Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Sentinel

Welcome back to Gargoyles everybody!

We once again open on the Avalon Skiff with our heroes wondering where they are. Goliath turns to Elisa for insight, but she’s fast asleep. Frankly, I don’t blame her. It’s a wonder to me that the poor woman hasn’t died of exhaustion months ago what with her balancing her duties as a detective and going on adventures with the Gargoyles. That still leaves us with the question of where we are as the camera reveals that the Gargoyles have arrived on Easter Island. As the Gargoyles land the skiff, it is clear that they’re being watched by someone. As Goliath leaves Bronx in charge of Elisa, Angela takes note of the Easter Island statue heads, Goliath believing they were erected by an ancient race to ward off long forgotten enemies. Bronx and Elisa soon find themselves attacked by a tall shadowy figure and when Goliath and Angela return, Elisa is gone. With Bronx disoriented from the attack, tracking Elisa’s scent is out so the Gargoyles decide to search for her from the air.

We soon see Elisa wandering along the road aimlessly where she runs into a pair of English tourists. By sheer coincidence, these two just so happen to be the archeologists who recovered the scrolls of Merlin. Not sure why they decided to go with this, but whatever, I dig the continuity. Anyway, the real important thing is, whatever happened back on the coast, it seems to have resulted in Elisa suffering from Amnesia. The poor thing doesn’t remember who she is or how she got there. The two archeologists agree to take her back to their hotel and call her a doctor to check up on her, Goliath spotting her leaving and following close behind. At the hotel, the Doctor says that Elisa seems healthy and thinks that this may be psychosomatic. Goliath arrives and tells Elisa to come with him and Elisa reacts with utter horror, like you do when a giant winged purple man shows up at your window and tries to abduct you. Elisa pulls out her gun, but thanks to good continuity, she’s out of bullets. You may recall that she ran out of Bullets back in Avalon and so far, they’ve kept to that. I know, I’ve been paying attention. Goliath flies off with Elisa and tries to remind Elisa that they are friends, but Elisa doesn’t believe him, and for once, her being a skeptic is actually warranted. If you had no memory of who you were and a horrifying monster showed up, kidnapped you and tried to tell you he was your best friend, would you believe him, especially when he starts rambling on about Gargoyles, mutated panther monsters and King Arthur.

Elsewhere, it seems Angela and Bronx have been captured by the tall shadowy figure. We don’t actually learn this just yet, but this guy is Nokkar and he’s an alien who’s been stationed on this island due to planet Earth being an outpost in a centuries old galactic war. Nokkar here is voiced by the incomparable Avery Brooks. While his voice is slightly distorted, unlike Levar Burton from last episode, it’s still recognizable. Avery Brooks is known to you Trekkies as Captain Benjamin Sisko of the Federation Space Station Deep Space Nine. As I’ve said in the past, no one puts Deep Space Nine in the corner, not on my blog! Other Star Trek fans argue Kirk vs. Picard. We Deep Space Nine fans just smile to ourselves because we know the answer is Sisko. In all seriousness, Avery Brooks is, in my opinion, one of the most talented, powerful and underrated actors of all time, but one only has to watch DS9 episodes like Far Beyond the Stars or Waltz to see evidence of that. So why don’t you all take a shot and enjoy the sexy voice of Mr. Avery Brooks.

Getting back on track, Nokkar seems under the impression that The Gargoyles are aliens sent by the enemies of his people to take this world Using a holographic image of Angela, manages to capture Goliath as well. Nokkar then reveals himself and I have to say, I really dig his design. There’s just something menacing and otherworldly about his armor, especially the helmet that only shows his glowing red eyes. It seems that Nokkar is responsible for Elisa’s memory loss. Believing that the Gargoyles are invading aliens who brainwashed Elisa, Nokkar used one of his alien gadgets to undo any mind-tampering, the only side-affect being temporary loss of memory. Elisa has no idea who to trust, but cautiously accepts Nokkar’s invitation to join him in his spaceship hidden beneath the island.

Goliath wakes up to find himself and the others trapped in circular containment fields that remind me of the ones used to contain the legendary birds back in the Pokemon Movie. Nokkar arrives, and for the first time we see him without his helmet. To the shock of no one accept Goliath, Nokkar resembles the Easter Island statue Heads. It seems Nokkar once befriended a native tribe long ago who built the statue heads as a tribute to him. Nokkar is still convinced that the Gargoyles are alien invaders sent by the enemies of his people, but Goliath insists that Gargoyles are native to earth, but Nokkar doesn’t believe them and prepares for their execution. Nokkar summons something that resembles a robotic tongue to destroy the Gargoyles. Elisa still doesn’t remember the Gargoyles but can’t help but feel that this is wrong and uses one of Nokkar’s weapons to free our heroes from confinement. Goliath defeats the robo-tongue by redirecting its laser so it ends up shooting itself. The others escape Nokkar’s ship as Goliath battles Nokkar himself. Nokkar is one seriously tough customer who manages to toss Goliath around for a while. Goliath only manages to escape by blowing up part of the console on Nokkar’s ship. Goliath reaches the surface rejoins the others, but Nokkar isn’t about to let them escape just yet as his ship emerges from underground and Nokkar himself manning a really really big gun. Nokkar aims the really really big gun at our heroes and is about ready to blast them into smithereens, but Elisa stands in his way. She may not remember them, but her instincts tell her that the Gargoyles are her friends and she trusts those instincts enough to risk her very life. Seeing this, Nokkar backs down. Turns out, Nokkar’s mind cleansing technology can only permanently erase false memories, so if Elisa still feels a sense of loyalty to the Gargoyles after all that, it must be genuine. Now that they’re not fighting anymore, Goliath sees Nokkar, a fellow protector, as a kindred spirit. Our episode ends with Nokkar saying that his duty is a lonely one but feels that perhaps it no longer needs to be. Perhaps it’s time that, like Goliath, Nokkar shared his mission with humans as he once did centuries ago.

This episode gets a lot of bad press for introducing aliens to the Gargoyles Universe. I get it, as often times aliens don’t mix well with a predominantly fantasy setting (there was a reason I made a Kingdom of the Crystal Skull joke when introducing this episode last time). However, it personally doesn’t bother me all that much. This Universe has time travel, werewolves, mutant cat creatures and all sort of weird stuff, so I say, why not aliens? Elisa having Amnesia worried me at first, but it led to some interesting moments between her and Goliath. Nokkar was a great character. Avery Brooks brings his usual phenomenal acting chops to the role as he does with any character he plays, but more than that, I appreciated that there was no cliché twist where Nokkar turned out to be the bad guy. He was a good guy who just happened to be wrong about our heroes. I wish they brought him back in later episodes, but this one appearance was fine. Next time, we finally catch up with King Arthur as he joins forces with a familiar face and goes on a quest to reclaim Excalibur in Pendragon.