goes back to help Nagus because this little gangster is beating the crap out of Nagus. Their melee pushes the wagon (still hitched to Nagus) toward the edge of the gorge and it threatens to pull him over with it. Hercules beats up the thug, unhitches the wagon and allows it to drop into the gorge. It explodes upon impact, but good old Nagus is spared.
Now they take some of the rope from the bridge and they tie the crystal onto Nagus who carries them the rest of the way up the slope. There is some type of racial overtones going on between Nagus and Kurth and this part is really pretty dumb at this point. I think the volcano rumbled and Kurth said "Woa". This seems to have upset Nagus because he is horse-like. Get it? Yeah…me too. Kind of like watching a football game and a player breaks open. Someone in the crowd yells "Look at that boy go" and some of the minorities decide to get upset over this. I thought this was dumb just like I think this part of the episode was dumb and had nothing to do with the plot other than to try and make Kurth look like more of a jerk.
So anyway they finally reach the area just below the crater where they want to place the crystals. Only they have now lost so many crystals that Hercules does not think that they have enough to do the job. So he decides to send them below while he goes on to the crater to throw the remaining crystals in. Nagus intervenes and tells Hercules that he cannot survive it. Even if he did, the lava flow would kill him. During the argument, Kurth takes all the crystals and slips away. They see him heading toward the summit and so Hercules and Nagus run.
Kurth does not just throw the crystals in however. He jumps in! I never quite understood his reasoning unless the guy had so little to live for that he decided to kill himself. But he jumped in and the explosion opened a hole allowing the lava to flow harmlessly into the sea. The village is spared! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back in the village, things are back to normal. Hercules and Nagus talk some about forgiveness and all that "moral of the story" stuff and Ephiny goes home.
Disclaimer
- Ephiny's leg was not hurt during the production of this motion picture. However, the writers sincerely apologize to Amazons everywhere for excluding her from the big finale.
Background Information
- Michael Hurst does not appear in this episode.
- This episode was originally suppose to feature Nebula, but when Gina Torres was unavailable they decided to replace Nebula with Ephiny. Ironically, Torres was called upon as a replacement for the very next episode, when Lucy Lawless was unavailable.
- Ephiny states that her son, Xenan, is off hunting in the area.
- Ephiny expresses her regret over being unable to help Phantes while she was pregnant with Xenan. This backstory was established in XWP's "Is There a Doctor in the House?".
- Ephiny references Hera killing Hercules' family ("The Wrong Path") and the death of Iolaus ("Faith").
- Ephiny doubts that Atlantis exists. Hercules replies, "Not anymore" – a reference to the events of that episode.
- The plot was inspired by The Wages of Fear, which was later remade as Sorceror.
- Morrigan is noticeably absent- this is intentional. Her separation from Hercules is explained later in "We'll Always Have Cyprus".
Links and References
Guest Stars
- Danielle Cormack as Ephiny
- Jonathon Roberts as Kurth
- James Gaylyn as Nagus
Other Cast
- Clint Sharplin as Opakus
- Taungaroa Emile as Linxus
- Paul Appleby as Prator
- Jonathan Bell-Booth as Zek
- William Smith as Paradas
- Damian Nixey as Gang Kid #1
| << 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 | |||||