Brigands: The Quest for Gold – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Rifle

Episode 2 of Brigands: The Quest for Gold Season starts with the padre performing a ritual to initiate Jurillo and Filomena into the Monaco gang. The two wake up in coffins buried in the forest, and the padre conducts a ceremony where they vow to forget the past and not keep secrets from the other members. They learn that betraying the gang would lead to death, and they are each handed a riffle. Later that night, Filomena tries to read the map but cannot decipher the riddle, so she hides it. 

Meanwhile, Pietro and Cicci discuss how to handle Filomena. Cicci does not trust her and feels Filomena will lead to the gang drifting apart. Pietro promises that the members have gone through so much together, saying they wear the struggles on their skin as he touches the scars on Cicci. He believes that Filomena will not harm the group and allows Cicci to test her during the upcoming trip to make an arms deal with another gang called the Paces. Meanwhile, Fumel wonders how to find Filomena while the soldiers clean out Clemente’s compound after the Monaco invasion when they stole the money and treasure map. 

Cicci takes Filomena and Marchetta to buy the weapons from the Paces gang. On the way, Filomena overhears a cry for help and follows the sound to find Jurillo’s uncle, Luigi, and two other men from her clan tied to a tree. She puts down her rifle to untie it when Cicci shows up. She does not want them to save the men since they are deserters of the Italian army but then decides to take Luigi as a hostage to sell him to Paces. 

Elsewhere, Sparrowhawk and his group make their plan to enter Mignano. Ventre is still afraid because there are stories that no one has ever ventured into the place and lived to tell the tale. However, Manzo reminds him that they need to look for gold and not return home empty-handed. Manzo and Ventre disguise themselves as helpers, delivering bread to the prisoners, and the guards let them through. Sparrowhawk takes Cosimo Giordano in as his prisoner since a bounty hunt has been announced for him. He says that he volunteered to bring in the prisoner since the soldiers were held up and bribed the guards to let him choose a cell. 

Meanwhile, Cicci and the group are escorted into the Paces hideout. They give the money as promised, and Pace asks his men to bring the goods. Cicci examines them and realizes that a bag of gunpowder is missing. Pace does not intend to honour his side of the deal, so Cicci sells them, Luigi, in exchange for the additional bag of gunpowder and an extra riffle. Pace agrees, but Filomena wages a bet, hoping to save Luigi. She proposes that the fastest one to load a rifle wins and gets what they want.

Cicci says that if they lose, they will leave Filomena and Luigi with Pace in exchange for the gunpowder and rifle, and if Pace loses, he will let them all go and add the gunpowder and rifle. Pace agrees, but instead, he wants Filomena to compete with him. Filomena loses the bet, but Cicci saves her by giving Pace her necklaces in exchange since he says he prefers money. 

At Mignano, Sparrowhawk finds the prisoner he is looking for, and he is a brigand. He saves him, leaving the gun and Cosimo locked up, but he has to fight his way out when Cosimo removes the cloth from his mouth and starts shouting his name. Manzo and Ventre manage to get out with the old man, but when the soldiers sound the alarm and surround Sparrowhawk, he escapes, jumping off the building into the water below and swimming to shore. 

Celesti takes Jurillo into the village and gives him his first task: steal fruits and meet at noon without being seen. Jurillo sneaks into Fumal’s compound and runs into his daughter, Lissandra. She promises not to tell anyone about Jurillo as long as he comes back to visit her and leaves him the oranges in her basket.

Lissandra sees a picture of Filomena inside the house and says that she has the same eyes as her mother. Elsewhere, Filomena thanks Cicci for saving her and trusts her with the map. She does not tell them what the map is for and claims that she cannot read. Cicci shows the map to Pietro and Marchetta. Marchetta does not trust Filomena and says they should kill her, while Pietro and Cicci decide to test whether the details indicated in the maps are true. 

The maps show the route taken by the Italian soldiers to transport the taxes, so they stage an ambush using Filomena as bait. The soldiers arrive and stop when they find a tied woman lying on the road. The gang attacks, killing all the soldiers and taking the money and horses. Filomena makes her first kill to save Jurillo, who freezes up when a soldier reaches out for his gun to shoot him. Later, Jurillo buries his gun in the forest, praying that he will become strong enough someday to wield it. Fumel learns about the ambush while the Monacos sing and dance to celebrate the loot. Cicci returns the map to Filomena, saying it is now useless. 

At the end of the episode, Sparrowhawk arrives at the Monacos gang with Pietro’s father (the old man he saved from Mignano.) Pietro’s father orders him to pay his debt, and Sparrowhawk asks for Filomena. The gang has no choice but to give her up. At Paces gang, a woman arrives in the darkness, and they bring Luigi and other prisoners in front of her. They tell him about Luigi mentioning the map that Filomena stole from the Piedmontese. The woman is the freedom fighter, Michelina, who says they no longer fight for masters but for their freedom as members of the brigand group, Guerra Gang. 

The Episode Review

The episode delves into the different gangs in the series and their motivations. The Monacos fight for the family and the gang members, while Paces are part of Michelina’s Guerra gang, which are freedom fighters. We have yet to understand Sparrowhawk’s role, but in this episode, he finds a bargain that the Monacos cannot resist and gets Filomena back. Will he take her to Fumel? Fumel seems to be taken with Filomena, especially when his daughter says her eyes remind her of her mother. What will Fumel do to Filomena if Sparrowhawk hands her in? Do you think Sparrowhawk will turn her in?