"Tarzan and the Face from the Past" is the thirty-second episode of The Legend of Tarzan. It originally aired on UPN on October 9, 2001.
Synopsis[]
Zutho, a shady mandrill from Tarzan's past, resurfaces, demanding a favor he claims is owed for keeping a 20-year-old secret. Much of this episode takes place in flashback as Terk and Tantor relate to Jane the events that allowed Zutho to gain such a hold over the lord of the jungle - where Zutho convinces Tarzan to teach him and his friends how to make spears, which accidentally causes a huge fire that nearly destroyed the jungle and left Tarzan guilt-stricken for his actions (likely due to the fact that Kerchak would be furious for causing another dangerous incident that endangers the gorillas after the infamous elephant stampede incident, especially when Zutho attempts to frame Tarzan by telling his mother). Since then, Tarzan, Terk and Tantor both mutually agreed that Zutho is bad news.
Turns out that, Zutho wanted Tarzan to get rid of some annoying howler monkeys that were keeping him and his friends up at night. Tarzan protests since the howler monkeys also live there, but is forced to give in due to Zutho's threats of telling Kala about how he nearly destroyed the jungle 20 years prior. With help from Jane, Terk, and Tantor, Tarzan did the right thing and admitted what happened the day of the fire to Kala, who then processed to punish Zutho.
Cast[]
- Michael T. Weiss as Tarzan
- Olivia d'Abo as Jane Porter
- Jim Cummings as Tantor
- Taylor Dempsey as young Tantor
- April Winchell as Terk
- Jason Alexander as Zutho
- Susanne Blakeslee as Kala
- John DiMaggio as Gozan
- Shaun Fleming as young Tarzan
Trivia[]
- Archimedes Q. Porter doesn't appear in this episode.
- The flashback sequence involving Tarzan and Zutho takes place during the musical number "Son of Man" from the first film, much like the midquel film Tarzan II, as in this flashback Tantor have already met Tarzan and Terk by then, and Tarzan had already created the spear which he had mastered using it over time in said musical number.
- Kerchak made three non-speaking cameos in this flashback.
- While Tarzan's exact age is never revealed in the entire franchise, his age is heavily implied to be around in his mid-to-late-20s in this show, due to Tarzan being a young child in the flashback and Zutho claiming that Tarzan owed the mandrill a debt for keeping a secret they kept 20 years prior.
- The monkeys that Zutho has for neighbors are described as howler monkeys; not only are howler monkeys native to South America, the monkeys look more like vervets which live on the savannah, rather than in the jungle.
- It's implied that Kerchak was already aware that Tarzan was responsible for the fire.
