Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Lighthouse in the Sea of Time

It’s time once again for your daily recommended dose of Gargoyles.

Our episode opens in a cave somewhere in England where a mustachioed Indiana Jones looking fellow and his assistant have happened upon a find of great archeological significance, a chest with ancient Celtic writing on it. Given the fact that the pair are seemingly attacked by some kind of ghost when they try and open it, one can initially assume that this is the Arc of the Covenant, but in actuality, it’s the Scrolls of Merlin. By the way, Merlin and by extension King Arthur are apparently very real historical figures in this reality. That's not too important now, but will become so a little further down the line.

At the Clocktower, Lexington has read about the discovery in the paper, leading to curiosity over Merlin. Goliath suggests that if anyone is curious, the library in the Clocktower has plenty of books about the 5th Century Wizard. Broadway scoffs at this, saying that there’s no point in reading when you can rent the video. Oh boy, here we go. So, for those who don’t know, this episode has a bit of a reputation for being a bit heavy-handed with its pro-literacy message. It personally doesn’t bother me that much but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t beat it in like Triple H with a sledgehammer, but I digress. Lexington admonishes Broadway for his callous attitude towards reading, and Hudson seems unusually hesitant to get involved in the argument. In any case, the scrolls are being sent to the Metropolitan Museum for study and Elisa and Matt Bluestone have been assigned to the escort team to make sure no one tries to steal them. Given that the scrolls are rumored to contain some potentially dangerous magic spells, Goliath feels that the Gargoyles should come along as well.

Elisa and Matt board the H.M.S. Churchill, the ship transporting the scrolls from England, but as soon as the detectives get settled in, the ship comes under attack by two jets. The two pilots board the ship and snatch the scrolls at gunpoint. Hudson manages to grab one of them from the thieves but gets electrocuted, because I guess all jets in this reality can do that, and falls into the ocean, the scroll still in his claws.

Meanwhile, Broadway managed to latch himself to the other jet and has followed it to a hangar at… yet another castle. Look, I know New York City is a big place, but how many damn castles can one city possibly have. Broadway snatches the scroll and attempts to make tracks, but he’s stopped by the real mastermind behind this theft, MacBeth. You can tell it’s MacBeth because the score now sees fit to include bagpipes, because MacBeth is Scottish you know, how else would you be able to remember that without bagpipes, ignoring for a moment that Goliath and the Gargoyles are also technically Scottish as well. I joke, but MacBeth actually does make a pretty cool entrance as he steps out of the rain and the shadows while lightning strikes. Anywho, much like the last time they fought, MacBeth absolutely wipes the floor with Broadway, takes the Gargoyle captive and steals back the scroll. However, upon realizing that he only has the second scroll, and that it would be useless and even possibly dangerous to read the scrolls out of order, MacBeth orders his goons to find the first scroll.

Speaking of, Hudson, still holding the first scroll, has washed up on shore in front of a nice looking sea side cottage and is more than a little worse for wear. Hudson is found by a man named Jeffery Robbins and his dog Gilly. Robbins is blind so he doesn’t realize Hudson is a Gargoyle. As far as he’s concerned, this is just someone who needs help. By the way, I would be very remiss if I did not mention that Robbins here is played by the late great Paul Winfield. While he was never a regular cast member, Winfield is nonetheless known for playing some iconic roles on Star Trek including Captain Terrell in Wrath of Khan and the Alien Captain in the fan-favorite Next Generation episode, Darmok. Anywho, Robbins helps Hudson inside and Hudson thanks him for his kindness. As they sit around the fire, Hudson and Robbins gets to know eachother. It seems after he lost his sight in Vietnam, he made his living as a novelist and was able to find some modest success. Robbins gives Hudson one of his books, but Hudson, much to his embarrassment, admits to his new friend that he never learned how to read.

Back with MacBeth, the captive Broadway doesn’t seem to get what the big deal is with these scrolls. However, when MacBeth recounts an abridged version of the story of Merlin with such eloquence, Broadway is in awe. Broadway at first assumes that MacBeth was there, and while MacBeth may be old, much older than he looks as we’ll eventually learn, he’s not that old. MacBeth merely read about the events of Merlin’s life in a book. Hearing this seems to change Broadway’s attitude towards books.

Back at Robbins’ place, Hudson insists that he’s too old to learn how to read, and even if that weren’t the case, Hudson’s illiteracy brings him great shame, shame he’s not sure he wants to share with his clan. Robbins assures Hudson that there’s no shame in being illiterate, the only shame is in willingly staying that way. The sun is about to come up, meaning that Hudson has to go, but promises to return for another visit, and possibly a reading lesson. He doesn’t make it far however as he turns to stone right outside Robbins’ cottage. A little later, MacBeth, using the totally believable alias of “Lenox MacDuff,” arrives at Robbins place enquiring about his wearabouts. Robbins is unable to help him, but on his way out, MacBeth spots Hudson in stone form and steals the scroll from his grip. That night, Hudson notices that the scroll is gone and learns of Mr. “MacDuff” from Robbins. When Robbins says he’s heard the names before in a Shakespeare play called MacBeth, Hudson puts two and two together and, with Robbins’ help, finds an address for Lenox MacDuff.

We next join MacBeth and Broadway at MacBeth’s Castle. That’s right, the man owns two Castles. Seriously, how has Xanatos not put a hit out on this guy and found some legal loophole to claim all his cool stuff for himself? Anywho, The Gargoyles, having been put on MacBeth’s trail by Owen after they initially believed Xanatos to be behind the theft, meet up with Hudson outside the Castle grounds and swoop in to save Broadway and reclaim the scrolls. MacBeth, who’s busy trying to find a safe way to open a scrolls, a smart move when deals with a fifteen hundred year old document written by a wizard who may have armed it with some kind of magical booby trap, notices the Gargoyles flying in and orders his thugs to take them out using the castle’s ground to air turrets. The canons manage to give the Gargoyles a tough time, but Hudson’s quick thinking manages to take them out. In the midst of the chaos, MacBeth opens the scrolls, only to learn that they are merely Merlin’s diary and don’t appear to contain any spells. Goliath snatches the scrolls, threatening to burn them if MacBeth doesn’t release Broadway. MacBeth tells Goliath to go ahead, seeing the scrolls as useless to him, but Broadway insists that they do have magic, the magic to allow one to relive history and feel like you’re a part of it. Hudson agrees, It’s Merlin’s life, in his own words, and burning it would be a waste. MacBeth sees the wisdom in this and allows the Gargoyles to leave with the scrolls.

As the clan flies back to the Clocktower, Goliath says that they’ll be giving the scrolls to Elisa so that she can return them to the museum but offers to read them to Hudson and Broadway first. Hudson says that he’d rather read them himself, once he learns how. And so our episode ends with Robbins, inspired by recent events, starting to dictate his next novel into a tape recorder.

Let’s get it out of the way, this episode is more than a little preachy when it comes to its message about the importance of literacy. I’m not saying that it’s not a good lesson to learn, especially for the show’s target demographic, but it could have done with a little more subtlety. That having been said, I actually really enjoyed this episode. It was really cool to see MacBeth again and John Rhys-Davies seemed to be on his A-Game in terms of acting. We never actually learn why MacBeth was after the scrolls, though I have a personal theory which we’ll discuss in a later episode. I also really liked the Jeffrey Robbins character as well, and I appreciated the message being approached from Hudson’s point of view. The fact that his illiteracy brings him genuine shame feels like a more adult approach than other shows that have tackled his subject matter in the past. Anyway, next time we see the long-awaited return of Demona and are introduced to another major player in the game when we look at The Mirror.