Zorro 1.10 - Zorro's Secret Mission

Plot: The soldiers in the cuartel awaken to see Zorro's been busy. He slipped in overnight, climbed the flagpole, and nailed a flag with a "Z" to it. Garcia and the lancers struggle to get it down, and their difficulties amuse to civilians walking past the open gates. Monastario, in a typical snit, orders the men jailed for 30 days, then changes his mind. The stable roof needs work, so he orders to the two men to walk several miles to the tar pits, and bring back the 30 buckets of pitch needed to patch the roof. By tomorrow's sunset, or they get 60 days and 60 lashes. Meanwhile, Garcia has managed to get Zorro's flag down, by chopping down the flagpole, which earns him further ire from Monastario.

And then the Capitan gets an idea. They can't catch Zorro because he has the people's support. What they need is a common man that will help them. So he gives Sergeant Garcia a dishonorable discharge in front of the entire pueblo, and sends Garcia out, where the sergeant quickly and loudly begins proclaiming how he wants to work alongside Zorro. So Diego faces a quandry. He feels responsible for Garcia's being discharged, and for those two men being given an impossible task. But Garcia being so bold about his desire to team-up with Zorro sets off the alarm bells. So he approaches Garcia (now working for food and lodging at the tavern) with an offer to meet him at the tar pits at dawn. Then he watches as Garcia immediately rushes across the square to the cuartel to tell Monastario. The Capitan resolves to follow Garcia at a distance with some lancers, and he'll leave the orders of the day for the ranking corporal on his desk. All of this is overheard by Zorro, lurking outside the window.

So when Garcia reaches the tar pits, there's a note telling him to travel to a distant rock formation. When he gets there, he's told to ascend to the peak. Once he gets up there, they find nothing, and Monastario (who has long since abandoned any pretense of keeping his distance) twigs that this is some trick. Meanwhile, the corporal isn't sure why he's being ordered to bring Monastario's carriage to the tar pits, and bring all the buckets with him, but orders are orders. Once he arrives, Zorro appears, and tells him to fill the buckets with tar, load them in the carriage, and go patch the stable roof. Then he moves some brush to obscure the edge of the pit, and leads Monastario and his lancers on a merry chase. During the chase, he keeps jumping rocks or shrubs, forcing them to do likewise, so when they come to the cover at the edge of the pit, they go right for it. And they end up in the pit, thought at least they escape without dying. By the time they return to the cuartel, Diego is there waiting to twist the knife.

Quote of the Episode: Garcia - 'But no one trusts me, Capitan, they know I work for you!'

Times Zorro marks a "Z": 2 (7 overall). I'm counting the flag and the Z he made with tar on the doors of the cuartel. Which, considering those two workers got a good laugh out of it, might have been a bad idea. Get them locked up again.

Other: One group "baboso", applied to all the lancers, this week.

When Monastario complains that Garcia isn't worth his pay, Garcia mentions he hasn't been paid in six months. Bureaucratic incompetence, or do you think the Capitan is embezzling the soldiers' pay? I suppose that adage about not assuming conspiracy when stupidity will suffice applies, but then again, we know Monastario's a greedy scumbag, out to become the richest man in California, so you can't put it past him.

Monastario charged Garcia with the following: Stupidity, maliciousness, incompetence, indolence, unreliability, irresponsibility, insubordination, insolence, and slovenliness. Clearly, he enjoyed humiliating Garcia a little too much, not that it's a surprise. As Garcia said, couldn't he just be guilty instead? Besides that, some of those charges are ridiculous. Sergeant Garcia and maliciousness don't go together. Neither do insubordination and insolence. The sergeant is always trying to follow orders, he's just not very good at it.

That discharge scene, though. There's a moment, after it's done, where Garcia is left standing alone in the parade ground. All the lancers are walking away from him, and all the people gathered at the gates are watching silently. And Garcia tries to gather himself, you can see him sort of suck up his dignity, hitch his pants up, and raise his chin. But then he has to walk through the crowd of slack-jawed gawkers, and they don't say anything, they don't part for him, he just has to sort of push his way through. Even though the whole thing is a ruse, I felt bad for him. For one thing, Monastario enjoyed it too much. For another, none of those people watching know it's a ruse yet, not even Diego or Bernardo. And none of them make any outward sign of support for him. No shouts that Monastario is being unjust, no pats on the back. That's gotta be rough, to know everybody pretty much thinks you had it coming.

At least Diego went to bat for him with the tavern owner, got him at least some method of supporting himself.