‘Let There Be Light’ & ‘Redemption’, Season 5, H:TLJ… A Review: (A look at the content and the meaning of the content
of these controversial Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episodes - A familiarity with the show is required for reading!)
Recently I heard the Dahak/Iolaus character described as both/or ‘Dahakulaus’ and ‘Iolahak’…
Now, joking aside, I don’t exactly enjoy seeing my dear Iolaus in such a state!! Poor Curly, as Aphrodite would say..!
Thing is, I’m catching up with H:TLJ, being a NEW fan, in the scheme of things… Last
night, I watched the ‘crossover’ XENA:WP ep, ‘The Bitter Suite’, and discovered I’d come in at the end of a story… Not thinking MH had made a guest appearance in any episode of Xena that I don’t now have, I figured she & Gabrielle must guest star in the continuation, and merciful end, of ‘Iolahak/Dahakulaus’, shown in ‘Let There Be
Light’ and ‘Redemption’… SO, I watched it… The dreaded two-parter!!! When first watching ‘The Bitter Suite’, I’d forgotten even that it was one in which Dahak made an appearance… I THINK MH Directed it though, didn’t he..??? A mad rush of pure insanity genius… A contradiction, a rock solid, surprising show of every side the coin has… It has his style all over it, so I hope I’m right??? The prequel to ‘The Bitter Suite’ must be the episode, ‘ Gabrielle’sHope’, however… That would make sense, cos it definitely wasn’t that incredible two parter from H:TLJ, last night…
(I’ve since found out that Dahak was not involved, as far as I can fathom, in the death of Solan… He only appeared in Xena & Gabrielle’s shared dream-world because he is a representation of evil.)
Now, onto that two-parter : It has to be the one that I’ve heard was banned in this country, for fear of upsetting the Church… (Unless that’s a XENA ep I’ve not seen yet??)
But I am a Christian, and I found it to speak volumes about the truth… It was an utterly serious ep, though, in the middle, there was something to lighten the mood – MH’s American TV Channel Evangelist voice!-
But it was very true… I even found it helped me to get some stuff straight in my head..! (Are we really talking about H:TLJ here!??)
The Deceiver can use the Light as his shrowd… He can make us think we understand, temptation does come to us all… Dahak was the devil, right??? Well, the devil can sell us almost anything, and regularly does. He’s self-anointed. MH’s portrayal was spot on. Controversial, MAYBE… But as chilling as it ought to be… Dahak was shown to use anything and everything against our heroes, to feed them false information, to prey on their hopes, weaknesses, and, most scary of all, their STRENGTHS…
But a belief in the TRUE Light paid off in the end, didn’t it?? And, it will, in real life, if you want to make the decision… That’s my belief, because I wasn’t always as calm as this… Occasionally, I’m still not. ‘Dahak’, the name for destruction, is still known to manipulate my intentions, but the fact that simply watching those episodes last night answered a lot of the questions from my prayers to the Light, shows me that I have someone better on my side, someone crazy enough to use my eccentric taste in TV shows to get through to me… Xena and Gabrielle’s trials were a sweet to take for my own bitterness issues, and dear old ‘Iolahak’ being exposed (!) for what he was, that helped me not to worry so… I do question myself. Wondering why this and why that about my circumstances – What if?? Are my dreams torture devices worse than a thousand Chakrams (!??) or God-Given..? It all adds up to a particularly unhealthy, misery-making dose of Discord… It’s not good for the soul. It’s important that I expel ‘Dahak’ from me, too… Mind you, if he stood before me as Iolaus, that’d be a hard thing (!) to say no to – But isn’t that the point???
After all that deep stuff, you’ll never guess what the next episodes I watched were… ‘Porkules’ and ‘One Fowl Day’… What can you say about a showthat slips from one end of the scale to the other on such a regular basis??? What does a show say about its VIEWERS!!???
The Lord only knows, but, to me, personally, it’s teetering on the edge, way out there, delicious… It’s GREATNESS with more than a modicum of Madness… It’s brave enough to be that crazy… It makes my life a cheerier existence, and I consider it a gift, a nutty little gift, (!?) of sheer GENIUS..!!!
Report By:
Bethany S. Heard