Brigands: The Quest for Gold – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

From the Earth, We Will Rise

Episode 4 of Brigands: The Quest for Gold Season 1 starts with a flashback to Nino and Filomena’s childhood. The two are happily celebrating with bread that Filomena has stolen, and it seems she also stole an expensive ring. When they head back to the village, they find people surrounding their house.

The person Filomena stole the ring from discovered her parents and killed them for her mistake, and he took the ring back. In the present, Fumel is torturing Nino since he intends to use him to make Filomena tell them the location of the gold. Nino believes that Filomena will not rescue him since she only cares about the riches, but Fumel thinks she is also looking for redemption. 

The Monacos are in their new hideout, and Filomena tells them that she will not disclose the location of the gold to make sure they stick together and will lead them to its location the following day. Suddenly, they hear gunshots, and the Monacos know what they mean since they have experienced Fumel’s plans before. They say that he will try to flash them out by executing villagers believed to be helping them every day at nine until they show up.

If that does not work, he will try to turn them against each other by using something they hold dear to make a deal. As predicted, Fumel sends the padre to the Monacos, saying he will kill Filomena’s brother in three days if they do not tell him the gold’s location. He also offers to pardon any of the Monacos who choose to join his side. 

Filomena wants to save her brother, so she uses the gold’s location to blackmail the Monacos to help her. However, Pietro insists she must take them to the gold first. Neither the Monacos nor Sparrowhawk, a character named Schiavone, care about her brother; they only want the gold. Pietro’s father even suggests torturing Filomena or handing her over to Fumel so she can reveal the location. Distrust takes over the Monacos’ camp, especially when Marchetta and Ventre are seemingly drugged during their night watch. Cicci offers to investigate the traitor in the village since someone might have seen Fumel meet with a brigand, but Pietro chooses to send Jurillo and Celesti, which makes Cicci furious that Pietro does not trust her. 

In the village, Jurillo takes Celesti to meet his friend Lissandra, Fumel’s daughter. Celesti thinks that Jurillo and Lissandra are in a relationship, and he starts making fun of Jurillo. Jurillo sneaks into the house, but Lissandra tells him they cannot talk inside the homestead since too many eyes are watching. They meet at their other secret location, and Lissandra tells them that her father did not leave the house but only went to the cellar, where she could hear someone screaming. Jurillo thinks it might be where they are holding the prisoners. 

Jurillo and Celesti head out to leave, but Lissandra makes fun of the Monacos, telling them that Fumel thinks they are not a threat since they cannot shoot. Celesti gets angry and demonstrates his shooting skill by firing at tin cans, but he gets hit by Fumel, who takes Lissandra away. Fumel worries that the brigands might have done something to Lissandra, but she tells him they are just fooling around. 

Celesti’s death brings the Monacos together, and when Filomena offers to give herself up to save her brother, Pietro disagrees. Instead, he chooses to split the group into two, with Cicci, Jurillo, Filomena, Marchetta, Manzo, and Ventre heading to the village to save Nino while Pietro, Sparrowhawk, Salvatore, and Antonio head out to look for the gold. 

Cicci and the team arrive at Fumel’s house but do not find any guards. The other group is in luck and sees the gold at the location that Filomena gave them. Cicci thinks something is amiss since no one is home and figures that the soldiers must have gone after the gold. At the same time, soldiers ambush Pietro and the group, and Schiavone suggests leaving the gold and bailing. Pietro, Antonio, and Salvatore are pinned inside the cave and cannot get out while Schiavone escapes. Antonio thinks that Schiavone is the traitor, but Pietro figures out that it was Salvatore and that the fire he had lit the previous night was a signal. Salvatore tries to convince Antonio that he made the deal for the family and that they will let the Monacos gang go after handing over Pietro and the gold. Antonio kills Salvatore. 

Cicci realised the soldiers had gone after Pietro, so she ran to his location. Inside Fumel’s house, Marchetta suddenly goes missing, and when Filomena finds the cell, the prisoners tell her that Fumel has already taken Nino. Manzo and Ventre help Filomena get out of the house. Jurillo is also missing, but they do not have time to look for him since someone arrives, and they must run. Schiavone, Manzo, Ventre, and Filomena head to the rendezvous location, but the Italian soldiers, led by Marchetta, are waiting. Elsewhere, Cicci finds Pietro and Antonio’s bodies hanging outside the cave, and the gold is gone. At the end of the episode, Michelina sees Marchetta and the soldiers leading the tied-up prisoners and wonders who they are. 

The Episode Review

This episode is all about betrayal. Salvatore betrays Pietro since he thinks it is the only way to save the Monaco gang. Marchetta probably betrayed them for selfish reasons. Jurillo is missing at the end of the episode, so the audience will look forward to figuring out what happened to him in the next episode. Is Filomena’s brother dead? The episode highlighted the biggest hindrance during the fight for independence: people’s selfishness. With two more episodes, I would like to see the series delve more into the Guerra camp. What are they doing in their fight for freedom?