Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: Cloud Fathers

Welcome back to Gargoyles everybody!

Our episode opens with a Flashback to Arizona in 1960 where a young Pete Maza, Elisa’s father, is having an argument with his Dad. Grandpa Maza feels that Peter is abandoning his heritage by moving to New York City, but young Pete doesn’t want to hear it and storms off. In the present, Pete Maza has returned to Arizona and is being greeted by his youngest daughter, Beth. It seems our old favorite David Xanatos is in town, has just acquired some land from the local tribe and has started construction. While Xanatos technically hasn’t done anything illegal just yet, he did turn Beth’s brother and Pete’s son into a flying cat monster, so she’s called in her dad to help investigate. Beth asks Pete if he wants to visit Grandpa while he’s here but Pete says no in a very irritated tone. Beth and Pete are let into Xanatos’s construction site by a rather odd security guard who seems to have been expecting them and who Beth notes looks familiar. Much to their shock, they find the construction equipment turned on its side as if a tornado went through the place. Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes, Take a Shot) arrives with the Tribal Police and blames the Maza’s for the vandalism. Beth insists that they’re only there because the security guard let them in but it seems Xanatos hasn’t actually hired any security for this site.

When the Maza’s return to Beth's apartment after a night in jail, they are greeted by Elisa, who arrived with the Gargoyles the previous evening through the University pool. I guess Avalon had to improvise on that one. The Mazas have a happy family reunion, the Mazas having been filled in by Diane about the Gargoyles and such. However, the happy reunion is soon soured when Elisa hears that Xanatos is in Arizona. That night, Goliath and Angela wake up and are introduced to the family, Goliath chomping at the bit to foil whatever insidious scheme Xanatos is up to. On the way out, Elisa also asks if Pete wants to visit Grandpa, but he once again says no.

Back with Xanatos, he’s joined by a large figure in shadow. This is obviously Coyote given the shape and the fact that he’s also voiced by Frakes, but I’ll still give them props because Coyote in shadow with only his red eyes visible is a wonderfully menacing visual. Xanatos says that he knows the Mazas had nothing to do with the vandalism, he only said that to get the tribal police off his back. The real culprit and Xanatos’s real reason for being there is the mysterious security guard. I’ll let you in on this a little early, that guard who looks a lot like Young Pete is actually Coyote. No, not the robot, the Native American trickster spirit. Like so many other supernatural beings we’ve encountered, Coyote is one of Oberon’s Children and Xanatos seems to think Coyote can grant him immortality. So, there’s going to be two characters named Coyote running around in this episode and that’s going to get a bit confusing. So… to differentiate, let’s refer to the robot Coyote by his full designation, Coyote 4.0. Everybody got that? Good, we can keep going.

The Gargoyles break into the construction site to find a carving of the Coyote Trickster Spirit in the ground. No time to dwell on it though, as Coyote 4.0 attacks and he’s had a hell of an upgrade since his last encounter with the Gargoyles, easily taking them with little exertion on his part all while spouting off one-liners. I just love that Xanatos programmed his killer robot to crack wise. It’s such a Xanatos thing to do. The Gargoyles are tied up on the Coyote Trickster Spirit Carving and Xanatos arrives, threatening to douse them and the carving with acid in ten minutes. I guess Xanatos got bored and decided to try his hand at clichéd villainy. Well, actually, Xanatos has no actual desire to kill the Gargoyles or desecrate the carving. All he really wants is to draw out Coyote. The problem, Coyote seems to possess the ability to sense when a threat is genuine and when it’s just a ruse.

Outside, The Mazas encounter Coyote. Elisa and Beth note that he looks exactly like Pete when he was younger, but Pete doesn’t see it. Coyote acts like an obstinate teenager, but still lets slip that Xanatos plans to desecrate the sacred Coyote carving. Coyote also taunts Pete by using the words that he used against his father from the Flashback at the beginning on him now. Good stuff. Coyote also lets slip that Xanatos is about to ice the Gargoyles. The Mazas look away for one second and Coyote disappears, leaving only a small tornado behind. Well, that pretty much confirms for anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet that we’re dealing with a supernatural being. Well, that or the Tasmanian Devil.

The Mazas break in to save the Gargoyles, Xanatos disappointed that it’s only them and not his true target. After the Mazas free the Gargoyles, Xanatos spots Coyote himself in the building and goes after him, but Goliath attacks and distracts Xanatos long enough for everyone to escape. Beth seems to suspect that the mysterious security guard is indeed the Coyote trickster spirit. Pete doesn’t believe it, because I guess skepticism in the face of tangible proof of the supernatural runs in the family. Pete, dude, I’ll grant that you’ve had far less exposure to the supernatural than Elisa, but you’ve seen your son mutated into a flying Thundercats character by a mad scientist. Your wife has probably been waking up screaming about giant spiders since she got back from Nigeria and there is a SEVEN-AND-A-HALF FOOT TALL WINGED PURPLE MONSTER STANDING TWO FEET IN FRONT OF YOU! There is a fine line between healthy skepticism and outright stupidity and you sir have just fallen to the stupid side! Whatever, our heroes reach the village to find something strange, an ancient tribal ritual involving ceremonial masks being performed in the middle of the town square. Pete recognizes the ritual as a ceremony of gratitude to Coyote the Trickster Spirit. Pete knows because his father made him participate as a kid. He even got to play the part of Coyote. The man in the Coyote mask steps forward to reveal that it’s Coyote himself. However, before the spirit can say what he needs to say, he’s captured by Coyote 4.0. By the way, the other dancers were just regular townsfolk who were under some kind of hypnotic spell. Let’s just gloss over the fact that Coyote apparently brainwashed a bunch of innocent bystanders to prove a point, we got work to do. Our heroes plan to save Coyote, but Pete wants no part of it.

Coyote 4.0 brings regular Coyote to Xanatos, Coyote acting surprised since, as a magical being, no machine should be able to hold him. Apparently Xanatos melted down the cauldron of life from all the way back in The Price and used it to build Coyote 4.0’s new body. With the magical iron of the cauldron now a part of Coyote 4.0, he can hold magical creatures just fine. Xanatos notes that it’s ironic that he caught Coyote with his Coyote. Coyote says he should sue Xanatos for copyright infringement and while I know that he’s probably just being sarcastic, I can’t help but wonder of the Children of Oberon have their own legal team. Something about that just makes me laugh. Anywho, Xanatos is about to get down to brass tax and entreat Coyote for immortality, but the Gargoyles and the Mazas arrive before he gets a chance. What follows is a very cool fight scene as Xanatos and Coyote battle our heroes. Xanatos and his robot clone have the Gargoyles on the ropes, until Xanatos spots a Coyote dancer off in the distance. Confused, Coyote double checks to make sure he captured the right Native American Trickster Deity and inadvertently lets Coyote go free. It’s so hard to program good help these days. Coyote puts his Trickster powers to good use as moves around the construction sight at incredible speed. It seems that being a Coyote himself, Coyote knows that the only way to defeat a coyote is to emulate the one foe that no coyote has ever been able to overcome, a roadrunner! Meep Meep Mother Fucker!! (Hmm, two Looney Toons references in a Disney show, weird) Anywho, Coyote tricks Coyote 4.0 into destroying the construction sight and burying himself under the rubble. Irritated, Xanatos realizes that he’s been beat and flies off. By the way, the Coyote Dancer was actually Pete. Turns out that he and Coyote share some kind of spiritual connection since Pete donned his mask at the ritual all those years ago. I don’t quite get that and I don’t think Pete does either, but this all has inspired Pete to finally visit his father. And our episode ends with a moving scene of Pete at his father’s grave, making amends for their fight all those years ago.

What I find rather interesting about this episode is how it essentially combines the plots of two of the weakest episodes of the World Tour Arc (and possibly the series overall), Heritage and Mark of the Panther, and actually manages to improve on both. First off, we have Mark of the Panther, an episode where Elisa reunites with a parent and together, they encounter a supernatural being. Not much to say about that, Cloud Fathers does the same thing as that episode only with no torturously long story segments, no douchebag possessive panther boyfriends and no giant spiders. As far as Heritage goes, this episode also features an individual who seems to have turned his back on the ways of his people. However, this episode improves upon that in many key ways. First off, we actually have a character we know as opposed to some random like Nick from Heritage. Mind you, Pete Maza is a very minor character in the grand scheme of things but he is nonetheless familiar to us. Also, the episode never comes down on Pete for leaving home and becoming a New York City cop and instead focuses on his relationship with his strained father, but never to the extent where it hits you over the head with it. However, the real strength of this episode was Xanatos and Coyote. This is the first time we actually see them directly interact with one another and I love how Jonathan Frakes manages to make Coyote’s personality distinct from Xanatos in subtle ways. Having Xanatos as your antagonist already makes the episode better than if you just had some douchebag trickster with bad fashion sense or a giant spider who sounds like a Starfleet engineer. This world tour has been fun, but I have greatly missed Xanatos and I’m so glad we got to see him as the badass we know he can be. Anywho, on this world tour we’ve encountered beings of legend such as Coyote, Raven, Anubis, The Banshee, Anansi the Spider and even Odin. All of them were incredibly powerful in their own right. But if all of them are Oberon’s children, just how powerful is Oberon himself? Well, next time our heroes finally return to Avalon for Ill Met By Moonlight, and Daddy’s Home!