The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E15 - The Witch

 

The People Laughed Until She Said, "Burn"!

Tao and Esteban climbs down to the cliff where Zia is and she leads them to what she found, a shelter constructed by those that made the golden cities, seemingly being of both Atlantean and Mu heritage. They see the sages from the different cities they encountered in holographic form as golden statues and as they activate them they show a map toward the sixth city. They climb out and Kokapetl awakens and tell them Mendoza is a prisoner and need them to rescue him.

Meanwhile Sancho and Pedro is able to untie him and knock out several of the leopard men. Mendoza corners the queen in her channeling chamber by using water to douse her fire where she summons the fire leopard. With that he takes the mask. But the adults are surrounded outside with another fire leopard and the queen uses the mind powers to grab the mask and Mendoza's sword. Mendoza do what he usually does and start goading her with her inferiority toward a little girl with more powers than her that actually can wear the mask that she doesn't dare try on. As the fire leopard engulfs them the condor arrives and puts out the flame and then makes the queen lose her crown and Mendoza's sword. Mendoza corners her but in a last ditch attempt she throws the mask in the fire so that it can't be used by anyone. This makes her men lose faith in her since she destroyed it so they leave her leaving her powerless. Pedro investigate the mask and as the wood is burned away it reveals a mask of orichalcium that looks like the mask the High Priest of Eldorado wore from season 1. They fly away and follows the Congo River as shown by the map and Zia puts on the mask for more information as a storm suddenly appears. Which I feel is another retcon since I thought the condor needed constant daylight to fly and that it crashed immediately as the sun disappeared (or so I recalled it from season 1, but it might just have been entering a Mu ruin that dragged it to the ground).

The documentary was even more about the Dogon region the city was in and about the traditions of the elder who is made guardians of a temple and can never leave it, but is blessed with infinite knowledge from snakes that whispers it to them in their sleep.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E14 - The Spirit's Cliff

You know, this screenshot reminds me of King's Quest VII and Valanice in the well.

 Mendoza, Tao and Esteban is informed by Sancho and Pedro that the Leopard men was the one staging the attack and they spot them leaving the village so they run after. Mendoza duel one of them and is able to capture him. Esteban and Tao try to follow the others with the mask and Zia, but they can't keep up. In the morning after the fire is out they unmask the captive and he belongs to the village. The chieftain informs them that he won't talk since he is too afraid of his queen. She apparently sought Zia and the mask since with it she could hold sway over most of the tribes in the area and since Zia could use it she was a threat to the queens own powers. They notice a tattoo on the captive and a child mentions it looks like the one from the forbidden city in the mountain. The chieftain gives them the directions to it.

The adults go into the city while Tao and Esteban lands the corridor on the cliff and wait for them. Mendoza gets attacked and have a great action scene with his cape and Sancho and Pedro is able to knock out two leopard men and escape being captive. Mendoza isn't as lucky and is tied to a pole and Zia is dragged before him. The queen arrives and put on a crown like Zia used back in season 3 where she learned most of her powers. The Queen demands Zia tells her how see the visions and the secret city, but Zia refuses so the Queen uses her powers in order to manifest a fire leopard that are about to swallow Mendoza, but Zia seems more powerful and stops it. The queen order her to be taken to the cave of spirits without food or water to soften her up. Tao and Esteban notice her being taken to the cave and Zia finds another cave within the ave hidden by a statue with ancient markings, leading her to what I assume is the 6th city, but they cut away from it before reveal.

The documentary is about the inspiration for the cliff side city, which looks a bit like some native American city that I read about in a Don Rosa Scrooge McDuck comic. The one where the running gag is Donald getting stuck with a constantly refreshed contact glue, The Dutchman's Secret.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E13 - The Night of the Masks

Ooh, see that girl
Watch that scene
Digging the dancing queen

Halfway through the season. Leguerra and Gaspard is trapped and tries to get the airship floating again. The olmecs gets an Olmecian flying machine and are about to blow them up with a destruction ray, but with some bombs and the liquid orichalcium Leguerra is able to create a bomb that stops the olmecs machine, and with another bomb she opens up the gate and they can escape.

Meanwhile our heroes have been taking a nap on the savanna, talking about the creation of the 7th city and even namedropping the Solaris, a ship from season 1. Mendoza wakes up shouting Leguerre's name as he seems to have visions of her predicament. Lucky for them he is awake when the Leopard men attack so they can defend themselves from them. They set off and a montage in the style of what I assume is classical African paintings shows our heroes traveling different tribes to find the origins of the mask. They end up in a village that prepares the Night of the Mask where they will dance and in honour of the returning mask. They also knows for some reason that Zia can wear the mask without getting hurt... since the kids have the condor and travels rather fast with it compared to walking or running I find it a bit of stretch, same goes for the leopard men that shows up, first getting Sancho and Pedro, then putting a hut to flames and then snatching the mask and Zia. The leopard men seems to be seen as bandits lead by this queen. Don't get what they are about.

And then it ends pretty much on Leguerra and Gaspard crashing the airship since their is a hole in the balloon. And the documentary is about the different tribes and how there is a special hut for talking that has such a short ceiling that if one gets angry and stand up you bonk your head. Also, the translation was talking something about the bad guy Obama for some reason and I found that really funny.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E12 - Farewell Master!

 

He probably will be back.

Ambrosius starts up the philosopher's stone in a bid to get immortality. At the same time Gaspard and Leguerra finds the armoury and the frozen bodies off the olmecs. They escape the big muscle of the olmecs. Ambrosius gets taken hostages by the others. Apparently the stone used to belong to the Atlanteans but was stolen away by the so called pacifists in order to stop the war. The stone is really a conduit like everything else and is going to be used in order to awaken all the olmecs. Leguerra rescues Ambrosius and spill the beans about the olmecs plans and as they try to escape Ambrosius suits up and want to go back, but the others have had enough of his schemes and after a tussle he falls off, but when Leguerra is about to drag him up by his hook-shot, it fails and he seemingly falls to his death. Gaspard gets control of the ship, but the gate to base closes and they crash.

Meanwhile Zia, Tao and the boy returns with mask to the village and is told that the mask must be brought back to its home, this unknown city. To find it they must follow the patterns on the mask in reverse order since it has chronicled the journey of the mask. And as they leave the woman elder tells the boy yet another part of the story, that when the mask returns, the end of times is near. And then we see a city in a cave where a woman in leopard dress dances, a leopard dressed warrior appears and tells her that a girl is on their way and they head out.

The documentary was about the Ethiopian highlands that was the inspiration for the ravine where the Olmec base was hiding. With this I can't see another end that Ambrosius have to make a redemption sacrifice and die at the end saving... maybe Tao since he seemed closest to him. The Olmecs have clearly taken over the villain part of the show and it ramps up. Also, the first seconds of the episode amazing with the small hints of synths and the visuals of the base looks just fantastic. Gets vibes from the Burning Shield back in season 1.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E11 - The Bako

 

(He's Back) The Man the Behind the Mask!

And He's Out of Control!

Zia flies toward Mozambique and she also have a stowaway, the boy hunter that happened to be in the condor as well. They sneak in by the sewers and is caught in Gomez office as they have grabbed the mask. The boy tricks Gomez to put the mask on and as he does it shines with golden light and he screams and runs off the balcony and lands on the ground. Zia and the boy grabs the mask and runs back through the sewers and Zia tells the rats to attack the soldiers. Back at the condor she puts on the mask and is again granted a vision. This time on top of another city of gold as Sancho and Pedro is sobbing and Esteban tries to pull Mendoza away. Zia isn't able to speak and she sees Tao through a could off fog and as she runs toward him he is pulled back and then falls off and disappears from the city and then she wakes up.

With this fear of Tao's life she heads toward Zimbabwe and drops the boy of the king's sister that longs for Pedro and ask the king permission to use the gate now that she have both medallions since Esteban gave his to her before the duel to avoid injuries. She finds Tao and he tells her of da Vinci's clues and show her the Mona Lisa that seems to have inscriptions in the eyes. Right eye just a signature of da Vinci, but the other had a code that Zia translates to "build the seventh city", meaning that the 7th city doesn't exist, but they have to build it. so I was wrong back at the final of the second season about the cities, but right regarding the Olmecs at least.

Speaking of the Olmecs, back at their base they set out fixing the airship and Ambrosius goes away to experiment on the stone. Gaspard and Leguerra eavesdrop on the three Olmecs and they are on their way of getting rid of them since they only need Ambrosius. The one Esteban saved show some hesitation on what they are about to do.

There was also a brief scene in the beginning when we were back in India from Ambrosius old base where a girl from the village (can't recall if she was an important character in the last season) is taking some fruit where she encounters Estebans father Darth Vader style as he goes out from his healing chamber. I think they hinted at him knowing about Tao in Chambard. 

Documentary about how Saint Sebastian seemed to actually be alive during nighttime with markets and and other things and then a bit about the Mona Lisa and the mysteries surrounding the painting. Beside the usual I didn't know that some believed that it was sort of a hidden self portrait of da Vinci. Interesting!