Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: The Gathering Part 2

Welcome back to Gargoyles my friends, and welcome back to Part 2 of The Gathering. Last time, Connor MacLeod had finally defeated his nemesis the Kurrgan, becoming the only immortal left and being granted the prize of all the knowledge of the universe. Okay, okay, I promise, no more Highlander jokes. What actually happened was that Xanatos and Fox welcomed their son Alexander into the world around the same time Goliath finally returned home and reunited with his clan. However, not all stayed happy for long as Fox’s mother revealed herself to be Titania, Fairy Queen of Avalon, who has gone back to her first husband, Oberon, Lord of Avalon, petulant asshole and most powerful being we see in the entire show. Oberon had begun recalling all of his children back to Avalon and since the child is of Titania’s bloodline, Big Daddy O decided to take him too but Xanatos wasn’t about to give up his firstborn without a fight. However, as Xanatos prepared to attack and dethrone God, something he’s probably wanted to do all his life, let’s be honest, Owen decided to leave before the fight began, leaving Xanatos only some security measures and the advice that Oberon is vulnerable to iron and that as powerful as he is, his energy still has limits. And so, we have a showdown between Oberon, Lord of Avalon and Ruler of the Third Race who was able to wipe the floor with Goliath and two other skilled Gargoyle Warriors using only one tenth his strength and when we left off, had grown to the size of Godzilla, and David Xanatos. I’d say the odds are about even.

As our episode opens with the Gargoyles flying out to aid Xanatos in the fight against Oberon. Brooklyn thinks this is crazy since Oberon is insanely powerful and they’re taking him on to help Xanatos of all people. However, Goliath has learned from his time with Angela that being separated from ones child is not a fate he’d wish upon his worst enemy. Speaking of Oberon, he’s busy angrily wailing on the forcefield set up by Owen last time as Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes, Take a Shot) looks on from his battle station. Xanatos’ Dad remarks that Oberon is like a force of nature, and Xanatos just hopes that Owen left them with enough defenses to weather the storm. Oberon puts the shielded building in a full bear hug and gets zapped for his trouble. Petros notes that Oberon appears to getting smaller, meaning that he is indeed using up energy. Xanatos thinks that if they can keep Oberon occupied long enough for him to expend all of his energy, they may have a chance. Xanatos then calls his new, beefier looking Steel Clan robots into the battlefield. Since they’re made of pure iron, they should be able to hurt Oberon, or at least keep him busy. The iron robots seem to be working especially when Goliath and the others swoop in and join the fray. Goliath tries to talk Oberon down, but Oberon isn’t in the talking mood and uses his ridiculous topknot ponytail to tie up Goliath (I knew that thing had to serve a purpose. There's no way Oberon looks in the mirror every day and says “Nope, this Ponytail totally doesn’t make me look like a douchebag”).

Oberon appears to have our heroes on the ropes when help arrives from the most unexpected of sources. Yes, Halcyon Renard, piloting his airship, comes flying in like Han Solo at the end of A New Hope and blasts the bejesus out of Oberon. The old man may hate Xanatos and have a deeply complicated relationship with his daughter, but he’s not about to let anyone get their hands on his grandson, even if he is a magical super-being. Using his robots, Renard drains Oberon’s energy to the point where he shrinks back to normal size. However, Oberon isn’t out of the fight yet as he summons a frozen rainstorm, forcing the airship to crash. Renard laments the fact that he failed his grandson but Vogel reminds him that it’s not over yet and he bought the others some valuable time.

Oberon is through playing games and decides to burrow underneath the building, bypassing the forcefield entirely. Once inside, Oberon blasts Xanatos’s defenses, meaning that Xanatos has to take the big bad fairy king on himself. After donning his new iron armor Xanatos has a touching moment with his dad. Petros says that while they’ve never truly seen eye to eye, he’s proud of the man his son has become. Xanatos thanks his father as Oberon arrives. Xanatos doesn’t even show any fear, even knowing what Oberon is capable of. More on that in our wrap up. Goliath and the Gargoyles arrive to stand with Xanatos, but Oberon tosses all of them about effortlessly. Petros of all people actually gets to have his crowning moment of awesome here as he skewers Oberon with a harpoon gun. It’s not enough to kill him, but since the harpoon was made of iron, it does weaken him greatly, forcing him to take a more withered and hideous form. In his new form, Oberon’s looking a lot less Castlevania and a lot more Noseferatu. It’s never outright stated, but I’ve always theorized that this is actually Oberon’s true appearance and at this point, his energy has been depleted to the point where he can no longer maintain his younger form. Oberon is enraged that a mere human would be able to would him so and advances towards Petros, even temporarily sending Angela in Brooklyn to some kind of distortion world inside his cape when they get in his way. Oberon may be weakened severely, but he still has more than enough gas in the tank to incapacitate all of his foes. Finally, everyone and everything standing in Oberon’s way has been dealt with. All except one it turns out as Owen steps out of the shadows. Xanatos is overjoyed to see that Owen has returned to him, even if it was against his better judgement. Owen then does a Linda Carter Wonder Woman twirl and reveals his true identity, Puck (Brent Spiner, Take a Shot).

So… Owen is Puck and has been the entire time. I bet a lot of you have questions. Frankly, so do I, so do our heroes and most of all, so does Oberon. Big Daddy O is furious that Puck ignored the call to return to Avalon so he could serve a mere mortal. Puck takes this opportunity to explain how he came to be under the employ of David Xanatos complete with “Visual Aids” in the form of statues that spring to life and attack Oberon throughout to hilarious effect. Seems that when Puck learned of Queen Titania posing as a human, he was intrigued and decided to join Renard’s employ in order to find out why his queen found these mortals so interesting. While trying to find a human form, Puck became aware of Renard’s right hand man, Preston Vogel, the stiffest and most wooden mortal he’d ever seen. Finding Vogel’s mannerisms amusing, Puck created Owen Burnett as a sort of parody, hence why the Vogel and Owen look so similar. Puck grew to love being Owen but found that working for the Renards was rather boring. He was much more interested in the next generation, Fox and her then boyfriend David Xanatos. Whilst working for David, Puck found him to be one of the most fascinating and exciting humans he’d ever encountered and couldn’t resist revealing himself. Upon showing Xanatos his true nature, Puck offered a choice. Xanatos could either have one wish from Puck, or a lifetime of service from Owen. Much to Puck’s surprise, Xanatos chose Owen.

Oberon, sick of Puck’s story and even more sick of getting kicked around by statues, demands Puck get out of his way. Puck pleads with Oberon to let Xanatos keep his child and put off the gathering for another couple of centuries. However, Oberon is not the compromising type and like a child with a throwing a nuclear temper tantrum blasts everyone around and makes his way into the castle where Fox is pointing a gun at him. Oh, and Titania’s there too (Kate Mulgrew, Take a Shot). Oberon knocks Fox to the ground and approaches Alexander’s crib but Fox, in a moment of pure maternal instinct, blasts Oberon out the window with magic. Fox has no idea how she was able to do that and finds herself unable to replicate it on command, only knowing that in that moment, she was prepared to do anything to prevent Oberon from taking her baby away. A very pissed off Oberon crashes back into the room but Goliath tries once again to talk him down. If Fox is able to tap into her own under-developed magical abilities, perhaps baby Alex need not be brought to Avalon to hone his own. Oberon, seeing this as a less irritating solution than continuing to fight Xanatos agrees to this, but feels that the boy will need a teacher. Puck volunteers for the job and Titania backs the play. However, Oberon, already in a very bad mood, is not about to let Puck’s insubordination go unpunished. So, in exchange for being permitted to stay in the employ of Xanatos, Puck is banished from Avalon for all eternity and stripped of his powers unless using them to teach or protect young Alex. Puck is horrified by this decree and begs Oberon to reconsider, but once he reverts back to Owen, he accepts his fate with the dignity and stoicism that we’ve come to expect from Puck’s adopted human persona. Oberon and Titania say their goodbyes, Titania cryptically implying that all of this was exactly what she had planned for to happen. Even Xanatos has to be impressed by manipulation on that level.

The Gargoyles try to depart as well but Xanatos stops them. Xanatos thanks our heroes for helping save his son and says that he owes them a debt of gratitude that even he may never be able to repay, though he promises to try. After all that has passed between them, Goliath still doesn’t trust Xanatos, but Goliath also knows from experience the transforming power of a child’s love and believes that there may yet be hope for even a man like David Xanatos. And so our episode ends with the Gargolyes returning home to the Clocktower while Xanatos stands alone on the battlements, contemplating Goliath’s words.

This was one hell of a two-parter and Oberon, while a bit of a petulant child at times, was one hell of a threat. The fight with Oberon was awesome, the various revelations were incredible, the character moments were some of the best in the series so far, and honestly, it was just great to see the Manhattan clan together again after all this time. If I had a few nitpicks, I thought part 1 was a lot better paced than part 2 and I really would have liked to see more of all the Children of Oberon gathered together in Avalon, you know, the thing the episode is NAMED after! However, the real shining moment of this episode comes from Xanatos. We have spent the last several episodes building up just how insanely powerful Oberon is. Beings like Odin and Anubis are mere children to him. He wiped the floor with Goliath with severely reduced strength. Like I said, for all intents and purposes, Oberon is God in this Universe, and Xanatos doesn’t care. He stares down Oberon with no fear. The man who once saw his capacity for love as a weakness now instilled with the strength and courage to be confronted by an entity of unimaginable power and tell it to go to hell, all because that being threatened son. It’s one of the oldest clichés in the book, but it still rings true. Love was never Xanatos’s weakness, it was his strength. Now that Xanatos has someone to protect, he’s more determined and more dangerous than ever, and he already was pretty determined and dangerous to begin with. In hindsight, Oberon never really stood a chance. And then there’s Puck. There is A LOT to unpack with the revelation that Owen and Puck are one and the same. So much so that there is far too much to get into detail here. Our next episode is Vendettas, but before we get there, we’re going to be doing something a little different and discussing the many ways in which Puck being Owen has affected the show in hindsight. See you then!