Wes's Guide to Gargoyles Finale: Top 10 Episodes of Gargoyles
So, here we are, the end of the line. It’s our last Gargoyles article, and I’m determined to give this project which has meant so much to me the best sendoff I possibly can. I’ve said many times over the course of this project that even a bad episode of Gargoyles is better than a good episode of most TV shows out there these days, but of the sixty-five episodes we’ve covered, which ones were the best. Welcome, to the Top Ten Episodes of Gargoyles. Before we get started, a couple things to keep in mind. First, Multi-Part episodes count as one since they’re meant to tell one continuous story. Second, and more importantly, this is my opinion. Your own personal list will likely look significantly different from mine, and that’s okay. This is in no way meant to be a definitive list of the best episodes of Gargoyles, merely a list of the episodes that have stuck with me the most. This was an extremely difficult list to narrow down. There are some truly great episodes that did not make the list or even the honorable mentions. Trust me, if I could put every episode on this list, I would. Okay, maybe not Heritage, and definitely not Turf. Finally, I’m going to assume most of you have read my previous articles, so I’ll dispense with any sort of recap of the episode in the body of the article proper. However, if you’re new here, I’ll be posting links to the corresponding articles in case you need a refresher. All that having been said, let’s delay no further, these are my personal Top Ten Episodes of Gargoyles
You Know, it’s funny. Usually when I do a list like this, I find that determining number one is easy. The hard part is picking number ten. So many great episodes were vying for this last spot, and once you see some of the episodes that got left off the list in favor of this one, I will probably catch some heat. But enough of that, let’s talk about M.I.A. This episode is one of the real highlights of the often divisive World Tour Arc. I love the multitude of ways that the plight of the London clan echoes that of the Manhattan Clan, some of which I didn’t even get a chance to comment on in the actual article. Leo and Una’s desire to stay out of the war versus Griff’s desire to join the fight against the Nazis really does feel like a debate between season one Goliath, who was only concerned with defending the castle and maintaining the survival of his own clan, and season two Goliath, who has now realized that it is his duty to defend the entire city. Una especially was interesting to me. Her own grief seems to have consumed her over the course of fifty years. She easily could have become another Demona had Goliath not saved Griff. Speaking of, I love Griff. I already talked about his awesome design and his sweet biker jacket, but there’s so much more to it than that. Like Goliath, Griff is a natural leader, but he’s by no means a carbon copy. Griff has this intangible charm, sort of like an old British R.A.F. pilot. He also has this strong sense of duty and a strong need to do more than just protect his own domain. I think he’s keenly aware of the fact that, as Goliath says in this very episode, “Gargoyle Problems Tend to Become Human Problems.” Perhaps that explains why he was so eager to go off and fight in the war, and also why he joined up with King Arthur at the end of Pendragon. Also, this episode has Goliath fighting Nazis. I don’t care who you are, that’s cool as hell.
As I said, the World Tour Arc is often Divisive. Me personally, I ultimately enjoyed seeing Goliath and the others traveling to various creative settings and encountering new and interesting threats. That having been said, the World Tour Arc really needed more episodes like this where we checked back in on the Manhattan Clan. I absolutely loved this episode. Brooklyn adjusting to his new role as leader was great to see. I love how he’s hesitant at first since he doesn’t think he’s ready and accepting his role, to him at least, would also mean accepting the possibility that Goliath might not be coming back. You can tell Brooklyn knows that Goliath is a nearly impossible standard to live up to, and he likely fears that he’ll never escape the long shadow that his mentor casts. That’s why it’s especially nice to see Brooklyn foiling Fang’s plot at the end in a distinctly un-Goliath way. Brooklyn may be the leader now, but he’s not Goliath, and he can’t lead how Goliath would lead. Speaking of, over the course of the series, Jim Belushi pleasantly surprised me with how well he handles the role of Fang. He’s not quite the major threat that a Xanatos or a Demona poses. He’s more like a better version of Dracon. A complete scumbag but possessing a bit more charm and charm and charisma and a lot more menace. Combine all of that with a very entertaining cameo from Xanatos, an arc for Talon that mirrors Brooklyn’s and so much more, this episode truly deserves to be counted amongst the best of the series.
In this episode, David Xanatos makes the Space Time Continuum his bitch and becomes a billionaire in the process. I could just stop there and move on to number seven, but I won’t. There’s so much to this episode that I love so much. The sheer hubris of Xanatos asking Goliath to ask as the best man at his wedding and Goliath’s reaction to it is absolutely hilarious. I also like how this episode explores that, though he may try to bury those feelings, Goliath does still care for Demona even though she is now his enemy. Seeing her again in the context of a wedding, an setting in which Goliath and Demona once exchanged symbolic vows of their own, he can’t help but feel nostalgic. Goliath’s speech to the younger Demona after she’s forced to confront her the bitter and hateful creature she will one day become is a little sappy, but it still rings true. Goliath sees in this moment an opportunity to bring the Demona he once loved back into the present, but sadly, time is not so easily changed, and tragically, history repeats itself and Demona still becomes the monster we now know. Goliath’s final moments of this episode when he walks off in silence are truly heartbreaking. But let’s talk about Xanatos. Making one’s fortune by creating a time paradox is just one of the most Xanatos things ever conceived and I absolutely love it. There’s always been this thing about Xanatos where he pretty much wins every time, even when he loses. Well, this, in my opinion, is one of Xanatos’s biggest wins. He proves once and for all that he’s a self-made man and showing up literally everyone in the process, all with his hot red-haired mercenary super model wife on his arm. Xanatos truly is a baller. God is retired, all hail David Xanatos
What a great episode this one was. The sparring match at the beginning is more than enough to earn it a spot on this list. In only a few short moments, we learn so much about Xanatos’s character. It shows that while Xanatos is the type who prefers to use his mind as his weapon, if he needs to resort to fisticuffs, he’s certainly no slouch in that department either. It also shows that just how confident he is as he casually reschedules his meeting with the Emir. But most importantly, there’s the bit where he tells Owen he’d fire him if he ever let him win. Xanatos may be a deceptive and scheming man, but he nonetheless hates doing things the easy way. Xanatos is a man of great ambition, and he wants to earn everything he acquires. He may not admit it, but losing to the Gargoyles and ending up in prison was huge blow to his ego, and when loses a sparring match against Owen for the first time, it causes him to doubt himself. Think about that, how many other shows out there choose to focus on the main antagonist having self-doubts, especially a show aimed at kids? There’s also a lot of little things that make this episode great. It introduces Xanatos’s battle armor, a constant throughout the remainder of the series, it introduces Matt Bluestone, one of the show’s best side characters, the battle with the upgraded steel clan on top of the Statue of Liberty is amazing and I especially love how it’s Broadway who manages to dispatch most of the robots, showing that he’s not as dumb as he looks. In the end, Xanatos gets his edge back. A great episode that shows that this show was just as much Xanatos’ story as it was the Gargoyles’
After Awakening, I believe that this was the first truly great episode of Gargoyles. I’m not saying that Thrill of the Hunt and Temptation were bad by any means, quite the opposite, but this one took things to a whole new level. This show knew that it was going to have violence in it. Now, it could easily have taken the easy way out and toned down the violence and made the show more kid friendly, but instead, it not only doubled down on the violence, it also showed that that violence would have real consequences. I cannot emphasize enough how effective the scene where Broadway shoots Elisa is. You see Broadway playing with the gun and most people think it’ll simply lead to some shenanigans, and then, BANG, Elisa lies unconscious on the ground with a bullet in her back. Broadway desperately rushing Elisa to the hospital, frantically repeating the words “I’m Sorry” had my heart pounding even though I’d seen this episode hundreds of times. And the final touch, the look of utter horror on Broadway’s face as he sees Elisa’s blood on his hands was far more chilling than any villain or monster our heroes ever encounter. This episode could easily have stuck with the safe and simple message of “Guns are Bad, Full Stop” but that would have been a massive oversimplification of the real issue. Gun control was a hotly debated topic even back in 1994, even more so now, but no matter what side of the issue you fall on, I think we can all agree with this episode’s message: Guns Are Not Toys. Guns are dangerous tools. What they are capable of must be respected and the safety precautions necessary for owning and operating such a tool much be observed at all times. I appreciate how this episode places just as much of the blame on Elisa for not properly securing her weapon as it does on Broadway for playing with it in the first place. It’s an episode that showed that this would be a far more mature show than we were used to at the time. Good stuff.
We’re in the Top Five and so we’re getting into the really good ones. I absolutely adore this episode. While the dynamic between Xanatos and Goliath is one of my favorite aspects of the series, it was fascinating to see him develop a completely different dynamic with another one of the Gargoyles, in this case Hudson. Ed Asner and Jonathan Frakes deliver arguably their best performances in the entire series in this episode, playing off one another amazingly. I love how the whole reasons Xanatos chose Hudson for his plan was because he saw him as useless but through the course of their debates, he understands that Hudson’s wisdom is valuable and the old Gargoyle earns Xanatos’s respect. But let’s talk about Xanatos’s bid for immortality, one of the more fascinating aspects of the character. Hudson erroneously assumes that Xanatos fears growing old and dying, but that’s not it exactly. It’s more that Xanatos cannot abide something that’s beyond his control. His line, “Nothing Terrifies Me Because Nothing Is Beyond My Ability to Change,” says a lot about who Xanatos is. He will not just sit around and accept death as an inevitability. He is David Xanatos. He has done extraordinary things, things that would be impossible for a man of lesser ambition, and he plans to continue to do so, and when and if the time comes for it all to end, he will make sure that it ends on his terms and nobody else’s. Xanatos is not afraid of death, Xanatos defies death. I’d like to think that Xanatos ultimately took Hudson’s words about living immortality not being about living forever but what one does with the time they have to heart. Maybe that’s why he’s dedicated himself to being a good father to baby Alex. Through his son, his legacy truly lives forever.
I’d have to be insane not to include this twenty-two minutes of pure insanity in the top ten. I have vivid memories of watching this episode as a young child and it has stuck with me in a big way. I remember the episode shocking me and even scaring me a little. However, that experience is one of the reasons the show has stuck with me for as long as it has. When I re-watched the show in college, this was the first episode I re-watched, just because the memory of it stuck with me so strongly. Not only that, the dystopian future it creates is fascinating. I would watch an entire series set in this grim reality, I don’t care if the whole thing was just an illusion created by Puck to break Goliath’s spirit, everything about this messed up future was equal parts terrifying and awesome. Be it Broadway with no eyes, the a battle hardened Brooklyn now in love with Demona, an army of Thailog clones, a hostile computer program that thinks it’s Xanatos, a corrupted Lexington serving as the twisted puppet master behind everything, Goliath being forced to watch everyone he’s ever loved murdered before his very eyes, this episode just throws so much at you at once that after you watch it you almost feel out of breath. All that chaos would have been more than enough to keep the viewer satisfied, but the episode takes it a step even further by planting little bread crumbs that, if you’re paying attention, you could use to figure out what’s really going on. It’s such a brilliantly crafted episode and one of the true all-time greats. But was it all a dream, or a premonition?
I mean… it’s City of Stone. It’s one of the most epic episodes in the series and in my opinion, the best of what Weisman would refer to as the Tentpole Multi-Parters. Since the very beginning, we’ve wondered how Demona survived the massacre of Castle Wyvern. In the episodes leading up to this one, more questions cropped up. How has Demona been alive for one thousand years? What is her connection to the mysterious MacBeth? Well, this episode answers those questions and does so in spectacular fashion. The flashbacks to her history with MacBeth were awesome and did much to explain why both characters are the way they are. It’s great to watch, seeing how they formed an alliance out of necessity, but eventually grew into trusted friends and allies. And yet, it’s also tragic since, well, we’ve seen how things turn out for MacBeth and Demona and we know this story isn’t going to have a happy ending. It was also cool to see Xanatos and the Gargoyles teaming up. It wasn’t the first time, but it was still nice to see them acknowledge that the stakes were bigger than their personal rivalry. However, the biggest strength of this story is showing just how far Demona has fallen, and it all starts with one simple sentence: “What have I… what have they done!” With those words, Demona refuses to confront her own culpability in the slaughter of her people and instead redirects her own self-loathing outwards towards the humans. That hatred only continued to fester inside of her until one day, it was all that was left. We see in the present day as Demona laughs while slaughtering innocent humans in the street, using the same type of weapon used to murder her clan completely unaware of the irony, that she is truly beyond redemption, but in one moment of clarity towards the end of the episode, she forced to confront what she’s known all along. All the misery in her life is the fault of but one person, herself. It’s an action packed episode filled with great character moments and heartbreaking tragedy, how could I not put it on the list.
This episode is just amazing. The Halloween setting made for some unique visuals as well as a few great character moments. We finally get to see the clan interact with humans and Broadway gets to wear his adorable Silver Falcon Trenchcoat, which is always nice to see. Elisa and Goliath finally get to walk down the city streets arm and arm, showing their growing romance with a nice tribute to Beauty and the Beast. I said it in the article, I’ll say it here too, the scene where Elisa and Goliath dance together brought me to tears and elicited more of an emotional reaction than anything in the actual movie. But let’s talk about what this episode is really about, Fox and Xanatos. As we saw in Eye of the Storm, the Eye of Odin grants insight, but sometimes does so in roundabout ways. While the enchanted jewel that Xanatos chose as an engagement gift to his beloved is supposed to reveal the true nature of the wearer, the one who really gets exposed is Xanatos himself. Xanatos has always been a man who prides himself on always being in control. At all times the smartest man in the room and always cool under pressure, never showing any kind of weakness. Things like love, compassion, emotion of any kind, as far as he’s concerned, those are all just weaknesses that an enemy can exploit, which means that a man like Xanatos cannot afford to show them. This mask is one Xanatos wears so tightly that he’s convinced everyone, even himself, that it’s his real face. But when a loved one is transformed into a monster and worse yet, will soon die as a result, that mask begins to slip. I love how this episode shows Goliath calling Xanatos on his bullshit for the first time in the series. Xanatos finally giving up on the manipulations and just pleading with Goliath for his help is the most vulnerable and human we ever see the character. It’s a great episode with some of the best animation in the entire series. Any other list, this would likely wind up at the top, but this my list, and we still have one more to go.
But first, let’s get some honorable mentions out of the way.
Awakening: Ah, the episode that started it all. An amazing five-part epic that was the perfect start to one of the greatest animated shows of all time.
The Mirror: Our first appearance of Puck. This is a great episode that has a lot of great moments for Goliath and Elisa’s budding romance as well as a few humorous moments thrown in.
Revelations: I really wanted this episode to make the top ten because it holds a very special place in my heart. I absolutely loved the idea of a hotel that’s actually a maze designed to break the victim’s sanity and having Matt Bluestone as the POV character was something unique for the series
Grief: A fantastic episode that features some excellent performances for Tonys Jay and Shaloub as guest stars. I absolutely loved seeing the full depths of Jackal’s depravity and the psychotic mercenary bonding with a death god was appropriately disturbing.
The Gathering: This was a VERY hard one to leave off the list as it feels so epic and gives us one of the biggest reveals in the entire show. Plus, Xanatos takes on Oberon, who is, for all intents and purposes, God in this reality, and in the end, he wins.
The Reckoning: The series finale we deserved but not the one we ended up with. Still, this episode was awesome on so many levels and served as a nice sendoff for a great villain like Thailog.
Speaking of Thailog, I’m sure by now you’ve all guessed what my number one is, so let us waste no further time.
And so it is that my favorite episode when I started this project is still my favorite episode now that it’s over. A part of me had hoped that another episode would come along during this rewatch and knock this episode off its throne, but alas, it was not meant to be. But, I guess that’s a testament to just how great this episode is. This episode gives so much insight into the Goliath/Xanatos dynamic, my favorite aspect of the show, with almost none of it needing to be stated outright. I love the buildup to Thailog throughout the first half of the episode. The mystery was genuinely engaging and when we finally got to the payoff, that being Thailog himself, it didn’t disappoint. I love Thailog as a character, easily my favorite villain in the series. I love how he manages to easily outplay Xanatos, Sevarius and Goliath to lure them to their deaths. I love that he combines the cunning of Xanatos with the strength of Goliath. I love how even Xanatos admits he’s afraid of Thailog at the end. Most of all, and no disrespect to his always stellar performances as Goliath, but Keith David’s best voice acting work in the show comes when he’s voicing Thailog. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that evil laugh. There’s just so much to love about this character and this episode. One of my favorite things about the episode is something I didn’t even get to talk about in the article itself. Notice how when Xanatos finds out that Sevarius is behind the kidnapping of Thailog he’s ready to kill him on the spot, and yet when he finds out Thailog is the real mastermind, he reacts with pride. I have a couple theories about this. First, there’s the theory that Xanatos barely tolerates Sevarius and only keeps him around because as a scientific genius and an amoral madman, Sevarius would be extremely dangerous working for anyone other than Xanatos. I mean, the second he starts working for Demona he creates a virus that almost wipes out humanity so this theory certainly isn’t without merit. However, the theory I prefer is that Xanatos wasn’t so much angry that Sevarius betrayed him, it’s that he did it poorly. Think about it. It took Xanatos less than a minute to figure out that Sevarius was the culprit. Xanatos likes a challenge and respects a worthy opponent, and a rat like Sevarius barely presented a distraction, let alone a challenge. Xanatos couldn’t help but feel insulted. However, when he realized that Thailog had been the one who truly set all this up and that now he had a real challenge on his hands, a challenge that came from a being he created and educated, Xanatos couldn’t help but smile with pride. There is just so much going on in this episode I could spend hours talking about it. It is the episode I think of when I think of why I love this show and it is my favorite episode of Gargoyles.
And so, this passion project of mine has come to an end. I have many people whom I’d like to thank. First and foremost, I’d like to thank Greg Weisman and the team of excellent writers and animators that helped make this show what it was. I’d like to thank the extremely talented voice cast for breathing life into these unforgettable characters, with a special mention of Jonathan Frakes for helping to ensure that David Xanatos would become my favorite character in all of fiction in a way that only he could. I’d like to thank all of my friends and family for being supportive and encouraging of this project. I’d like to thank the Podcast, Nostalgia+, for entertaining me with your unique take on Gargoyles during the days where I was unable to work on the articles and giving me things to consider about the series that I hadn’t before. I’d like to thank everyone and anyone who has taken time out of their day to read these articles. I’d like to thank Twitter users @AuntyDemented and @brewsandbats for making me feel for the first time like I had a real audience. And finally, I must give a huge thanks to my dear, dear friend Lena. Your articles proved instrumental in helping me write my own and the friendship we forged over the course of this project has meant the world to me.
Gargoyles is my favorite television show, and a story that was truly ahead of its time. It took its audience seriously and was taken seriously in turn. While the series continued in comic book form, a proper continuation or reboot seems but a distant dream, but it doesn’t have to be. I implore you all, keep binging Gargoyles. Watch it on Disney+, buy the DVDs, re-experience the show in whatever way you are able. Show that there is still interest in this show even more than a quarter century after it aired on television. If we all do our part, perhaps one day, the spell will be broken, and Gargoyles will live again.
So, what’s next for me. This project has reignited my love of writing and a certainly don’t intend to stop now that it’s finished. I have other projects in the works that you all should stay tuned for, and we’ll more than likely be revisiting Gargoyles from time to time. Hell, despite my misgivings, I’d even be open to taking a look at Season 3 sometime in the future. But for now, it’s time to finally put this project to rest. Though, I am going to miss Keith David’s voice. Actually, that gives me an idea. Until next time.