Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: City of Stone Part 1

Welcome back to Gargoyles everyone, and welcome to the first part of the epic four-parter, City of Stone!

We open with Elisa and Matt trying to negotiate a tense hostage situation. Matt tries to be reasonable, but the terrorists claim their cause is worth any sacrifice. The cops seem powerless to do anything, which is why it’s lucky that Elisa spots the Gargoyles gliding in. Inside the building, we see that among the hostages are the same couple who were mugged all the way back in the third episode. They’ve been popping up here and there as background characters but have never actually had speaking roles until now. Since one of them is voiced by Marina Sirtis, take a shot. Also among the hostages are three creepy looking little girls. Think the Twins from The Shining accept there’s three of them. I’ll let you in on this a little early. These are the Weird Sisters, Phoebe, Luna and Selene, and, like Puck, they’re Children of Oberon. The role they play is as of yet unclear, but their presence seems to indicate something much bigger than a simple hostage situation. Anywho, Goliath and the others swoop in and make quick work of the terrorists while the hostages cower in fear. The Weird Sisters walk up to Goliath and say some cryptic mumbo jumbo about how if Goliath forgets that all life is precious, then he’ll end up just like her. Goliath insists he’s nothing like this terrorist, but the sisters say that they’re not talking about the terrorist before mysteriously vanishing.

We soon get a pretty big clue as to who the triplets were talking about as we see Demona flying through the city, a spell clutched in her hand. We saw Demona tear a few pages out of the Grimorum back in Temptation in case you were wondering. As Demona glides towards her destination, a flashback begins. We see the scene from the first episode where Goliath leaves the Castle to battle the Vikings, leaving the rest of his clan behind, only this time, it’s from Demona’s point of view. As Goliath leaves, Demona is furious that Goliath has inadvertently screwed up their plan, but the Captain assures her that he will protect her clan while they lay dormant in stone. As the sun rises, Demona tries to warn the Clan, giving us a nice cameo from Othello and Desdemona, but she decides against it, instead fleeing to the beach to keep herself safe from the Vikings. In a hauntingly beautiful and yet tragic scene, Demona turns to stone as the Vikings slaughter her clan, a single tear seen running down her stone face. The following night, Demona looks up to see the Castle burning. Demona is elated, believing her plan to have worked, but when she climbs up the cliff, she only finds the piles of rubble that were once her brothers and sisters. Naturally, Demona is devastated. As she lays there sobbing, Demona sees Goliath flying in overhead. Terrified to face him lest he be suspicious as to why she wasn’t slaughtered, Demona glides off, planning to come back later and claim that she went out looking for Goliath. However, when Demona returns, she is horrified to see what remains of her clan turned to stone at night. This four-parter is known for giving us two very telling lines about Demona’s character. We’ll get to the other one at the end, but the first one comes right now.

“What Have I… What Have They Done To You”

That line, brilliantly delivered by Marina Sirtis, says a lot about Demona. Deep down, she knows she’s just as culpable in the mass slaughter of her people as anyone, but emotionally, she cannot bring herself to confront that truth. So instead of confronting it, she takes the anger and hatred that she feels for herself and redirects it, amplifying her already deep hatred for mankind. Crushed and defeated, Demona scales the tallest tower and kisses Goliath’s stone face one last time, a single tear from her own eye landing on his. Laters that night, at a nearby farmhouse, Demona has taken shelter in the barn when a stable boy enters to milk the cows. The boy hears something and demands that the trespasser show themselves. Demona lunges at the boy, slashing him across the face and leaves, claiming that that’s what humans get for betraying her kind.

Back in the present, Demona meets up with Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes, Take a Shot) and Owen at Pack Media Studios. It seems that The Pack have finally realized that it’s too obvious a hideout and have cleared out. That or Xanatos evicted their sorry asses. Either way, Xanatos claims that from this studio, he has the ability to override every broadcast channel in Manhattan and cable as well. Demona claims that the spell she carries is how she’s lived all these centuries. With it, she has the ability to steal one minute of life from everyone who sees and hears it. According to Demona, if you add it up it equals centuries of time, even when shared between them. Yeah, okay, slow down there Fibonacci. Plenty of people who have tackled this episode in the past have done the math on that and at most you’d get about nineteen years each if you round up. I feel like a smart guy like Xanatos should know that, but speaking as someone who was so bad at math he actually wasn’t allowed to take it his senior year of high school, I can’t really say shit to anyone else. Demona plans to broadcast the spell throughout the day and end at sundown. Xanatos leaves, but warns Owen to watch or listen to Demona, but not both. Owen rolls camera and Demona begins the spell. However, amongst Owen’s many talents is the ability to speak Latin and so he quickly realizes that this spell is not what Demona says it is. Owen tries to stop her, but Demona zaps him with another spell and ties him up.

Elsewhere, we see the Weird Sisters, now appearing as adults, watching the broadcast and say that everything is going according to plan. This prompts another flashback. It seems twenty-five years have passed since the massacre of Castle Wyvern and Demona seems to have found a new Gargoyle clan that shares her hatred of the humans. Her clan may be small, but they’re still able to overwhelm a group of human soldiers guarding the food supply of a nearby village. As the soldiers lay helpless, one of them alludes to someone called “The Hunter” who will wipe Gargoyle-kind off the face of the earth. Demona, now looking significantly older than she does in the present, slaughters the soldiers in a manner eerily similar to the way Hakon murdered her brothers and sisters. At the cave where the Gargoyles have taken refuge, one of the Gargoyles, who actually has a Scottish accent, how novel, suggests making peace with the humans but Demona throws him against the wall. Demona believes the humans have no interest in peace, especially with this Hunter picking off their numbers one by one. Three elderly Gargoyles arrive at the entrance of the cave, and from the color of their hair, it’s clear that they’re actually the weird sisters having taken another form. The Sisters have news of The Hunter. Apparently, he now stalks a human target at Castle Moray. They suggest that Demona ally herself with Clan Moray. With their combined might they can defeat The Hunter. Demona isn’t interested in human allies but decides to check out the castle anyway for the chance to rid herself of The Hunter once and for all.

We cut to Castle Moray where we meet Findlaech, the lord of the Castle, Findlaech’s right hand man, Bodhe, Bodhe’s daughter, Gruoch and most importantly, Findlaech’s son, MacBeth, thus confirming what many of you have probably already figured out. The MacBeth we’ve been dealing with is the same historical figure that Shakespeare wrote his play about. Although, according to Greg Weisman, the story of MacBeth we see here is much more historically accurate (minus the Gargoyles and such of course). This was later confirmed to me personally by John Rhys-Davies himself at a convention. The Young MacBeth squares off against the fair lady Gruoch in a game of chess and sparks of romance begin to fly almost immediately. As their parents look on, the conversation turns to that of MacBeth’s cousin, Prince Duncan, and his inevitable reign as King. Findlaech has his doubts about Duncan to be sure, but nonetheless says that he is loyal to the crown no matter who wears it. However, the night grows late and it’s time young MacBeth saw the castle’s guests to their chambers. Once Lord Findlaech is alone, a man whom he recognizes as The Hunter bursts into the room. The Hunter looks quite an intimidating figure, particularly the dark mask he wears with three red streaks across the face. Findlaech must be a hell of a fighter considering he’s managing to fight off a guy with a reputation for killing Gargoyles with little more than a turkey platter, but he’s still no match for The Hunter. MacBeth hears the melee and tries to get involved but the Hunter easily outclasses the young man. Together, father and son manage to wrestle The Hunter’s sword from his grip, but The Hunter manages to grab hold of Findlaech and flip him off the edge of the Castle, causing him to fall to his death. As The Hunter turns his attention to MacBeth, Demona swoops in and engages her foe. In the scuffle, MacBeth is knocked over the side of the castle as well, Gruoch barely managing to hang to to him and keep him from sharing his father’s fate. In a moment of altruism so rare it could almost be said to be out of character, Demona helps save the life of young MacBeth, allowing The Hunter to escape. As the two children thank the old Gargoyle, Demona just growls in frustration and glides off.

So, who sent The Hunter to take out the lord of the Castle? Why it was the aforementioned Prince Duncan. And now I regret wasting the moniker of Prince Jackass on that other guy because Duncan here is so much worse. Seems he had Findlaech assassinated because he saw his popularity as a threat to his rule, even though Findlaech had just finished declaring his eternal loyalty to the throne. What a prick! Also, it turns out The Hunter, whose real name is Gillecomgain, is the stable boy whose face Demona slashed years prior, his signature mask having been patterned after the scars he still bares on his face. Gillecomgain is also voiced by the great Jim Cummings. I already elaborated on Mr. Cummings back when he was introduced as Dingo, but I’ll never pass up an opportunity to point him out when he pops up. Anywho, The Hunter says that he managed to kill Lord Findlaech, but the young MacBeth still lives. However, Duncan doesn’t seem too worried and rewards the Hunter with the Stewardship of Castle Moray as his servants, who are also clearly The Weird Sisters, bring food and drink for celebration. As we flash back to the present, we see a man who’s clearly MacBeth (though the show tries to keep that a secret for some reason) donning the mask of the Hunter, though without eyeholes so as to avoid Demona’s curse.

At dusk, Xanatos and Fox head for Pack Media Studios. On the way, Fox reveals that she watched the broadcast out of curiosity despite Xanatos telling her not to. Xanatos then receives a call from Owen who warns him that the spell was not what Demona claimed it was before he turns to stone. Xanatos looks over and is horrified to see that Fox has turned to stone as well, which is especially bad because she was flying the helicopter. Our episode ends with The Gargoyles waking up to find a stone statue of Elisa in the Clocktower.

Since this is a four-parter, I’ll be saving any sort of summary of the episode until the very end. Join me tomorrow for part two of City of Stone.