Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Walkabout

G’day Mates, and Welcome Back to Gargoyles! In case you haven’t guessed by my introduction, today the world tour is taking us to Australia!

We open with the Avalon Skiff arriving down under, our heroes immediately noting their location by the unique wildlife such as Kangaroos, Koalas, giant blobs of silver goop absorbing everything in its path… wait a minute, that last one isn’t normal, even for a country where it routinely rains spiders (Not Kidding Look it Up). Well, whatever this T-1000 wannabe is, it’s heading right for our heroes and turning everything in its path to chrome. Is this the future Spongebob Squarepants warned us about, or something far more sinister? Our heroes manage to avoid the grey goop for the time being, prompting Goliath to wonder if this is what Avalon brought them here for.

Well, since we are in Australia, it was only a matter of time before we ran into our old buddy Dingo. It seems ol’ Dingo has returned to his native land after bailing on the pack to do some soul searching. To that end, he’s meeting with an Aboriginal Shaman who instructs him to go on Walkabout to find something called “The Dream Time,” a sort of alternate dimension parallel to our own that exists within the mind and heart. There’s nothing Dingo wants more than a fresh start, so if this is what it takes to wipe the slate clean, he’s all for it. Dingo heads out on his journey only to run into the Gargoyles, the two parties attacking on sight. I find it amusing that Dingo’s first instinct is to pull out a boomerang. Dingo, buddy, you’ve tussled with the Gargoyles plenty of times, you’ve seen Goliath tear through a solid steal wall, and you really think you’re going to drop the big guy with a bent stick? Come on Dingo, you should be smarter than this. Well, apparently he is because Dingo’s next move is to pull out a bolo which he uses to hogtie Bronx. Eventually, Dingo decides to quit playing around and summons his armor via remote control. Now the real fight can begin.

Meanwhile, in a laboratory somewhere, we learn that the silver goop is an experiment in hive mind artificial intelligence called “The Matrix” being conducted by none other than Fox. Joining Fox is a woman named Anastasia, her mother. Before we go any further, I feel the need to point out that Anastasia is voiced by the always wonderful Kate Mulgrew, better known to you Trekkies as Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager (Take a Shot). Mulgrew has also played many other wonderful characters such as Red Claw from Batman the Animated Series and Red from Orange is the New Black, the latter of whom I’m convinced is just an aged Red Claw having given up her life as an international terrorist only to still end up in jail for tit-punching the trophy wife of a Russian mob boss. The point is, Kate Mulgrew is an actress who always turns in a stellar performance and, minor spoilers, this won’t be the only time she’ll be popping up in this show. Anywho, Anastasia is worried that Matrix has grown too smart and could potentially be dangerous. Fox thinks that her mother is worrying unnecessarily and believes that they will be able to contain it within the testing area. Fox even has an operative in the field making sure the locals stay clear of the experiment. We also get a really cute moment where Fox, who is visibly pregnant by this point, feels the baby kicking.

Elsewhere, the fight between Goliath and Dingo continues until the silver goop gets involved. After Dingo saves Angela from Matrix’s grasp, the gang all run for it. Once they’ve lost the chrome nightmare, Elisa accuses Dingo of being involved in all this. Dingo is insulted by the insinuation, especially when Elisa says that it can’t be a coincidence that he’s here. Elisa, I know Dingo’s a former criminal and all, but you’re acting suspicious because you found Dingo, an Australian, in Australia. If anything, he should be wondering why you’re there. I love Elisa, but she grates on my nerves sometimes. Anywho, Goliath notes that Dingo did save Angela so they agree to a truce so they can figure out what’s going on.

Back at the lab, Anastasia continues to express concern that Matrix is too dangerous and wants to start the project again from scratch. I’m more concerned at Fox’s comment that if the experiment is successful, she and Xanatos plan to use it to reshape the world to suit their needs. A world designed and controlled by Xanatos? That sounds… actually that sounds dope as hell, never mind. In any case, Fox heeds her mother’s warning and agrees to erase the program. Slightly off topic, but I appreciate that Fox’s mother calls her by her chosen name instead of her birth name of Janine. It’s really sweet.

Meanwhile, our heroes have located an inert puddle of the silver goop. Dingo, using the microscopic vision on his helmet (Man, Xanatos gave Dingo all the cool accessories, didn’t he), discovers that the goop is comprised of tiny nanotech robots. According to Dingo, the robots are self-replicating and are capable of just about anything. Bad news, especially since back at the lab, Matrix has caught on to the fact that Fox and Anastasia is about to wipe the program and starts rapidly expanding. Worse yet, it’s apparently learned how to shut down the magnetic containment field. The silver goop starts tearing up the lab as Fox and her mother escape.

Dingo brings his new companions to meet with his shaman friend, who seems oddly nonchalant about two winged purple monsters hanging out around his campfire. The shaman seems to believe that the silver goo can be stopped if our heroes enter the Dream Time and communicate with its consciousness. I don’t know, that idea seems kinda crazy to me. The gang are soon joined by Fox and Anastasia, turns out Dingo was Fox’s man in the field, though he had limited knowledge of what they were actually working on. I do like Goliath’s reaction upon figuring out that Fox is Halcyon Renard’s Daughter but as Anastasia says, they have more important things to worry about than her ex-husband. For the time being, the silver goop has reached the limits of its range, but only for now. If Matrix is able to absorb the nuclear core from the nearby power plant, it could generate enough power to envelop the entire planet. Fox does have a failsafe on hand, a program that could erase the matrix hive mind entirely. Dingo plans to use the computer modem in his armor to upload the program, Goliath and Angela going with him as backup. However, this goes about as well as the Japanese military trying to fight Godzilla as are heroes get their asses kicked in seconds. So, Mr. Shaman dude, about that Dream Time idea.

Even though Dingo thinks it’s crazy, he and Goliath participate in a ritual to cross over into the dream time. The Dream Time itself looks a bit like Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher and Dr. Seuss all dropped acid and collaborated on an art project. Our heroes meet with Matrix, represented by a large glowing orb. Matrix says that its purpose is to create order from chaos. Goliath tries to reason with it and ends up getting blasted. Try as they might, they cannot seem to get Matrix to stray from its programming. However, since this is a realm of dreams, our heroes can use whatever their imagination can come up with to combat their foe. Dingo uses this to supercharge his armor while Goliath summons dream clones of the Manhattan Clan. By the way, the dream clan all have laser powers. I guess Goliath learned something from Xanatos after all. Still, despite their new dream powers, Matrix is simply too powerful and overwhelms Goliath and Dingo. Goliath attempts one last time to reason with Matrix, stating that order is not frozen perfection. It is dynamic, evolving. By engulfing the world, it is not creating order, but negating it. This seems to get through to matrix, leaving it confused since it must carry out its directive to pursue order. Dingo has a suggestion, perhaps it can pursue another kind of order, law and order. Upon hearing this, our heroes awaken from the Dream Time and the silver goop seems to have stopped spreading. Matrix appears before our heroes, having now taken a more humanoid shape, and enquires about this intriguing concept of law and order. Dingo tries to explain the concept by comparing it to the time The Pack were seen as heroes back when they were on TV. It seems that Dingo wishes to be a hero again, for real this time. Dingo suggests that he and Matrix can be a team, fighting together to defend the innocent and create law and order. Matrix agrees to this and merges with Dingo’s armor making it shinier and more powerful. Our episode ends with Dingo declaring that Australia now has a new kind of hero.

Let’s talk about Dingo. I mentioned way back in The Thrill of the Hunt that Dingo, whose canonical real name is Harry Monmouth (another Shakespeare reference for those keeping score), is my favorite member of The Pack and the events of this episode are a big part of the reason why that is. See, Dingo has always been the most level-headed of The Pack. Jackal and Hyena are both psychopaths who seem to simply enjoy killing for fun of it. Wolf was likely a dumb animal long before Xanatos went all Island of Doctor Moreau on his ass. Coyote is not without intelligence, autonomy and even personality but as a machine, he’s ultimately whatever Xanatos programs him to be. And Fox, well, Fox is Fox. That leaves Dingo. Don’t get me wrong, Dingo was by no means a good person before he joined The Pack. As a mercenary, he’s likely killed a lot of people and done a lot of things he’s not proud of. However, unlike his comrades, Dingo was never in it for pride or sport. It was always about money. Nothing Dingo ever did was personal. I'll bet going after the Gargoyles was only ever another job to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got into the mercenary game out of a desire to do good, but just lost his way over time. However, when he heard about someone putting together a group of mercenaries for a kid’s superhero TV show, Dingo likely jumped at the chance. Finally, a chance to be seen as a real hero, and for a time, it felt good. But when the camera was off, Dingo was reminded that it was all make-believe and at the end of the day, he was just another gun for hire. The final straw for Dingo was when the rest of The Pack decided to turn themselves into monsters. That seemed to open his eyes to just how far he’d fallen if these are the people he’s now associated with. Dingo needed to clean the slate, hence why he bailed on The Pack, returned home and sought out a spiritual guide to find his redemption. In Matrix, Dingo saw a being that desired to help the world but along the way allowed its purpose to lead it astray and end up doing more harm than good. In Matrix, Dingo saw himself. Fitting that the two would join forces to become a true hero. This was a great episode that gives us a lot of insight into a character who could easily have just been a throwaway villain. Great stuff all the way. Next time Mark of the Panther, the episode where Levar Burton plays a Giant Spider. See you then!