In Zorro (2024), Diego de la Vega returns to Los Angeles following the murder of his father, only to be entrusted with the mantle of a vigilante. The series is available on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Alejandro de la Vega is attacked by a group of hooded individuals at his ranch one night when the masked vigilante, Zorro, arrives to help.
They repel the attackers together but after Zorro leaves, another hooded figure kills Alejandro.
The military under the command of Captain Enrique Monasterio goes after Zorro and surrounds him in the town church.
Governor Vitario orders Monasterio to burn down the church and he follows, despite the pleas of the friar Don Antonio.
Zorro succumbs to the fire and he is later revealed to be a Native American. The governor orders that his body be strung up as a message.
Zorro’s tribe retrieves his body and performs his final rites and then calls to spirits to choose the next person who will don the guise.
One of the candidates is Nah-Lin, the sister of the murdered vigilante. She is out for revenge against the people who killed her family.
Diego de la Vega is training for the military in Spain when he receives news of his father’s murder.
He returns to Los Angeles and meets Bernardo, his father’s mute best friend and ranch foreman.
He meets his father’s friend, Tadeo Marquez, and Tadeo’s wife, Lucia. Their daughter, Lolita, was Diego’s childhood friend and they have a romantic history together.
Diego begins investigating his father’s murder because the papers announce that it was Zorro who killed him.
Yet Zorro is known as a vigilante who stands for the oppressed against the rich.
Diego is approached by a fox at night, and it leads him to Night Crow, the native responsible for interpreting the wishes of the spirits.
Diego is told that he has been chosen to be the new Zorro, and how he interprets that is up to him. Nah Lin doesn’t take this news well as Diego is a foreigner.
She doesn’t believe that he will fight for the natives or understand their plight. She attacks him and steals his costume as she believes it is her right to be Zorro.
Diego and Nah Lin operate as Zorro simultaneously with different goals. Diego investigates the corrupt Governor Pedro Victoria as the primary suspect in his father’s murder.
The Governor is working with Ferdinand Andreyevich and Irina Ivanova, members of the Russo-American company trying to buy up the land in Los Angeles.
Diego also wishes to rekindle his romance with Lolita, but she is engaged to Monasterio. The captain is a noble and just man forced to carry out Pedro’s questionable orders.
Diego is requested to save Mei, a Chinese servant woman who was gambled away by the Chinese gambling house owner, Mr Tchang.
He saves her from the clutches of Ramirez, the mine owner who is close to Pedro. Ramirez sets a trap for Diego and admits that he was there when Diego’s father was murdered.
Before he can kill Diego, Nah Lin shows up and murders Ramirez and his people.
While Diego aims to find out who killed his father, Nah Lin attacks ranchers as revenge and makes an enemy out of the military, starting a war between them and the natives.
Diego tries to quell Nah Lin’s rage because it only causes more bloodshed on both sides. Meanwhile, the Russians are getting tired of Pedro’s greed and decide to take him out.
Ferdinand kills Pedro and plans to blame it on Zorro. Irinia betrays Ferdinand but keeps him alive to control him as a puppet for her own ambitions.
Diego briefly works with Nah Lin to bring peace to Los Angeles, but they come to blows once again and resolve the issue through combat.
He defeats her and earns the sole right to be Zorro while she is kept in a pit until her future is decided.
With Pedro dead, Monasterio becomes acting governor, and Lolita suggests that they finally get married.
Diego learns about a secret organization called the Clan of the Bear who was responsible for killing his father.
They ask him to join them and Diego plays along to learn more. They wear hoods and are a group of Californian nationalists who wish to keep the land for themselves.
Diego discovers that his father was a member of the clan but was killed after they believed that he was going to betray them.
The clan gives Diego the task of killing Monasterio to prove his loyalty and tells him to do it within a month.
Lolita finds out that Diego is Zorro and confronts him about it. He asks for her help finding out who are the members of the clan.
He starts taking them out one by one and then learns that Lolita’s mother, Lucia, is the one who killed his father.
An industrialist named Vanderveen wishes to buy up land in California for the railroad and is after Diego’s property.
He has an agreement with Guadalupe to seize the land from Diego. She was in a relationship with Alejandro, and they hired a criminal named Samael to be his pretend son.
They travel to Los Angeles to claim their share of the inheritance, and Diego agrees without complaints.
He is certain that his father found gold in one of his mines, but no one knows where the gold is. He believes that Guadalupe is after that gold but isn’t too worried.
Ending explained:
Does Diego kill Monasterio?
Diego asks Lolita to host a masquerade party for his plan. He shows up in his Zorro costume and picks a fight with Monasterio.
He goes as far as to slap the acting governor and is challenged to a duel. Diego wins the duel after stabbing Monasterio in the chest, which kills him.
Lolita tells Diego that she never wants to see him again, but the Clan is happy with his work.
What happens to the Clan of the Bear?
Diego meets with Lucia and Carmen, the remaining members of the clan. They commend the killing of Monasterio and tell him the next stage of their plan.
They wish to sow chaos between the military and the Natives so that they can capitalize on the remains of the conflict.
Diego then calls in Monasterio, who is still alive, along with the army. A fight breaks out and Lucia stabs Diego.
Before she can kill him, Lolita shoots her in the chest. Lucia is arrested and transported to Mexico City to face trial.
She is rescued by Irina, who had earlier killed Lucia’s husband Tadeo. The two women decide to become partners and control the fate of California.
What next for Zorro?
Lucia tells Diego during their fight that Alejandro planned to sell California to the United States with Vanderveen as his partner.
Diego decides to visit New York and meet Vanderveen to find out more and maybe learn some clues about the location of the gold.
He visits Nah Lin and tells her to serve her people as a new vigilante called Red Snake while handing her a red mask.
He reaches New York and leaves a letter for Vanderveen, but the industrialist wishes to silence Diego and orders his men to burn the hotel down.
Diego remains a step ahead, as he is perched on the rooftop when the order is given out. He is ready to investigate the matter further and mete out justice as Zorro when needed.
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