This week’s Gargoyles retrospective looks at “The Price” (airdate: October 12, 1995) and “Revelations” (October 26, 1995). Together with the previous episode, “Outfoxed,” they form a running theme of episodes where the clan’s leaders keep getting themselves captured. D’oh!
1. Hail MacBeth (Again and Again)
In “The Price,” Xanatos sends robotic duplicates of MacBeth to prevent the clan from returning home before sunrise, allowing him to kidnap Hudson, and replace him with a real statue to fool the others into thinking he’s been trapped in that form. As incongruous as MacBeth working with Xanatos again would be, you are kept in suspense as to what’s going on until the end reveal, given the mercenary’s apparent survival from a fiery demise is consistent with what we learned from “City of Stone.” There’s no gross out sequence of him reconstituting himself, but we get a pretty awe-inducing and terrifying moment regardless when Goliath believes “Hudson” has been killed, and punches a hole through Robo-MacBeth’s chest.
2. How Do You Solve a Problem Elisa?
Elisa’s presence in this episode was a little perplexing, as Goliath asks her to tag along because he suspects Demona is the one behind the spell “imprisoning” Hudson, and needs her to find her address. Thing is, hadn’t Goliath and the clan already found – and been captured at – her home in “High Noon”? In any case, it’s great she comes along, as there comes a nail-biting moment when Broadway is in the air during daybreak, and she manages to save him with a bit of quick-thinking, firing at a bunch of suspended crates containing fabrics to cushion his fall. I doubt that would’ve actually worked, but it’s an awesome moment nonetheless.
3. Baby’s Introduction to Psychological Implications of Living Forever
Ah, “Who Wants to Live Forever?” Turns out Xanatos is the answer to that classic song, taking Hudson to his castle to test out an old legend that the stone skin they shed at dusk can be used to achieve immortality. The two discuss ageing, the potential downside of immortality, and why you ought to be skeptical about old stories, none of which is interesting at my age, but it’s still thoughtful stuff for a kids’ cartoon. It all pays off when Xanatos, realizing Hudson may still have some wisdom, decides to be cautious, and Burnett dips his hand in the broth made from the sheddings, which turns it into stone: the legend is just a variation of the curse that the clan suffered for a 1000 years, and Xanatos realizes he doesn’t want the pain that comes from experience.
4. Bluestone, No
“Revelations” opens with Goliath falling into Mace Malone’s booby trapped apartment complex, and Matt Bluestone – who’s finally caught up with the 100-year old gangster after the events of “The Silver Falcon” – begins narrating how he led him there. I haven’t said much about Elisa’s partner, because he physically and emotionally resembles a pencil: I was shocked to find out such a dull character is voiced by Thomas F. Wilson (Biff in Back to the Future).
The episode didn’t do much to dispel my dislike of Bluestone, who, on learning from Malone about Elisa’s involvement in the Gargoyle conspiracy, threatens to run her off the road unless she admits to her secret – gosh, you can just smell the entitlement, can’t you? Then after being introduced to Goliath and co., he immediately demands he come with him to meet Malone. The twist – that Bluestone is actually good, handing Goliath the key to avoid Malone’s death traps offscreen – was pretty predictable, and made me wonder whether the production team felt they had to cram in Bluestone’s turn from antagonist to ally in one episode, or if they just weren’t that bothered.
I think the line that bothers me most is at the end of the episode, when Elisa tells Bluestone, “It’s not that I didn’t trust you. I guess – I just didn’t want to share them. As long as I was the only human they confided in, it made me feel – special.” Oh come on, he had given her no reason to trust him. Should she have told him just because he’s her partner? Should she tell every assigned partner then?
Continued below5. Out of the Loop
What’s the point of Mace Malone when Xanatos is the show’s most prominent member of the Illuminati? Beats me, but I reckon the rest of the secret society probably don’t see much use in the living fossil either, which is why he must be out of the loop regarding the study of Gargoyles, and felt he had to trick an outsider into luring one for study. It’s fun to imagine the younger Illuminati gave Malone this complex so he’d feel useful, and probably weren’t surprised when they learned he got trapped inside it and starved to death.
Bonus thoughts:
– “The Price” is based on an issue of the Marvel Comics series written by Lee Nordling, who gets credited on the episode: it’s fascinating how Disney’s 52-episode order led them to cannibalize their own tie-in material so soon.
– You gotta wonder what Elisa told the crane operator who lifted Broadway out of those wrecked crates.
– Bluestone learns his FBI partner Martin Hacker is an Illuminatus at the end of “Revelations,” and he rewards him with Malone’s place in the society, presumably setting up more conflicted loyalties from him. Yay?
