In the last chapter, Tarzan (with Jane at his side) was confronting his cousin Annersley, who was plotting to take the Greystoke title and estate for himself. As they argued, the evil Werper was sneaking up behind our heroes with a knife...Tarzan catches Werper before he can strike, but Annersley's gun forces the apeman to submit. The villains tie Tarzan to a tree, leaving him at the mercy of the jungle animals. The bad guys force Jane to lead them to the temple of Opar and its treasure.
Tarzan begins calling for Tantor the elephant. The beast rushes to Tarzan's aid, using his trunk to untie the captive. Tarzan vaults onto Tantor's back and they set off after the bad guys.
Meanwhile, Annersley has taken Jane and given Werper the slip. The would-be Lord Greystoke wants the treasure for himself. Werper finds himself lost in the jungle.
A tiger pursues Annersley and Jane. She climbs a tree to avoid the predator. Annersley is not so lucky. He empties his gun at the tiger, but it tears him apart.
Tarzan finds the bag of jewels on Annersley's body. The treasure will allow them to keep the estate.
Back in their jungle home, Tarzan writes to his estate in England and corrects Annersley's letter claiming the Greystokes were dead and had found no treasure. Jane points out that Tarzan 's knife is now secured to the wall. No more Omen of the Falling Knife! They embrace, reaffirming their love.
The End.
.... And we end with a mixed bag. Annersley is mauled by a tiger in spectacular fashion. Tantor appears once more to make a save. We get a call back to the falling knife that kicked the adventure off. All awesome. All what I want to see in the finale.
So what's wrong?
Werper.
We spend over four hours learning to hate the guy and what is his endpoint?
I have no idea.
He ends up being sidelined by Annersley as the main villain. We get a shot where we are told he is lost in the jungle, followed by a shot of a lion running towards the camera. That's it. Was he killed? Is he lost in the jungle? His final moments on screen are so incoherent, I have no idea what happened to him.
If there was one thing the serial needed to do in its finale, it was resolve Tarzan's conflict with Werper. And we don't get it. Annersley is too much of a tacked on subplot to care about. La and Werper were the baddies we cared about. We get La's resolution in the previous episode. We are apparently never getting Werper's.
It's a shame because I really enjoyed my first complete viewing of a serial. It's a crappy note to leave on.
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