Zorro: Capítulos 83-87 (June 11-15)

Only the Shadow knows...Zorro visits the Queen in her bedroom

The action on Zorro moved ahead rapidly during the week of June 15 because they skipped six months into the future. Also, five out of five episodes included the One the Only the Great Selenia, a trend which I hope will continue. By the end of the week, Zorro was in the bedroom of Queen Ana Louisa, la Reina de España. La Reina has arrived in Los Ángeles and insisted on meeting first with the De la Vegas, who she considers allies.

El Duque Jacobo was obviously not thrilled with this. Diego communicates some of his suspicions of el Duque to Alejandro and María Pía. El Duque wastes no time plunging into new intrigues. He tells one of his co-conspirators that he will make sure the heads of el Comandante Montero and el Gobernador Fernando roll, literally, if Sara Kalí turns up alive.

Sara Kalí rallies the gitanos to confront the Queen of Spain

Speaking of Sara Kalí, she has revealed herself to the gitano tribe and she's ready to go to Los Ángeles to contact the Queen, who is her cousin Ana Louisa. Sara Kalí says the Queen was not part of the plot to kill off her family and she thinks that the Queen will do the right thing if they can just get to her and convince her that she's really Mercedes Mayorga de Aragón.

After the time-jump, both Mariángel (fondly known as Mangle to many Zorro fans) and Esmeralda have their babies on the same dark and stormy night that the Queen arrives in town. There are some nice plot parallels involved. Both are assisted in the birth only by a short guy, Esmeralda by García and Mangle by Olmos. Esmeralda has the better deal.

I should mention here that, to my surprise, el Comandante before the time-jump managed to get Esmeralda back into her basement cell, where she languished for the next six months. After she gives birth to a health Diego, Jr., with García's help, el Comandante takes the baby away and gives it to el Capitán Pizarro to kill.

Ooohhhh... Olmos! Do you think the One the Only the Great Selenia is impressed with your little gun? Selenia and her magic dwarf Tarsisio face down a distraught Olmos

The births also highlight the characters of the short guys. García is bumbling, feckless, a bit cowardly, and not terribly bright but basically good at heart. Back at Mangle's bedside, the scheming Olmos also shows his character. Mangle's baby is born dead, because Olmos couldn't wait to give us Selenia's love potion. It killed the baby and Mangle still doesn't love him yet. She's also dying it seems, though Selenia says she can save her. Olmos is panicked and can only think of going to kill Selenia. Which he can't pull off, of course.

But it winds up that Pizarro leaves Esmeralda's baby (Diego's real child) in the cemetery and Olmos picks him up and substitutes him for Mangle's still-born child. So baby Diego winds up at the De la Vega hacienda.

There a poison plot parallel, too. Mangle winds up poisoned because love-crazed and sex-starved Olmos gave her the love potion while she was still pregnant. Meanwhile, Mangle has been poisoning Almudena back at the hacienda for six months.

Almudena is still hanging in there, but just barely. Yumalai has apparently learned a lot of Spanish ways in the missing six months, because after the time-jump we've so far only seen her in her Spanish/Guadalupe mode.

Does Aaron the Exorcist have a girlfriend? (she can't measure up to the One the Only the Great Selenia, I'm sure!) - Aaron flirts with a señorita while he stalks el Gobernador Fernando

Before the time-jump, we see Aaron the Exorcist in the background discretely paying close attention to el Gobernador Fernando. Fernando tells his guard not to bother him, that he's a strange saint, or something to that effect.Aaron the Exorcist, Selenia and Yumalai/Guadalupe are my favorite characters in this telenovela.

And it would be a shame to conclude with one more Selenia note. Here she's watching the Queen arrive but chatting with Tarsisio the magic dwarf about Olmos and Mangle:

Gratuitous Selenia picture

Tags: zorro, zorro telenovela