This episode was the second season premiere of Laredo.It introduced ranger Eric Hunter(Robert Wolders wearing the fanciest outfits ever seen in the wild west)as a regular cast member,as well as new duds for Chad(a blue bib shirt,black vest,& new hat) & Joe(a nifty looking buckskin shirt)that were superior to what they wore in the first season.Midas Mantee is an intelligent,well read,criminal mastermind.He intends to use camels as an escape across a desert with his recently stolen gold.He uses laughing gas to render the guards in the bank(Reese & a deputy)unconscious so that his gang can break in & steal the gold.It almost sounds like a plot out of Mission:Impossible or The Wild,Wild West.It all ends with an exciting shootout between the Texas Rangers & Mantee & his gang at an abandoned army fort that was used as Mantee's hideout.There were some gaffes with the plot I felt.Firstly,Joe Riley manages to track the gang at night,quite a feat in itself even for a top tracker as Joe.He's alone & simply rides up to the fort & is captured by the outlaws.That seems like a pretty dumb move on Joe's part.When the rangers & the gang battle it out in the fort we see the horses scatter due not only to all the gunfire but because they naturally are skittish around camels.At the end of the episode Reese is riding on top of one camel,Chad & Joe together on another as the criminals,tied up,walk in front of them.Did all the horses run away,were Reese,Chad & Joe unable to capture any? How come Reese & Chad aren't riding their own horses? When they first arrived at the fort,they tied up their mounts well outside the fort in order to sneak up & into it.So their horses should have still been waiting for them at the conclusion of the battle.This also is the only episode of the show where we hear Joe sing a few lyrics from the classic country western song Streets of Laredo,& later hear it as background music during the duel between Chad & Eric.
Review of The Legend of Midas Mantee
