Macbeth makes a strange request of the clan: help him protect the Stone of Destiny. Many powerful parties, including Xanatos, are after the rock. Meanwhile, Xanatos is preparing Coldsteel and a brand new Coyote robot for an “errand” to be performed while he’s in the UK. Thailog is also in the mix. What’s so special about the Rock?
Miss last week’s? Read Reunion review.
Spoilers are in the 20/20 moments. Info from Ask Greg is in the According to Greg bits.
Gargoyles Clan-Building: Chapter Seven: “The Rock”
Reason(s) for existence: To start the Stone’s story. To explore Xanatos’s Illuminati mission. To further Iago’s story. To introduce the new Coyote. To widen Arthur and Macbeth’s stories.
Main antagonist(s): No real antagonism going on
Time(s): November 2nd-13th, 1996
Location(s): New York City, New York, USA; London, England; other locations briefly
Today we have chapter 7, The Rock. We have a nice cover, which shows Hudson and Lexington stone at night. Behind them is Big Ben. The cover proclaims loudly and unnecessarily, “STONE…AT NIGHT?” Yes, I got that from the full moon and the stars in the background, and the stone gargoyles in the foreground.
We start with a timestamp. November 2nd 4:50 p.m. Eastern. Oh great, that means we’ll be hopping around times, yet the writer will expect us to keep track of it all because he gave us times. If you want the full timeline version, go to Station 8. They’ve got it laid out in the radio drama.
It’s a surprising opening: Macbeth is standing beside Owen. They’re waiting for the sun to go down on the top turret of the Eyrie Building. The target of their attention? Goliath.
No we jump back to the morning, 6:46am. Xanatos has the Coyote Diamond in hand. Remember that diamond? He bought it at the Diamond Exchange way back in Her Brother’s Keeper. It was when he was being bait for Hyena and Jackal.
Below that, we have some reverse chronological order scenes: a guard calling for a bomb squad, Lexington making an inside joke about Amp (one of the characters in the original Gargoyles pitch was named Amp), and Fox buying shoes.
Now we jump ahead a few days to November 4th, 5:30 a.m. Eastern. Shari is telling Thailog, who is in a hot tub, another bedtime story. She says there’s a stone that was Jacob’s pillow when he fled from Esau his brother. It was in that location that he had the vision of angels going up and down a ladder, symbolic of Christ, to Heaven.
Back at the castle, Macbeth is talking with the gargoyles. Well, at least he wasn’t trying to kidnap them. Which was never going to happen, since he’s here with Owen’s blessing.
Macbeth is talking about a stone too. The Stone of Destiny. He was crowned on it as King of Scotland. In this version, he’s outside, as he should be. Greg decided to fix the error that was made in the animation, where he was inside.
He says England stole the stone. He asks for the clan’s help ensuring that the stone gets safely to Scotland. There’s also a typo: it says insure rather than ensure. Unless the clan now works for Geico? Flying lizards rather than sticky-toed lizards?
Goliath says Macbeth’s minions should do this. He says he doesn’t have minions anymore. He says that many people, including Goliath’s “landlord,” want the stone.
Goliath bows out, instead sending Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington, and Angela. I guess Hudson will go too? And Bronx?
November 3rd, 3 p.m. GMT. Macbeth is getting off the plane as the baggage guys unload crates. They have the gargoyles inside: Lex and Hudson.
Back to November 2nd, 5:18 p.m. Eastern. Owen is sitting in Xanatos’s office chair, watching Macbeth talk to the gargoyles in the Great Hall. Owen calls Xanatos and fills him in on the details.
Owen is prepared to try to stop them. I’m not sure how this would work, but it’s a moot point because David already planned for this contingency. Of course he has. I love this guy.
Jump ahead, to November 7th 2:18 p.m. GMT. Big Ben in the background says either 6:25 or 5:30. Both hands are the same distance and they’re not quite where they should be for either time.
House Xanatos, sans Owen, are on the London High Street. This was back in the ‘90s when you could walk the streets in relative safety. David is encouraging Fox to buy the shoes if she feels like it. I don’t think she needs too much encouragement. He’s in charge of Alex in the meantime.
Jump back to November 5th, 5:31 a.m. Eastern. This is getting exhausting. And we’ve barely even started.
Shari is telling Thailog about the son of the king of Athens, Galthelus. He won victories for Pharaoh. And he married Pharaoh’s daughter, Scota. He was also friends with Moses. Because of that, he escaped the plagues God brought to Egypt.
Moses gave him the stone that was Jacob’s pillow. By the way, this is true to Arthurian Legend, but completely extra-Biblical.
November 2nd, 3:52 p.m. Eastern. Dr. Sato is seeing to Maggie in the Labyrinth. She’s healing well. In the meantime, he’s reiterating the fact that he doesn’t know what to do with these kind of creatures. But he is grateful for having this new world opened to him. I’m wondering why he’s here in scrubs. I guess he wants to burn them after he gets out. I know the feeling.
November 3rd, 4:30 p.m. GMT. Macbeth has the gargoyles out of their crates. He’s working on sucking down his coffee as the sun sets. They finally wake up at 7:45pm, a good two hours at least since sunset. I’m not sure why this is. On the Avalon World Tour, Goliath always woke up as soon as the sun went down. And he went to sleep as soon as it came up. Macbeth calls this jet lag. And they’ve got 10 days to adjust.
November 6th, 5:52 a.m. Eastern. Shari continues her story. Galthelus fled Egypt with his pregnant wife. They reached Samothrace. That’s where she gives birth to two sons.
Back to Macbeth. Wait, where’s the rest of the clan? We find out when we bop back to November 2nd, 5:15 p.m. Eastern. Brooklyn decides he, Angela, and Broadway should stay and protect the castle and Manhattan, and help Goliath out. It’s a mature move. But maybe also he thinks he can muscle in between Broadway and Angela?
November 13th, 5:33 p.m. GMT. Lexington and Hudson are watching cops around the Abbey. The police are moving the Stone from the Coronation Chair.
Macbeth is on the street level. The security is too tight for him to do anything. He has experience with this. He was leading the attack December 25th, 1950, when the stone was originally stolen. Well, stolen back.
November 6th 6 a.m. Eastern. Shari continues her story. Galthelus and his family went to the Iberian Peninsula. That is, Portugal. By now they had four kids.
November 2nd, 6:47 a.m. Eastern. Xanatos is happily geeking out over the diamond. However, he gets cut off. He understands, though. Who’s he talking to? Judging from the Silhouettes around him, it’s Coldsteel.
Xanatos says he did indeed put a tracking unit in Coldsteel. Yes! I knew it! Good man. But he will deactivate it permanently if Coldsteel/Iago does a little errand for him.
Meanwhile, David has placed the diamond in a setting inside…Coyote. 5.0. It’s going to help power Coyote. Something with lasers and stuff. Maybe if Coldsteel hadn’t shut Xanatos down, we could have heard the tech specs.
November 3rd, 5:29 a.m. Eastern. More story. Now she’s talking about Coldstone.
November 4th, 9:48 p.m. Eastern. Goliath and Elisa are discussing their relationship. Goliath is sad that he can’t give her normalcy and picnics. I’m not making this up.
November 2nd, 3:53 p.m. Eastern. Dr. Sato breaks it to Elisa that Maggie is prego.
November 4th, 9:50 p.m. Eastern. Goliath and Elisa make up, kissing. She says she can have a picnic anytime, and normal is overrated. Wait, she’s discovering this now? Didn’t we go through the entire series that pretty much taught this? I’m so lost. Also I don’t really care.
November 7th, 5:33 a.m. Eastern. Shari and more story. Six of Scota’s sons and Scota herself die. She had 8 kids total. Wow, figure out how it works yet? But her eldest boy Eremon and Eber Finn her youngest survive. Eremon was crowned King upon the Stone of Tara. That’s the stone of Jacob’s pillow.
November 13th, 11:47 p.m. GMT. Macbeth leaves watching the cops and goes to the Underground. He says he thinks he might be in a wild goose chase. But he suddenly realizes he’s not: King Arthur puts a sword to his throat.
Meanwhile, Lexington and Hudson are meeting two new gargoyles. One is a stag with feathered wings, and another looks like a boar. And it’s female.
Etched in Stone: This is where Greg gives parting comments. He gives shout-outs to a few people, such as Robbie Brevard who did the colors on this chapter. He also thanks GregXB (Bishansky) for helping gather scattered references for artists as needed. Way to go, Greg!
One reader calls out the reuse of the panel in the last chapter. Greg responds with a full list of errors that happened in the last episode. At least he’s owning up.
Final Thoughts
This episode is what I like to call a Foundation Chapter. It’s where we get everything we need to launch the story into the next parts, since this is a multi-parter. So we obviously have more questions than answers. But they’re very
important questions, such as what is Coldsteel’s errand, and what is Xanatos planning to do with Coyote 5.0? And why is Macbeth intent on getting the stone? Is it just for the historical value? Shari and Thailog are up to something to.
Tune in Tuesday: the story of The Rock continues. Xanatos, Macbeth, and a host of other characters try to get their hands on it.
Thoughts? Comment!