"Hercules & the Parent's Weekend" (Saturday, October 3, 1998)
O.K., now this episode was Much better!
I'm not sure why I liked this episode... maybe because it gave so much airtime to minor characters...which of course gave us much more insight into the major ones like Adonis, Cassandra and, of course, Herc. Actually, I'm not so sure any new light was shed on Adonis, per se... I think everything was fairly predictable wrt him and his parents, but it was nice to have a full episode dwelling primarily of them (and the other four).
Anyhow, as the title suggests this episode was centered on "Parent's Weekend," when the guardians of all the students were invited to visit the campus for the first time since they left for school. The gathering was an eyeful! I even spotted Ajax's parents, which begs the question... "Why is his mother so hairy?"
It would appear that Ajax and his folks stood in line several times when the gods were passing out testosterone. I realize now that the hairy woman who was running around the Agora Mall in the pilot ("First Day of School") was actually Ajax's mom! ...Eeewe! I am curious to learn more about this meathead Ajax, however, and I'll bet we're in for an episode soon. Ajax has appeared every now-and-then in the background throughout the series, but has yet to have the spotlight turned on him. This in mind, I reckon the students that are focused upon in this series are namely Herc, Cassandra, Icarus, Adonis, Helen and Ajax and, perhaps, Melampus? Personally, I wouldn't care one bit if Melampus disappeared... Why should Cassie settle for a copy, when she can have the original [Icarus]? :-)
Anyhow,
First we spy Cassandra's parents, Vic & Evelyn.
Next came Ajax's beastly parents.
It was cute to see Helen (of Troy)'s parents arriving in the Trojan Horse.
Next to arrive were the extremely showy King Cinyras & Queen Myrrha (eh????) of Thrace, Adonis' parents. I'm surprised by this bit of accuracy... namely because Adonis is indeed the son of Cinyras and Myrrha, but in mythology, Myrrha is also Cinyras' offspring... yep, Adonis is the son of his father and his father's daughter (Adonis' own sister is his mother... but I doubt this is how Disney means for the parentage to be presented). Oh, and for those who have developed great disdain for Adonis... fear not, in his legend he is destined to become the object of Aphrodite's affection, then to be torn to peices by a wild boar (how apropos for a *bore* to fall victim to a *boar*).
Dadums.. Mummsy... (oy!)
I was glad when Amphictryon and Alcmene showed up instead of Zeus and Hera. Herc deserved the lesson he got this episode for being ashamed of his mortal parents (no matter what Adonis said!). Oh, and Kudos for bringing back Penelope the donkey from the movie :-)
I did have empathy for Herc when, after seeing Adonis' parents arriving in style, and then to have his own come in like the Beverly Hillbillies.
Nice to see the return of the deliveryboy from "The First Day of School" who almost got eaten by Orthos, only to see him attacked by Ladon (Orthos' little sibling). Speaking of Ladon, I knew with his arrival, we were destined to see Echidna. :-) Also, since Ladon did not succeed in putting Herc in his mouth I can tell by the opening montage that we still have at least one more episode with Ladon coming up.
Did you notice that when Adonis was dipping into the Liver Pate he poke right into the sculpture of Prometheus' own liver! :-)
After Cinyras, Myrrha, Vic, Evelyn, Amphictryon and Alcmene were snatched up by Ladon, Adonis, in his usual self-absorbtion immediately seized the moment to proclaim himself King of Thrace.
Herc & Peg comes to the rescue, but, yet again, Pegasus gets injured (well actually just got his hoof jammed in a crack in the earth). My poor Peggy is constantly being abused :-( I was glad when Peg was finally freed and got to be the hero! Peg even did that *helicopter* thing that he did in the film.
Echidna sings a humorous song and we get to see baby Orthos, Hydra in flashback and a few others we've yet to see as adults.
While I was certainly glad that Zeus was set on teaching Adonis a lesson in hubris, I thought it fell short.
That's pretty much it for this episode. I enjoyed it very much.