Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: The Mirror

Welcome once again to another exciting episode of Gargoyles.

Today’s episode opens with Demona (Marina Sirtis, Take a Shot) breaking into a museum in the hopes of stealing an antique Mirror. She makes quick work of the guards but is irritated to be confronted by Elisa. Remember, last time we saw Demona, she was under the impression that she killed Elisa so seeing her alive is probably making her a lot angrier than usual. Demona thinks Elisa doesn’t have a prayer against her, which is why it's a good thing Elisa brought backup in the form of Goliath. After a brief fight through the museum, Demona glides away through the window and, after a short chase, manages to elude her pursuers.

Unfortunately, it would seem Demona planned this heist out a lot better than it initially appeared. See, what Goliath and Elisa didn’t know was that Demona was just the decoy. While the two were giving chase, Demona had hired two thugs to steal the mirror and bring it to her spooky hideout later on. Once the Mirror is in her possession, Demona utters a magical incantation which causes the mirror to glow green. When the light fades, a pointy eared fellow in chains kneels before Demona and from the look on his face, he’s clearly not pleased about being there. More on this guy in a minute.

At the Clocktower, Elisa has learned that Demona was only a decoy and that the mirror was stolen anyway. Elisa is wondering what Demona even wants with an old antique mirror but The Gargoyles inform her that it is no ordinary mirror, it’s Titania’s Mirror, Titania being the “Queen of the Third Race.” You know, The Third Race, The Children of Oberon, The Fey, The Fair Folk, Dark Elves, Changelings, Shape Shifters, Pixies, Demi-Gods, Dryads, Magical Spirits, People who can work the Cash Register at a Retail Pharmacy without descending Slowly into Madness, essentially, the stuff fairy tales are made of. Goliath says that anything belonging to such a being would be an item of unimaginable power. Elisa laughs at the idea of fairies and elves being real which I just shake my head at. Lady, when your best friend is a seven-and-a-half-foot tall winged purple monster, you do not get to be a skeptic! Anywho, they all agree that the mirror would be extremely dangerous in Demona’s hands.

Anyway, back with our little pointy eared friend. This is Puck, one of the aforementioned Children of Oberon. First thing’s first, Puck is voiced by the amazing Brent Spiner, who is, of course, known for playing the role of the android Data in Star Trek the Next Generation. Take a Shot! Spiner absolutely nails this role. I’m always happy to see Spiner get to show off his range of emotion, something he didn’t get to do nearly often enough on Star Trek. Getting back on track, Puck is indignant about being summoned in this manner, particularly the part where he’s all chained up, but Demona, not trusting Puck, sees this as a necessary precaution. Demona says to Puck, “You Serve the Human, Now you can Serve Me.” Now isn’t that curious. “Serve,” present tense, and “Human” singular. Either that was a very odd turn of phrase or there’s more going on here than we realize. Anywho, Puck is eager to find out what Demona wants from him. Turns out, Demona, concerned about her own vulnerability, wishes to no longer turn to stone during the day. Puck must have taken lessons in manipulation from Xanatos, or perhaps the other way around, because he manages to play Demona like a fiddle throughout this entire scene, getting Demona to change her mind with only a few words. Having been convinced by Puck’s words, Demona now demands Puck destroy all humans. Puck may be powerful, but even he has limits so that’s a no can do on the mass genocide. Puck finally cuts to the heart of the matter and, with the aid of the mirror, sees that Demona, as much as she hates to admit it to herself, still has feelings for Goliath. Finally, Demona makes her wish. She wants Puck to rid her of the human, Elisa Maza. Puck agrees and with the incantation “Thy Sight, Demona Doth Offend, So Puck will Hasten to Amend, Begone Elisa Human Born, And Be No More as You were Formed” the spell is complete.

Back at the Clocktower, Elisa begins to glow green and there’s a blinding flash of light. Once the light fades, we learn that Puck apparently found a loophole in the spell, likely with the sole intent of pissing Demona off. Elisa’s not dead, she’s just not human anymore, she’s a Gargoyle. Naturally, Goliath and the others are shocked by this development. To make matters even more odd, if that’s even possible at this point, Elisa seems under the impression that she’s always been a Gargoyle and that The Gargoyles are the ones who have been changed into Gargoyles. Don’t quite get that, but whatever. Goliath tries to set Elisa straight, but she has a hard time believing it, despite the fact that she still has clear memories of how she and Goliath met and other things that seem to indicate that Goliath is telling the truth. In any case, Elisa is eager to try out her new wings so Goliath takes her out gliding. Goliath also can’t help but note that he finds Elisa beautiful in this form, leading to a bit of awkward yet still adorable flirting between the two. As they swoop low over the City, Elisa’s warped memory leaves her in shock and horror that everyone in Manhattan has been “turned into a human.” I have to say, Goliath’s facepalming reaction to this is easily the biggest laugh I’ve gotten in the series so far.

Meanwhile, Demona, under the impression that her plan worked as intended, wants to use Puck to destroy all the humans in New York City. Puck says that it can be done, but it won’t be easy. Demona takes Puck to the top of a Skycraper, the Mirror also functioning as a teleporter and, using a satellite dish to amplify his magical energy, Puck enacts the same spell he placed on Elisa on the entire city. Demona wants to see her “empty city” but Puck, exhausted from using so much magic, has fallen unconscious. The Gargoyles, who saw the bright flash of light, swoop in and are ready to stop whatever Demona’s up to. Demona, the sleeping puck in her arms, tries to escape into the city below, but to her horror, the city is not empty, all the humans have just been turned into Gargoyles. While she’s certainly not happy about this, Demona does manage to take advantage of the fact that it’s now much easier for her to blend into the crowd and evades the Gargoyles by boarding a subway. The Gargoyles see their new surroundings agreeing that this is really weird and potentially dangerous.

Elsewhere, Demona is reading Puck the riot act for giving the humans the gift of being a Gargoyle and demands that Puck change the Gargoyles into humans. Puck agrees, but his sinister grin seems to indicate that he’s up to something. Back with our Gargoyles, Goliath tries to give Elisa another gliding lesson. However, the same Green light that turned Elisa into a Gargoyle now envelopes our heroes, turning them into humans. Not good, especially when Goliath was floating over the city at the time. Elisa saves Goliath, but now it seems that the Gargoyles, or I guess, ex-Gargoyles, are now in the same boat as Elisa, believing they’ve always been human. Fortunately, they quickly figure out what’s going on and agree that they need to deal with Demona. Speaking of, at ground level Demona is fuming that the city is still filled with Gargoyles and Puck reveals what he actually did, also revealing that Goliath is now vulnerable. Our heroes corner Demona in front of Rockafeller Center and the fight begins. Goliath tries to battle Demona while the others get their butts handed to them by Puck and his weird magic. Broadway getting strangled by a giant sunflower is especially strange even for this show. The Gargoyles, that is to say the citizens of Manhattan who have now been transformed into Gargoyles see the fight and from their perspective, they see a bunch of monsters attacking an innocent woman and join the fight. Fortunately, this doesn’t last too long as Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway, taking advantage of the fact that they’re seen as Monsters, manage to scare them off. Meanwhile, Demona has Goliath on the ropes until Elisa swoops in. Demona is pissed at the mere sight of Elisa and the two begin a pretty cool brawl. Eventually, Elisa gets her hands on Demona’s ray gun and subdues her while the others manage to trap Puck.

At the top of the skyscraper from earlier, Goliath tells Puck to put everyone back to the way they were before Demona summoned him. If he does, Goliath agrees to set him free. Puck agrees, puts everything right and is even nice enough not to find some loophole to screw everyone over in the process. Goliath holds up his end of the bargain and frees Puck who leaves with Demona through the mirror. As the sun comes up, Goliath and Elisa have a brief tender moment. It’s never spoken, but it’s heavily implied that this experience has brought them both closer together and has forced both to realize that their feelings for one another go beyond simple friendship.

We end in Demona’s lair where Puck is still hanging around. Demona, finally having had enough, just wants the annoying little imp to go away and leave her alone. However, Puck insists on thanking Demona for such a fun time and decides to grant Demona’s initial wish. From now on, Demona will no longer turn to stone during the day. However, Puck has found one more way to screw over his captor as the next morning Demona finds that by day, she’s not stone, she’s human.

This is a great episode. Puck is a great addition to the cast and will play a larger role in the events of the series going forward than anyone initially realizes. Brent Spiner plays his role well. I’d like to think he got a few tips from his old co-star John De Lancie when it came to playing an all-powerful being with a childish sense of humor. And yet there's still mystery surrounding the character, especially with Demona's talk of how he "Serves the Human." This episode also establishes Demona becoming human during the day, something that remains a constant throughout the rest of the series. While it’s not stated outright, I’d like to think Demona’s desire to rid herself of the limitations of the stone sleep further illustrates how far Demona has strayed from the Gargoyle way of life, something we discussed back in Reawakening. How fitting is it that her punishment for this is to become that which she hates. However, this episode’s biggest development is Goliath and Elisa finally admitting to themselves, if not each other, that they have feelings for one another. This relationship will develop more and more over time, though there will be some obstacles to overcome for… obvious reasons. Still, it is nice to see that these two characters have grown to love one another as they have always shared a strong bond. Falling for each other just feels like a natural progression of that. Anyway, next time, we take a break from the supernatural for a story that’s a little more on the film noir crime drama side of things with The Silver Falcon.