When we last left Hernán Cortés, he had taken an emperor hostage and everything had blown up in his face. In this episode, we are tracking the brutal and chaotic end of the Aztec Empire. We cover:

• The Sad Night: How the Spanish made a daring escape out of the city in the middle of the night , and how men literally drowned to death because they refused to drop the gold they had stolen.

• The Microscopic Conquistador: Why the deadliest weapon the Spanish brought was actually smallpox. The disease swept through the city, killing half of Tenochtitlan's inhabitants , including their new emperor.

• The Mountain Navy: How Cortés decided to have brigatines, which were small warships, built in pieces inland. He then carried them over land to Lake Texcoco, assembled them , and used them to pincher the locals on the causeways.

• The Ultimate Resume Editor: How Cortés wrote five lengthy letters to Charles V, the King of Spain, to spin his unauthorized actions. He framed his mass violence as "necessary pacification" and tried to convince the king that his insubordination was actually just an expansion of the king's domain.

In the studio: Tom cannot figure out why soldiers wouldn't just drop the gold to avoid drowning , and Travis reveals the universe briefly tried to stop Cortés from exploring by giving him syphilis in Hispaniola.