There comes Paladin / Robin Hood / Zorro, protector of the widow, the orphan and the oppressed minorities. As he is wont to in such situations, he quickly changes his early loyalties : he soon turns his coat in favor of the peasants, after having originally been hired hand for oligarchic employers, a Sheriff of Nottingham-like cruel and greedy clique of Mexican heirs of Spanish colonists, who proudly trace back to Hernan Cortes their mining rights and entrenched oppression of poor local people. Their trick has recently been to hire convicts from the state and never to pay or free them at the end of their jail terms. And the local governor, an honest man we are told, appears to be genuinely shocked that such a disgraceful practice may have occurred under his watch - which has not been a very watchful watch it appears...
Jokes apart, the episode is pleasingly action-packed and bad characters are quite good - though the double fast surrender of Don Francisco, as soon as he finds his son dead, giving up in a minute on centuries of domination and on any idea of avenging his son's murder, is a bit straining belief.
See at the start for smiles the scene where Paladin leans against the coping of a well : he just arrived from the desert so covered in sand that Pablo jokes that the Sonora desert has taken shape and walks, however seconds later, still leaning against the same well, he is back to his usual shiny black outfit as if in the meantime he had dipped ultra-fast in the well and dried his clothes ultra-fast as well... In between, moreover, we see a close-up of his face against the background of a white wall with a slight crack - none of it fits at all with his position in front of the well.
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