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Awakening, Part V
Synopsis | Review by Juan F. Lara | Review by Todd Jensen
Overview
- The clan goes after the "stolen" diskettes: the Trio hit the Cyberbiotics Tower; Hudson and Bronx get the underground laboratory; and Goliath and Demona attack the flying Fortress.
- Goliath observes Demona's gleeful destruction of the Fortress with growing unease.
- The clan returns, with diskettes, to the castle. Xanatos and Demona unveil the Steel Clan.
- Deciding the gargoyles are too difficult to control, Xanatos and Demona attack the clan. Demona tells Goliath to join them or die, and reveals her own name.
- Elisa interrupts, and saves Goliath. When she and Demona fall from the castle, Goliath saves her instead of his mate. He goes to kill Xanatos, but is talked out of it by Hudson and Elisa. Xanatos is arrested for receiving stolen property.
Synopsis
Act I
In Cyberbiotics' tower lab, the guards take aim at Brooklyn, Lexington, and Broadway. Brooklyn grins, shrugs, and says, "Sorry, wrong floor." The guards open fire as they retreat back up the elevator shaft. Broadway opens the door to the floor above, and the three of them dive into the hallway as the guards fire up the shaft. "Now what?" Lexington asks.
In the lab on the fourth floor, the scientists nervously watch the door as an alarm sounds. Suddenly, part of the ceiling caves in and the lights go out. The three gargoyles drop in and the lights come on. The technicians recoil as Broadway growls. Brooklyn picks up a nearby scientist by the collar and asks him where the disk is. The scientist point to a console. Lexington surveys the controls and finds the disk. The guards begin to come in the door, but are blocked by Brooklyn, who says that it's time to go. Broadway picks up a large piece of equipment and hurls it through a window. The three of them fly, with the guards shooting at them from the tower. Lex rolls over in flight and shouts, "We did it!" They fly back to the castle.
At the underground base, a guard reports to his commander that Station 1 has been breached. The commander asks for details, but the only information was something about monsters. The commander orders an increase in security.
In the tunnel outside, Hudson and Bronx approach the base. Hudson wonders how he got talked into this. He spots a video camera on the wall above the door and gets an idea.
Inside, the commander sees Hudson on his monitor. Hudson spins as guards surround him from behind. One guard says that he's not sure what Hudson is, but he bets that he's not bulletproof. The old gargoyle agrees and surrenders. The door opens and Hudson is lead inside. Suddenly, Bronx jumps the guards from behind, and he and Hudson fight off the guards. A stray bullet hits a computer console and sets it aflame. In the confusion, Hudson searches for the disk. He is befuddled by the large number of buttons and lights on the computer console and hits the machine in frustration. The disk pops out of a nearby drive. Hudson picks it up and calls to Bronx. The two run for the door and narrowly escape as the commander sounds the alarm and closes the door.
Outside, Hudson rubs his back and complains that he is getting too old for this. They hear more guards coming down the tunnel and retreat up a nearby ladder. The guards chase them through a side tunnel. The tunnel ends as a caged catwalk over a subway. Hudson observes that they'll be sitting ducks in there and tears off a section of the cage. They jump onto a passing subway train and make a sizable dent in the roof, which startles the passengers. Once the train is clear of the tunnel, Hudson grabs Bronx, spreads his wings and lets the wind carry them off the train. They land on a rooftop and tumble down to a ledge. Bronx licks Hudson in gratitude. Hudson pushes him off. "Away with you," he says, "You need to be losing some weight, and that's a fact." Hudson studies the disk and hopes that it is worth the aches he'll be feeling later.
On board the airship, the commander receives a message that Stations 1 and 2 have been breached. Two-thirds of the data have been lost. Just then, Goliath kicks in the door to the bridge. "Wrong," Demona says, "you've lost it all." While she retrieves the disk, Goliath occupies the guards. Demona reaches into the console and pulls out a power cable. She touches the cable to the instruments and starts a fire. Goliath looks at her in disbelief. "What have you done?" he asks. Demona kicks open an escape hatch and tells him to hurry. Goliath protests, saying that they just can't leave the humans. The guards uselessly try to fight the blaze while Demona grabs Goliath by the arm and pulls him out the hatch. They fly off as the engines catch fire and the airship crashes into the river. The ship begins to sink and the crew jumps for their lives. Elisa pulls up at the waterfront in time to see Demona and Goliath flying away.
Act II
Goliath and Demona fly back to the castle and deliver the disk to Xanatos. He thanks them and assures them that the information on the disks will be put to beneficial use for human and gargoyle alike. Xanatos leaves and Goliath tells Demona that he is going to meet a friend. Demona asks who, since it is obviously not another gargoyle. Goliath tells her about Elisa. Demona tells him that Xanatos is their only human friend. They don't need any others. "Humanity is our enemy, Goliath," she says, "I thought you learned that a millenium ago." Goliath protests that he cannot make war upon an entire world. He asks if Xanatos does not prove that there are good humans as well as bad. Demona asks if he can forgive the humans for what they did. Goliath reminds her that the ones responsible for that have been dead for a thousand years. "Then their descendants shall pay!" Demona erupts, "I will have blood for blood!" Goliath looks coldly at her, and reminds her of what she said on the airship. He says that the centuries have changed her as well. She is hard and unforgiving, not as he remembers her. He tells her that he is going to see his friend now. "So be it," Demona says as he flies off. Xanatos watches the exchange on the monitor in his office. "Goliath, it seems, is too hard to control," he says, "A pity."
Elisa is waiting on a nearby rooftop. Goliath lands next to her, and she asks where he has been. He asks why she was looking for him. She tells him that the Cyberbiotics installations we robbed, and that she saw him flying away from the plane wreck. Goliath explains that the disks were stolen from Xanatos anf the gargoyles returned them to him. Elisa produces a piece of paper from her jacket. She hands it to goliath who sees the same beetle logo as was on the transmitter that lead the commando team to them. Elisa said she traced the emblem and found it belonged to a robotics firm owned by Xanatos. Goliath is confused and asks if he was responsible for the attack in the park. Elisa says yes, and that he probably planted the bug himself. Goliath argues further, saying that the same men stole the disks from him in the first place. She says that she checked and nothing was stolen. The disks were Cyberbiotics property. Xanatos staged the theft to get the gargoyles to steal the disks for him. "He used you," she says, "He's been using you from the beginning." He turns away, but she pulls him back and says that she knows he has no good reason to trust humans. However, he has to trust someone in this world, and she thinks he'd be better of with her than Xanatos. Goliath growls and crumples the piece of paper. Elisa smiles and says, "You won't regret it."
In the castle, Xanatos is standing beside five shrouded figures. "I'm afraid the gargoyles have outlived their usefulness," he says. He can't count on their loyalty anymore. However, with the data on the disks, he can bring their replacements on line. Owen checks his watch and says that they only need wait three hours until dawn when they sleep. Demona steps out of the shadows. "No," she says, "You need to test these replacements, do you not?" She strokes one of the shrouded figures with her claws and smiles at Xanatos, who returns her smirk.
On the tower, Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway are relaxing. Brooklyn gazes at the city through a pair of sunglasses, while Lexington fiddles with a laptop computer. Broadway, of course, is eating. Brooklyn comments that he thinks he will like this world. Broadway agrees, saying that they had some trouble at first, but things should be fine. Suddenly, a laser blast knocks dinner from Broadway's hand. In the courtyard below, a robotic version of Goliath retracts a laser cannon into its forearm. Four additional robots stand behind Demona, Xanatos, and Owen. "Attack," Xanatos says cooly. The Steel Clan robots spread their wings, fire their thrusters, and take flight. "What are those things?" Broadway asks. Before one of the others can answer, the robots turn and open fire. The three gargoyles scatter. A laser blast catches Broadway in flight and sends him plummeting. He catches the side of a parapet, but the stone pulls loose and he falls to the battlement below. He lies unconcious among the rubble. "What did I tell you, Owen," Xanatos gloats, "A vast improvement over the originals. They're steel instead of stone. They don't sleep during the day. They can fly instead of glide, and best of all, they're 100% obedient. One of the robots takes aim at Lexington. The blast knocks him out in flight, but Brooklyn catches him as he falls. Brooklyn struggles to fly with the added load, and the robot takes aim at him as well. Just as the robot is about to open fire, Goliath catches him in midair and drives him into one of the castle walls. The robot explodes, and Goliath flies toward Brooklyn. He takes Lexington and lands next to Broadway. He pushes a stone off of Broadway and lies Lex next to him. Meanwhile, Brooklyn glides under the castle and catches a support column. He climbs back up the rejoin the battle. Hudson and Bronx run out of the castle. "What's all the noise?" Hudson asks. As if to answer his question, a robot flies around and fires on the two of them. Bronx leaps after the robot as it flies by and catches its tail. He forces it to the ground. The robot fires on Bronx, who easily avoids the blasts. Hudson draws his sword and descends on the robot from above. With a roar, he cleaves the machine neatly in two. "Never a dull moment, is there boy?" He asks Bronx.
Downstairs, Elisa runs past security, flashing her badge. "Police business," she says. The security guard stands at attention and lets her pass.
Goliath manages to get on the back of the robot that was chasing him, and starts steering it into another one attacking. Both blow up. Xanatos, Owen and Demona are forced to take cover from the debris. "Hmm, my steel clan is not performing as well as I hoped" Xanatos admits as only one robot is left - which is crushed under a piece of wall shortly thereafter.
Having destroyed all robots, the clan gathers, thinking they'd have won. Demona disagrees: "You haven't won anything, fools." and aims a rocket launcher at the five other Gargoyles, while Xanatos cocks an energy weapon.
Act III
Demona fires the rocket at Brooklyn and Goliath, who can barely dodge. Goliath asks Demona what's she's doing. "Goliath, you're a fool", she replies, "but then, you always were, weren't you?". Demona then continues to ramble about her plan to rid Castle Wyvern of the humans. Goliath is none too pleased to learn about that. Still, Demona tries to win him over to her battle against humanity - but Goliath refuses. "Very well then. If you are not my ally, then you are my enemy." With this words, she fires another rocket at Goliath, who dodges it, but gets thrown to the floor by the blast.
Aiming very closely at him, Demona gloats: "I have a name, too, Goliath. The humans gave it to me long ago. You should know it before you die. I am 'Demona'." Just as she's about to fire at Goliath from close range, she's tackled by Elisa, and the rocket goes astray, hitting the top of the nearest tower. The falling debris knocks out Xanatos, who held the rest of the clan at bay while Demona tried to handle Goliath. Another huge piece hits the battlements, which crumble, throwing both Elisa and Demona off and sending them to a long plummet down to the ground level.
Goliath catches Elisa, but can not catch Demona, who seems to be unconcious and drops out of his sight (together with a lot of debris and stones). Grabbing Xanatos (who's barely concious), Goliath turns to the edge of the castle: "She wanted me to destroy humanity. I think I start with you." Elisa stops him, telling him that if he drops Xanatos, he'd be the same as Demona. Reluctantly, Goliath agrees - and throws Xanatos onto the stairs in front of Elisa and Hudson.
Taking their places to sleep for the day, Brooklyn's searching for his sunglasses. Bronx found them - and brings them to Brooklyn, who dons them immediately - and sees them breaking apart.
At his perch above the others, Goliath talks to Elisa. She tells him that she'll always be his friend, and Goliath agrees on meeting her "same time tomorrow". Elisa mentions "maybe we'll catch a Giants game", which leaves Goliath startled - right as the sun goes up, freezing the look of surprise on his face for the day. "I wonder if the city's ready for you guys", Elisa ponders, looking into the rising sun.
Review
by Juan F. Lara
And we have a spectacular finale for this great miniseries.
Most of Xanatos's scheme fell into place. He needed the Gargoyles to steal CyberBiotics' disks but knew they wouldn't cooperate. So he set up the robbery ruse, and then had his troops attack again so Goliath would see CB as a threat to them. (So now we know why the girl soldier kept firing too low even though Goliath and Eliza were easy targets. :-) And he and Demona were constantly laying a guilt trip on him about how much he owed Xanatos for reviving them. Very clever. The scheme followed his adage: "Pay a man enough, and he'll walk barefoot into Hell."
Similarly, I believe Xanatos lied when he said the eggs were destroyed. He probably just said that to make the gargoyles feel as alone as possible.
Hudson is the first of the other gargoyles that's developing a personality. I liked his lines and his attitude when he was breaking into the complex. ("I hope this wee thing is worth the aches I'll be feeling later.")
All three of the attack scenes were well done. But the best was easily the air fortress attack. I was left speechless by Demona's destruction of the air fortress, with the shot of her holding the cable and smiling particularly memorable. The scene of the people trying to escape just before the explosion accentuated the point of how bloodthirsty an act she committed.
I was very touched by the scene where Eliza holds Goliath's face in her hands. It showed how much she cares for him, and how much pain Goliath must be feeling over this new betrayal.
So Lexington has a laptop. Maybe he'll get an internet connection. :-) I liked how he was typing with only one finger (When did he learn to read though? :-)
The fight with the robots was excellently directed. I particularly liked Hudson's destruction of one of the robots, where the camera took the robot's perspective right up to when Hudson hit it with the knife.
How exactly were Lexington and Broadway injured? I did a frame-by-frame of Lexington's attack and there the beam went right through him but didn't seem to do any injury. And both managed to recuperate quickly.
Brooklyn: We won, dude!
Goliath: "Dude"?
(Someone was bound to say that. :-)
Kudos to the list-members who figured that Demona was part of the betrayal. I understood her reason for working with the captain: to get rid of the humans. But I wonder why she didn't evacuate the gargoyles as soon as Goliath left. After all, she had been left in charge and the others would've obeyed her.
And I don't believe her story about how she survived 1000 years. She must've been hysterical when she found out what happened to the other gargoyles, and I would've expected her to attack the humans soon afterwards. Also, she seemed much more knowledgeable and at ease with the modern world than the others. I got the impression that she had been conscious in the modern world long before Xanatos broke the spell. And I wonder why Demona the human hater would use a name given to her by humans ( who? ). So I think she survived to the modern world in a very different way than the others.
Another great moment: Goliath starting to cry as Demona rants.
Likewise his scream in horror when Demona falls to her "death". All of the tragedy was the fault of the woman he loves, and he's been forced to let her get "killed". So this scene is very traumatic for Goliath. His subsequent attack on Xanatos is understandable, but Goliath stays in character in that he's able to regain his senses with only a little urging from Eliza and Hudson.
"Gargoyles" started out strong and then weakened by the third part. But the drama got better, and the mini-series ended as strongly as it began. Here's hoping the series's quality stays high.
Commentary/Review
by Todd Jensen
The opening multi-parter comes to a very dramatic conclusion, with two exciting confrontations.
The Cyberbiotics raids are not only good action scenes, but also convey effectively the differing characteristics of their participants. The trio carry out their attack on the tower with a simple youthful exuberance. Hudson, on the other hand, during his and Bronx's invasion of the underground facility (and future Labyrinth), displays a more world-weary approach, commenting to Bronx such things as "I still don't know how we got talked into doing this" or (of the disk) "I hope this wee thing's worth the aches and pains I'll be feeling later". (Hudson's part of the raid also includes one of the most amusing moments in the episode, when, after having failed to find the disk, he frustratedly bangs his fist upon the control panel - and just happens to hit the right place to eject it!)
As for the air fortress, it continues Goliath's horrified discovery of the depths to which Demona has plummeted since their last farewell a thousand years before, the night before the Wyvern Massacre. He is aghast at how gleefully she demolishes the airship, sending it down in flames. It is one more thing that forces him to face the truth about her, that she's no longer the "angel of the night" that he remembered her as.
Just as I was forced, only a few scenes later, to finally face the truth about Xanatos. Ever since his introduction in Part Two, I had wondered whether his beneficial role towards the gargoyles was genuine or merely a facade, felt suspicious about his intentions, but wanted to believe that he was indeed what he seemed. But after Elisa revealed to Goliath the truth about the commandoes' attack on Castle Wyvern and their "theft" of the disks, I had to accept the truth, that Xanatos really was the "villain" - and just as he unleashed the Steel Clan upon the gargoyles.
The gargoyles' battle against the Steel Clan is another great action sequence (particularly when we get a robots'-eye-view of Hudson finishing off one Steel Clan member with his sword, and when Bronx seizes another by its tail and neatly dodges its attacks), but the real highlight comes as we uncover more of the truth about Demona, including not only her name but the fact that she was the Captain's partner in the betrayal of Castle Wyvern - a revelation that horrifies and saddens Goliath all the more. It culminates in the moment where Goliath must choose between saving Demona or Elisa from falling. He makes the correct choice and saves Elisa, but feels enough anguish over everything concerning Demona that he almost drops Xanatos to his death before Elisa and Hudson talk him out of it. (Xanatos is in as good form as ever in his cool-headed defiance of Goliath as the latter dangles him over the battlements; it is refreshing to see a "super-villain" who doesn't plead for mercy in such a situation.)
A few other momorable moments in this fine episode: Elisa driving up to the river's edge in her car, seeing the wreck of the Cyberbiotics airship, and Goliath and Demona gliding away. Goliath's plea to Demona, "Doesn't Xanatos prove that there are good humans as well as bad?" (a question that, a few minutes later, he would have a hard time believing he'd actually said!). Elisa gently pointing out to Goliath about how he needs to trust someone in the modern world, and it'll be better for him to trust her than Xanatos.
Despite Xanatos's warning to the gargoyles that all three Cyberbiotics installations have to be attacked simultaneously, to prevent one from alerting the others, the gargoyles fail to do this; the Cyberbiotics Tower is able to alert the underground laboratory about the trio's raid just before Hudson and Bronx show up, and word of the first two robberies reaches the airship just before Goliath and Demona force their way into its main room. On the other hand, it leads to the great moment as the airship's commander cries in near-panic, "Stations One and Two have been breached. We've lost two-thirds of the data!"
The gargoyles' first great adventure concludes in a proper fashion; after a few more light-hearted moments with the trio (such as Brooklyn discovering the damage that has befallen his sunglasses and Broadway discovering a Great Truth about Chinese food), we have a closing scene between Goliath and Elisa that lets us know that they will be truly loyal friends in the time to come (and also that Goliath still has some adjusting to do, in light of his response to Elisa's mention of a "Giants game"). A satisfactory ending to the series opener.
Tidbits
Hudson's line "And they say the Middle Ages were barbaric!", while amusing, is (from a perspective of strict realism) questionable. The term "Middle Ages" only came into existence after the medieval period, as a way of describing (in a patronizing fashion) the period of history between the classical age of Greece and Rome and the rediscovery of its art and literature during the Renaissance. Nobody in 994 would have recognized the term. One could, of course, assume that Hudson had picked it up from some of his television watching (maybe a historical documentary), although it would have been fast work.
The scarab logo of the robotics company owned by Xanatos that manufactured the tracer is the only remnant in "Gargoyles" of the Scarab Corporation, which was originally designed by the "Gargoyles" Production Team as one of the leading divisions of Xanatos Enterprises, alongside Pack-Media Studios and Gen-U-Tech. However, it received far less attention than these other divisions, thanks to the fact that stories involving its products focused on the products themselves (such as Coyote) and did not involve the corporation staff at all (unlike stories featuring Gen-U-Tech, for example, where Sevarius was certain to play a prominent role). We get another brief glance at that same logo in "Legion".
The scene where Demona reveals her name is another strong hint that she was lying about having been under the Magus's spell for the past thousand years like the rest of the clan. If she actually had been in stone sleep for that long, she would scarcely have had the opportunity to have gained it from a human "long ago".