Young Blades/Recap/S01/E01 Wanted

Written by Billy Brown & Dan Angel

A man and a woman are swordfighting in a barn. The woman gains the advantage and pushes the man out of the hayloft door. He lands on his back. She throws her sword down; it lands point-first between his legs. She does a flip off the loft, landing neatly on her feet, and asks if he yields to D'Artagnan. He protests that it's his turn to play D'Artagnan, but she says that she gets to be D'Artagnan because she always wins. Their father arrives and complains that they aren't doing their chores on the farm. The man and woman are revealed to be Jacqueline and Gerard. The father complains that Jacqueline is not ladylike enough to get a husband; she replies that she wants to do something greater, to fight for France like D'Artagnan.

Cardinal Mazarin arrives in a coach with his guards riding alongside. The head guard demands water for his horses. When the guard starts to hit on Jacqueline, her father and brother become protective. The guard warns Gerard, saying that he is not worthy to kiss the dust Mazarin treads on. Gerard replies, "Kiss this." Mazarin orders Gerard arrested. When his father tries to resist, the guard stabs him. Jacqueline cries over her father's body, then grabs the guard's sword and stabs him. She steals his horse and escapes. Mazarin orders a guard, Letrec, to shoot her, but he misses.

A woman stops at the edge of a street in Paris, trying to figure out how to get around a mud puddle. A man flirts with her and lays his coat over the puddle so she can cross. A man reading nearby warns him not to, but is disregarded. The woman steps onto the coat and falls into a waist-deep mud puddle. The man and woman introduce themselves as Charlotte and D'Artagnan, son of the legendary Musketeer. They make plans to meet the day after tomorrow at the Cafe Nouveau, which advertises a newfangled drink called coffee.

Inside the Cafe Nouveau, another Musketeer, Ramon, is reciting a poetic ode to coffee. A third, Siroc, is sitting at a table and writing in a notebook. D'Artagnan enters and greets his friends. Ramon recommends the coffee, but D'Artagnan doesn't seem to like it. Some of the Cardinal's guards are playing chess, including Letrec, and do not appreciate the noise. Siroc is working on a design for mechanized flight; when he throws a model airplane into the guards' chessboards, that is the last straw for them. They draw their swords and fight. D'Artagnan mocks them with tricks, using his sword to cut off a guard's moustache. After a few minutes, Captain Duval, the head of the Musketeers, barges in and orders them to stop. Letrec threatens the Musketeers, saying that the King will hear of their behavior.

The 15-year-old King Louis worries about his pimples. Mazarin asks him to disband the Musketeers, but he refuses because he likes them. He whines to his mother, Queen Anne, who backs him up on principle but seems entirely uninterested in the argument. Louis threatens to have Mazarin's head cut off for giving advice he doesn't like, since that will make him more adult, but Mazarin advises Louis that then he'd have to deal with the boring aspects of law and rule all by himself. Louis, annoyed, sends Mazarin away.

Mazarin enters his chambers, joined by Letrec, who opens a secret door in the wall.

Jacqueline, with a cloth over her face, pulls a knife on the man who was reading in the street earlier. He offers to give her his money, but she says she doesn't want it.

Mazarin and Letrec enter a large stone chamber, very much like a dungeon, where cult members dressed in dark robes and masks are already gathered. He leads them in swearing an oath to serve the cult, the Knights of the Black Tabernacle. A prisoner is brought in. Mazarin uses a magical artifact, a black obelisk, to focus light onto the prisoner's stomach, then cuts into him.

Duval summons the Musketeers to his office and berates them for starting fights. The complain that the guards provoked them; Duval says that Mazarin was behind the plot that left him with a wounded leg, and that was real provocation. He reminds the Musketeers that they must focus on protecting the King and keeping Mazarin from gaining too much power. He hits his desk in a gesture, causing it to collapse; Siroc reveals that he took the screws out to use for an invention. Duval makes the three of them clean the dungeons as punishment.

In the common room, D'Artagnan complains about cleaning the dungeons because he will miss his date with Charlotte. Jacqueline enters, disguised as a man in the clothing she stole. She says that she wants to enlist in the Musketeers. D'Artagnan mocks her, and when he will not apologize, she demands that he fight her. As they begin to duel, she introduces herself as Jacques Leponte, and he introduces himself as D'Artagnan, which surprises her. D'Artagnan seems to gain the upper hand quickly, knocking Jacqueline down, but she is able to distract him by squirting him in the face with milk from a nearby cow. She lowers her blade to his crotch and takes his sword, throwing it behind her.

Duval catches the blade and accepts Jacqueline into the Musketeers. She gives a false story about how she was once part of a noble family, but her brother cut her out of his inheritance. D'Artagnan is suspicious of her story.

Jacqueline asks Duval where the Musketeers have access to visit, and learns that she cannot get to the dungeons without a written pass.

D'Artagnan, Ramon, and Siroc clean the dungeons. Siroc thinks about inventing a cleaning product that's strong enough for tough stains but gentle on the hands. They hear Gerard calling out from one of the cells. He asks for water and they give it to him, but are suspicious when he claims to be innocent. He claims someone has been performing experiments on the prisoners. The guard comes over and tells the Musketeers to go away, saying that Gerard is a madman who killed his whole family.

Jacqueline, dressed as Jacques, is eating at the Cafe Nouveau when Charlotte enters. Charlotte immediately starts flirting with "him." D'Artagnan arrives and apologizes for being late, but Charlotte snubs him. When D'Artagnan mentions being in the dungeon, Jacqueline asks if he's seen a man of Gerard's description; when he says yes, she leaves. Charlotte follows her out, saying that there is something "different" about her and asking for a kiss. Jacqueline kisses her hand and leaves.

Duval catches Jacqueline heading out on her horse late at night. He reassures her about her high voice, saying that he had a sergeant nicknamed "Squeaky" who was a great soldier. He also gives her a Musketeer issue sword.

Ramon, Siroc, and D'Artagnan also see Jacqueline leaving. Suspicious, they follow her to the woods, where they spy on a meeting of the secret society. Jacqueline says that the story she told was a lie and she is trying to rescue her brother, Gerard. Mazarin throws the man he experimented on off a cliff to see if he can fly. Jacqueline recognizes his voice, despite his mask. He considers using Gerard as well, but decides to save him for sunrise, which may have significance for the spell.

Jacqueline and D'Artagnan fly Siroc's flying machine, which is powered by gunpowder to get it up in the air and then manual flapping to keep it flying. They lower a rope to rescue Gerard while Ramon and Siroc create a distraction on the ground. Ramon and Siroc unmask one of the dead cult members and discover that he is a Musketeer, Sergeant Moret.

D'Artagnan and Jacqueline lose control of the flying machine and crash into a tree, ruining it. Jacqueline somehow loses her shirt in the crash and hides herself behind a tree branch. She asks someone to toss her a shirt; D'Artagnan teases her about her shyness. As she tries to catch Gerard's shirt, she falls out of the tree, revealing that she is a woman. D'Artagnan offers his shirt in exchange for the truth, and she gives it, but asks him to forget that she's a woman and not reveal her secret to anyone. Gerard heads off to find a ship to the Americas; Jacqueline gives him her crucifix to rememer her by.

Ramon and Siroc arrive. They all vow to expose Mazarin. Jacqueline tries to say "All for one and one for all!", but D'Artagnan is tired of that, as it is his father's motto. They ride off, and Ramon composes a poem about their brave deeds.