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Generations

Overview

[Missing]

Synopsis

By Harvester of Eyes

Warning: Being a self-proclaimed Demona-phile, I'd just like to say that this is my least favorite Goliath Chronicles episode. I disliked all of these with the exception of "The Journey" (and, on good days, "The Dying of the Light"), but "Generations" was biblically idiotic. There are just so many things in this episode that make me cringe. I'll be doing my best to keep this synopsis neutral, but I really, really hate this episode, so I won't be trying too hard. Normally, I try to keep my synopses neutral, but for this, I'm happy to make an exception.

Act I

Goliath's opening monologue: "There is a curse that can affect both man and gargoyle. It is loneliness, and it can eat away at the strongest soul. We all need the invigorating presence of others, a sustenance as essential as air, food, or water. For alone, life is empty, and no bond is more yearned for than that of a parent and child."

As Goliath is speaking, we see Angela standing on a rooftop, watching the interaction between a human mother and child down on the street below. Goliath and Brooklyn alight on the roof behind her, and Brooklyn asks Angela what is keeping her. Angela says it's nothing, and the three of them then take to the air. Goliath notes that Angela seems preoccupied with something lately, and again, Angela brushes it off as nothing. Just then, a cry is heard from below, and the three gargoyles go off to investigate.

Down in an alley on the street, a woman is being mugged by four street toughs. Just as they take her purse, the gargoyles come down to her aid. After a brief altercation, the street punks run away. Goliath returns the woman's purse to her and tells her that she's safe now. She laughs evilly (to show that she's evil), and says "but you're not." As she runs from the alley, several Quarrymen appear. It's apparent that the Quarrymen were setting them up. We're then treated to a fight scene that's pretty terrible, by Gargoyles standards.

What's wrong with this fight scene? Well, first of all, there's the manner in which the Quarrymen are banging their hammers against the ground and walls. Who the hell are these guys, medieval infantrymen? If they're trying to intimidate the gargoyles, they're not doing a very good job, because they only succeed in looking like mindless, retarded thugs,rather than the complex villains that were a Gargoyles trademark. This is made even more apparent when you consider that the Quarrymen were using the fact that gargoyles are really noble protectors against our heroes. If they know that the gargoyle mission is to protect, then what they're doing in this episode makes them seem less like the confused, frightened citizens that John Castaway was addressing in "The Journey" and more like clichéd Saturday morning bad guys.

Then, we have the music. One of the things I hate the most about the Goliath Chronicles is the way that they made a complete mockery of Carl Johnson's magnificent score during the title sequence. It's like they were trying to make Gargoyles "hip" and "cool." To make this atrocious fight scene even worse, they actually play the title theme during the fight! The original series never had to resort to this! And they're not even doing a good job of it. The music keeps repeating, and it's so poorly edited!

Anyway, it looks like the gargoyles have the advantage, when suddenly nets start falling from the sky. This is just downright confusing. Where are the nets coming from? We did see two Quarrymen on a fire escape, but Goliath knocked them to the ground. Ah, whatever. Getting back to the fight scene, after both Angela and Goliath get trapped by nets, we see that more Quarrymen are coming down from the rooftops above the alley, but none of them seem to be carrying nets. Or net launchers, for that matter. Maybe an airplane full of nets that was flying overhead exploded. Okay, enough about the nets. Back to the fight. Brooklyn tries to free Angela from her net, and then he gets trapped in one himself. Things are looking bleak for the good guys. Suddenly, Demona swoops in and starts beating her way through the Quarrymen. This could have been a lot better, but again it's clumsily edited. Plus, Demona growls at one point, and it sounds just like Angela's growl. One could argue that this is because they're related, but I seem to remember Demona having her own distinct growl in the first 66 episodes of Gargoyles.

Anyway, to make this scene even more ludicrous, we cut to one of the Quarrymen standing over Brooklyn and Angela's trapped forms with a laser gun, saying "well, at least you two won't escape." We can only assume that he's either deaf or suffering from short-term memory loss, since he seems to have forgotten that Demona is taking out his comrades. Just as we expect, Demona lunges at him, rips through his gun with her talons, and tosses him aside. As Demona is freeing Brooklyn and Angela from their bonds, we see a masked figure standing on a nearby rooftop, wielding a gun that looks somewhat like a blow-dryer. Maybe this was the source of the nets. But that's unlikely, since we soon see him fire a beam from his gun that is definitely not a net. The beam strikes Demona in the arm, and she falls to the ground. The masked assailant then presses several buttons on one of his wristbands, which makes him turn invisible like the Predator. Honestly, that was the only cool thing about this guy, even if it was clichéd. I have so many problems with this villain, which I'll get into later.

Down in the alley below, Goliath tells Angela to get Demona out of there. Angela climbs up the wall with her mother clinging to her back, and then takes off from the rooftop's edge. As they glide to safety, Angela thinks she spots something sneaking away, and Demona asks her if she saw something. Angela says that she's not sure.

A short while later, Demona and Angela have landed on a nearby rooftop, and Angela is busy bandaging Demona's arm. Somehow, the bandage seems to go on without being tied in place. As Angela finishes applying the magically sticking bandage, we're greeted to some awful dialogue. "You saved my life," Angela says. "Thank you." To which Demona replies: "As you saved mine. An equitable trade." Angela then says, "I didn't do it to get even." I wish I could tell you that their dialogue gets more interesting, but sadly, like the rest of this episode, it's clumsy and awkward. Goliath and Brooklyn than alight on the rooftop and say that they lost track of the mysterious masked man. Goliath remarks that it was as if he had just vanished. Well, duh! We saw him cloaking, didn't we? What does this tell us that we don't already know? Brooklyn then asks Demona what she was doing in the alley, and Angela gets all upset, and asks Brooklyn if he's going to thank Demona for saving his life. Apparently, Brooklyn's never told Angela about his history with Demona, about how her mother used him to get what she wanted, and then spit him out. Or if he has, Angela just forgot all about it. In the alternate TGC universe, people seem to forget things easily, as I'll elaborate on in a minute. Demona makes a vague reference to her and Brooklyn's history by telling Angela that he won't thank her. Demona then says farewell to Angela, and glides away. After she's gone, Angela starts in on how she's ashamed of both Brooklyn and Goliath (even though Goliath just stood there the whole time, and didn't say anything negative), and suggests that maybe Demona really is trying to change. Goliath insists that she will never change, and he will never trust her again.

On a side note, I'm curious as to why Angela is so readily defending her mother. I mean, sure, as we saw in "The Reckoning", Demona does love Angela. If she hadn't, she would have let Thailog shoot her. But only a few episodes later, in "Hunter's Moon", Demona nearly wiped out all sentient life on Earth (including Angela) when she threw the vial containing the virus up in the air. Has Angela forgotten about this? Has the clan forgotten about this? Why is this never brought up? Perhaps an argument between mother and daughter with Demona feebly trying to defend her actions would have been more engaging. Instead, it was thrown right out the window, along with many things that made Gargoyles enjoyable. Anyway, on with the synopsis.

The clan is back at the castle, and Angela is still whining about how they should give Demona a chance. Brooklyn and Broadway respond by saying that she's had several chances, and blown every one. So now I'm scratching my head, trying to recall when Demona was given a chance in the past. My fellow detractor of the Goliath Chronicles, Demona Taina, told me that the clan might have done so in "Long Way to Morning" or "Vows", but I think those were gray areas, since it was never made clear to Demona that she was being given a chance. But anyway, Angela prattles on about how Demona is her mother, and a former member of the clan, and Goliath's old flame, and blah blah blah happy licorice sunsets blah, and all this time I'm waiting for someone to mention "CV-1000 Carrier Virus," a hope that never gets fulfilled. Since when did Angela become so naïve? I mean, sure, it was expected on the World Tour, because she was new to the world, and had never known bigotry or cruelty from humans (or had a clue as to her biological parentage). But she's still an intelligent young warrior. She's seen how her mother is "capable of anything." Not to mention that the last time she saw Demona, Demona ALMOST KILLED HER. So where does this whole "happy family" thought come from? Fortunately, the sun comes up right as Angela is about to say that her father doesn't understand, sparing us from further agony.

But the reprieve is a short one. Time jumps forward to sunset at the castle, and after the clan has awoken from stone sleep, Angela flies off by herself. Goliath is about to follow, but Hudson tells him to let her go, saying that Angela needs her own company. We then see Angela standing on a rooftop's edge not far from the Eyrie Building. Demona lands a short distance behind Angela, and tells Angela that she wanted to see her again. We're then treated to another awkward exchange of dialogue, in which Demona says that if she and Angela can't be family, perhaps they can be friends. Angela says that she would like that, and her mother says that the two of them have some catching up to do. As Angela and Demona glide off into the night, the mysterious guy with the mask who cloaked himself earlier suddenly becomes visible on one of the rooftops, and watches them go. Hmmm, I wonder if he's going to follow them? Nah, that's crazy. That would be too predictable, but then again, we are watching the Goliath Chronicles. So never mind.

Act II

Demona and Angela are playing tag, I think. I guess it's supposed to represent how the two of them are bonding, or to reinforce the idea that Demona deserves another chance. But like most things in the alternate TGC universe, it's dumbed down and not at all interesting. Eventually, Demona tackles her daughter, and the two of them wind up on a nearby rooftop. "If this were real, you'd be dead," Demona tells Angela as she pins her down. "Never relax your guard." Angela replies by saying that Demona should never underestimate her opponent, and flips her mother off of her. Demona lands next to a far wall and gives another growl that, again, sounds like Angela's growl. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I swear Demona had her own growl in the first two seasons of Gargoyles. Anyway, I'll shut up about the growl. But I will not shut up about the awful dialogue between Demona and Angela. After their mock-battle, we're treated to some more of it.

Demona talks about how Angela is too trusting, and how humans and gargoyles are at war. Angela responds by saying that she was raised by humans, and can't believe that they're all evil, and how Goliath thinks they can live in peace someday. Demona calls Goliath a fool, and once again blames the Wyvern massacre (all the way back in "Awakening") on his trusting the humans. This is all well and good, but unfortunately, it was already covered (and a lot better, I might add) in "The Reckoning." I, being an idiot, continue to hold out for some mention of Demona's virus. Demona tells Angela "let's not get into this," and it looks like they're changing the subject. But, my hope that someone might bring up the virus becomes dashed yet again when Demona puts her hands on Angela's shoulders and says "we're here to talk about us."

Just then it cuts to a point-of-view shot. Someone appears to be looking at Demona and Angela through the scope of a high-tech rifle. To dispel any doubts that he might be evil, he laughs evilly. By now, I'm wondering what this guy's story is. Is he a high-tech Quarryman or something? Like most TGC villains, he hasn't got much depth. Sadly, his character becomes even more inane later on.

Back on the rooftop, Angela agrees with her mother, and says that there's so much they need to learn about each other. Suddenly, someone from a nearby rooftop begins shooting at them, presumably the same guy who laughed evilly as he sighted them with his rifle. Demona and Angela scan the nearby rooftops, and soon Angela spots a brief shimmer, as the cloaked assailant fades in and then turns invisible again. Angela takes off after him, lands on the far rooftop, and searches it. After looking around, and kicking a door for no good reason (seriously, she kicks it in, and then she starts to glance through the doorway and then changes her mind), she finds nothing. Demona lands on the roof behind Angela and says that the mysterious attacker must have fled. Demona and Angela have a brief discussion about this, and Angela mentions how the attacker did the same shimmering thing the other night. She wonders how he's tracking them, and Demona says that she has resources that can give her a lead. Angela expresses a desire to help, and Demona says that she would like that.

Back at the Eyrie Building, Goliath is still trying to convince Angela that they should have nothing to do with Demona. Angela says that she doesn't care what Demona has done in the past, she still thinks Demona deserves a chance. Now would be a great time for someone, anyone, to mention genocide or deadly viruses, and Demona's fondness of both. But of course, everyone just stands there not saying anything. Angela, disgusted by this, says that if no one will help her, she'll go herself. She takes off from the castle, and Goliath calls her once, and then wonders why she won't listen. Me, I'm not wondering the same thing. He and the others have a very excellent argument in the CV-1000 virus, but they never use it.

It then cuts to Angela circling around an old, rustic-looking building somewhere in Manhattan. Someone is watching her through binoculars as she flies into one of the building's open windows. We then see that it's the masked man from earlier. He's listed in the credits for this episode as the "Assassin," so I'll be referring to him as such from now on. He has his mask off in this scene, and he sort of looks like Derek Maza before Derek became a mutate. Now I'm even more confused by the assassin. So far, we've gotten no clues as to his motives. We just know he's evil. Anyway, he watches Angela enter the building, and then he finally says his first real words since the episode started ("right on schedule") and dons his mask once more. Honestly, there wasn't any point to seeing his face. We don't see him with his mask off again for the rest of the episode, and he's no one that the gargoyles know anyway, despite looking vaguely like Derek Maza. Like all TGC villains, the depth is completely lacking. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but this guy is such a boring villain!

But anyway, it then cuts to the inside of the building that Angela has just entered. She looks around, noting how run-down it appears, than we suddenly hear a voice: Demona telling her that yes, it is the right place. Angela asks her mother if this is where she lives, and Demona says that it's just a quiet place to hang her hat, one of many. This is actually the most logical thing we see Demona do in the episode. She probably wouldn't have wanted to take Angela back to her house, because there was a chance that Angela might tell the rest of the clan. And as of "The Journey," the clan still does not know where Demona lives. Sadly, this moment of logic is more fleeting than an athlete's glory, or my sanity as I endure the suckfest that is this episode. Right. Moving on.

Demona crosses the room to where we see a pile of timber and debris resting against the wall. She then takes a remote control from her belt and presses a button on it, and the debris slides to the side, revealing a secret room containing a bunch of high-tech, expensive looking computers. Honestly, it would have made more sense not to have a secret door in the form of a pile of debris. Why not just build the door right into the wall, and construct it so that it looks like the rest of the wall? That would be less conspicuous than a huge pile of debris. Anyway, Demona and Angela both enter the secret room, and Demona says that they'll use the equipment to see if their opponent has been leaving a trail. Just when the dialogue almost becomes tolerable, Demona mentions that it appears Angela hasn't been able to enlighten Goliath. Angela says that he and the others refused to help. Just then, a window in the room opens. That's right, a window. I'm assuming that this chamber is supposed to be a secret. It even has a secret door that can only be opened by remote control. But there's a window to the room. A window large enough for someone of Goliath's size to step through. Way to keep your secret chamber a secret, Demona!

But getting back to the plot, such as it is. Goliath steps through the window and says that he understood his help was requested. He also mentions that he and Demona have a common enemy, for now. The action then jumps forward to another room in the house, a short time later. Angela and Goliath are standing by a window, and Angela says that she appreciates Goliath's coming to help, knowing that it must have been hard. Goliath starts to say that it does not change his feelings about Demona, when suddenly the window they're standing by explodes. Goliath flies across the room and gets buried under a large pile of debris. Demona bursts into the room and demands to know what's happening. Angela, meanwhile, continues to stupidly stand by the gaping hole where the window used to be, until she gets clipped by a laser blast from outside. Then she finally figures out that she should move away from the window, and goes over to stand by the rubble pile that her father is half-buried under. One of the things I'm confused with is why Angela just stands there and watches Demona try to drag Goliath out from underneath the large beam. You think she could try helping or something.

But, helping or not helping, our villain du jour, the assassin, comes bursting through the hole in the wall. It's only after he runs past the gargoyles does he remember that he can turn himself invisible. Not that it matters. Both Angela and Demona stand there and watch him and don't even try to tackle him while he can be seen. But anyway, he cloaks himself, and Angela tries to hit him a few times, but is unsuccessful. She tells Demona that the assassin is playing with them and Demona runs from the room after she hears this. So we're treated to another badly-edited action sequence of Angela trying to hit the invisible assassin, and the assassin shooting at her and laughing evilly, just in case we had forgotten that he was evil. Finally, after one of his blasts has knocked Angela to the ground, Demona re-enters the room, carrying something that looks like a cross between a Polaroid camera and the scanner hooked up to my computer. Honestly, what is that thing? If it had tiny jets on it that enabled it to fly, it would be even more comical than Thailog's flying laser-gun from "Genesis Undone." But anyway, the bulky camera-thing emits a beam, a beam which Demona uses to scan the room until she spots the assassin. Considering what the thing can do, it might have been more helpful if Demona had taken that beam technology and made it into goggles or something. Then she'd have her hands free to attack the guy. But anyway, after she uses her device to spot where the assassin is, she throws it to the ground and runs at him. Huh? If I were her, I'd have held onto that thing. Once she drops it, she can no longer see the assassin and he has plenty of time to dodge her attack as she runs towards him. Which is what happens. He knocks Demona to the ground and then flees back out through the gaping hole in the wall. Goliath, who has regained his senses, takes off after him.

Goliath glides a short distance, and then finds the assassin standing on a nearby city street. As Goliath lands in front of him, it becomes apparent that the assassin has led him into a trap. Three Quarrymen riding Quarry-cycles attack the gargoyle from behind. Jesus H. Christ. I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. They're Quarrymen, and they're on motorcycles. God- damn it, my hatred for this episode just keeps growing with each passing minute. But at least these "Hell's Quarrymen" aren't really good at driving their motorcycles, because Goliath manages to knock them off their rides without really moving from the same spot. They're either really lousy drivers or else they just enjoy losing.

To make the scene worse, Goliath has the same short-term memory loss that plagues most of the characters in the alternate TGC universe. As he stands there asking "who's next?" he completely forgets about the assassin, who was also standing there unmoving as Goliath took out his Quarrymen buddies. The assassin fires several tranquilizer darts into the gargoyle leader. As Goliath slumps unconscious to the ground, the assassin says: "say goodnight, monster!" Then he laughs evilly some more. God, I don't know what's worse. This guy's wooden dialogue or his evil laugh. Does he have to keep reminding us that he's evil? Well, don't worry. The main reason I hate this guy so much is coming up in the Third Act, and if you hadn't figured out that he was evil from the first two acts, his evilness is about to stupidly increase tenfold.

Act III

Demona and Angela take off through the window in pursuit of Goliath. Demona then spots Goliath being loaded into a truck by Quarrymen. It's nice the way that the truck, like the nets from Act I, just conveniently appears out of nowhere. The TGC staff do seem to have a habit of conjuring things they need out of thin air. Never mind how the Quarrymen were on motorbikes in the previous Act, and now they just happen to have a truck. Whatever.

Angela swoops down to rescue Goliath, and somehow manages to evade gunfire from four Quarrymen. To be honest, this doesn't bother me too much. Low-level goons in the first two seasons of Gargoyles were always terrible shots. But anyway, as Angela swoops in and knocks a Quarryman to the ground, the assassin runs off, cloaking himself as he flees. Then something explodes near Angela, and Demona swoops in and grabs her, gliding with her daughter to safety. As the two of them gain altitude, Angela asks Demona why her mother stopped her, since she might have saved Goliath. Demona replies by saying, "you might have been killed. We are not invulnerable." Well, thank you very much for pointing out what Hakon already enlightened us to all the way back in the very first episode of the damn series! Although I don't blame Demona for stating the obvious. I was a big fan of Gargoyles, and I know that a lot of fans lost interest by the fourth or fifth Goliath Chronicle. I survived "A Bronx Tail," much to my chagrin, and made it as far as "Generations" before my enthusiasm flatlined. My point is, maybe a lot of the longtime fans were no longer watching the show by "Generations," and so the writers needed to explain that little bit to the people who spent their Saturday mornings channel-surfing.

Angela argues that they have Goliath. Demona replies that they have the Quarrymen, because back when they were fighting, she stuck a homing device in the assassin's boot. Now I'm scratching my head yet again. I've scratched my head so many times in this episode, I've peeled the skin on my forehead and its starting to bleed. To my knowledge, Demona only touched the assassin briefly back in her hideout, and I wouldn't call that touching so much as the assassin blew right by her. And she couldn't see him, because she threw away that ridiculous camera thing. Whatever. It moves the plot along, which brings the maddening nightmare that is this episode closer to my favorite part: the end credits. Angela argues that they can't see the assassin, and that she is getting the clan. Demona says that the clan won't want her along, and Angela reassures her: "leave that part to me." To which I say, "It's all yours. I'm only watching this because I'm keeping a promise to a friend by writing this thing." But I digress.

Back at the castle, Angela is arguing with the rest of the clan that they need to work together in order to save Goliath, and in order to do that, the clan must put the past behind them. Brooklyn still refuses to let Demona help them. Hey, at least Brooklyn is still in character! Sort of. So they got something right. Demona retorts that she didn't come to fight Brooklyn, and offers him something that looks like a PDA, saying that it will help the clan find Goliath. "Take it and save him yourself," she says. Angela then argues that so far the assassin has been unbeatable, and that they have to work together to stop him. She asks the clan if they're willing to risk Goliath's life over an old grudge. Brooklyn agrees to let Demona come along, but says he's going to be watching her back. And with that, another great opportunity for someone to mention a life-killing virus comes and goes. It looks like the clan has put the past behind them.

A signature claw-wipe later, and we're down at a barge on the harbor. The Quarrymen are unloading Goliath from their truck and wheeling him, chained to a gurney, up a gangplank and onto the barge. A short time later, Goliath opens his eyes and finds himself in a hold, being held in place by several chains. The assassin stands nearby, watching him. This causes Goliath to struggle against his chains even harder. The assassin says that Goliath can't break the chains, and even if he could, the effort would be wasted. He then pulls the homing device that Demona planted on him from his boot, and says, "You see, your clan will be coming to rescue you. Something I look forward to." Okay, so the assassin is evil. Nothing we don't already know. And he's the ridiculous kind of evil. We know that, too. But how would Goliath breaking his chains be a wasted effort? If he did, he'd be able to stop the assassin, and thus stop the assassin from shooting the clan when they arrive, which is what he plans to do. Maybe the assassin is just unbelievably retarded. He does think the gargoyles are just monsters. Whatever. Long story short, he knows Demona planted something on him, and he's ready. Stupid as that sounds, it's about to get stupider.

The clan is gliding towards the harbor, and Demona points out the barge that Goliath is being held on, using her PDA thingy. She then says that she'll attack from one side to draw their fire while the others slip in and rescue Goliath. Angela says that that's too dangerous, and wants to help her mother. Demona appreciates the offer, but refuses it and glides off. Angela says "you can't stop me, Demona," and flies after her. Hey, wait a minute! Didn't Brooklyn say he'd be watching Demona's back? And now he's just letting her take off? And where's Hudson? He was standing on the parapet back at the castle when Angela was talking about how everyone needed to work together. Did Hudson decide to just go watch TV instead? Oh, never mind.

Anyway, the assassin hears a noise, which I think is a proximity alarm set off by Demona and Angela. Sure enough, a few moments later, Demona comes swooping into the hold. The assassin fires at her a few times, and misses. Then he notices Angela flying in after Demona, and remarks to Demona, "You said you'd be alone." Despite Demona's protest not to fire, he shoots a blast from his rifle that hits Angela. Angela drops to the ground. The Trio attempt to fly into the hold behind Angela, but the assassin presses a few buttons on his trusty wristband, and a steel door slams shut in front of them, which they stupidly collide with, despite having plenty of time to avoid it. Another steel door then slides shut over their heads, trapping them. Broadway attempts to move the door, but it won't budge. Brooklyn rakes it with his talons a few times, saying that "this steel is two feet thick." Pay special attention to this, because in a trademark Goliath Chronicles move, this gets thrown out the window a few minutes later.

Back inside the hold, Demona is crouched by Angela's wounded form. The assassin watches this for a few moments, and then turns to Goliath and prepares to shoot him. "Back to business," he says. At this point, anyone who doesn't realize the assassin is evil is either incredibly stupid or they're watching the episode dubbed in Klingon. Demona, enraged that the assassin has hurt Angela, leaps at the masked human. The assassin then somehow fires a blast from his gun at Demona. I say this because we never actually see him turn around to face Demona and then shoot her. One minute, he's facing Goliath, and then the next, he's magically facing Demona. Whatever. We've already seen how in the alternate TGC universe, things just magically seem to happen.

Anyway, Demona flies back from the blast, and the assassin comes towards her, saying, "Nice performance, Demona. But I've changed the script." Angela remains as dense as she's been throughout the whole episode, and doesn't seem to grasp the significance of his words. So the assassin laughs evilly (I swear, he must have a degree in this or something), and calls Angela a "bright young monster." Jesus Christ, not even the dialogue in the Star Wars prequels was as bad as this! The assassin then explains that Demona hired him to make it look like Demona cared for Angela. It turns out that the whole scenario was a set-up to lure the rest of the clan to the barge. The assassin explains that it was supposed to look like Demona arrived a second too late to stop the assassin from killing Goliath. Demona would then "stop" the assassin from killing the rest of the clan, in the hopes that this would cause the others to welcome her back into the fold. Apparently, her reason for doing this is to protect them from Goliath. Well, this explains how Demona got the tracer on the assassin. They could have put it there ahead of time. That I'll accept. But it just begs another question: why the hell didn't the assassin just kill Goliath before the others arrived? It still would have looked like Demona had arrived too late, and it would have been a helpful reminder to the brain-dead that the assassin is evil.

Okay, wait a minute. Demona and the assassin were working together? Earlier, we saw the assassin working alongside Quarrymen. But that would mean that Demona was working with the Quarrymen, as well. Oh, HELL NO! I know that the TGC staff was fond of doing breaches of character, but this is simply unforgivable! Demona would never join forces with the Quarrymen! She has allied with humans before, but we're talking about an organization that is devoted to destroying gargoyles. They're armed with frickin' SLEDGEHAMMERS! Demona's clan was destroyed while they slept, smashed into rubble by hard, blunt objects. Sledgehammers are hard, blunt objects. And the Quarrymen use them to smash statues. Would Demona seek help from a group like this? I don't think so. They represent why mankind is evil. If anything, Demona would use them as an example of why humanity should die, and would probably want to kill every last one of them.

But getting back to the plot. Angela is stunned by this revelation from Demona and the assassin. The assassin then takes a deep breath and says, "To destroy the gargoyles. I have lived for this moment." WHAT?! How could he have lived for this moment? We don't even know who this guy is, let alone what caused his hatred of gargoyles! We've seen his face, so we know he's not John Castaway. In fact, he doesn't look like anyone we know, except looking vaguely like Derek Maza. And Derek doesn't seem to hate the gargoyles anymore. What is this guy's story? Is he immortal? A time-traveler? Did he have a bad experience with a statue as a kid? How the hell could he have lived for destroying the gargoyles? They've slept in stone for most of this guy's life! Urgh! The assassin has just become so ludicrously one-dimensional that his absurdity is threatening to collapse the universe. I hate him! And not because he's evil. Because he's the most boring, pointless excuse for a villain ever! He's idiotic even by TGC standards!

Okay, deep breath. My torment is nearly over. Anyway, the assassin decides to start his unexplained killing spree with Angela, and aims his rifle at her. Demona cries "NO!" and pushes Angela from the path of his gun. This might have been more impressive had we seen Demona take a bullet for her daughter but the assassin forgets to fire his gun. Goliath then roars, and rips his way through the "unbreakable" chains. With his shackles still dangling from his wrists, he challenges the assassin to face an opponent who isn't wounded. The assassin says, "With pleasure," and then cloaks himself again. Goliath whips his chains around, but doesn't seem to hit anything. The assassin then fires a shot at him, and says that he's going to take it slow. Of course, this gives Goliath a chance to guess where the assassin is hiding. He strikes out with his chains again, and nails the assassin in the chest, sending him flying against the wall. It also conveniently breaks his cloaking device. Goliath finally breaks the chains off his wrists, and drapes them over the assassin's unconscious body.

And hey, do you remember that unmovable door that the Trio was trapped behind? Yep, you guessed it. Right after the assassin is subdued, they somehow tear their way through it, and into the hold. The Trio back Demona into a corner, and Demona says that this changes nothing, and that Goliath will be "the death of us all." Okay, well, Demona can die, but only if Macbeth kills her. So how can Goliath be the death of her? I mean, I get the idea of what they're trying to say, but writers can find better dialogue coaches than George Lucas to try and get their points across.

Case in point, Angela then steps up to Demona, and says that Demona used her. Demona replies by saying that it started out that way, but now she wouldn't hurt Angela for the world. Angela shouts, "Save it for your next performance, Demona!" and runs away weeping. Lexington then asks what they're going to do with Demona. Goliath says that Demona cannot be allowed to go free to attack the clan again. Demona laughs, says that Goliath should know her better than that, then pulls a bunch of smoke bombs from out behind her back and throws them on the ground. While the clan stumbles around coughing, Demona scales the wall of the cargo hold and escapes. The clichéd villainy of her escape plan is high,but in all fairness, Demona didn't have anything to throw into the air to cover her escape this time.

A short while later, the clan is standing out on the deck of the barge. Goliath tells Angela that he's sorry that she had to learn for herself. Angela says that she wanted so much to believe she could help Demona change. Goliath then talks about how difficult it is to change or redeem oneself, and how some work their entire lives, and never manage it. Angela asks, "Do you think she ever will?" Goliath doesn't reply to this, and the clan takes off for home.

From a hiding place on the ground, Demona watches the clan depart. She casts one final look at Angela, and then sheds a poorly-animated tear, probably regretting the fact that she hurt her daughter. Yeah, that tear is pretty ghastly. It looked more like someone spilled white-out on Demona's face. But whatever. Right after the poorly-animated tear, the scene fades to black, and up comes my favorite part of the whole episode: the ending credits!

More ranting:

To be honest, the TGC staff did get one thing right about Demona's character. She does see herself as a leader of gargoyles. She also probably thinks that she is the only one fit to lead them. This was one of the reasons she entered into that magical pact with Macbeth (in "City of Stone"): she wanted her youth back because she didn't trust anyone else with leading what she thought was the last of her kind. But unfortunately, in this episode, this aspect of her character was not handled gracefully at all. Demona is not above allying with humans. She allied with Xanatos for a time. But Xanatos was not hell-bent on gargoyle genocide. The Quarrymen are. For Demona, the Quarrymen represent an excellent argument that humans will never accept gargoyles. Therefore, Demona would NEVER join forces with them, or seek their aid for one of her plans in any way. And besides, John Castaway would never help the Demon that killed his father! Oh, wait. I guess maybe he would, but first, you have to take whatever drugs the TGC Staff were taking for it to make sense.

Also, I don't like the idea of Demona using Angela, at least not in the way she did in this episode. They were making it sound like she started the episode not having any feelings for Angela. But she did. We saw a glimpse of them in "The Reckoning." I mean, she loves her revenge more than Angela, but there is still love for her daughter. I just don't see Demona using Angela in this way. Especially since she already used her once before, and was stung by Angela for it. Demona does so many things wrong in this episode (and not in the good way) that it pisses me off!

And another thing, as a fellow fan of Gargoyles once pointed out to me: where are the good humans in this episode? Usually, in episodes of Gargoyles, there are some good humans, humans that expose Demona's philosophy of humanity being evil as a half-truth. Even in "The Journey," we have Vinnie recognizing that something is not right and actually having the courage to act on his belief. But in "Generations," the good humans are completely absent. From the muggers, to the blond lady with the purse who helped set the gargoyles up, to the Quarrymen, to the most bland, uninteresting, one-dimensional villain in Gargoyles history, the assassin (who used Demona because he hates the gargoyle race, for reasons never explained), there isn't a single good human to be found. Even Elisa, the clan's strongest supporter and an excellent counterpoint to Demona's belief, is missing. It actually makes Demona's argument look more convincing than Goliath's. Urgh! I hate this episode SO much.

PS: There actually is one thing I really like about this episode. At the very end, Goliath responds to Angela's question about Demona ever finding redemption by not saying anything. I enjoyed this because it reminds me that in Greg Weisman's Master Plan, Demona does have some sort of epiphany in or around the year 2198 that helps her find redemption. It's just a pity that overall, the TGC Staff completely fumbled Greg's idea for a Demona/Angela story. I hope that the comic eventually handles this the right way.

Review

by Juan F. Lara

An average episode that I felt very neutral about.

Demona's role in this episode had a few interesting aspects. As Demona was trying to make friends with Angela, Marina Sirtis played her as subdued and in control for most of the ep. I thought Sirtis did a good job handling this unusual portrayal. In this episode she didn't want simply to wipe out all of Goliath's clan (though I wondered how she really expected to become their new leader.) Also, she noted in Act 2 that she believed that her trust of humans has always been betrayed, and the resolution in Act 3 was an incident that reinforced her belief.

I didn't like Angela, here, though. She sounded cliched and incredibly naive in her arguments with the others. I wondered why no one brought up "The Reckoning". While that episode's ending might give Angela hope, someone should've then reminded her that the next time they encountered Demona she came this close to destroying the world. :-)

Speaking of "The Reckoning", I thought that "Generations" was a retread of that previous episode. But "Generations" didn't have any scene that had the impact of Demona turning on Thailog to save Angela in "The Reckoning". "Generations" added nothing new to the Demona/Angela relationship: Demona disappointed Angela again, Demona still sincerely loved Angela.

I guessed the Assassin's connection with Demona at the end of the first act. But the voice actor who played him gave the Assassin some charisma. The assassin had a lot of personality in the Act 3 scene where he mocked Demona's scheme. Still, I would've liked to have known more about the Assassin's background and motivations.

But I didn't understand how the Quarrymen fit into the plot. They seemed to be working with the Assassin. Would Demona really join forces with QUARRYMEN?? Or were they imposters? Or was the Assassin employing them behind her back? And in the opening scene, were Demona and the Assassin expecting the Quarryman ambush, or was this a surprise that obligated them to make sudden changes to their plans?

Miscellaneous

Obviously Wachtel has seen "Ghost in the Shell" a few times. :-) This episode even had the same "shimmering" shown in that anime.

DYN1: This music score had a particularly cheesy moment when it played the "Goliath Chronicles" theme song during the ambush exactly as it sounded in the opener.

DYN2: This was the first post-Weisman episode to show blood.

Angela: Is this where you live?
Demona: It's just a quiet place to hang my hat. One of many. And it's not as bad as it looks.

Demona: Goliath is a fool. It was his trust of these humans that destroyed the rest of our clan. I've tried his way and every time I've been betrayed!...Let's not get into this.

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