Zorro – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3

Episode 3 of Zorro begins with Ramirez sharing a poker game with Mr. Cheng, the richest man in the whole of Los Angeles. When Chang loses everything he has brought with him, he gambles with his assistant, Mei. Unfortunately, Ramirez is quick with his card, and Chang suffers another crushing defeat.

When Tchang returns, Mei’s sister begs him to let her see Mei, but the man stuffs her off. In response, the little girl draws Z on Tchang’s doorstep, asking for justice from the masked vigilante. 

As the episode goes on, Diego visits The Marquez estate to see Lolita, but the latter has no intention to see him and runs away from the house. Lolita still hates Diego for only replying to six of her 16 letters. Lolita’s father, on the other hand, warns Lolita that this mustn’t happen again. From how it looks, it appears that Lolita isn’t furious about the letter, but the fact that Diego acted like a coward when the outlaw took the loan bank hostage. 

Zorro eventually pays a visit to Mei’s sister, but he can’t understand anything, given the language barrier. Zorro fetches Bernardo, who is known to know multiple languages despite not being able to say anything.

Bernardo becomes the middle man, and the girl asks Zorro to save her sister from the Chinese man, who owns a plethora of gambling clubs. Zorro assures the girl that he’ll find out what happened to her sister. Zorro also promises to bring her back if she’s alive. 

Meanwhile, a huge explosion tears down one of the gambling houses, and as expected, the Governor blames Zorro for the mishap. He also asks Monasterio to put his best men on the lookout for the masked vigilante.

Zorro infiltrates one of the clubhouses, incapacitates all of Tchang’s men, and asks about Mei. Tchang reveals that he has lost Mei to Ramirez in a card game. If you don’t know, Ramirez is one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the town, whom you can’t ever disagree with. 

This is a tough pill to swallow for Diego, as he was under the impression that Ramirez was a good and honest man. Plus, Ramirez is also forcing poor Chinese men to work in his mines without pay. Not to mention, Ramirez subjects these people to heavy beating if they make a meagre mistake.

Ramirez also doesn’t provide any compensation in the event of any death or tragedy. Zorro infiltrates Ramirez’s mansion, knocks him out cold, and marks a Z on his forehead. Zorro also wants Ramirez that if he hears that he’s buying slaves again, he’ll be back.  

Zorro learns that Mei’s problems still aren’t over because if she returns home, her father will sell her to Tchang, who’ll pass her on to Ramirez. Zorro gives her a place to hide while he tries to do something about their precarious, on the verge of slavery.  Diego also donates a heavy sum to the church, asking them to distribute it to Chinese people, living in appealing conditions. As  Zorro returns to his estate, he learns that Mei has escaped.

Fortunately, Tornado leads Zorro to where she has gone: Ramirez’s estate. But why? In reality, Ramirez caught Mei while she was escaping to lure Zorro. Zorro tries to escape with Mei but is caught after being overwhelmed by Ramirez’s guards. Ramirez pulls the mask out of Zorro’s face and finds him to be none other than Diego. As Ramirez aims his gun at Diego’s head to kill him, his estate is attacked by hordes of armed men.

The Episode Review

Episode 3 of Zorro kicks things up a notch and introduces us to possibly more villains. It seems the Governor isn’t the only big bad in town; there’s also Ramirez, who seems to be sucking the life out of people and getting richer off their hard work. On top of that, there’s a mysterious woman keeping tabs on Diego – she even showed up at Diego’s father’s grave.

Who is she? And then there’s a man instructing his assistant to head to Long Angeles with outlaws. Are these criminals out to take down Zorro, or is there another plan in the works? Guess we’ll find out in the next episode.