Hercules and the Song of Circe (10/29/98)
A REALLY GOOD episode!
The 'Spring Break' Episode! :-) Aside from the fact that this episode seemed very modern (at least the 1960's or 70's modern). Icky in his Hawai'ian shirt is probably the biggest out-of-place element, but I still liked it! BTW, did you notice that the pattern on his shirt was similar to Dale's from 'Rescue Rangers' (just paler)?
I really liked the interplay between the main three, especially that Cassandra was given a pivitol role as HERO this time! I do think that Icky's constant whining over Cassandra at the beginning became completely annoying... I tend to empathize most with Cassie at these times.
I REALLY enjoyed Circe's song when she arrived and how she went through ALL the males until she chose Icarus, because, as she said, "He's such a freak!" The song, "One Good Man" was probably one of the best used on the series so far!!! Seeing Herc and Adonis compete for the same girl and BOTH loose to Icarus was very humorous. Even Ajax seemed to attract Circe's attentions.
Circe (Idena Menzel) was a regular *Jessica Rabbit*! Mysterious, cunning, evil, etc. I have a few others to add, but definitely easy on the eyes and other senses :-)
Enter Helen. Her hair was brown? Well maybe she colored it for this episode? Anyhow, her apology to Cassie for the loss of her boyfriend Icarus was funny, espcially in light of the fact that her OWN boyfriend, Adonis, was competing for the affection of Circe! When Cassie calls her "oblivious" I had to agree.
As lovable as he is sometimes Icarus goes way beyond *geeky* and this episode proved it! Circe turning him into a platypus seemed somehow very appropriate! The little jokes about his needing to bury eggs, and later questioning his gender were funny.
Herc and Adonis then decide to give Circe a second chance to review their qualifications as her next boyfriend in the guise of rescuing Icarus! However, the truth was really in Adonis' own words, "I knew you were as shallow as me!" Of course their second meeting with Circe proved no better as Herc & Adonis were changed into a lemur and a peacock, respectively.
It seems odd that Adonis didn't believe Herc's lineage, dispite all the reproving he's experienced in previous episodes.
Finally the timely rescue of all of Circe's past and present boyfriends, and the retransformation back into mortals by Cassandra and Helen was wonderfully done! Well, almost all of them were changed back!
The joke applied to Circe's porcine guards was not lost on me, for in the original myth of Circe, she was in the habbit of changing men into pigs, so to find that the pigs were really pig was a nice twist!
Rich (xephyr)
CIRCE: Oh, great! How do I break up with a guy now?
CASSANDRA: Well, I know of at least 50 ways that don't require a veterinarian!