Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Awakening Part 4

Welcome once again to Gargoyles. Last time, we were properly introduced to Detective Elisa Maza who quickly befriended Goliath and the others and agreed to show them the ropes of 20th Century New York City. Meanwhile, Xanatos tried to persuade Goliath to help him steal back some stolen tech but Goliath was worried about the risk to what’s left of his clan. While strolling through Central Park, Goliath was attacked by some of the same goons who attacked the Castle and stole Xanatos’s discs.

We pick up back in the park with Goliath and Elisa still fighting the thugs. Being a massive winged monster with the strength of two John Cenas, Goliath manages to hold his own but is clearly reeling from the tranquilizer dart. Still Goliath and Elisa manage to temporarily give the guards the slip.

Meanwhile, the trio are still exploring the city. Broadway having apparently eaten an entire cart full of bear claws. In a very amusing scene, Brooklyn attempts to hail a cab only to have it pull a u-turn and drive away like it just saw a terrifying six-foot pterodactyl man standing in the middle of the street. Typical New York Taxi, never stopping for minorities.

Goliath and Elisa finally find a moment to catch their breath and while pulling out the tranq dart, Elisa notices a tracking device placed on Goliath, likely how the goons knew where to find them. Elisa buys them some time by placing the tracker on a stray dog. However, in his condition, there’s no way Goliath is going to be able to make it back to the castle by sunrise and turns to stone right then and there, much to Elisa’s shock. Bad timing too as the goons appear to be closing in. Elisa has no choice but to fend them off by herself. She may be outnumbered, but Elisa is still a seasoned New York City cop and knows how to handle herself. You wouldn’t see April O’Neil taking down a bunch of armed thugs by herself, not in the 90’s anyway. Elisa leads the thugs into a nearby boathouse, only to learn that her gun is out of bullets. To make matters worse, the thugs manage to hit some gasoline cannisters, causing the boat house to blow up, Elisa barely managing to escape. Shockingly, these goons actually have the intelligence quotient to know they have to check for a body. Damn, to afford competence like that, Cyberbiotics must have more money than God, which, incidentally, still leaves them with slightly less money than David Xanatos. Fortunately, Elisa manages to evade the thugs, even taking out one of them with the old Jacket decoy trick. Exhausted, Elisa returns to Goliath’s side, making sure her new friend remains safe in his helpless state. That night, Goliath awakens fully rejuvenated, the stone sleep having a healing effect for the Gargoyles. Goliath is surpised and extremely grateful that Elisa protected him the entire day. It would seem the big guy may be reconsidering his whole “Never Trust Humans Again” stance.

Goliath returns to the castle, revealing to the others that the thugs from the other night may be a bigger threat to them than they thought. Upon hearing that the old one is now called Hudson, the others decide to choose names as well, picking different areas of Manhattan to suit their new lives, hence, Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington and Bronx. However, in the midst of all this, Goliath is once again called into Xanatos’ office. Apparently Xanatos has found an old acquaintance of Goliath’s. A door opens and out of the shadows walks Demona. It would seem Demona followed Goliath and Hudson the night of the massacre but got lost and didn’t make it to the castle by sunrise. By the time she returned, Goliath and the others had already been cursed. She begged the Magus to cast the spell on her as well. Xanatos claims to have purchased Demona in stone form at auction a year previous and theorized that taking her to the castle may have the same effect as it did on Goliath and the others. By the way, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis in the same scene, take two shots. Demona has a happy reunion with the Gargoyles, but seems very insistent that they take Xanatos up on his offer out of gratitude. Odd for someone who wasn’t exactly thrilled about serving humans last time we saw her, but whatever. With his love by his side once again and backing the play, Goliath finally agrees.

The Gargoyles split up into groups. Goliath and Demona will hit the airship, Hudson and Bronx the Underground base and the trio the secluded island tower. The team goes out on their mission while Xanatos sits at his desk doing the Mr. Burns “Excellent” pose. Okay, serious question. Was there anyone in the 90’s who was fooled for a second into thinking that Xanatos would not turn out to be the bad guy? I love this show and this character, but he isn’t even trying to be subtle here. Oh well, he probably figures “If they’re not smart enough to figure it out then that’s on them.” Anywho, Goliath and Demona sneak on board the air ship only to be ambushed by two rather unimpressive looking guards. Demona and Goliath pounce on the guards and make pretty quick work of them. However, when Demona tries to throw one of the helpless guards off the ship to their death, Goliath is disgusted and horrified by her actions.

“To Kill in the Heat of Battle is One Thing, But Not like This.”

Meanwhile, the trio glide to the island tower and sneak in, if three large winged monsters walking through a heavily armed facility could be considered sneaking. The three climb down the elevator shaft only to walk straight into an ambush, ending the episode.

Part four of Awakening really shakes things up with the return of Demona, but more than that it’s a great episode. The highlight for me was Elisa taking down the thugs by herself. She not only proves that she’s more than capable of holding her own against bad guys, but she also proves herself trustworthy to the jaded Goliath, earning his respect and his friendship in the progress. However, I do feel that I need to talk about the reveal of Demona. Don’t get it twisted, I love this show and I fully intend to continue praising it, but I still have to point out where I think they messed up. See, I have vivid memories of watching this episode as a kid and even then I felt that the Demona reveal was very effective, bolstered by the triumphant yet still slightly ominous music. However, upon this re-watch, I find that the effectiveness of the reveal was significantly reduced due to Demona being shown in shadow last episode. It’s like if in Empire Strikes back, The Emperor just mentioned in passing that Luke was Darth Vader’s son. It still would have been shocking, sure, but it would have greatly taken away from the impact of the famous “I Am Your Father” scene. Whatever, the episode is still good. Join me tomorrow for the conclusion of Awakening.