Wolf is back, and he’s brought a new friend: a battle ax that his ancestor Hakon, who destroyed Clan Wyvern 1000 years ago, inhabits. It’s up to Goliath and Hudson to face the Vikings’ vengeance. Another angry individual is also seeking revenge on the gargoyles. And he’s packing some sweet firepower. Will Hudson and Goliath be able to face all three foes?
Miss last week’s? Read The Gathering Part 2 episode review.
Spoilers are in the 20/20 moments. Info from Ask Greg is in the According to Greg bits.
Season 2, Episode 46: Vendettas
Reason(s) for existence: To wrap up Hakon’s story. To deepen Wolf’s history. To show that vengeance is for suckers. To illustrate that blaming others for your errors leads to failure.
Main antagonist(s): Wolf, Hakon, Vinnie
Time(s): July 18th, August 2nd, 1996
Location(s): Wyvern, Scotland; New York City, New York, USA
Previously: It’s Wolf from the Pack. And Hakon.
I’m going to warn you this is gonna be a short post that I really can’t split. According to Greg, this was a comedy episode mixed with an out-and-out fight episode. I would add that it’s also a clip episode, with a lot of its content coming from flashbacks. This was common back in the ’90s, and every series that ran more than a few seasons had a clip show episode. I hate them.
Wyvern, Scotland
A guy with very strange feet and wearing a trench coat is walking on the side of the road during a rainstorm. An old policeman pulls up beside him. But this isn’t some stranded motorist. It’s Wolf. With an ax. He hijacks — hi axes? — the vehicle, which is made more easy by the fact that the cop doesn’t have a gun. It’s kind of hard to stave off of werewolf with a stick.
As Wolf drives away, he laughs. As does his battle axe in the passenger seat beside him. Well, that’s not an everyday occurrence.
Two weeks later, NYC
At the Acme weapons shop – yes, I said Acme – Vinnie is getting a weapon that he special-ordered. It’s a bazooka. It even has a palm-print trigger so that only he can activate it. I don’t know where he got all this money, considering he’s only been a security guard from before now.
According to Greg: The name Mr. Carter as well as Vinnie come from the show Welcome Back Kotter. This is pretty obvious when Jeff Bennett reads Carter as Kotter. And of course Acme is a reference to the Warner Brothers Acme, from which Wile E Coyote gets all his equipment.
Vinnie names the weapon Mr. Carter. And he talks to it as he drags it around the city. It’s in the case, so it’s not obvious he’s got a bazooka. However, he is dressed like a military person.
He says that he’s finally going to get revenge on the Gargoyles, who have screwed up his life. The first time he met them was when Lexington stole his motorcycle. This was back in Awakening. He went to the authorities, but they thought he was drunk. They pulled his license. Well, that’s a nice anti-drunk-driving advert. It also shows that he’s not the most logical person in the world. If that happens, don’t say it was flying lizards. Say you hit a pothole and it got out of control. Also, I’m not sure how they could say he was drunk when they don’t have any breathalyzer or alcohol blood level data to use as evidence. But anyhow!
A red will o the wisp flies through town. It stops at Wolf, who’s eating a chicken leg out of a dumpster. But he doesn’t seem to care. The red wisp goes into the battle axe at Wolf’s side. It tells him that it’s found the gargoyles. Oh hey, it’s Clancy Brown’s voice. He does Wolf’s and Hakon’s voices.
And judging from the battle axe, I think this is safe to say that this has something to do with Hakon. It is kind of amazing to see Clancy Brown talk to himself, though. And really, Clancy is the only redeeming part of this episode. Well, and Jeff Bennett.
Hudson and Goliath are on patrol. But instead of finding trouble, trouble finds them. Wolf jumps from a building on top of G. They fall a long, long way down.
A fist-fight ensues, where in Goliath manages to punch Hudson.
According to Greg: This was supposed to be a sort of slapstick episode. But the animation couldn’t pull it off, and really, neither can the series. I don’t know why he thought this was a good idea. He likes it, though, even though he says it was one of the weaker episodes.
Meanwhile, our Wile E. Coyote stand in, Vinnie, is driving a forklift. I’m not sure why. It may be because he’s sneaking up on them, but it might be easier to just walk. He gets the next part of the Saga of Fail. He was a guard at Cyberbiotics, and was on Fortress I the night that Goliath and Demona took it down. He’s the one who Goliath held up and appeared to knock out. In reality, he banged the side of the ship, and Vinnie fainted. Oh, I should mention that while telling these events, he makes himself out to be the courageous hero. We all know differently.
As Vinnie prepares to blast G with his bazooka, he accidentally knocks the forklift into reverse. It backs off the edge of the dock into the water. I’m not sure how he manages to recover the Bazooka after this, but he does.
Goliath and Hudson swoop down on Wolf, punching him into a crane. He’s knocked out, but only for a moment. The ghost in the axe possesses him. Now he has supernatural powers, which include sort of flying.
At another location, where the fighting continues, Vinnie explains that he was also the guard at Gen U Tech the night Anton Sevarius was kidnapped in The Cage.
Meanwhile, Wolf punches Goliath and Hudson through a concrete wall.
The ghost decides to take over Hudson. Or at least to make him see Goliath as Wolf. This is like Hakon did back in Shadows of the Past.
I don’t know why he doesn’t use this exclusively. You can drive somebody mad doing that. Then have Wolf look like somebody innocuous, like a Elisa, so he gets close enough to ax them, and I don’t mean a question. Done and done.
The fight breaks up. Wolf isn’t too happy about being possessed, but Hakon says it was the only way. The ax and their shared bloodline, combined with their hatred of the gargoyles, gives them a bond. Wolf says that he could burn the ax. Without it, he goes to the afterlife.
According to Greg: There was a major error which started back in Shadows of the Past. The ax should have been the mace that Hakon used to destroy the gargoyles. It was an easy connection to make, and one that I’m quite surprised they let slip by. I don’t remember Hakon ever using an ax. But it is at least an iconic Viking weapon. Still, them having to fight the ax that destroyed their kind would have added a lot more weight to the episode.
Battle is joined again in a junkyard. Cars are conveniently stacked, which give the gargoyles an advantage, because they can climb up them to start gliding.
They battle back and forth, with Wolf throwing car engines. Then Hudson tricks the ax and Hakon the ghost into the following him into the car crusher. Hakon gets the ax stuck in the floor, where it remains as the car compactor squishes it.
Well, no need to call the Ghostbusters. Or to bring in the Winchester Brothers.
One thing I will give this episode, there are a lot of fun one liners, like, “Get an afterlife,” from Hudson. “Not a ghost of a chance,” from Hakon. “What would a mutate know being a man,” from Goliath.
As Goliath and Hudson congratulate themselves, Vinnie staggers up, covered in seaweed and other unmentionable goo. He raises Mr. Carter. And fires. He hits Goliath in the face with a pie. A banana cream pie, as Hudson points out.
Vinnie then says his revenge is complete. He walks off, whistling the Gargoyles theme song.
Goliath and Hudson have absolutely no idea who he is.
According to Greg: The funniest type of pie is a cream pie, and not just a cream pie, but a banana cream pie. Greg and his colleagues decided they were working on Bonkers.
Final Thoughts
This episode is a heavy-handed effort to explore the theme of how foolish it is to seek vengeance. Now, I think we pretty much beat this dead horse of the theme to death, with Xanatos and Demona proving the benefits of not seeking vengeance and the folly of pursuing it, respectively. But I guess it’s a good theme to revisit. Plus, it gives us a little bit more fun with Hakon and Wolf.
Vinnie’s an interesting antagonist, if you want to call him that. He is the quintessential “blamer.” All his trouble, other than maybe Lexington stealing his bike, comes from him being an idiot, a slacker, or a coward. I guess I do have to give him some slack when it comes to Goliath grabbing him by the shirt front in the Fortress I, since there wasn’t a whole lot he could do. But his problem comes when he blames Goliath for ruining his career. He should have acknowledged that yes, this job was done, and it was time to find another. As for Gen U Tech, he was reading the paper rather than being a security guard. Thus, it was incompetence that lost him the job, as it well should have.
I think that the better theme in this episode is the theme of taking responsibility and learning from your mistakes. Renard is always babbling about personal responsibility, but it’s actually Xanatos who is the best example of a success in this department. Despite being defeated by the gargoyles partially (see the Xanatos Tag Endings) or completely numerous times, and even being jailed for months, he uses his obstacles as opportunities. Even if he can’t make them opportunities, he at least doesn’t let them stop him. He’s tenacious and indomitable, learning from his mistakes and becoming all the stronger for it.
On Friday…I dunno, I’ll figure something out. Swing by and be surprised. Monday is Turf, another of my non-favorite episodes!
Thoughts? Comment!