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Hunter's Moon, Part I
Synopsis | Review by Juan F. Lara | Review by Todd Jensen
Overview
- The Hunters started in 994 A.D. with Demona's attack on Gillecomgain. The vendetta then passed to the house of Canmore, who have passed it from generation to generation for a thousand years.
- The Hunters' aim is to kill "The Demon", a.k.a. Demona. They have extended that aim to include all gargoyles.
- Elisa has a new partner.
- Demona is plotting something with Servarius.
- The Hunters attacked the Clan and severely injured Angela.
Synopsis
by Guandalug la'Fay
Act I
Flashback: We see again how Demona wounds Gillecomgain, "creating" the very first hunter
Switch to Manhattan, current time. Three thugs molest a helpless girl, who escapes into a subway car - but that's no place of safety, for the muggers enter the subway as well, intending to "collect" purses and other valuable stuff from the passengers (among those: Brendan and Margot Yale).
The clan lands on the car and Goliath rips open the roof, pulling the first mugger out of the car. A few moments (and some bullets) later, the second one joins his comrade in dangling at the side of the subway train. As Goliath enters the car, he's greeted by the third mugger, holding a gun at point-blank range. The "helpless girl" is revealed to be Elisa Maza (again working undercover and thus with a slightly changed wardrobe - and a blond wig). The other passengers of the car react with fear. "We still got a little PR problem", as Brooklyn comments.
On the flight back to the tower, the trio's boasting about their success. Brooklyn sums it up like this: "Defenders of the night - stopping evil stone-cold." Back at the clock tower, they are greeted by Hudson and take their positions just as the sun rises.
A few moments later, Elisa and Matt have a meeting with Captain Chavez, who tells Elisa that she's re-assigned to day-shift - and with a new partner: Jason Conover. Somehow, he evades questions about his former precinct and changes the topic soon to the weirdness of New York City.
Driving on patrol along the docks, they encounter an explosion in one of the warehouses and stop to investigate. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by gangsters.
Act II
Jason manages to shoot a canister of whatever the thugs were trying to steal, and the explosion gives the two a chance to break the trap. Three of the robbers jump into a green van and escape, followed by Elisa and Jason. The chase goes across Central Park, both sides exchanging lots of bullets. Finally, Jason shoots the left rear tire of the van, and it falls over, thus ending the escape. All escaping robbers are caught, and the stolen canister is revealed to have an inscription of D/I-7
Over in a (further undescribed) skyscraper, Dominique Destine holds a talk with Robyn Correy, who applied to become Dominiques personal assistant. During the interview, a man bursts in, telling Dominique about the failed attempt to achieve the D/I-7. Brushing him off for a moment, Dominique first hires Robyn, telling her that she'll start first thing next morning, and dismisses her. Afterward, Dominique urges the man to finish his report - and reacts badly on the news of his failure. Fortunately (for him), it's nearly sunset, so she just dismisses him, and he runs out - just in time, as Dominique Destine transforms into Demona, ripping a good buisness suit to pieces in the process.
Act III
The clan awakens at the clock tower and are greeted by Elisa Maza, who tells them about the latest events. Meanwhile, Matt Bluestone interviews David Xanathos about the D/I-7, and learns that it's but a very potent and powerful disinfectant. After hearing all news, Goliath decides to split up the clan and watch the two locations where D/I-7 is stored: The warehouse, and a chemical plant.
Meanwhile, Xanathos receives a visit from a reporter from WVRN, named Jon Carter, who claim to do a report on Manhattan's unique skyline. His first question aims at the missing gargoyle statues. Xanathos answered: "They didn't suit my taste. So I had them destroyed." After a further question regarding the rumor of gargoyles in Manhattan, Xanathos shoots back: "Did you say you're working for WVRN, or the daily tattler?" Escorted by Owen, the reporter is allowed to explore the castle. After he has left, Xanathos reviews the tape of a security camera that clearly shows how Jon Carter picks up a piece of stone skin. "No doubt left by one of the Gargoyles a year ago." Owen comments. (Makes you wonder how bad Xanathos' cleaning crew is, if after whole year there's still stone skin on the castle walls.)
Over at the warehouse, Hudson, Angela and Goliath are watching. Angela has doubts about the robbers coming back again, but Hudson is sure: "Thieves always return to the scene of the crime, lass - I learned that from the television." "I thought you said I wasn't supposed to believe everything I saw on television", Angela replies.
Right then, an aircraft rises over the rim of the building, and a door opens in its front, revealing three black-clad figures who wear black masks with red claw marks on them. The three hunters are a bit surprised to see three gargoyles, having only expected "the demon" to survive. Still, they attack and manage to overpower the three gargoyles easily.
The trio and Bronx are meanwhile watching the chemical plant, where a mysterious figure approaches the door. Recognizing Demona, Brooklyn jumps to attack her, ruining the previous plan of surprising the thief. Instead, they now face laser-fire from Demona.
In the fight with the hunters, Angela gets electrocuted and falls off the building. Goliath roars, ripping apart the net that held him captive up to then, and jumps after his daughter, followed by Hudson. At floor level, Angela is lying on a car, not moving at all. Scooping her up in his arms, Goliath carries her away, while the hunters shoot laser blasts from the rooftop. "At least we got the demon" one of the hunters states. "It wasn't the demon", the second male hunter replies, turning around.
At the chemical plant, Demona is still firing at the trio. After a short fight with Brooklyn, during which the plant starts to burn due to a misaimed laser shot, Demona is able to grab a canister of D/I-7 and escape, leaving the trio behind. Lex manages to save Brooklyn, right before the place blows up.
In their airship, the hunters discuss the events of the evening. One of them asks for the reason to destroy the whole clan. "We know the Demon is evil, but these other gargoyles might not be." His comrade angrily disagrees: "The only good Gargoyle is a dead Gargoyle!".
Back home at the clock tower, Hudson is holding the still lifeless Angela in his arms. With hours until dawn, the Gargoyle "concrete cure all" this time might not be a solution. Goliath is angry, and swears to hunt and kill the hunters.
Review
by Juan F. Lara
The season finale begins with a good prologue.
Good Points
The whole episode in fact was written as a prologue.:
Act 1 featured a "typical" evening for the Gargoyles, helping Elisa foil a crime. After the crime, the Gargies commented about how good a life they've made for themselves, with Brooklyn even saying one of the show's ad slogans: "Defenders of the night, stopping evil stone cold." (I don't think any character has said that on the show before.) So the multiparter started by establishing what the Gargoyles currently had....
The whole scene had the same feel to me as the gargoyles' defeat of the Vikings way back in "Awakening, Part 1", where they also defeated a foe as part of their standard duty. In fact, this episode had many similarities with "Awakening". The Gargoyles foiled the same three thugs that Goliath fought in "Awakening, Part 3", his first "crimefighting" act. The yuppie couple (finally named Margo and Brendon) made yet another appearance, bickering as they did the last time the three muggers attacked them. And Brooklyn suffered an injury that he covered with cloth to let heal during the day, just as Goliath had done in "Awakening". These recaps kept "Awakening" always on my mind, setting up this multiparter's "finale" tone.
(BTW: The setup worked well for me when the Gargoyles seemed to have their first loss. Brooklyn's casual attitude to his wound contrasted with the fear the Gargs felt over the long time between Angela getting hurt and the dawn.)
Part 1 introduced the Hunters, (I liked how each of the Hunters were introduced invidually in their secret identities, and had time to establish their alter egos) and set up the conflict between them and Goliath. It also featured Demona's attempts at getting the Di7, and the public's fear of the Gargoyles. But it didn't really explain any of the main plots of the multiparter yet, or make much progress in them.
Bad Points
So much for "The Reckoning". :-( Demona was back to her screaming idiot self here. In chewing out of a flunky she acted more like the way she did before "City of Stone", and so was less interesting that she had been lately.
Nit: Elisa was sent undercover to catch muggers all by herself?
Miscellaneous
Gillecomgain sure had an uncaring father. There always seems to be an abusive parent behind every mad killer. :-) (Also, Gillecomgain should've bled more from such large gashes.)
Thailog's conspicuous absense doesn't bode well for him...
Cast list: Sheena Easton returned, this time playing Robyn Correy. Scott Cleverdon played John Carter and Bruce Wayne soundalike Deidrich Bader played Jason Conover.
So Part 1 of "Hunter's Moon" didn't feature very much of its story. But I thought it worked well as a setup.
Elisa: Good as new, I see.
Brooklyn: Yep. We call it the Concrete Cure-All.
Commentary/Review
by Todd Jensen
The Season Two finale of "Gargoyles" (and, from the point of view of most "Gargoyles" fans, including this reviewer, the series finale of "Gargoyles"), "Hunter's Moon" is one of the most powerful and dramatic "Gargoyles" stories of all. It makes a fitting conclusion to the season, and while it has a few loose ends in it (as we shall see when we get to Part Three), it makes a reasonably satisfactory conclusion to the series as well.
The core concept of "Hunter's Moon" is the return of the Hunters, which had last been seen in "City of Stone", and which (aside from Macbeth's wearing the Hunter's mask during his pursuit of Demona in that same story) had apparently come to an end with Canmore's triumph over Macbeth in 1057. Now, however, the Hunters have resurfaced, and a new generation has arrived in New York, originally to hunt Demona. It soon becomes clear, however, that they classify all gargoyles as quarry, Goliath's clan as well as Demona, with alarming consequences.
The new Hunters, however, differ from the original Hunters of "City of Stone" (Gillecomgain, Duncan, and Canmore) in their characterization. Gillecomgain, Duncan, and Canmore were straightforwardly villainous; they were all treacherous and greedy for power, and waged war with equal enthusiasm on their fellow humans (such as Macbeth and his family) as they did on gargoyles. Indeed, while Duncan and Canmore didn't like gargoyles much, their immediate reason for persecuting them was that Demona and her clan had gotten involved in the struggle between Duncan's family and Macbeth's over the Scottish throne. However, Jason, Robyn, and Jon Canmore are a different breed. They have their flaws, but their motives have a nobler tone to them. They honestly believe that the gargoyles are evil monsters, a menace to the human race and to the world, and must be rooted out - and since the only gargoyle that they and their forebears had any acquaintance with prior to coming to Manhattan (so far as we can tell) was Demona, it would have been only too easy for them to jump to that conclusion. Their goal is not pure - they hunt Demona more to satisfy a family feud than to protect humanity from her genocidal intentions - but they do not engage in the political schemings of the original Hunters. Certainly, their actions as the three-parter progresses show that they are, at least, capable of higher things than Gillecomgain, Duncan, and Canmore were.
This proves particularly fortunate, in adding an element of tragedy to the war between Goliath's clan and the Hunters. These new adversaries of the gargoyles are not simple psychopaths like the Pack or corrupt powermongers like the Archmage or conventional criminals like Dracon and Brod; they are misguided people who go to battle with the gargoyles out of a simple misunderstanding. They even share a common foe in Demona; as Jon points out in Part Two, they might have allied against her if it hadn't been for their feud. The three-parter effectively shows that the vendetta between the gargoyles and the Canmores is not a "good vs. evil" struggle, as were many of the gargoyles' other battles in the series, but a war that should never have come about between two groups of people that should never have been enemies; the wrongs have been inflicted on both sides, and neither side is entirely innocent. And the consequences of their quarrel are.... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The first part opens with a flashback to Demona scarring Gillecomgain's face in 994, with some new footage; we now see the young Gillecomgain reporting the attack upon him to his harsh and unsympathetic father, and vowing revenge upon Demona and her entire race, beginning the Hunters. (The introduction of Gillecomgain's father is a particularly fine touch, showing that there was more than just the facial scars behind Gillecomgain's motivations. His father's cruelty had nourished a darkness in the boy that just needed Demona's attack upon him to give it a direction; indeed, Demona was more the catalyst for Gillecomgain's embarking on the life that he did than the cause.) Although it turns out in Part Three that the present-day Hunters are descended from Duncan and Canmore rather than from Gillecomgain, it makes a very effective introduction to the story.
We move to present-day New York where the gargoyles help Elisa deal with some subway robbers, portrayed as a "typical night out on patrol" for them, and then head back to the clock tower, feeling at peace with the world. But the end of this period in their lives is at hand, when the Canmores come into town. We meet Jason, Robyn, and Jon first in their "civilian aliases" as they start scouting around; Jason as Jason Conover, Elisa's new partner, Robyn as Robyn Correy, Dominique Destine's new personal assistant at Nightstone Unlimited, and Jon as Jon Carter, a news reporter for WVRN. All three of them find ways of getting close to different people closely linked to the gargoyles: Elisa for Jason, Demona/Dominique for Robyn, Xanatos for Jon. And then, after night falls, they emerge as the Hunters to attack Goliath, Hudson, and Angela (the last of whom they initially mistake for Demona). While we don't find out that the three newcomers and the Hunters are the same people until Part Two, the fact that these two trios both show up in New York at the same time should make the more alert viewers suspect something.
Nor is that all. Demona is clearly plotting something, as we find out when a few of her henchmen make an unsuccessful attempt at stealing some industrial-strength detergent from one of Xanatos's warehouses. Elisa and Jason quickly foil the attempt, but Demona proceeds to take matters into her own claws and steal the detergent herself. What she plans to use it for, we do not as yet learn, but knowing her, it can't be anything good.
These considerations pale, however, compared to the cliffhanger for Part One. Angela was seriously injured in the fight with the Hunters (who focused their attacks upon her, thanks to the mistaken identity issue), and the gargoyles fear that sunrise may not come early enough to save her life. To make matters even more unnerving, Goliath, filled with grief and anger over his daughter's prospective death, swears revenge upon the Hunters, actually displaying an explicit desire to kill them. The first time that I saw this episode, indeed, I was far more alarmed at Goliath's vow than over the threat to Angela. And that was just the beginning....
Tidbits
Like "City of Stone", "Hunter's Moon" was originally intended as a direct-to-video release rather than part of the televised series.
To mark its nature as a "season finale" (and, to a certain extent, a "series finale"), "Hunter's Moon" contains a number of deliberate echoes of Season One, particularly "Awakening", as part of the concept that one of the best ways to end a story is to bring in the motifs from the beginning. Among these echoes are:
The gargoyles rescuing Brendan and Margot from the three street thugs ("Awakening Part Three").
The fight with the three street thugs parallels the initial battle with the Vikings ("Awakening Part One"), a quick and successful fight that the gargoyles are proud of. Brooklyn's minor injury that will be healed by his stone sleep during the day similarly serves as a counterpart to Goliath's own minor injury in his first encounter with Hakon.
The end of Part One, with Angela's life hanging in the balance and Goliath's grief and anger over it, echoes the carnage of the Wyvern Massacre, in particular, Demona's apparent death in it and Goliath's bellow of sorrow and rage after mourning what he believes to be her fragments.
The trio's inadvertent destruction of the warehouse during their fight with Demona serves as a counterpart to Lexington's equally inadvertent demolition of Vinnie's motorcycle ("Awakening Part Three"). Brooklyn's question about who's going to tell Goliath about this similarly echoes his remark after watching the motorcycle go up in flames about how they'd probably better not let Goliath know about the incident.
Xanatos mentions the "Daily Tattler" in his conversation with Jon Canmore ("The Thrill of the Hunt").
When Jason talks to Elisa about the various urban legends revolving around New York, he mentions "alligators in the sewers" as an example ("The Thrill of the Hunt").
Angela reminds Hudson that he'd told her not to believe everything that she'd seen on television ("The Thrill of the Hunt").
The warehouse robbery that Elisa and Jason foil takes place in the same docks are as Tony Dracon's theft of Xanatos's particle beam accelerators at the beginning of "Deadly Force".
Elisa's initial protest at being teamed up with Jason echoes her original protest at being partnered with Matt in "The Edge" (though she accepts Jason as a partner much more quickly).
Elisa and Jason's pursuit of Demona's thugs through Central Park may have been intended as an echo of Elisa being pursued by Xanatos's commandoes through Central Park in "Awakening Part Four".
This is another good episode for cameos by the incidental characters. The three street thugs that were introduced in "Awakening Part Three" and reappeared in "Avalon Part One" now return again here, to be foiled by the gargoyles and Elisa. The panicked subway passengers include Brendan and Margot, Billy and Susan's mother from "The Thrill of the Hunt", Art and Lois from "Protection", and the construction worker from "Vendettas". Officer Morgan is one of the policemen who arrest the street thugs. Elisa and Jason pass the Jogger during their car chase.
When Demona is conducting her job interview with Robyn, she notes that Robyn has "references from Florence, Edinburgh, the Sorbonne". This is particularly amusing, since the opening flashback in Part One takes place in Scotland (though not in Edinburgh), the opening flashback in Part Two takes place in Florence, and the opening flashback in Part Three takes place in Paris (where the Sorbonne is located).
Xanatos makes a "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" reference when he says to Alex, "Can you say 'harassment'? [Alex gurgles here.] I knew you could."
The name "WVRN" for the television station that Jon Canmore works for in his "Jon Carter" identity becomes of note when one recalls where else in the series one has come across a name with those four consonants in it.
Brooklyn quotes an actual "advertising slogan" for "Gargoyles" when he proudly describes himself and his fellow gargoyles as "stopping evil stone cold".
Elisa uses her blonde wig from "Turf" for a disguise again.