Queen of Swords episode reviews--Death to the Queen

Death to the Queen

The First and the Best…….

The Queen: "I didn't think you could count!



"Death to the Queen," though it was the second episode of the series, was the first episode of Queen of Swords filmed. Oddly enough, it only aired once in the United States. (I believe it was shown at least eight times in the Phillipines.) This possibly could have been due to a line uttered by Valentine Pelka as "Col. Montoya." While holding the Queen's top, found by "Captain Grisham," he speaks of "the skin of the fox." In Spanish the word for "fox" is "zorro," and unfortunately all through the Queen's initial North American run she and her were creators were dogged by copyright/trademark lawsuits including one by those who own "Zorro." (I was even contacted by one of Sony Studio's lawyers to make a statement against "Queen of Swords" -- which I refused to do.) The lawsuit by the owners of "Zorro" TM was eventually dismissed, but it worked to limit any progress the "Queen of Swords" could have made into the landscape of television.

Even though this episode only "officially" appeared once in the initial run in the U.S. and Canada, it is considered the best episode by the few who remain as diehard followers of the Queen. This episode was filmed first in order to give actors time to know one another. This way, when "Tessa" and "Marta" interacted with each other in the first episode, they could look like they knew each other. The episode, also, introduced the character of "Dr. Helm" played by Peter Wingfield and set up the love-hate relationship between he and the Queen.

In "Death to the Queen," men are disappearing. Eventually Tessa learns that men are being taken to a gold mine run by Col. Montoya in order to dig for gold so that he can buy a cannon and thereby establish greater control of the area. She follows a group of abducted men into a canyon and is shot off her horse by Captain Grisham's men waiting to ambush her. She is wounded and cornered at the top of a cliff. Rather than surrendering to Grisham she falls off the cliff. (It is interesting to note that four different women played the Queen in that one scene.)Grisham's men search the beach and find her top. (We are never told how she loses her top, but after reading the shooting script, I learned that she survived the fall, hid in a cove, and took off her top and pushed it into the ocean-away from herself-in order to throw the troops off her track.) Montoya is thrilled to get the blouse, but demands that Grisham find the Queen. Meanwhile Grisham tells his married girlfriend "Vera," that the Queen is dead. Vera in turn shares the news with Marta who is devestated to learn that the girl she raised has died.

Back at the beach, the soldiers searching the beach see the Queen's topless body and approach it. She wakes up, beats up one soldier, and throws the other off his horse which she then rides back to town. There she hides in her Hacienda and surprises the very relieved Marta. Marta probes the wound and we realize that, though, not deadly, it is serious.

That night, Tessa goes to a party in Dr. Helm's honor where her wound starts to bleed. The blood is smeared on a wall and discovered by Montoya who decides to look for the Queen by having Dr. Helm examine all the women in attendance for a wound. To save her friend, Marta breaks a glass in her hand and says she said nothing because she knew servants were not allowed to drink. Dr. Helm takes her to his office and bandages her wound. There Marta reads his palm and sees his bloody past.

The next day Vera comes to visit the Alvarado Hacienda where she tells of her groom being taken to the mines. Tessa speaks with Vera's husband, "Don Gaspar Hidalgo," to ask about the mines. While they talk, the dead body of one of Tessa's servants is brought into town. Tessa looks at the dirt on the body and in a matched shot we see the Queen's gloved hand looking at the dirt around the mine.

The men at the mine are very sick so Col. Montoya sends Dr. Helm to the camp. While there, the Queen's presence becomes apparent. A sergeant lines up five men and tells the Queen that if she doesn't show herself he will kill five men. In a dramatic moment, the Queen surrenders. The Sergrant ties her to a stake. The doctor notices that she is bleeding. In order to get close to her, he tells the Sergrant that he has to help her so she will be alive for Montoya when he arrives. The sergeant surrenders to this logic and allows the doctor to approach the tightly bound, wounded Queen. As the doctor bandages the Queen's open wound, she tells him "Don't bother," because Montoya will just kill her later. The doctor slides up behind her and said he was helping in order to.....he cuts the ropes binding her wrists.

Montoya and Grisham ride up to the mine thrilled at his capture. At the same time, the Queen breaks free, bonks a guard on the head, and hides in the mine. The sergeant goes in after her. She captures him and empties blasting powder on the way out of the mine. As they exit the mine she tosses a lantern on the powder, blows up the mine, escapes, and ends Montoya's need to kidnap men to work in the mine. With the help of Dr. Helm, the Queen of Swords saved the day.

This was Tessie Santiago's first appearance as a professional actress. Her delivery of lines continued to improve with time, but her actions and reactions in this episode showed that she was the perfect choice to play the Queen of Swords and Tessa Alvarado. Valentine Pelka was a delicious bad guy, Anthony Lemke was handsome and sexy, Peter Wingfield's smile will melt the heart of the hardest viewer and Paulina Gálvez played the role of supportive (and WISER) friend with great aplomb. The story, the writing, and Jon Cassar's direction was excellent. The stunts and stuntwork were phenomenal. The only flaw in the episode was leaving out the scene that explained how the Queen lost her top between the top of the cliff and the beach. I eventually saw one of the eraly scripts and there was an explanation, but without that segment the story was slightly confusing. My favorite aspect of this episode, which made it my favorite of all the episodes made, was the choice made by Tessa AND the Queen to sacrifice herself for the good of strangers who were "weaker" and less fortunate than her. That is the sign of a true hero!

Viva La Reina de Espadas!

I give this episode 9 Rapiers and 5 Daggers for an absolutely fun story that I enjoy watching again and again.

Taram

July 29, 2003