The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E19 - Fallen From the Sky

 

Guess they saw the Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Gaspard and Leguerra is captured by the maasai tribe warriors and brought to their village. The shaman is ordering them as a sacrifice to appease the spirits that have sent the locusts toward them. They try to escape but are quickly surrounded. 

Our heroes are beginning to prepare the building of the city, but news from Zimbabwe is talking about disturbances (told you it was gonna be a riot) so the king, Mendoza, Esteban and Zia returns and is able to calm the people with a really empowering speech, I think, it sounded good and I think the auto-subtitles got the gist of it. Tao appears and tells them that to complete the city they need the artefacts Ambrosius had gathered and they don't know where he is. The princess tells them that the tom-tom (I assume it's a drumming system, like in the Phantom and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers) talked about a crashed ship near Kilimanjaro. Which explain how information could travel so fast over Africa. They leave and Pedro gets a kiss from the princess.

They find the crash site and also notices the maasai warriors so the adults let themselves become captured since they figured they must be the footprints besides the survivors. The children follows in the condor, but as they are intercepted by another locust cloud they loose track of them and then they are completely engulfed by the locusts.

And the documentary was about the maasai tribe in Kenya and then cattle markets. Which makes me recall that I heard about maasai's as a kid, but I don't recall connecting it to an African tribe. 

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E18 - Beyond the Mirror

 

Calm before the whirlpool.

They head back to Zimbabwe and then onward to Chambord, running past the king and finding Nostradamus and confirms his predictions. As he runs away they investigate the salamanders around the castle which leads them to an F they push and it pulls the special staircase down underground, leading to a lake and some inscriptions on to slabs of stone with salamanders in pools of oils or whatever they burn creating the fire scenario from the prophecy. Next is the mirror and that is obviously the lake. Esteban is diving into it finding some structure, but Tao find some contraption that activates and drains the water, revealing a giant golden cube. Putting in the medallions reveal instructions gathered from all cities of gold.

At the same time Mendoza and the king of Zimbabwe is meeting with Francis I and as he show them the staircase they follow the children and witnessing the golden cube. Back in Zimbabwe Sancho and Pedro is snapped up by the princess, but they have given up hope and only talks about the end of the world. One of the guards overhears so I'm guessing we will have a riot or something.

At the same time Gaspard and Leguerra is wandering the savanna until another swarm of locust appear and they hid in a cave. After the locust disappear they discover that the paintings looks like the Mu pyramid and the olmecs, and as they look out of the cave they are surrounded by several warriors from the tribe that have been watching them.

The documentary focused on the staircase and the emblems of the castle.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E17 - Revelations

 

I assume it's the rainbow colours, but it looks like two yellow and is indigo missing?

The kids return as the city of gold reverts back, and the light bridge take form. As they are about to leave Zia gives the white gorilla the helmet, and they place it at the cave entrance and starts working up a frenzy, almost feels like 2001: A Space Odyssey. They tell the others about the meteor heading for Earth but they don't know how or when to stop it. All they know is that it has something to do with fire and that it seems connected to the image of the salamander. They decide to use the Gate of the Elders to get to Chambord and talk to Nostradamus as he as an astronomer might predict when it will happen.

Back at the castle he has indeed predicting the end of the world. The other in the Order don't believe him and then Francis I shows up reading the final line of the prediction about the enemy long thought gone is making a return and we are back at the Olmec base and Ambrosius climbs up and filled with rage against all who has betrayed him and a red light envelops his skin and he seems to have healed himself, probably due to bathing in the light of the philosopher's stone.

Back with Leguerra and Gaspard they finally have been able to fix the airship and is about to set sail towards Spain, constantly guarded by to African warriors, but they suddenly disappear and they are attacked by a locust swarm that they try to escape but they crash the ship yet again and this time it's probably for good.

The documentary was about the tree that inspired the city of gold, everything from living up to a 1 000 years, storing 10 000 litres of water, the healing properties and the food you can get from the tree as well as some candy made from it.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E16 - Orunigi

 

Getting Final Fantasy IX vibes... and they had two giant trees.

The storm forces them to crash land in the Congo jungle. There they are surrounded by gorillas who seems ready to attack them, but Zia uses her mind reading abilities to talk to them, but the smell of leopard on them causes the main gorilla to go berserk and is about to attack Mendoza when another, white gorilla intervenes and fight it off, and seems to react to Zia's medallion... I got two references here. First, Lovecraft since I read a couple of his stories by now and he seemed to have the idea of precursor humans that was more apelike and their reaction to this puts my mind toward that area. The second is that this is an homage too Tarzan with the white ape and the leopard hostility. Kinda clever, but no Phil Collin songs sadly.

Have a soft spot for the Swedish versions.

Zia gets the mask and the gorillas seems to go in a frenzy. The white gorilla takes them to a mountain by a ravine and points out the 6th city beyond the ravine. Zia puts on the mask and sees a golden path across, but Esteban's vertigo makes him unable to move on. As a call back to the first season Zia reminds him of the promise he made that he would always protect her and that now she will do the same. The gorillas prevents the adults from crossing with the children so the kids hold hands as Zia leads them with the mask, getting stuck only once as Estebans courage fails him in the middle of the light bridge. It's actually a sweet moment as he sits their shivering with tears falling and his friends supporting him to stand again so that they can continue.

When they get to the other side the mask shows them marking on the trees leading to a structure where they use the medallions to summon the 6th city in the form of a gigantic tree, and they call back to Tao's home on the Galápagos. Seems someone wanted to tie the whole series in with call backs to all seasons it seems. There they find a projection of one of the Ancients, and according to the translation it seems to be more Atlantean in this part of the world. The projection recap the war, but warns them off an even greater danger. The astronomer from Mu and Atlantis foresaw that a meteor was coming toward Earth and that it would take 12 000 years for it to arrive and might destroy the planet. Suddenly we're are in Final Fantasy VII!

The documentary of course focused on the Gorillas, but also giant ants. Wonder if that will show up. But this means 6 cities have been found and that they need to build the 7th one in order to destroy or alter the course of the meteor to save the planet. Which probably will destroy the city and leave the course of the world toward what we have today, explaining why none of the Atlantean or Mu tech was used to advance us into the future.