#mcog

DO NOT tell me they’re not father and son/daughter just LOOK AT them. NOT TO MENTION Tao making the signature Mendoza eyebrows of incredulity

i love zia shes somehow both kinda a damsel in distress and such a cunt to the colonizers..... icon

I really like how Zia is the one correcting Mendoza here. After their arrival in the Galapagos Islands, Sancho and Pedro ask Mendoza where they might be. Mendoza suggests that they may have drifted on their raft long enough to have come closer to Lima. However, as Zia points out, the sea has drawn them away from South America.

It's funny to see Mendoza admit that he's wrong - it may be the first time in the series so far – and it's also a bit curious that he didn't calculate their position from the Sun, as he does in later episodes. It also subtly establishes that Zia indeed knows a lot more about the region than he does. This is said earlier in the show, when Gomez tells Gaspar / Perez that the girl will lead them to the Cities of Gold or when Zia herself tells Esteban about her country ; but here's the first time she actually proves it.

It also shows a slight development in her relationship with Mendoza : while she has done her best not to speak to him aboard the Esperanza, here she not only highlights his mistake but also corrects him. Even if she doesn't trust him (yet), she's gained enough confidence to stand up to him (and she'll do it again later). Mendoza even sounds impressed when he admits that she's right.

Another interesting thing the series subtly builds is the parallel between those two characters. If Mendoza quickly became a father figure to Esteban, he also became kind of a model for Zia (even if she'll never acknowledge it). I'd have to make another post about it, but it's really obvious when rewatching the whole series : Zia is as smart as he is, as cunning as he is, and from time to time she can be just as cold and distrustful as he is (particularly toward the Spanish because of what they did to her). She also knows how to use people sometimes, just like he does. She may be the member of the trio who is the most like Mendoza.

Of course, a good part of these traits comes from her bad experience with the Europeans, since she probably had to grow wary and people-smart to survive at the Spanish court. But I think Mendoza played an important role in her evolution because in a way he showed her how those traits could be useful and help her turn situations to her own advantage (like she does with Gaspard and Gomez when they meet again).

On another note, I never fully appreciated this episode before; it's probably because of this red snake mask that Tao uses which scared me to death when I was a kid (also, the whole sequence where he slides behind Zia is absolutely terrifying).

Mysterious Cities of Gold S04E08