Queen of Swords episode reviews--Fever

Fever

All I need is a Hero

Queen: "For a friend."

The life of a good man was abruptly ended by a bullet in July, 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Casey Dominguez saw two men attempting to rob a co-worker outside the nursing home at which they both worked. He took flight chasing these thieves and halted the attempted robbery. In the process, one thug turned and killed Mr. Dominguez who will always be remembered as a hero. There are heroes amongst us. Sometimes these are our neighbors…people we would never expect to risk life, limb, or reputation to help a non-family member. Unfortunately we miss these heroes' presence in our lives until we lose them.

With "Fever," the third episode originally aired, but actually the fifth in the series, we leave the story introduction plots (especially those created by executive story consultant James Thorpe) and move to a nice episode written by Scott Kraft. "Fever" did not have the symbolism that "Vengeance" did. Nor did it contain the single words leading to choices technique that "Destiny" did. None-the-less, it was a well put together story that flowed nicely, was entertaining, and made the viewer start to wonder why someone would risk everything to help others outside of one's home. After September 11, 2001 (a horrifyingly sad day of loss in the United States), "QUEEN OF SWORDS" was finishing its original airing in North America and Spain. Avid viewers writing to the official site's message board wrote about the real heroes of the day and also wished that the Queen had been more than a story so she could help the people in harm's way. Others would wonder why anyone would help in the first place. The Queen's line clarified the reasoning heroes must use to justify helping others. All people are connected somehow and are the hero's friend. The rest of us might not see life that way, but a genuine hero does. Author Joseph Campbell teaches us that there is more to a heroes way of thinking than that, but viewing others as one's extended friends is one aspect suggested by this episode.

Writer Scott Kraft tells the struggles of two people dealing with the deadly fever (Montoya and peasant Enrique) killing many citizens of Santa Helena and effortlessly weaves them together with antagonists Captain Grisham and the Queen of Swords. In doing so he completely absorbs the viewer in the story. Tessa likes being viewed as a hero by the townspeople when she works as the Queen and is disheartened when the people believe Montoya as he claims the Queen has stolen their precisous medicine to fight the deadly fever gripping the town. When Tessa exclaims to Marta, "Of course! He blames the Queen and gets the medicine for himself," the viewers, who already understand that it is Grisham who stole the medicine can't help but cheer her on telling her "Good job. You are half-way there. Just keep looking." We want to see this self-appointed hero solve the crime in order to help the sick and dying .

Eventually the Queen does discover that it was Grisham who stole the medicine so that Montoya might die leaving Grisham in charge of Santa Helena. Dr. Helm also figures out the secret and they both follow Grisham to the abandoned mine where he has hid the precious medicine. A marvelous fight, augmented by the Queen jumping in slow motion off the top of the cave onto Grisham, ensues. The Queen struggles and even has to admit to Grisham that he has gotten better. When Grisham disarms the Queen and is about to kill her with his sword, everyone is surprised by the pacifist physician's skillful use of a gun to cut the blade in half with a bullet – so much so that the Queen is able to overpower Grisham, save the day, and allow the doctor to bring healing to her community of extended friends. It was a fight scene that told a lot about each of the characters. We were made more aware of the doctor's hidden skills with weapons, we find that Grisham is improving as fighter and that the Queen has weaknesses.

Though she was credited as working in "Fever," American Roberta Brown was replaced as sword double by Frenchwoman Gaelle Cohen as Tessie Santiago's sword double for economic reasons. Ms. Brown and stuntwoman Natalie Guijarro were the best doubles for Ms. Santiago. Their faces looked enough like hers that unless one knew about the doubles, it always looked like Ms. Santiago performing in every angle of stunt scenes. Ms. Cohen, though a fine stage fighter, has a distinct face that stands out every time it passes the camera making this writer step out of the story to actually think "Hey, that isn't Tessie Santiago" if only for a moment.

Another aspect of the episode that made little sense was a scene in which Tessa asks Vera Hidalgo (Elsa Pataky ) for help from Captain Grisham, but she refuses. Her refusal is not tied into any other event or events in the story. Perhaps one has to read an early script to find out what purpose that scene had. At it's best, the scene emphasized Senora Hidalgo's familiarity with the Captain – something we had already learned about in "Destiny." This was the only aspect of the story that seemed to stick out as unnecessary, though. Everything else worked together as pieces of a puzzle.

I rather enjoyed the surprise at the ending in which Colonel Montoya asks Dr. Helm what was in the medicine he used to save the residents of Santa Helena. We learn that he was creating salicylic acid from willow bark or to those of us in the 21st century: aspirin. Once, what we consider common played heroic roles in people's lives. Maybe we are overlooking heroes in our everyday lives viewing them as common and trivial. That is definitely our loss.

I give this episode 8 Rapiers and 5 Daggers for telling a great story, teaching me to be aware of the heroes in my life, and reminding me of the value of straight aspirin.


Taram