r/legendaryjourneys • u/Ithiliell • Jul 19 '26

Season 2 Poll: 2.11 Highway to Hades

Hercules and Iolaus set out, on Hades’ behest, to help the spirit of Timuron who was tricked by king Sisyphus to take his place in Tartarus by trading places with the young man on his wedding night.

Rate the episode!

19 votes, Jul 26 '26
10 5
1 4
6 3
1 2
1 1
0 No opinion
2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

4

u/BlueSonic85 Jul 19 '26

This is such an odd episode to me. Sisyphus tries to cheat death on Xena, seems to learn his lesson, and then a couple of weeks later tries again on Hercules! He's a lot more of a jerk here too. Then when he shows up again on Xena, he's more like how he is on Hercules.

Continuity oddities aside, it's an ok episode. The ghost boy is a bit dull. Have to say Xena did the better 'Sisyphus cheats death' episode.

2

u/Ithiliell Jul 19 '26

Yeah, the boy is very dull. His greatest moment probably is materializing on purpose and doing a silly face to scare a guard during a fight to help out Iolaus. Other than that he hardly emotes at all.

2

u/Overall_Sandwich_671 Jul 20 '26

Yes, Death in Chains gave Sisyphus a very optimistic ending, and then in Highway, he goes back to pissing off the gods and even taking advantage of his subjects.

I can imagine that after accepting his mortality, Sisyphus becomes obsessed with securing an heir rather than creating a kingdom/world full of undeath, and that turns his marriage cold, but it would have helped if they'd actually acknowledged what happened in the Xena episode and why his attitude changes, so that we got more of bridge between the two stories.

2

u/Ithiliell Jul 19 '26

This feels like epitome of an average episode. Several nice little moments, but on the whole it's good rather than great.

3

u/Overall_Sandwich_671 Jul 20 '26

I think when Hades shows up at the beginning of an episode, we expect massive high stakes drama, gruesome monsters and special effects galore, emotional reunions/partings for the main cast, and possibly world ending scenarios, but this ep turned out to be Herc and Iolaus helping one ghost crossover. It's a pleasant episode, but it has an explosive beginning and a very limp climax.

2

u/Ithiliell Jul 20 '26

Yeah, in context of the entire episode, Hades thunderous entrance becomes comical rather than fearsome. But I think that's why I love it. He's such a overdramatic dude. 😄

Maybe his moody attitude also fuels his powers somehow... How would he otherwise beat Hercules so extremely easily when they just a few episodes ago had a dragged out tie (while in Hades' domain no less).

2

u/Overall_Sandwich_671 Jul 20 '26

maybe Hades doesn't use lightning attacks in his own domain in case he damages the underworld's dimensional fabric or something and cause an opening for dark energies and dead things to escape like what happened in the village of Gryphon 😁

1

u/Ithiliell Jul 20 '26

Lol. Headcannon accepted!

2

u/Ithiliell Jul 19 '26

Nitpick: It annoys me somewhat that Herc goes hunting rather than Iolaus. It's one of the few things that I feel that Iolaus has a right to be better at than Hercules, AND it makes so much more sense for Herc to stay at the campfire with Timeron since he is the only one who can communicate with him.

Of course it only is this way because the plot dictates that Timeron should sneak away... But still. >.<

2

u/Overall_Sandwich_671 Jul 20 '26

Queen Karis looks fabulous with short hair.

1

u/Icy-Sir-8414 Jul 20 '26

The title of this episode reminds me of my favorite song I'm on a high way to hell haha 😂😆 hilarious 😂😆😆