Tarzan and the Return of La

"Tarzan and the Return of La" is the twenty-seventh episode of The Legend of Tarzan. It originally aired on UPN on October 3, 2001.
==Synopsis==
Jane Porter decides to surprise her father with a croquet tournament in honor of the Anniversary of his Legendary Perfect Game. When Terk uses up the last of the coconut balls during their practice game, Jane sets out on her own to collect more. While doing so, Jane stumbled across a fallen fawn. Jane attempts to help the suffering animal, but when she places her hands on the creature's face the soul of none other than Queen La shoots out from the animal and into Jane, possessing her body.
Using her new acquired body La attempts to climb up the cliffs that lead to Opar, but is unable to due to Jane's less than muscular physique. Upon realizing she can't make it to Opar alone, she heads back to camp to see if Tarzan will help her. She attempts to seduce him with the promise of a romantic picnic, but this confuses Tarzan and his friends as they're still waiting to start the croquet tournament. Frustrated, La storms off only to confuse Tarzan more.
Walking around the jungle alone in a flimsy body, Queen La stumbles across Dumont's Trading Post and succeeds in seducing Renard Dumont to help her.
Meanwhile with Tarzan, he has become worried for his wife for she is acting out of character. He claims to see someone else behind Jane's eyes and decides to seek out Jane and investigate. Terk and Tantor are forced to sit this one out as they get dragged into the Professor's story of his Perfect Game. Eventually Tarzan does catch up with La, who has now gotten over the cliffs thanks to Dumont. When Tarzan tries to catch up with them, La trips and causes a landslide that crushes Tarzan under rock. Tarzan is presumed dead by La but is unaware that Tarzan was healed by a Waziri elder named Usula. Who also explains to a very surprised Tarzan that Jane has been possessed by La, who used forbidden magic to immortalize her spirit, thus giving her the ability to jump between host bodies.
As Tarzan is being filled in on the details, La and Dumont finally make it to the ruins of Opar (Opar having been destroyed ironically by Jane in the episode "Tarzan and the Leopard Men Rebellion"). Dumont attempts to get Jane to sit down and eat, but is instead forced to dig up the head piece in Queen La's staff. Determined to find the other half, La calls out to it and freaks out Dumont who attempts to leave so he can find Tarzan. But before he can La finds the other half, reassembled her staff, and reveals her true self as the staff redresses Jane in La's black top, sarong, and golden jewelry, as well as undoing her hair.
Dumont then attempts to flee but is turned into a gibbon by La, who then forces him to kneel at his feet. La then uses the power of her staff to resurrect Opar to its former glory, minus the leopard men and double on the rat problem. Tarzan and Usula sneak into the palace and as Tarzan ponders on how to save Jane, he is horrified to see Usula readying an arrow with his bow to fire at Jane. Tarzan stops him, but in the process gives away their location. Tarzan begs for Jane to recognize him, but in response La laughs then brings two giant Statue Warriors to life. Tarzan attempts to fight them off but their size proves to be a huge advantage. Usula decides it would be wise to run, so he temporarily blinds the statues as the two men make their get away. Annoyed, La commands the statues to find the two and kill Tarzan!
Tarzan and Usula run for their lives from the statues as they crash through the palace. Tarzan manages to get one statue destroyed before him and Usula give the other one the slip. Tarzan is furious that Usula would dare think of killing La, but with a heavy hear Usula explains La won't release Jane and that she is good as dead. Realizing what must be done, Tarzan finds La herself and tricks her into taking over his body so Usula can kill him.
The plan ultimately fails when La has control of Tarzan's enhanced senses. She then plans to kill Jane with Tarzan's own bare hands, but Jane manages to escape and attempts to lose La. Unfortunately, she run herself into a corner and La finds her ready to strike. But the the other Statue Warrior from earlier shows up and attacks Tarzan, still under orders to kill him and not realizing he's attacking his queen. With no other options, La transfers her spirit to a rat (again, ironic) before Jane manages to destroy the statue. Tarzan and Jane embrace lovingly, happy to have each other again, and Usula manages to bag Rat Queen La.
The episode ends showing Dumont is human again (now with an appetite for bugs) and that Usula is pretty good at croquet. He is seen using La's staff as a mallet.
==Cast==
* Olivia d'Abo as Jane Porter
* Michael T. Weiss as Tarzan
* Jim Cummings as Tantor
* April Winchell as Terk
* Diahann Carroll as Queen La
* Jeff Bennett as Archimedes Q. Porter
* René Auberjonois as Renard Dumont
* Dave Thomas as Hugo
* Joe Flaherty as Hooft
* Brock Peters as Usula
* Frank Welker as Monkey Dumont
==Trivia==
* When Tarzan threw Queen La's Staff out, it didn't break. Although the staff has been shown before to be quiet endurable, as the last time it was seen the crystal ball in the leopard's mouth had been smashed, but seemingly reassembled itself.
* Gibbons are not indigenous to Africa, so why La turned Dumont into one is kind of a head scratcher.
* The sound effects for Dumont's monkey form are similar to that of Abu in Aladdin.
* This marks the second time Jane wears Queen La's outfit, the first time being "Tarzan and the Leopard Men Rebellion", where the Leopard Men kidnap Jane and make her their new Queen so she can make them normal leopards again. 
**In both episodes, Jane appears in this outfit whenever she has the staff in her hands.
* Usula is never actually seen destroying Queen La after he captures her in her rat form, but is most likely she was killed off-screen.
Category:The Legend of Tarzan episodes