Zorro Season 2: Now With Shorter Storyarcs!

I think that's the biggest difference between the 2 seasons. Season 1 had the 13 episode Monastario arc, then the 26 episode Eagle arc. Season 2 has several 3-5 episode stories, with no interconnection between the antagonists.

They start with Diego and Bernardo arriving in Monterey to decide whether they should send for the 17,000 pesos that Lee van Cleef tried to steal, and end up investigating who's the ringleader of the attempt to get all that money. Then the focus shifts to Adjutant Rico, who is trying to impose what he sees as a sort of order on the citizens, but instead inspires a vaquero into open resistance, with Zorro having to frequently get between them, either to save Joaquin's life, or stop him from doing something that will make things worse for the peons.

Then Diego's old friend Don Ricardo shows up, and he and Diego fall into a war of pranks, trying to sabotage each other's chances with a senorita. Of course, the senorita has eyes only for Zorro, which riles Ricardo more than Diego. It's also during this mini-arc where we learn Alejandro knows his son is Zorro, and has known for some time. I think having another person in his confidence is why we see more Zorro bleeding through Diego's popinjay* facade.

Once back in Los Angeles, Diego's Uncle Esteban appears (played by Cesar Romero), who's a "get rich quick" type, and this includes trying to marry into money, a practice Zorro objects to. So we get Zorro vs. the Joker. Actually, that arc left me the most sad, because I hoped that Esteban would surprise Diego and Alejandro, and truly love the senorita he courted, but Zorro's instincts are always correct, I suppose. Then a young girl arrives from Spain seeking a caballero father who doesn't exist. Then an American mountain man comes out of the hills and draws the ire of a Spanish gentleman.

I thought perhaps we'd have a logner arc to end the season when a corrupt King's Emissary comes to town, trying to sell royal bonds to fund the war effort**. He doesn't think much of the place until he sees the haciendas and the wealth the caballeros have. At which point he starts planning to get ahold of that wealth for himself. Even sucks Sgt. Garcia in, and makes the poor sergeant the most hated man in town, until Garcia defies him and risks hanging. Or the firing squad. Whatever the penalty for treason was. That's not quite the end for that fellow, but he learns Zorro's identity in the next episode, and well, that's a kiss of death if you're an enemy of Zorro. Three people unmasked him, and they all died within five minutes.

After that, there's a 4-episode bit about a captain, named acting governor after the governor is injured in a carriage accident, deciding he'd like to be governor for good. Then 3 unrelated episodes round out the season.

I wonder if they went this route because the audiences didn't like how long the Eagle arc went in season 1, or if they just thought the better of trying a similar thing again. Perhaps the audiences demanded more permanent comeuppance for the villains, so unlike with Monastario, whom Zorro could have killed several times but did not, the villains in Season 2 have shorter lifespans.

* At least a couple different people in the series refer to Diego as a popinjay, usually to convince whoever they're talking to that he's not worth worrying about.

** Diego makes comments during the season that it's the 19th Century, and the Emissary calls England Spain's mortal enemy.