Wes's Guide to Gargoyles: The Reckoning

Well, after the last episode, statistically anything will be an improvement. Welcome everyone, to another episode of Gargoyles.

Our episode opens with Goliath, Brooklyn and Angela staking out a research facility following a series of thefts. It seems it’s mosquito season in New York City as Brooklyn is annoyed getting bitten. I feel for ya Brook, I get eaten alive every summer. However, something far worse than mosquitos attacks the facility. I kid, there’s nothing worse than mosquitos, but Demona (Marina Sirtis, Take a Shot) is still pretty bad, especially now that she’s sporting a fancy new high tech suit. It’s not as cool as Xanatos’ suit, but that’s like saying the sky is blue, it’s just the way things are. Goliath, after looking visibly annoyed at Angela calling Demona her mother, attacks Demona along with the others. Also, it’s nice to see that Brooklyn still hates Demona. I wasted a perfectly good bottle of Proper Number Twelve trying to forget that they were lovers back in Future Tense so I’m happy all is right with the world again. Demona’s high tech suit overwhelms our heroes, but Demona is momentarily distracted by the sight of Angela, recognizing her from Paris. This allows Goliath to take advantage and knock Demona out. Finally, our heroes have captured Demona… now what? They can’t very well send her to a human jail and there’s no way that The Gargoyles alone can keep her under guard during the day, especially given that she doesn’t turn to stone. Brooklyn has an idea.

Down in the Labyrinth, Goliath’s clan strikes a bargain with Talon and the Mutates. They’ll keep Demona imprisoned and both clans will guard her in shifts. Oh, and Fang is locked up in the cell next to Demona, and he’s still his charming self. Also, it seems the mosquito problem is even more prevalent down in the sewers. Those damned insects, they’re relentless. Angela volunteers for the first watch, much to Goliath’s concern. Hudson makes a point to tell Angela that though Demona is her mother, she’s capable of anything and not to be trusted. Demona wakes up in a bad mood, but her tune seems to change when she learns who Angela really is. For the first time in a long time, Demona doesn’t seem completely filled with rage and she’s genuinely happy to know that she has a daughter. She of course tries to convert Angela to the church of “Humans Suck” and while Angela isn’t interested in joining her cause, she is interested in getting to know her mother.

Weeks pass and The Gargoyles and Mutates are still keeping Demona under guard. It also seems that the mosquito problem hasn’t subsided though we soon learn that this was by design. See, Demona has been keeping a tiny robot mosquito in her belt buckle, small enough that no one would actually see it. This little bug has been stinging our heroes systematically and bringing Gargoyle DNA to Anton Sevarius. Damn those bugs! First they chomp at me every summer, then they help John Hammond create Jurassic Park, and now this. Is there no depths these sadistic mosquitos won't stoop to? Anywho, seems Anton is using the DNA to cook up a special project for his client, our old pal Thailog, who lets loose another one of those trademark evil laughs at his plan coming together.

Back down in the Labyrinth, it seems even more time has passed as Angela is still trying to get to know her mother and it seems she’s getting nowhere. After a scene where Fang comments that Demona’s transformation is “kinky,” (weird, but I’m not here to shame anyone’s fetish) Thailog arrives and bust Demona out of the hoosegow. Fang begs them to break him out too and while Fang is a self-serving creep, Demona thinks he may prove useful and frees him.

Our heroes track the bad guys to a carnival fun house, a fitting setting given what’s about to happen, and everyone seems to think that Thailog and the others were too easy to follow. This is probably a trap, but our heroes are not about to let three dangerous individuals walk free so they split up and search the fun house. Fang corners Hudson and and Talon and here’s where we learn what Thailog has been up to as a clone of Hudson emerges from the shadows. A real ugly looking clone at that what with the soulless red eyes and black teeth. I seriously hope that that was a result of the cloning process, otherwise Nega-Hudson’s breath must smell like tobacco and death had a child. Elsewhere in the Fun House, Lexington and Brooklyn get attacked and overwhelmed their own clones. Broadway soon meets his counterpart and he’s an especially nasty looking customer. This sucker looks like a mid-level D&D boss complete with protruding fangs like tusks. The clone, who may be even bigger than Broadway easily takes him with a big ol’ bear hug.

Goliath and Angela reach Thailog only to discover that the entire clan has been taken down. Goliath is horrified by the reveal of the grotesque group of clone creatures Thailog and Demona refer to as their new clan. In a nice touch, to mirror our heroes taking the names of different parts of New York, the clones have been give the names of different areas of Los Angeles. There’s Brentwood(Lexington’s Clone), Malibu(Brooklyn’s Clone), Hollywood(Broadway’s Clone) and Burbank(Hudson’s Clone). Goliath thinks that if Demona considers these monsters to be her clan, then she he has sunk even lower than Goliath ever thought possible. Thailog further exposits that these clones aren’t quite like Thailog. Unlike Xanatos, who programmed Thailog as his intellectual equal, Thailog wasn’t about to create something that might get too big for its britches and betray him. No, these guys have basic, primitive intelligence and only one directive, obey Thailog. But enough about Thailog’s clan, it’s time to kill Goliath’s. Thailog plans to waste Angela first but Demona, not wanting to see her own daughter destroyed, stops him. It’s here we find out that Demona knew all along that Angela was her daughter and her capture was staged so Demona would have a chance to get her to turn on Goliath and his clan, an effort that proved fruitless. Angela is justifiably pissed off at this revelation and expresses her hatred for her mother, much to Demona’s great sadness. Demona may be a monster, but even she isn’t so far gone as to see her own daughter killed in cold blood. Thailog is disappointed by Demona’s weakness and unveils his secret weapon, a hybrid creature that combines the DNA of both Demona and Elisa named Delilah. Okay, it was bad enough when he was hitting on Angela, his kind of sort of sister-daughter, back in Sanctuary, but this, this is wrong on SO many levels to begin with, then compound that with the fact that Delilah likely has the same basic primitive intelligence as the other clones and is constantly referring to Thailog as Master. Thailog essentially grew himself a custom-made sex slave out of the DNA of his dad’s current and former girlfriends. There is some fucked up shit at work here my friends. Sigmund Freud would not know where to begin with this guy, provided Thailog didn’t just decapitate him ten minutes into their first session. Anywho, Thailog orders Delilah to destroy our heroes but Demona manages to free the clan, demanding that Goliath save their daughter.

And so the fight is on with each of the Gargoyles battling their counterparts. While the clones are insanely strong, they have no gifts for teamwork and strategy, so our heroes hold their own just fine. Meanwhile, Talon battles Fang near the roller coaster, inadvertently setting it on fire. Demona and Goliath battle Thailog while the others manage to subdue their doppelgangers by outsmarting them. Talon also manages to take down Fang but Angela is nowhere to be found. In a nice fakeout, Delilah emerges from the shadows only for it to turn out that Angela defeated her and put her in chains. All that remains is Thailog who battles Demona on the burning roller coaster. The roller coaster goes up in flames and it doesn’t look like either of them survived. Without Thailog, the clones are left with no idea what they should do. Talon agrees to take them in down in the Labyrinth and teach them how to think for themselves. Angela is left sobbing. The last thing she said to her own mother was “I Hate You,” and yet, in the end, Demona sacrificed herself for her. Goliath reassures Angela by saying that Demona’s love for her was the first true sign of goodness she had shown in a long time. Perhaps it could have been a new beginning for everyone, but I guess we may never know.

This episode is awesome! The first half is a little slow, but it gives us some nice buildup for the huge battle that’s to come and once we got there, it was an absolute treat. Evil clones of the entire clan was something I’d been wanting since Thailog was introduced. While they could have stood to have had a little more screen time, they were still cool and seeing the clan battle itself was a blast. It’s always awesome to see Thailog and since this would be his last proper appearance in the series, I can safely say that he went out with a bang. And yes, this is Thailog’s final appearance, meaning that Dracon got more episodes that Thailog. And suddenly I’m depressed. Anywho, Thailog would return in Season 3 only to be unceremoniously killed off alongside the other clones, but, as I’ve said a million times, season three doesn’t count, and Thailog would survive and go on to be the main villain he deserved to be in the comics. I’ll close with one last interesting tidbit. This episode was originally intended to be the series finale, and personally, I think it would have made for a better finale than the one we ended up with. I’ll get into this in more detail once we get to Hunter’s Moon, but I feel that Thailog getting to be the final boss would have been a great choice, the idea of the Clan being forced to face themselves would have been interesting and Demona, finally finding a small redemption, even if it did cost her her very life, would have been a poetic ending for the character. Stretch this episode out into a two-parter, maybe get Xanatos involved somehow and who could ask for a better final battle for these characters? Well, either way, this episode is amazing and I cannot praise it enough. In our next outing, Xanatos has a plan to repay the Gargoyles for helping to save his son and it seems Cold Stone has a vital role to play. Next time, Possession.