Disgusted with the direction of the show thus far, studio head B.S. Hollinsfoffer demands a quality improvement for season five of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys or else the show will be cancelled. Executive producer Robert Tapert calls the show's staff and star Kevin Sorbo to a corporate retreat to think up some fresh ideas for the new season. But it isn't long before someone is planning to take them out of the picture for good.
Tropes for this episode:
- Actor Allusion: Sunny Day (played by Renee O'Connor) briefly whistles the theme song to a certain TV show.
- Ambiguously Gay: Liz gives Norma a subtle glance while stroking her own hair when the latter reappears. This is most likely a reference to how the real Liz Friedman, the producer being parodied, is a lesbian.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Subtly hinted at.Hollinsfoffer: What is it with you and animals, anyway?
Rob: (concerned) Why, what have you heard? - Breather Episode: After the pretty serious plotline this far, this episode serves as one part comic relief and one part a chance to catch up.
- Catchphrase: Kevin insists he's "just an actor" whenever he finishes with an idea.
- Clip Show: This time, it's phrased as setting up plot ideas for the fifth season.
- The Cutie: Sunny Day is an exaggerated example, being excessively perky and sweet. Subverted; it's all an act, and she is really B.S. in disguise.
- Driving a Desk: The scene where Kevin is driving to the retreat.
- Foreshadowing: Kevin makes an off-hand comment about how Iolaus lived to be 100-years-old, hinting at his return to life at the end of the season.
- Genre Savvy: Facing being shot in a cave, the staff ask what the killer's motivation is. The killer refuses to explain, saying watching a lot of TV shows means knowing to avert Evil Gloating and Just Between You and Me.
- "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Jerry is positively giddy to learn that Ares is real.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rob says the point of the retreat is to boost morale. He then tells Paul that his last script sucked.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Ares indulges himself when telling Hollinsfoffer he'll never work in this town again.
- Inner Monologue: We get a brief look into each of the staff's thoughts after the sauna. They're most irrelevant.
- Iris Out: How the episode ends.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: This episode makes no attempt to hide that Kevin Sorbo is really Hercules.
- Latex Perfection: The murder disguises themselves themselves with one of these. To add to the parody aspect, the second the mask is pulled off, their body goes from the skinnier frame of their disguise to their more rotund regular look.
- Look, a Distraction!: Kevin uses one of these to keep the staff from seeing his super strength to knock down the sauna door.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The murderer first attempted to get the show's staff to kill themselves using their natural toxicity to each other. He was forced to more direct methods once Kevin started providing quality ideas.
- The Nose Knows: Kevin foils a poisoning attempt by identifying the scent of a toxic mushroom in the soup and knocking the table over on purpose.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Kevin plays the The Nose Knows example as a moment of thoughtless clumsiness.
- Real After All: The show staff is shocked to discover that Ares is real. They then wonder if that means there's a real Hercules and all eyes turn to Kevin...
- Recap Episode: As the title demonstrates. Coming back from the mid-season break, the episode recaps all the major developments thus far. Only "Descent" and "Genies and Grecians and Geeks, Oh My" get skipped outright, while the Caesar plot in "Render Unto Caesar" is only briefly alluded to.
- Sand In My Eyes: Jerry after Kevin describes how Iolaus would go out as a hero.
- Sanity Slippage: Hollinsfoffer reveals his original plan was to push the crew to this with tedious camp exercises, figuring they'd eventually kill each other. He says Kevin's arrival forced a change in plans.
- Sauna of Death: One of the murder methods attempted. Kevin foils it by busting the door down.
- Scotireland: When discussing the Celtic Pantheon storyline, we get an image
◊ of Hercules in a kilt playing the bagpipes with a leprechaun dancing a jig. - Self-Deprecation: Even more so than last time.
- The episode in question that convinces Hollinsfoffer to increase quality control is "One Fowl Day", the episode with a giant chicken.
- Apparently, Kevin doesn't get merchandising rights for his own show.
- Ares banters with Kevin about how cheesy and fake the blue screen effects are during the Driving a Desk scene.
- Liz scoffs at Rob's idea to kill off Iolaus in an episode because they've already done that twice.
- Kevin claims that Jerry and Paul have written some of the show's best scripts, not that he can think of an actual example.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the planned ideas for killing Iolaus is "Acme style" with a cartoon weight.
- The unmasking of the murder is a clear Scooby-Doo reference, completing with the "You Meddling Kids" line.
- Trust-Building Blunder: Robert is subjected to the "fall backwards and get caught" variant when his crew refuses to do so. Then Paul steals his wallet.
