Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: The Price

Welcome back to Gargoyles everybody!

We open today’s episode with the Gargoyles patrolling the city. After a funny quip from Brooklyn about how cold it is outside, the clan starts heading back towards the clocktower since it’s almost dawn. However, before they can make it, they’re attacked by… MacBeth? Well, that’s surprising, especially considering that he’s supposed to be with the Weird Sisters. On top of that, even taking into account that last time we saw him he was under the thrall of magical fairy triplets, MacBeth seems to be acting very odd, talking about how he wants to take the Gargoyles as trophies and such. Not his usual MO. Well, weird behavior or not, he’s still shooting at our heroes and he needs to be taken down, and fast too, the sun is going to come up any minute. MacBeth manages to subdue Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway with relative ease. Hudson takes his shot next but gets this weird dust thrown in his face for his trouble. That just leaves Goliath, who sends MacBeth’s hovercraft crashing to the ground, seemingly killing him. With MacBeth vanquished, the sun rises and our heroes enter the stone sleep.

The following evening, the Gargoyles awaken, only to find that Hudson is still stone, something that’s not really supposed to happen. Goliath deduces that the glitter dust that MacBeth threw in Hudson’s face last night might be responsible, but with MacBeth dead, finding a cure may prove difficult. Goliath and Lexington fly off for MacBeth’s Castle while Brooklyn and Broadway are left to guard Hudson.

However, we soon learn that things are not as they seem as Hudson, the real Hudson, wakes up in a cage in a dungeon somewhere, meaning that the statue Brooklyn and Broadway are guarding is a fake. So, who’s the mastermind behind this elaborate scheme? Who arranged for a nine-hundred-year-old Scotsman to distract the Gargoyles and blow glitter in Hudson’s face and then went to all the trouble of building a life size stone replica of Hudson to replace him while the real Hudson is locked away in a dungeon for a heretofore unspecified nefarious purpose? After twenty-eight episodes of this damn show, do you really need to ask? Of course it’s Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes, Take a Shot). Who else would it be? Though the question still remains, what does Xanatos want with Hudson. Well, turns out, Xanatos is after Hudson’s skin, a shard of his stone skin to be exact. See, Xanatos has recently acquired a rare artifact known as the Cauldron of Life. According to legend, whoever bathes in it will live as long as the mountain stones. See, that’s what this is really about, immortality. What good are all the riches on earth if Xanatos and Fox can’t enjoy them forever? Hudson still isn’t sure how he fits into all this, so Xanatos explains. In addition to a key ingredient of the cauldron’s brew being the stone skin of a Gargoyle, Xanatos knows from the Eye of Odin debacle that messing around with magical objects can be very dangerous. This time around, Xanatos isn’t taking any chances, so he nabbed Hudson to use as a guinea pig for the cauldron to make sure it’s safe before using it himself. First though, the stone skin must boil for twenty-four hours. If it works, Xanatos will be more than happy to let Hudson go. Hudson’s not in a cooperative mood, but since his clan doesn’t actually know he’s been captured, he doesn’t really have any other options. Before Xanatos leaves, Hudson has an interesting exchange with Owen. Hudson wonders what Owen gets out of this to which Xanatos’s assistant simply replies, “service is its own reward.”

Elsewhere, Brooklyn and Broadway are still guarding what they think is Hudson when shockingly, MacBeth attacks. Shocking because the Gargoyles literally saw him die the previous evening. The Gargoyles fly off in order to try and lead MacBeth away from Hudson. Meanwhile, it seems Goliath and Lexington searched every nook and cranny of MacBeth’s castle and, after finding diddly-squat, have stopped by Elisa’s apartment to inform her of the situation. In a moment of desperation, Goliath even suggests enlisting the help of Demona, since she’s a practicing sorceress and may know a way to cure Hudson. Elisa thinks that’s not a great idea, and even if it was, they wouldn’t even know where to start looking for Demona. It’s not like the Weird Sisters left a forwarding address. It’ll have to wait until later anyway as the sun is about to come up and Goliath and Lexington need to regroup with the others.

Back in Xanatos’s dungeon, Hudson has a burning question. Why him? Xanatos simply says it’s because Hudson is old and thought he may appreciate the opportunity to become immortal. Sensing Xanatos’ fixation with immortality, Hudson suggests that growing old must terrify him. Hearing this, we see the ordinarily calm, cool and collected David Xanatos grow visibly agitated as he gives this response: “Nothing Terrifies Me, Because Nothing is Beyond my Ability to Change.” We’ll swing back around to that line once we get to the end since I do have quite a bit to say about it. Xanatos turns things back around on Hudson, taunting him for being useless and wasting his nights in front of the television set. Uh, excuse you Davey-Boy? Normally I’m team Xanatos all the way, but this time, I feel compelled to ask just where the hell he gets off calling Hudson useless? Sure he may be getting up there in years, but this is still the guy who taught Goliath, the guy that Xanatos himself has referred to as “The Greatest Warrior Alive,” everything he knows. Hudson seems just as pissed by this slight as I am and challenges Xanatos to open the cage and see just how “useless” he is but Xanatos, still clearly agitated from Hudson calling him out earlier, walks off. Once Xanatos is gone, Hudson makes a point to grab a shard of his own stone skin and tucks it away in his belt.

Meanwhile, MacBeth is still chasing the Gargoyles and things are looking dire since soon it will be dawn and the Gargoyles will be sitting ducks. Goliath and the others catch up with them but they’re too late, the sun comes up and Broadway turns to stone in mid-flight. Fortunately, the chase led them to a nearby carpet store, so all it took was Elisa shooting a crane full of rugs to give Broadway a soft landing. The following night, the Gargoyles all seem to agree that there’s something odd going on here when Goliath suddenly realizes they’ve left Hudson unprotected. They return to where they left “Hudson” only to find MacBeth waiting for them. The fight goes about the same as it went the first time, until MacBeth destroys the statue of Hudson. Upon seeing what he believed to be his friend and mentor murdered before his very eyes, Goliath flies off the handle and wants to make sure MacBeth stays dead this time. However, when Goliath starts tearing the Scotsman apart, we learn what most of you have probably already figured out. This isn’t MacBeth at all, just a robot built by Xanatos to distract the Gargoyles.

Back with the real Hudson, it seems that the cauldron is ready. As Xanatos has one of his robots grab Hudson, the old Gargoyle tries to explain that what Xanatos seeks comes with a heavy price. Hudson himself has lived longer than most and now most of his clan is dust and he is a stranger in a strange land. Demona and MacBeth are both immortal, and it seems to have brought them nothing but misery. Xanatos simply responds by saying that death and old age have a price as well, and it’s too expensive, even for him. Hudson is about to be dunked in the Cauldron, but using the stone shard he pocketed earlier, he stabs the robot in the eye and breaks free and kicks Xanatos into a wall for good measure. Even as he recovers from being kicked in the chest, Xanatos can’t help but be impressed by Hudson’s resourcefulness. Xanatos asks if Hudson will destroy the cauldron, but surprisingly, Hudson chooses not to. What Xanatos does with his life is his own affair, so long as Hudson is left out of it. Owen tries to call for security, but Xanatos says that they should let him go, he’s earned it. Before parting ways, Hudson gives Xanatos a friendly word of advice.

“True Immortality isn’t about Living Forever, It’s About What you Do with the Time you Have. When all your scheming’s done, what will be your legacy Xanatos?”

Back at the rooftop, the Gargoyles are holding a funeral of sorts for Hudson, only for the real Hudson to swoop in and happily reunite with his clan. Happy to have their mentor back, the clan glides home. Our episode ends back in Xanatos’ dungeon with Owen volunteering to test the cauldron himself. Owen dips his hand in the cauldron’s brew only to have it turn to stone, the whole bit about “living as long as the mountain stones” turning out to be literal it seems. Guess service isn’t quite as rewarding as you thought, eh Owen, and after you were just cursed to be stone a few episodes ago. Despite the nonchalant reactions of both men to this development, we clearly see that immortality does indeed come with a price.

This episode is amazing. Not only is the animation above average even for this show, the acting is also on point, particularly in the exchanges between Jonathan Frakes and Ed Asner as Xanatos and Hudson respectively. I like how Xanatos initially sees Hudson as useless but the old Gargoyle eventually manages to earn his respect. On that subject, let’s talk about Xanatos’s pursuit of immortality. A lot of people have suggested that death is the one thing that Xanatos is afraid of, but personally I don’t buy that. Xanatos is not afraid of death, or at least, no more or less afraid of it than any mortal man. No, Xanatos’s pursuit of immortality is not based on fear. Let’s put it this way, David Xanatos is a man who prides himself on his ability to charm, bribe, outwit or otherwise manipulate his way through any obstacle life can throw at him. Simply put, Xanatos feels the most comfortable when he controls all the pieces on the board. But death, death is different. Death cannot be charmed, it cannot be reasoned with, it cannot outwitted, it cannot be manipulated and most importantly, it cannot be controlled. Death comes for everyone no matter how much money or power you have. It is inevitable and bends to the will of no one, which means it’s something that a man like David Xanatos cannot abide. Xanatos is no fool. If he ever does achieve his goal, it’s unlikely that he’d squander the gift of eternal life in the pursuit of vengeance like Demona or forever live in the past like MacBeth. He’d likely share the gift with his wife and, one day, his child. Hell, I don’t even think that Xanatos truly wishes to live forever, he just wants assurance that, if he ever does have to die, it’ll be on his own terms, and growing old and dying when he feels that there’s so many more challenges the world still has left to offer him, and so much more time he could have with the people he loves, in no way factors into Xanatos’s plan. Xanatos does not fear death, he stares in the face of it and says "I defy you," and is willing to do anything in his power to carry out that defiance, even if it comes with a price. Anyway, next time, Matt Bluestone takes center stage as the detective has finally found a promising lead on the Illuminati Society in Revelations.