Sunday, July 17, 2016

Zorro 2.36 - Long Live The Governor

Plot: Diego returns from escorting Leonar on a shopping trip, and seems to be making good time with her, until he notices Bernardo signaling him and breaks off the conversation abruptly. The Captain is meeting with Manuel Larios in the library, and they need to hustle to the secret passage to observe. Alejandro is already there, sword in hand and ready to end this, but Diego points out they don't know all the conspirators. In the library, Arrellano is remarkably cocksure about his importance to the Rebatos, and has decided they will all kill the governor together. The conversation is ended by the arrival of Sergeant Garcia, here because the Governor wants to set up shop in the library for awhile, which involves bringing in all manner of distractions for His Excellency.

It's at this point the captain puts the plan into motion. The other dons are scheduled to come to the hacienda and meet with the Governor personally, and Arrellano suggests that perhaps Alejandro could ride out and extend the invitation personally, so it will seem less authoritative. Diego is close to patching things up with Leonar when Bernardo butts in again, to tell him all the lancers are gone. And soon, as the governor takes a nap with the aid of his music box, Arrellano has Diego taking him to the lake to collect some wild rice for dinner. When Diego mentions it certainly seemed as though the governor was exposed, Arrellano offers to return to watch over him, if Diego will continue on and collect the rice. Diego agrees, then promptly doubles back and changes to Zorro. And Bernardo has somehow already moved the governor, his couch, and the music box into the passage.

Just in time, as Arrellano and the Rebatos - all 5 of them - arrive. Leonar stumbles upon them, but is quickly subdued. Things go downhill for the would-be assassins when they discover the governor not where he's supposed to be, and Zorro quickly sets to picking them off one at a time. The Rebatos make this much easier by frequently splitting up, though Zorro's very good at quickly grabbing and subduing them at every opportunity. Soon it's just Zorro and the Captain, and Arrellano, with no one to use as a hostage (Leonar having already been freed by Zorro), meets a final, fatal end.

Quote of the Episode: Zorro - 'Captain, I am  sorry you do not approve of the display. It would have had a better balance with one more sword. Yours.'

Times Zorro Marks a "Z": 1 (14 overall). On the wall above the heads of the tied up members of the Rebatos.

Other: When the Governor reached the library and saw everything Garcia had laid out for him, he started to pitch a fit, until Leonar stepped in to defend the sergeant by pointing out the governor told Garcia to put his things there. I really like Leonar. It's too bad Bernardo kept butting in with bad news at the worst possible moment for Diego.

The governor remarked to Diego this week that he was disappointed to find Arrellano had neither the temperament or the humility to be a good public servant. That's an astute judgment. Certainly Arrellano lost any pretense of humility the longer he saw the possibility of becoming Governor. His attitude towards the Rebatos was consistently remarkably arrogant for a man willing to kill his boss so as to seize his job. I suppose he figures he can implicate the Rebatos if they tried to turn against him, though I don't think he had met all of them yet either. But it seems to me that, if the Rebatos had been willing to kill one uncooperative leader, they would hardly balk at killing a second, and take their chances on being able to find a different willing partner (or better yet, pawn).

So it does appear the stairs that lead up to the library in the secret passage could come from the cellar, which might explain Alejandro last week. Except there also appears to another landing in between those two levels I can't explain. Is the cellar just really deep in the ground? I could see that. There's no central heating or cooling, it's a hot climate, wine is meant to be kept cool and damp (I think, I know zilch about wine), it might have to be pretty far down.

I do wonder how Bernardo got the Governor and all the stuff in the secret passage. Possibly he could set the music box on the Governor's chest, then carry them in, set them down, then drag in the sofa and end table, and set everything back as it was. Otherwise, I don't know, because he'd have to swing the sofa around to get it into the passage, I think, and that would be awkward with someone sleeping on it.

Arrellano told Diego he had the lancers hiding around the hacienda, but judging by Garcia and Reyes, he actually sent them on a beer run. I guess he thought it would be rude to expect Alejandro to just open his wine supply to all the dons on behalf of the Governor. Or that's what he probably told the sergeant at any rate.

Zorro flat out killed Arrellano. It wasn't an errant pistol shot by one of Arrellano's co-conspirators. It wasn't an oh-so convenient fall off a building. Not as an execution of an unarmed man or anything, it's during the course of their battle. Still, Zorro isn't content to merely disarm or subdue Arrellano as he was the Rebatos. He runs him through. Which I wasn't expecting. When Zorro removed his cape before starting the battle, I thought he was just showing off for Leonar. He seemed to be showing a lot flair, really selling it for her, but perhaps he was just being serious. No cape to possibly hinder his movements, either because he respected Arrellano's skill enough, or because he was ready for this to be done with. The Rebatos at least were not pretending to be the governor's trusted associate, and were open enough with their opposition that they were a known threat. Arrellano was the friend with the concealed dagger, which makes him worse perhaps, in the Zorro universe.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This episode reminds me of episode 1x37, but in this episode Zorro doesn't bother covering the eyes of the person he was about to drag in the library entrance.

Zorro going two floors down after being in the library is probably just an editing mistake, though it's strange we don't see the governor every times he goes up and down.

The view from the library window is different than in episode 1x37. I wonder which is the window Zorro came from before saying the line you quoted.

As for Zorro killing the captain, I think he had no choice.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and there is an editing mistake when Zorro is briefly shown wearing his cape even though he removed it before: this is because of stock footage, I think.

CalvinPitt said...

Yeah, it reminded me of him freaking out the Eagle by leaving him all alone. I like it when he gets sneaky like that. And I think you're right about the captain. He would have been shot or hung anyway, for treason, and he had to know that, so there wasn't going to be any surrender.

Anonymous said...

The use of stock footage from episode 1x37 also created a scene where Zorro (hidden behind the sala entrance of the secret passage) has no gloves for no apparent reason.