Production #107: The Witness

Writer: Steve Roberts Director: Peter Ellis Cast: Bo Derek (Mary Rose) Neil Newbon (Anton) Christopher De Andrés (Arsenio) Pilar Abella D'Arstegui (Carmina) Leo Medina (Crispin) Richard Cruz (Geraldo)

There's room for more than one sword-wielding woman in The Queen of Swords, and in fact, feisty women of all kinds carry the day in "The Witness." Moved by love and fear and a desire for justice, these players clash again and again in an escalating conflict that seems destined to end in tragedy.

Guest star Bo Derek cuts a dashing figure as Mary Rose, a retired buccaneer who tries to intimidate young Tessa Alvarado into recanting her eye-witness account of a murder, supposedly committed by Rose's only son. This particular brand of mother love is expressed with drawn swords and violent threats, not to mention the abduction of Marta as a hostage to subverted justice.

In an explosive fight that handily upstages any conventional swordfighting scene, Marta vigorously defends herself with every kitchen implement in her reach. Although the barrage of hot irons, boiling water, skillets and ladles doesn't prevent her eventual capture, the effort proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Marta's bite is just as sharp as her bark. And yet, despite her indignant resentment at this kidnapping, Marta can still find it in her heart to sympathize with Mary Rose's anguished attempt to protect her son from harm, no matter what the cost. "Sometimes," counsels Marta gently, "all you can do is love them."

Despite his mother's interference, Anton's execution appears to be inevitable since Tessa steadfastly maintains she will not keep silent in court. But in a surprising plot twist, someone else displays an equal degree of courage in the pursuit of truth and justice. Casting aside the facade of an adulterous and shallow woman, Vera Hidalgo reveals a deep compassion for the thwarted young lovers and the tragedy that befell them. Despite Montoya's oblique threats to mind her own business, Vera risks her reputation to provide a different and more accurate view of the events Tessa merely glimpsed. The accused is innocent; the shot which killed his lover Carmina was the result of an accident as Anton struggled to take a gun away from her.

As a consequence of this confession, the Queen of Swords brokers a truce with Mary Rose by swearing on her life that Tessa will refuse to testify. And so it happens that Montoya is forced to adjourn the trial for lack of evidence, foiled for once by the demure and virginal Tessa rather than her masked counterpart.

This role reversal is a fitting end note to the episode. Tessa, who is more comfortable speaking of the Queen in the third person, has been forced to blur the lines between her personas. As Tessa she killed a man, faced down Mary Rose, and finally outwitted Colonel Montoya. And the tension between Tessa and her heroic alter ego continues to intensify in next week's "Duel with a Stranger."

—Carmen Carter