Television 

Five Thoughts on Gargoyles‘ “The Reckoning” and “Possession”

By | August 13th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to our Summer TV Binge of Disney’s Gargoyles, this week looking at “The Reckoning” (aired May 7, 1996) and “Possession” (May 8, 1996), which respectively see the well overdue return of Demona and Coldstone.

1. Silence of the Moms

“The Reckoning” is an appropriate title: the episode sees Demona allowing herself to be captured by Goliath’s clan and incarcerated in Derek Maza’s Labyrinth, where she uses her mosquito-like drones to extract the DNA of her enemies on her partner Thailog’s behalf. However, as she comes face-to-face with her daughter Angela (whom she briefly saw in “Sanctuary“), she’s confronted with living proof that the selfish, vengeful life she pursued after the loss of her clan was truly unnecessary.

Fang enjoying his stories

I wondered after “City of Stone” how you’d chart a path of redemption for Demona, and the empirical evidence of her folly is as convincing a beginning you could ever want. We don’t get to see Angela and Demona interact that much, but the unusual amount of time this episode spans (five weeks and then two months) really sells the idea Demona’s heart of stone (no pun intended) has begun to soften.

2. Aren’t You Dead?

Who is using the DNA Demona gathers to create a cloned clan for Thailog? Why, it’s his very own creator, Dr. Sevarius, last seen sinking to the bottom of Loch Ness in “Monsters.” Now, while Goliath was skeptical the mad scientist was finally dead at the end of the episode, it was pretty improbable he could’ve escaped the sinking submarine there: say what you will about resurrections in comic books, but at least they often offer an explanation for someone getting away from their apparent demise, here we get nothing. Still, it is fun to see the show’s Frankenstein becoming an employee of his Monster, instead of having Thailog boss around some random new Peter Billingsley-type.

3. The Ultimate Controlling Boyfriend

After the clones (who are simplistic creatures designed only to serve Thailog) capture their progenitors, Thailog offers Angela the chance to join them and her mother. She refuses, and Thailog decides to execute her as well, prompting Demona to turn on him. Thailog then reveals he’s planned for this, and unveils a hybrid of Demona and Elisa named Delilah (holy Oedipus complex!), well and truly cementing the wedge between them.

That costume was drawn up by an overgrown boy alright

I think it’s sadly very relatable, the notion of Thailog feeling so threatened by his mate that he already has a younger, more naive replacement on hand, and it also finally puts Demona on the receiving end of the manipulative behavior she has inflicted on others, which is poetic. Ultimately, the episode concludes with her and Thailog descending into the inferno that sprouts around them: as Sevarius’s death demonstrated, this isn’t the end for her, but it is certainly a fiery death for her fallen old self.

4. All the World’s a Stage

“Possession” is quite a dizzying episode where Xanatos, now on amiable terms on the Manhattan Clan, finally tracks down Coldstone and brings him back to New York to separate the other two personalities rattling around inside his head. Puck uses this opportunity to teach little Alexander soul transference, to move those extra souls to new robotic bodies that have been constructed for them: but Puck being Puck, he has some fun too, by initially making Coldstone and his love go into Broadway and Angela’s bodies, and the Evil One (the Iago of the trio) go into Brooklyn.

Goliath grinning? Definitely an impostor then.

This is a fun, knotty Shakespearean episode that has many of the cast and the animators basically pulling a Viola from Twelfth Night, with them using the same voices and models, but differing tones and mannerisms giving us clues as to who’s really who. (Both Keith David and Michael Dorn get to play Puck posing as their regular characters, and it was great to hear them stretch their vocal cords.) Simply put, this complex episode is a dazzling and delightful conclusion to Coldstone’s story.

5. Nanotech, You Like It?

We briefly see one of the android gargoyles reconstituting their fingers after they’ve been damaged, implying they’re derived from the nanotechnology that was being studied by the Xanatoses in “Walkabout,” which is a nice payoff to that thread. Hopefully, it means poor old Coldstone isn’t kissing some rigid lips the next time he embraces his love: it would really be horrible if she was trapped in some stiff robotic body for the rest of eternity.

Continued below

Bonus thoughts:
– The clones’ names are Malibu, Brentwood, Hollywood, and Burbank – how self-deprecating of the show’s Los Angeles-based creators.
– Fang is incarcerated in the cell next to Demona’s, and describes her transformation into a human during day as “kinky.” Truly, none of the higher-ups were watching this show.
– Xanatos could’ve asked Coldstone to come along instead of capturing him, but old habits die hard I suppose.
– After some gliding as Angela, Coldstone’s love waxes lyrical about feeling the wind beneath her wings again: someone on the staff clearly loved Beaches.
– Given the number of Star Trek actors on the show (including Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner’s guest appearances here), it should be no surprise how much “Possession” resembles the story of the original series episode “Return to Tomorrow.”

Alright folks, brace yourselves for next week, when we look at season 2’s three-part finale, “Hunter’s Moon.”


//TAGS | 2019 Summer TV Binge | Gargoyles

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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