- Title: Zorro – The Bet
- IMDb: link
“The Bet” feels like a very traditional episode of Zorro while also looping in another group of people often overlooked during the years of Zorro’s adventures. After her sister Mei (Chacha Huang) is lost in a game of poker to an unscrupulous local landowner, a young woman turns to Zorro to help. The humor from the episode comes from not knowing exactly how to contact him, and even after the pair come together, how to communicate with each other which is where Bernardo (Paco Tous) comes in.
Not knowing where Mei is initially, Zorro fights through the Chinese gambling den in sequences featuring some of the show’s best action so far. Diego (Miguel Bernardeau) feels a bit more comfortable in both his public charade and in being Zorro, using the first to learn about the compound where the woman is now being kept and the second in his rescue attempt. Once again, Zorro’s skills are second to none, rescuing Mei. However, because she can not return to her family, she returns to the evil Ramirez instead, forcing a second rescue attempt by Zorro that doesn’t go nearly as well.
The humor and action are all what you would expect from a classic Zorro adventure, while Mei’s return to the Ramirez and Zorro’s failed second rescue are where the show puts its own spin on the character. The episode also works into weaving another character into the series who knows Diego’s secret. Ending on a cliffhanger with Diego’s identity revealed to one of the worst men in California, the show teases what might happen to Zorro in the next episode.
