Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Mark of the Panther

Welcome back to Gargoyles my friends!

Today’s episode opens in Africa, Nigeria to be precise, where the Avalon Skiff is currently about to go over a massive waterfall. Fortunately, our heroes survive. Elisa, having been to Africa before with her mother, recognizes their surroundings right away. Talk of parents prompts Angela to start yelling at Goliath for never treating her like his daughter. Goliath once again says that Angela must look upon the entire clan has her parents, not just him. This is going to be a constant thread throughout the episode, so get used to it. The argument is interrupted by the sight of a skinned animal, meaning poachers are around. Fortunately, we aren’t shown the skinned animal, but the horrified reactions from our heroes says enough. Angela starts to believe that this may be the reasons Avalon sent them to Africa.

Funny that we were just talking about her, because in our next scene, who should we see in Africa but Elisa’s mother, Diane Maza (Nichelle Nichols, Take a Shot), visiting a native village telling a bunch of young children an old fable about a Panther Queen. Strap in folks, because this story is so goddamn long that it feels like it takes up the bulk of the episode. And sadly, I can’t just gloss over it because it directly ties into the events of the episode. The story tells of a vain and careless Panther Queen who ran afoul of Anansi the Spider. The Trickster Spirit cast a spell on the Panther to make her human. Anansi struck a deal with the Panther Queen: He would turn her back into a human if she builds him a great city shaped like a spider-web. The Queen married and had many children and in time, they built the city of Kara Digi. The spider kept his word and turned the queen back to her natural form, but now, she was lonely without her human children. The spider agreed to allow one and only one of her children become a panther like her, but only if she would hunt for him so that he may grow fat. The mama panther marked her eldest son with the curse, but Anansi tricked the prince into trying to kill his mother, but the prince couldn’t bring himself to go through with it. Being a sore loser, Anansi banished all the humans for Kara Digi and ended up going hungry.

After the story ends, Diane’s friend Fara Maku congratulates her on a story well told. It’s here where Elisa makes her presence known, the Gargoyles staying in the bushes so as not to give her poor mother a heart attack. Diane is overjoyed to see her daughter, saying that everyone has been out of their minds with worry. Sure lady, that’s why you went on an African vacation while your daughter was missing. Elisa gives some bullshit explanation about being in Africa working a case, but Diane doesn’t buy it for a second. I don’t blame her, somehow, Elisa’s story is even less believable that Derek mutating into a flying cat monster. Goliath, who’s watching all this from the shadows, says that Elisa shouldn’t be keeping the Gargoyles a secret from her mother, and Angela uses this as an excuse to rag on Goliath some more for not being a parent. However, things are soon interrupted when the camp is attacked by a gang of poachers looking to kill the tribe’s ceremonial panther. The poachers are led by a woman named Tea who seems to know Fara Maku. Things take a turn for the weird when Fara Maku transforms into a panther himself and attacks. Tea is enraged at the sight of this and chases Fara into the jungle. The Gargoyles intervene and take down the remaining poachers, Diane shocked to learn that Elisa is friends with these creatures. Angela suggests that they must protect Fara Maku from that awful poacher woman our heroes, Diane included, head into the jungle after them. Tea corners Fara Maku near a waterfall, but Goliath dive bombs her before she can get a shot at him. However, much to Goliath’s shock, Tea turns into a Panther herself and escapes. Apparently, this was Fara Maku’s doing.

Using Bronx to track the sent, our heroes find themselves at the legendary spider gates of Kara Digi. The team splits up, with Elisa and Angela following one path and Goliath and Diane following another. It is during this time where we get one of the only redeeming moments of this episode. As our heroes get caught in various traps, they discuss their frustrations with their parents/children. Elisa thinks her mother is overbearing while Angela wishes Goliath would treat her like an actual daughter. Meanwhile, Goliath, a Gargoyle through and through believes that showing Angela special treatment would go against the Gargoyle way and would be unfair to the other hatchlings. You really can’t blame Goliath for feeling as he does. It’s not as if he’s intentionally neglecting Angela, he’s just treating her the only way he’s been taught how. The problem is, Angela was raised by humans in the best way they knew how. So, the human family dynamic is all Angela knows. It’s good stuff.

Anywho, Fara Maku, Tea and our heroes all catch up to each other in the center of the ancient city. Tea wants revenge on Fara for what he did to her. Turns out Fara loved Tea and wanted to keep her from leaving him, so he marked her with the curse of the panther. Diane says that this is not love, just selfishness. However, the real question is, if Fara marked Tea, then who marked Fara. Turns out it was none other than Anansi the Spider himself. And yes, though his voice may be distorted beyond recognition, I assure you that is Levar Burton aka Geordi La Forge of the USS Enterprise playing Anansi, But You Don’t Have To Take My Word For It! …. That was terrible and I apologize. I thought a Star Trek joke would be too obvious and Roots doesn’t exactly lend itself to humor, so I went with Reading Rainbow. Just take a shot. Anywho, the giant spider explains that Fara Maku in made a deal with Anansi in his desperation and Anansi granted him the Panther’s curse. In exchange, Fara hunted for Anansi, allowing the trickster to again grow fat on the food Fara brought him. Fara must b one hell of a hunter since Anansi’s roughly the size of a semi-truck at this point. Anansi plans on giving the others the curse of the Panther, but Elisa tells him to “Dream on Spider-Man.” Dammit Elisa, you can’t say that, Disney won’t buy Marvel for another fourteen years. The gang fights Anansi who proves to be a pretty tough customer, until Angela deduces that all they really need to do is cut his webs since Anansi is too fat to fight them on the ground. Anansi desperately tries to bargain with our heroes, but they don’t buy it and soon Goliath spears the big Arachnid causing it to disappear. With Anansi gone, there’s no way to break the curse, so Tea and Fara are doomed to remain were-panthers forever and agree that if they must both suffer this fate, they’ll stay together and protect the jungle from poachers. Let’s just gloss over the fact that Fara did the mystical equivalent of chaining Tea up in his basement. Our episode ends on a high note though as Goliath says he’s proud of Angela for her quick thinking against Anansi and finally acknowledges her as his daughter.

I have to be honest, while this episode wasn’t insultingly bad like Heritage was, it was still a rough sit. The only thing saving it from the bottom of the barrel was some nice character development and the novelty of Levar Burton as a Giant Spider, and even that wasn’t as cool or as insane as it sounds. To give you an idea of how I write these articles, I usually watch the episode all the way through once, and then watch again as I write the article. This time around, watching the episode a second time felt like a chore. The storyline isn’t that interesting, Fara Maku is an asshole, the legend of the Panther Queen segment feels like it lasts a small eternity and while the character development was nice, Angela berating Goliath for not being the parent she wants him to be was grating after a while. I’ll say it as many times as it needs to be said, a bad episode of Gargoyles is still better than a good episode of a lot of other shows, but this one just wasn’t a winner. Next time, our heroes head to Easter Island and things take a turn for the “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in Sentinel.