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Turf
Synopsis | Review by Juan F. Lara | Review by Todd Jensen
Overview
- A turf war rages between Tony Dracon and Brode.
- Another war rages between the Trio for the affections of Angela.
- The gargoyles capture Brode, and Dracon gets a new cell-mate.
- The Trio apologize to Angela for acting the way they were.
Synopsis
by Adam Cerling
Act I
In a New York warehouse, Glasses [cf. Deadly Force] oversees Tony Dracon's men as they disassemble stolen cars. "The Dracon House of Auto Parts," he calls it; "The prices are hot and so is the merchandise."
Angela flies patrol this night with Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington. The three vie incessantly for Angela's attention, each boasting of his own crimefighting prowess, but Angela focuses instead on a hovercraft soaring low over the buildings below. "Is that normal?" The four follow to investigate.
The hovercraft lands on the roof of the Dracon warehouse. Several men and a blonde woman, all dressed in black, disembark. Tomas Brode [cf. Golem] is their leader. The woman kicks open the roof entrance to the building, but one of Dracon's guards, hiding nearby, destroys the entrance with a rocket launcher. The woman is caught in the blast and flung aside unconscious. Tomas and his men take out the guard with gas grenades. They descend into the building through the rubble of the entrance, firing the grenades ahead of them. Dracon's men try to stop Brode's, but the gas stops most of them before they can use their rifles. Brode's forces commence destroying the place with laser rifles and machine guns. Glasses and Joey [cf. Protection] take refuge in a bulletproof car. The police arrive, surrounding the building and demanding surrender through their bullhorns. Using the bulletproof car to burst through the garage door and the police barricade, Glasses and Joey escape. Brode's men also flee, but to the roof, where their hovercraft awaits. They rescue the fallen woman and soar away as the police, powerless to stop them, look on.
The four Gargoyles watching from above argue over the pursuit. Brooklyn orders Broadway and Lex to follow the car, while he and "Angie" take off after the hovercraft. Broadway and Lex, however, would rather stay with the party that includes Angela. In mid-flight, this causes a brawl amongst Brooklyn, Lex and Broadway, which comes to an abrupt halt as they collide with a chimney. Angela is silently exasperated.
Meanwhile, inside the hovercraft, the blonde woman, Sally, wakes up. Brode tells her that the police busted the raid. His men are angry; they have no reason to betray to Brode by alerting the police. "Ah," the woman says defensively, "then I guess it was me." Brode laughs, taking this as humor. "You know I like you!" Brode's men quickly blame Dracon's for being sloppy.
Upon the clock tower at dawn, the trio argue over the blame for losing the pursuit of the hovercraft. Angela tries to ignore them. She is worried that Goliath, Hudson and Bronx have not yet returned for the day. Broadway reassures her, but Lex takes an opening and insults him--they and Brooklyn are bickering again when sunlight catches them.
Glasses visits the maximum-security prison to tell Tony Dracon, an inmate, that Brode is muscling in on the Dracon turf. Dracon angrily orders Glasses to retaliate.
Brode and his cronies are eating a meal on Brode's turf, in a restaurant, when the police, lead by Matt Bluestone, show up to question them. Brode professes ignorance of the night's raid, and his companions give him an alibi.
Bluestone brings Brode and Sally to police headquarters for questioning anyway. He tells Sally to wait in the lobby for her inquisitor, then takes Brode away. Other policemen escort in another thug, who flips out on them. Sally takes advantage of the distraction to slip away into the halls of the station.
Night falls, and the four gargoyles wake up on the clock tower just as Sally stumbles upon their lair. "Uh oh," says Brooklyn. "We've got a problem."
Act II
Sally removes her blonde wig--she's actually Elisa. The Gargoyles are immensely relieved. Elisa tells them she's working undercover to bust Brode--who has moved his operations from Prague to New York--and Dracon at the same time. She requests the Gargoyles' help; they can follow her where the police can't. Before she can leave, Angela stops her to ask quietly whether the "boys" are always like "this." "It's been awhile since they've been around an attractive female gargoyle," Elisa reassures her. "Like about a thousand years. You're a big girl. Just let them know how you expect to be treated."
Below, Elisa argues with the captain over the police's inability to close in on Brode and Dracon. Chavez explains that since Elisa was unconscious during the raid, her testimony would be useless in court. At last, however, Elisa does convince the Captain to let her stick with Brode a little longer.
Bluestone's interrogation of Brode ends just as Chavez pushes Sally out into the hall. The Captain practically throws Sally at Brode, telling them to get out. They leave.
A car picks them up outside. Above, Brooklyn lamely orders Lex and Broadway to wait for Goliath while he and Angela follow the car. Lex and Broadway, of course, follow anyway. Angela, definitely ticked off, defuses the potential fight by reminding the three that Elisa is depending on their aid.
Brode's car pulls up to his restaurant, which is in flames. One of his men blames the hit on Dracon. "That was my favorite restaurant!" Brode exclaims. "Now he makes me mad." The henchman then shares the word from the street: Dracon expects a weapons shipment that night by train. Brode decides to crash the party.
The hovercraft deposits Brode, Sally, and two others on the roof of the train, which runs along the riverfront. They enter through the door of the rear car. It's a trap; Dracon's men there begin firing, forcing Brode and the others back to the roof. Glasses employs a rocket launcher to knock the hovercraft off course, thus preventing Brode's escape. They are trapped. Just before Dracon's men can execute them, however, Angela and the trio drop down and dump most of Dracon's forces into the river. The Gargoyles fly ahead in pursuit of the hovercraft. Lex tries to impress Angela by taking on the craft first, but a laser cannon knocks him from the air. Angela catches him, but is shot as well. They tumble to the ground and push themselves up only to stare into the headlamp of the fast-approaching train.
Act III
Broadway and Brooklyn rescue them at the last possible moment.
On the train and cornered by Brode and his followers, Glasses argues against Brode's aspirations. He reasons that Dracons have owned New York for generations, and Brode could defeat a thousand toughs without changing that fact. On that note, Glasses jumps into the river, and a plan bubbles to the surface of Brode's mind.
Upon a nearby rooftop, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington argue over the close call on the tracks. Angela gets sick of it. She explodes at the them,putting them in their place: "The winner does not get to keep me!" She takes off after the hovercraft, and the three sheepishly follow. "Angie, wait up!" "Oh, and another thing," she says. "STOP CALLING ME 'ANGIE'!"
"I have been making big mistake," says Brode, on back on the hovercraft with Sally and his henchmen. He advocates eliminating Tony Dracon himself. Sally is highly skeptical about breaking into the maximum security prison, but Brode will not be denied--he has the weaponry and the knowledge of Dracon's location.
The hovercraft assaults the prison. Guards rush about at the commotion. "What's going on? I didn't order a breakout!" Dracon frets in his cell. Brode and his assault team take out the guards with gas grenades and head for Dracon's cell block. Sally hesitates before following.
Laser fire from the hovercraft greets the Gargoyles as they arrive. Angela's reprimand has steeled them into a fighting team once again. Angela and Lex enter the hovercraft from below and take out two men there, including the pilot. The craft plummets earthward, out of control. "Can't you do something?" Angela asks as Lex puzzles over the helm. "I thought you flew a helicopter!" "Yeah," Lex agrees, "but first I... I kinda crashed it." The two abandon the hovercraft just before it slams into the prison grounds.
Dracon cries out in fear when Brode and his forces show up outside his cell. Brode levels his rifle at Dracon, but Sally knocks him down, desperately saving Dracon. Her companions quickly subdue her. Tony Dracon isn't fooled for a moment; he greets her as "Sugar," then introduces her properly to Brode, reaching through the bars to seize her wig. Brode is swift to vengeance --but Brooklyn arrives in time to catch the first punch he throws. He and the other Gargoyles start mopping the floor with Brode and his men. In the confusion, Dracon opens his cell with a fallen rifle and opens fire on the "bats." Brode in his anger also tries to lay waste the "reptiles." The Gargoyles, however, easily tackle both Dracon and Brode. When everything is under control, Elisa advises her friends to leave before the guards arrive. She greets the guards with a badge and bouquet of bound bad guys. "Hi--I've got some new inmates for you. A couple of creeps who were messing with my turf."
Goliath, Hudson, and Bronx greet the other Gargoyles when they arrive at the clock tower. The "boys" apologize to Angela for their behavior, promising to just "back off." Angela, not ruling out the possibility that something could "happen," tells them to simply slow down rather than stop trying to win her favor altogether. She kisses them all good morning as dawn approaches. "Besides," she adds, "I'm not the only female gargoyle on earth. I have fifteen rookery sisters back on Avalon." Brooklyn looks at Goliath. "So, uh, when do we get our world tour?"
Back in prison, the guards smugly introduce Tony Dracon to his new cellmate-- Tomas Brode.
Review
by Juan F. Lara
Cute episode, if not outstanding.
Good Points
I was never a Dracon fan, and I didn't care for Tomas Brode in "Golem". But they and their underlings played against each other very well. Brode's attitude (and his Boris Badenov English) were fun to watch, and kept the tone from becoming too serious. And Dracon and his merry men were more humanized here than in previous eps. The men fought hard against Brode's strong challenge while Dracon feared for his safety in jail, but all still remained vicious thugs. The episode also featured some very well staged turf battles. I particularly liked the clever trap on the train and the subsequent fight.
The Gargoyle rivalry was mildly entertaining. That plotline developped in a very predictable manner: the boys keep bickering over Angela until Angela gets fed up and chews them out. This storyline usually makes me cringe, but not here. The guys snuck in some references to previous adventures that made their boasting more interesting. Also, Angela showed more personality than usual in her telling off the males. And she made herself useful by recognizing Brode immediately and using her knowledge of the hovercraft from "Golem" to sneak in.
Bad Points
I didn't understand why Jack Danforth was involved. He was in MORE than retirement in "Revelations". I can't believe someone who's been in the Witness Protection Program for so long would throw one's new life away and put oneself in harm's way as Danforth did, here. Also, Danforth didn't really contribute anything special to the Brode gang.
Of course, prison officials would never put two prisoners who so hated each other in the same cell. :-) Gimme a break.
If the chop-shop attack was "Salli"'s idea, wouldn't that be entrapment then?
Miscellaneous
Elisa had yet another rare change of clothes. Beats me how she could hide her long hair underneath that wig, though, and how she could keep her wig on throughout all that fighting. :-)
Elisa also showed how quick her reflexes are when she vanishes a couple of cels before the explosion in Act 1. :-)
This episode had a notably large amount of quotables:
Quotes
Matt: Tomas Brode. We'd like to ask you some questions. Like where were you during last night's raid on Tony Dracon's chop shop.
Brode: Chop shop...What is "chop shop"?
Elisa: It's been a while since they've been around an attractive female gargoyle. Like about 1000 years.
Dracon: What's going on?! I didn't order a breakout!
Angela: Besides, I'm not the only female gargoyle on Earth. I have 15 rookery sisters on Avalon.
Brooklyn: So, when do we get OUR world tour?
Angela: Oh, and another thing. STOP CALLING ME "ANGIE"!!
Overall a good filler episode.
Commentary/Review
by Todd Jensen
The last (to date) of the organized crime stories in "Gargoyles", "Turf" is a relatively slight tale compared to "Deadly Force" and "The Silver Falcon". But it has a few amusing moments, all the same.
Tony Dracon now finds his control of New York organized crime threatened by Tomas Brod, who has just come to Manhattan (presumably looking for a city that doesn't have a Golem to protect it - he should have paid more attention to those urban legends concerning the gargoyles). As a particularly nice touch showing how Dracon's power and influence are waning, he is now depicted, for the first time in the series, as still behind bars after the events in "Protection", rather than using his connections to get himself out on the street again. Indeed, after the events in "Turf", I can't help but suspect that Tony's days as a mob boss are numbered; when the series becomes revived as a comic book, it will be interesting to see (if he appears) which direction he is taken in next (and who will succeed him as the new "face on organized crime" figure in "Gargoyles").
As a parallel story to the turf war between Dracon and Brod, we see the trio engaging in their own struggle over Angela - the development that we all should have seen coming the moment that she arrived at the clock tower. As Elisa points out, it's been a thousand years since they've had any real female gargoyle company, and all three of them proceed to fall head over heels for her, leading to a great deal of attempting to impress her and getting into fights with each other. In fact, Lexington, Brooklyn, and Broadway wind up almost acting like the Three Stooges with wings, particularly when they collide with the chimney or when Brooklyn yells at the other two, "Knock it off, you muttonheads!" Needless to say, Angela is anything but impressed (particularly when Brooklyn and Lexington start calling her "Angie" - Broadway gets a few points for not addressing her by that name in this episode), and finally makes her thoughts on the matter clear to them, with a little encouragement from Elisa. Fortunately, the trio get the message, and agree to let matters take their course at a more natural pace.
Like "Vendettas", "Turf" is best approached as a comedy episode. There are a number of very amusing lines in this episode, among these being Glasses' line near the beginning, "Come on down to Dracon's House of Auto Parts. The prices are hot, and so is the merchandise", Brod's comment after "Salli" is knocked unconscious, "That is why I never go in first", his response when being questioned about his raid on Dracon's chop shop, "Chop shop? What is 'chop shop'?", and the cry from an astonished Tony as Brod makes his attack upon the prison where he's being held, "What's going on here? I didn't order a break-out!" - not to mention Angela's indignant cry of "Stop calling me Angie!" Then there's the trio's buffoonery (as noted above), and finally the ending with Dracon and Brod being forced to share a cell, much to their mutual disgust (even though it is extremely unlikely that such a thing would have happened in real life).
Elisa repeats "Protection" by going undercover again, though this time in a genuine disguise (I will confess that her blonde wig fooled me the first time that I saw this episode, though her real hair is a little too long to fit under it); she manages to deceive Brod, though not Dracon, who sees through it at once. (The trio and Angela are also initially duped, though the trio afterwards claim - naturally - that they'd known it was her all along.)
One scene in "Turf" puzzles me a little, and could have benefited from some better direction; while Brod is vowing revenge on Dracon for burning down his favorite restaurant, the camera pulls back to show a phone booth close by. Clearly, the phone booth is meant to have some significance in this scene, but we do not find out what it is. (Most likely either Elisa or one of Dracon's supporters was going to use it to secretly convey some information.)
"Turf" isn't one of the great "Gargoyles" episodes, but it's mildly entertaining, and provides some light relief prior to the more serious tone of "The Reckoning".
Tidbits
Jack Dane from "Revelations" returns to become a member of Tomas Brod's gang (he ought to have stayed in the Witness Relocation Program), apparently out of hostility towards Tony Dracon and his family.
There are a number of allusions to past episodes here, including not only "Protection" (with Broadway proudly boasting about how he helped put Dracon behind bars) and "Golem" (with the return of Brod and his hovercraft - though the question remains unanswered as to how he recovered it), but also "Her Brother's Keeper" (Lexington recalls his flying the Pack's helicopter) and "The Price" (Broadway's turning to stone in mid-air during the battle with the Macbeth robot is recalled).
According to Greg Weisman, the events in "Vendettas" and "Turf" took place (more or less) simultaneously, indicating that Goliath and Hudson's absence was due to their fight with Wolf and Hakon's ghost. This doesn't explain Bronx's absence, however, since the great gargoyle beast wasn't with Goliath and Hudson in that adventure.
Elisa's alias of "Salli" is another in-joke; she was voiced by Salli Richardson.
Brooklyn's question to Goliath, "So when do we get our world tour?" was designed as being a foreshadowing of the "Timedancer" spin-off. (Like Goliath in "Future Tense", Brooklyn really ought to learn to be careful for what he asks for.)
Though Lexington is as eager at pursuing Angela in this episode as Brooklyn and Broadway are, in fact (again according to Greg Weisman), he's actually gay - a revelation that would have been handled very carefully in the series had it continued under Greg's direction. Presumably, Lex must not have realized this at the time of "Turf"; it does help to explain, certainly, why he wasn't as upset as Brooklyn was in "The Journey" when it became clear that Angela had chosen Broadway.