Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: The Silver Falcon

Welcome back everyone, to Gargoyles

Today’s episode opens very much in the same manner as an old detective movie with someone breaking into an old abandoned building late at night as a thunderstorm rages outside. We soon see that this is none other than Matt Bluestone, Elisa’s partner. As he walks through the darkness, suddenly a bright light flashes in his face and he’s greeted by someone he wasn’t expecting to see. It’s… oh God Dammit, it’s Tony Dracon. Well, this episode’s stock has already gone down a few points.

On the subject of old detective movies, we join Broadway, visiting Elisa’s apartment, watching such a movie and really getting into it. At the other end of the room, Elisa has received a called from her captain, informing her that Bluestone has been missing for two days. Elisa seems that sure Matt’s fine but says she’ll check out his apartment anyway just to be on the safe side. In a bit of continuity that I really appreciate, we see that Elisa now keeps her gun in a locked box inside a drawer in her kitchen, showing that she’s definitely learned from the events of Deadly Force. Broadway volunteers to go with her, but Elisa turns him down, feeling that she “doesn’t need another partner to worry about.”

At Matt’s apartment, we see that someone is already there looking for something. Elisa breaks in, but it seems Broadway has beaten her to the punch and is already roughing up the thug. I have to say, I love Broadway dressing up in a trench coat and fedora hat like he’s cosplaying Humphrey Bogart from The Big Sleep, it’s kind of adorable. The bad guy, having just been tossed around by a big green monster in a trench coat, runs for his life and even makes it to the elevator but Broadway manages to pull the elevator up by the cable and subdue the thief. Elisa is a little annoyed that Broadway followed her against her wishes but decides that there’s no time to get into it right now. While searching the bad guy’s unconscious body, they find a page from Matt’s calendar with an appointment written on it. Broadway wonders if Matt’s computer could tell them more, but it turns out the thug booby trapped the computer and all three of them barely manage to escape before it explodes, the bad guy slipping away in the chaos. Elisa tries to convince Broadway to go home, thinking that this case is too dangerous for “an amateur detective playing out a movie fantasy.” Broadway apologizes for not taking this seriously, but still insists that whatever is going on, it’s too dangerous for Elisa to go it alone.

Later that night, Elisa decides to keep Matt’s appointment which is with an Agent Martin Hacker of the FBI. It’s here where we learn that Bluestone was once an FBI agent himself before his obsession with the Illuminati Society got him booted from the bureau. Still, for old time’s sake, Hacker agreed to authenticate an old letter that Matt found. The letter is from a gangster from the 20’s named Mace Malone who mysteriously vanished and was said to have ties to the Illuminati. The letter is addressed to someone named “DD” and alludes to “nest egg” hidden in something called “The Silver Falcon,” no doubt a reference to The Maltese Falcon, another old detective story. Hacker says he checked it out and the letter is the real deal. Elisa still has questions, where did Matt find the letter, who is DD and what on Earth is The Silver Falcon? Hacker doesn’t have any answers. All anyone has to go on is an address for Mace’s old apartment. As Hacker leaves, the thug from Matt’s apartment shows up, and he brought backup. Fortunately, so did Elisa as Broadway divebombs the goons, even spouting some one-liners in the process, cute. Broadway and Elisa manage to take out two of the thugs but one manages to get away, nearly running over Broadway in his car in the process. Elisa says that if they overheard her conversation with Hacker, then she has to get to Mace’s old apartment.

Elisa finds Mace’s old place, now a C.P.A. office run by an elderly fellow named Benton. Turns out Benton is well aware of his apartment’s scandalous history. In fact, Benton rented the place because he himself is a bit of a Mace Malone buff. Seems he gets a lot of curious individuals coming to his office to check it out. When Benton mentions a young man with red hair, Elisa immediately realizes that Matt had been here. Turns out Matt was especially interested in an old photo of Mace Malone that Benton has wherein Mace is standing next to a man with “DD” on his lapel. According to Benton, the photo was taken at the old Silver Falcon Night Club which has been abandoned for years. Still, it’s the only lead she has, so Elisa decides it’s worth checking out.

Elisa and Broadway glide over to the same old building that we saw Matt breaking into at the opening. Once inside they hear what sounds like drilling. Venturing further down, they find more thugs, including Glasses, Dracon’s right-hand man, and Bluestone tied up in a chair. The thugs seem to have been expecting Elisa as Glasses sets off a bomb, burying Elisa and Broadway under a pile of rubble, much to Matt’s horror. Broadway is just barely able to keep the rubble from collapsing on top of them, but things get really bad when Broadway turns to stone. Elisa manages to dig her way out, only to be grabbed by Glasses and the rest of Dracon's goons. As Elisa and Matt reunite, Tony Dracon enters the scene. I should note that Tony is now sporting a white streak in his hair that wasn’t present in Deadly force. Fitting as it makes him look like the dirty skunk that he is. Turns out Mace Malone once pulled a big jewel heist alongside Tony’s grandfather, Dominic Dracon aka DD. Mace disappeared without splitting the take and was said to have hid the Jewels, hence why Dracon and his flunkies are drilling under Mace’s old nightclub. Matt says that he’d found the letter to DD and jumped to the wrong conclusion about the Illuminati. Matt apologizes for not bringing Elisa in on this and Elisa forgives him. Dracon manages to find an old safe, but inside there’s only a letter from Mace Malone reading “Right Idea, Wrong Falcon.” Elisa claims that she knows where the jewels really are but will only tell him if he agrees to let her and Matt go free. Tony agrees, even giving his word as a Dracon. Personally, I don’t think Tony’s “Word as a Dracon” is worth the foul breath he expelled into the world to give it, but what do I know? Elisa also says it’s best to wait until sundown to grab the gems. Once the sun goes down, Broadway wakes up and digs himself out of the pile. It seems Broadway has been putting in the effort to learn how to read as he manages to read the note from Mace and figures out where Elisa is going.

Turns out the real Silver Falcon is a statue head resembling a Falcon sticking out of the side of a Skyscraper that can be seen out the window of Mace’s old apartment. Mace hid the stones in a satchel in the bird’s mouth. Elisa grabs the satchel but isn’t about to just hand them over to a scumbag like Dracon and jumps off the side of the building, Broadway being there to catch her. Dracon tries to get away in his helicopter with Bluestone but Broadway manages to punch the helicopter down. Dracon runs for it, but Broadway corners him in an ally, roughing him up a bit while quoting lines from the Detective movie we saw him watching at the beginning. Back at the building, Elisa climbs her way back up where she’s stopped by Benton, or should I say, Dominic Dracon. Elisa had apparently figured out the old man’s true identity a while ago. How else would Dracon’s thugs have known to set a trap. Grandpa Dracon promises to let Elisa go if she just gives him the jewels, but as we established, the word of a Dracon isn’t worth a damn thing and Elisa tosses the satchel which lands just at the edge of the Falcon head. To old DD’s credit, he actually manages to retrieve the satchel, an impressive feat considering that they’re extremely high up and Dominic here is at least ninety years old if not older. Still, it was all for naught as DD only finds a satchel full of marbles and a note from Mace mocking his old partner. And so our episode ends with The Dracons getting arrested and Elisa thanking her partner as a stone Broadway is seen smiling.

While this is by no means the strongest episode of the series, it was nonetheless fun to see a deviation from the norm with this fun little detective story. I actually really liked how the episode focused on just Elisa and Broadway and they actually made a pretty cool team. I cannot emphasize enough just how cute it was seeing Broadway dress up and try to play detective. You can tell that he’s having the time of his life. I also really enjoyed learning more about Bluestone’s past and getting a few more hints at the Illuminati. Dracon is still as douchey as ever, but he was the right kind of villain for a story like this. Like I said, this isn’t the strongest episode of the series, but I don’t think it was trying to be. The writers wanted to make a fun little detective story, and they gave us a fun little detective story. Simple as that. You know, it’s been a while since we’ve heard from Xanatos, I wonder what new schemes he’s hatching or how his relationship with Fox is working out. Fortunately, next time, we get plenty of that when we look at the fan favorite episode, Eye of the Beholder.