Zorro 2.21 - The Missing Father

Plot: We open in the square in Los Angeles, as two passengers on the stage bid each other farewell. The padre is going on to his mission. The young girl, one Anita Cabrillo, is staying in Los Angeles to find her father, a haciendaro known as Don Miguel Cabrillo. But no one has ever heard of him. Not Gonzales, who collects the mail delivery, not Diego, not Sergeant Garcia. Anita admits she hasn't seen her father in 12 years, not since he left her in Spain and came to California after her mother's death, but she has received letters and presents from him addressed from Los Angeles.

Faced with a lack of options, Diego offers to let her stay at his home while this is sorted out, while Garcia and Reyes try to crack the case (Reyes fears foul play). That night as she stands with in front of the window before retiring for the night, someone tries to grab her. Or so she says. We saw the hands, but no one else did, and Alejandro especially suspects her of fabricating this entire thing. The morning, Diego and Alejandro return to the cuartel and go through the records over the last 40 years with Sergeant Garcia, but find no record of a Miguel Cabrillo. Alejandro now really wants to interrogate her, but Diego advises they watch her. Or rather, Zorro will watch her. Sure enough, someone had slipped a note into her room, and she sneaks off that night to a clandestine meeting in the middle of nowhere. There, the shadowy figure tells her it's better to live in Spain than die in California, and so she should return home. Zorro is trying to sneak up on Anita(?), and she naturally freaks when she turns and see a masked guy dressed all in black, and hurls a rock at him. He dodges, but good effort, kid. Zorro initially tries chasing the stranger, but has to abandon the chase. When Anita returned to her horse, it was startled by a suddenly agitated rattlesnake and dashed off, her apparently helpless on it. So Zorro has to hop on Tornado and save her, then lets her return home on her own to recount her tale to Alejandro and Bernardo.

Quote of the Episode: Diego - 'We will also assume responsibility for her safety.'

Times Zorro Marks a "Z": 0 (9 overall).

Other: I love that Alejandro thinks this young girl came up with the funds to ride a ship all the way from Spain as part of some elaborate, what? Scam? Hallucination? The world he lives in, I swear. Though maybe he doesn't even believe she came from Spain? I guess that's why it was important for the padre to stay on the stage. He'd ridden over on the same ship with her, and could corroborate at least that much of the story. Surely not even Alejandro is so arrogant as to accuse a man of the cloth of lying (this show is, not surprisingly, a lot nicer towards the Church than it has any business being).

There's also a brief subplot about a Raimundo Ruiz and his buddy, who are being hired on as vaqueros at the de la Vega hacienda. That doesn't pay off until next week, though.

After the first attempt by the mysterious stranger to grab her, as Diego and Alejandro debate what's going on, we see the shadow of the person walk across their courtyard to the open gate. Then the shadow merges with the darkness we see through the opening. Which is a pretty neat bit of work, for suggesting he melts into the night, which makes him seem a little more dangerous.

When Zorro hops off the wall onto Tornado, you catch a glimpse of the arm of the person who was holding Tornado's reins. They've used that footage before, but I don't have a lot to say about this episode, so I'll mention it here.