Episode 3 - 'Fever'
Approx. 13 minutes of screentime
-
Helm rolls his eyes every time Montoya opens his mouth. Personal servant? The medicine is all yours? Yeah right, the fever is making you delirious, Colonel!
-
At the mine when Grisham holds him at gunpoint, he is not afraid. Not in the least. When the Queen shows up and the sword fight ensues, Helm finally flinches and shies away from the swinging swords. Afterwards when she takes a pinch of medicine for her "friend", he acts like he likes her again though. Nervous doc no more. They thank each other graciously.
-
Helm is a quack. Really he is. He would have to be. A doctor in 1817, come on! But with his office in charcoal shambles, he has become a quack with no quackery! Maybe I just like how that sounds. I respect him completely because he WANTS to help people and heal people, but he can't realistically do much for you. Unless you need to get out of that confined space you are working in. Or you have the fever that willow bark tea can cure… Reminds me of Dr. Quinn. She was always incorporating Cherokee healing teas into her practice. And they worked.
-
Breath halting moments:
-
When Enrique conked Helm on the back of the head. I honestly couldn't breathe until half the commercial break was over! Poor Dr. Helm. But I would have wanted to do the same thing if I was a poor enlisted husband and my wife was dying from the fever. Brave Enrique! But poor Dr. Helm! Have I mentioned that? I'm can't be sure.
-
The Queen is lying on the rocks by the mine and Grisham is gonna kill her. Helm looks at the gun Grisham has dropped. He stares and stares at it. He grabs for it. The Queen screams for Robert to shoot Grisham. Time is running out for her. If he doesn't shoot this gun, the Queen will die. Grisham was threatening the Doctor moments ago but he was in no real danger of being shot. Grisham is probably supposed to only take the Queen prisoner. Montoya would wish to deal with both good guys in his own way in his own time. But Grisham cannot be trusted. He is killing Montoya as we speak, or rather don't speak, holding our breath, waiting for Helm to make his move. Suddenly we hear a shot! Helm has fired the weapon! But not at Grisham. Only his sword. It is now in two pieces. The Queen quickly gains advantage and Helm throws the gun as if it were a rattlesnake. Helm's "lapse to the past" is not this week. Round one to Helm's healing hands.
-
Helm has now saved the Queen's ass twice. And HOW MANY EPISODES has Helm appeared in? That's right. Two. I see a theme here. And I like it very much.
-
But before he can save her he has his own trials to leap through. It was try to kill Dr. Robert Helm week.
-
Enrique knocks him out cold in the middle of the street. And there was no one to take care of him. No one who cared knew he was lying out there in the dust! What a headache when he came to, but we viewers never got to see.
-
Later, there is an explosion at his office. Was he in the back? Is he immortal (I'm not actually going there, that is a ridiculous thought)? I enjoyed the ashes on his face and clothes for the rest of the day though. I hope his lodgings are somewhere else. But where, we haven't been told. So where is all our stuff we are "keeping" for him? Where is my Hat? And the riding duster? He sure wasn't wearing them when he took off on his horse following Grisham. Was he THAT focused on the medicine? Was he in THAT much of a hurry? (This is okay; he IS the doctor and all.) But I wanted to see my hat all safe and sound. It got away from me, and I'm sorry!!! I hear that Helm is still all Classic Cowboy (which I LOVE!) next week. Maybe he'll need his hat…?
-
The Queen of Swords, in Helm's mind:
-
Helm admits he hasn't yet formed a definitive opinion of the Queen of Swords. He tells Tessa and Marta "it's best never to rush to a diagnosis." Last week the Queen didn't want to hurt anybody. This week she blatantly begged Helm to shoot Captain Grisham. He publicly credits the Queen with recovering the medicine for him. The common folks' faith is restored in their hero. Is it mentioned whether Helm himself ever for a moment believed the Queen mugged him for the medicine? We know he would change his mind as soon as he found the explosive pin thing, but before? Did he really believe otherwise?
-
Señorita Tessa Alvarado, in Helm's mind:
-
Less obvious, as he is more concerned with making more medicine the entire hour. He is very annoyed with her when she barges into his office, but he was already ticked due to having to confiscate the colonel's guard's gun, and nearly his sword as well. He would have treated anyone, not just Tessa, in the manner he does. Again, after the explosion, he reprimands her as a foolish woman for getting in his way simply because she is not being useful, such as bearing a bucket of water. It isn't that she personally annoys him. At the end of the episode he is as friendly as he's ever been to her. At another of Montoya's parties "in his honor". We all know how thrilled he must be.
-
Loose mentions:
-
Helm's lines aren't "Classic" but they are definitely Golden. In the clever, leave-me-the-hell-alone sort of way.
-
Did Helm know the Queen followed him in his run after Captain Grisham? Was he unafraid of Grisham because he saw the Queen above the mouth of the cave preparing to leap down upon them?
-
Why didn't Helm simply grab for the medicine during the sword fight? The Queen and Grisham were well out of his way several times, but he still cowered behind the woodwork of the mine entrance. Were the duelers closer to him than the camera work indicated? He reached for the gun suredly enough later.
-
The Montoya/Grisham alliance is wearing more and more thin. Grisham is a dumb man. He proved it when Helm gave him the opportunity to act as a "smart man" would. Montoya will snap that leash without a batted eyelash. Hee hee hee. But then who will do his dirtywork?
-
Salicylic Acid, made from Willow Bark is one of the main ingredients in aspirin. What these people could have accomplished with a Wal-Green's around the corner! *g*
<--- Back to the QoS Ponderings Page
