"Queen of Swords" Ponderings

Episode 6 - 'Duel With A Stranger'

• Plan A: Grisham kills the Queen of Swords
• Plan B: Montoya kills the Queen of Swords
• Plan C: Hire a new guest star to kill the Queen of Swords
• The pueblo has a name: Santa Helena
• The amount of time they spend discussing Honor and Jealousy, I'm surprised these two concepts eluded the title of this episode.
• Grisham and his jealousy.
• He's jealous of Antonio for getting the job of killing the Queen.
• So jealous he kills Antonio instead of wounding him at the end.
• Montoya has yet one more character flaw to hold over the Captain's head.
• I wonder if this Jealousy thing will rear its head soon concerning girlfriend Vera and her husband, the jolly Don Hidalgo.
• Antonio thinks he does the honorable things. But Tessa does not want his money when he has made it any way he can. She wanted him for HIM in Spain.
• But she is different now. As the Queen she lives not for just Tessa anymore. She is a savior to many people.
• Money equals honor and position to Montoya, as well as to the post-war Antonio.
• Antonio may not actually love Tessa. Honor could have been more accurate the reason he did not give her to the Colonel.
• Grisham: "What are you doing?"
• Antonio: "Taking my life back."
• So, money=life. Antonio will buy his honor, and will buy Tessa's love and return home to Spain.
• Montoya knew the price of Antonio's honor.
• Antonio cannot sell something he has already lost. He's lost Tessa and knows why and agrees he shouldn't have her. So basically Antonio commits suicide rather than try to get his honor back the alive way.
• I love the wink! We HAVE personality with Antonio! More than stupid Latham from 'Vengeance'.
• Day of the Dead celebration. Rain is impressed.
• And another of the Colonel's parties! I knew it! And his fountain is magnificent!
• A Flashback! I love flashbacks! Only back 2 years though. It counts for sure still.
• Marta can wiggle her own information from men. Albeit, the man was paid to get drunk and dispense the info, but Marta of course didn't know that. I love Marta.
• "Your heart and mine are one." But, Antonio cannot love the Queen of Swords. The Doctor does! And the Doctor cannot love Tessa, the fake prissy Tessa anyway.
• I see no huge reason for the Queen to need to stop the Colonel's gold shipment. Only that he would be using it to gain more power and more riches. I think she is supposed to act like Robin Hood, but the Colonel probably IS supposed to have a lot of gold from honest tax money paid to the colony.
• I like how Pietro describes the Queen: "her face is scarred, her eyes are yellow like the lion, she moved like lightening."
• Discount on bathtubs! Aisle 7! So far we've seen Marta in 'Fever', Tessa and Grisham (and nearly Vera!) in 'Duel' in the bathtub. When does Dr. Helm need to clean up? Please don't make us only imagine! I see images from first-run 'Chivalry' dancing in my head…
• I don't particularly appreciate Vera's chest OR Grisham's. Quit throwing these people's bodies at the audience! Their relationship is growing on me in the disgustingly cute sense, but I'm not quite that far along yet…
• Why does Death always mean literal 'death'? I thought in Tarot that the Death card could just as easily and more often mean an 'end' to something.
• No doctor this episode, so it's Vera to the rescue of Captain Grisham's infected arm.
• Tessa looks sunburnt by the close of this episode.
• Tessa gets HER Antonio back just to lose him. Just like her father, shown by the cross up on the hill. Her past is not hers. More of what she used to know is dead. She can't go back. Now the Tessa we know is the Real Tessa.
• If Montoya knows Tessa is the Queen (and I heartily believe he does know), would he also know that Tessa and Antonio were an item back home? And in more than just a coincidence, bring him here to kill the Queen? Montoya has proven already that he enjoys his sport while killing a genuine menace to his power and society.
• Montoya DOES know! He wants the Queen gone from his pueblo so he pays Marta to recommend Tessa marry Antonio and leave for the Old World. Marta of course sees through Montoya's cute little small talk. She knows he knows the Queen's identity. And Montoya knows Marta knows he knows.
• In the church, Montoya has obviously warned Tessa to stop dressing up as the Queen before more of her loved ones die. She could end up losing Marta, the Doctor, and who knows who else will be invented in future episodes.
• Both Antonio and the Queen fight in the Spanish circle style.
• Even Grisham admits that Antonio does. The Capitán says the circle style is predictable and so on, which means he SHOULD be able to beat the guy, right?
• Well, shouldn't Grisham notice that the Queen fights this way too?
• And shouldn't Grisham get himself in trouble by gloating about taking on Spanish Circle Sword Fighters when in practice he always loses to both examples?
• Hence he only admits this Spanish Circle nonsense to Vera.
• Antonio recognizes the Queen's fencing teacher in her method.
• Or he was bluffing and she gave herself away. THEN the stupid girl goes and calls Antonio by name. That was dumb.
• Montoya was all MEAN this week. No funny ha ha's, maybe a couple thumb-in-cheek ha ha's.
• Taupe ascot for the colonel? Boring. Bring back the blue and the green and the red please.
• Gotta admire the Colonel's traps. Kill me a Queen! Then I will kill you. The money will ALWAYS be mine, forevermore!
• Gray ascot now. Still boring.
• Montoya's secret room behind his bookshelves: the wealth behind the education? :o)
• Whose painting is on the wall of his office? Is it the father whom Montoya hates? Or is it Montoya's hero, a lowly bureaucrat who worked his way up to emperor?
• Look at Montoya's horsy trot! And the Colonel is wearing red and gold. Finally, a fashion statement I can handle. Am I obsessed yet? See, this is why I "KEEP" Montoya's Array of Ascots.
• He will kill Antonio after Antonio kills the Queen. That's familiar. Remember an assassin named Latham? No one steals Montoya's money OR his doctor!
• Montoya would never get off that purty trotting horsy of his, would he? I like that about the guy.

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