Demona and Macbeth have revived the once-dead Coldstone. Again. But he’s little more than bait for their true aim. Elisa must choose between dying or being a traitor. Either choices means the clan dies. What’s behind door #3? For that matter, who’s really behind this? It takes a heck of a power to make enemies like Demona and Macbeth work together. As is often the case in the Gargoyle Universe, things are not as they seem.
Hudson and Broadway find Macbeth’s amazing library – and Macbeth, who mocks their inability to read (little does he know they can read a bit now). There’s a fun bookshelf ladder chase, then they land a solid blow on him. Or rather, the floor does.
After an initial victory on Demona’s part, Brook wins. This is thanks to the shared pain effect because of the above scuffle.
In the basement, Broadway and Hudson find Coldstone chained. Coldstone warns him that this is all a trap, and Macbeth and Demona are lurking, about to ambush them. Wait, did Othello or Desdemona take control? Why is he warning the clan? Did Mac and D turn on Iago, maybe?
The conquerors return with an unconscious Macbeth and Demona. Then, after a moment of vacillation, they free Coldstone. Lex buys the good intentions. He proved himself, right? Wrong. He grabs Macbeth and Demona, then hovers with them as the floor becomes electrified. This knocks out the gargs. Um, I don’t know if that would actually work without killing them, but whatever. Physics in the Gargoyle-verse are a bit mushy.
Well, what do you know, it was a trap after all.
Back at the clock tower, Elisa is starting to worry about the gargoyles. It’s almost dawn. Who should meet her but Demona? Elisa still hasn’t figured out the ginger = Demona thing, which makes sense considering she didn’t get a good look, and then took a powerful blow to the head. The Detective should know something’s up, though, since Demona is here despite the sunrise.
Then…Demona turns to her human form as the sun comes up. Well, that’s a surprise for Elisa.
Demona tells her that the gargoyles are at the Belvedere Castle with Coldstone. Elisa can come save them at high noon, which means Demona and Co will kill her. Or, she can ditch out and leave the gargs to their rubble-y fate. She can be dead or a traitor. Fun choices! I go with attacking Demona right now. Elisa instead tries to arrest her. On what charges? Trespassing? That’s a fine. Assaulting a cop? Where’s your proof?
So Demona ends up walking out and hailing a cab. Yes, she’s still in her garg attire, the bra and loin cloth, which magically still fit her perfectly. Did they get the immortality spell too? She’s had the same clothes with the same little tears in the sides for 1000 years. Why not upgrade?
Elisa follows, but she runs into Morgan. He asks if she’s slept. When she says not much in 48 hours, he tells her to get some sleep. She says it’s tempting. If she did, her life would be free of “monsters, good and bad.” She’d go back to normal. Why did she call them monsters? That’s the last thing she sees them as. Sarcasm maybe? But they need her, she decides. Morgan agrees that she’s needed, and that’s why she puts on the badge. That settles it. She bounds off.
Sure enough, the whole stone clan is chained in the park. Nobody in authority noticed this? Nobody notices Mac standing there with arms and armor? Or Demona in her skimpy clothing?
Coldstone is with them. He is still flesh because of his magical origins. “You are no longer a gargoyle,” Demona says. Wow, that’s pretty intense. But only Iago hears it. He doesn’t seem to care. At this point, he’s just after control. He’s accepted his lot as a ghost in a machine. Whether that’s from insanity of adaptability I don;’ know. Those two are often very close…
Demona wants to shoot Elisa with an RPG, like any sane, pragmatic villain would do to their protag foe, but Macbeth mocks her for not being able to take on Elisa.
What follows is quite fascinating. Demona fights like a gargoyles – which doesn’t work when you’re a human. Elisa puts her down.
Then, in Coldstone Land, Desdemona suddenly becomes triplets. Oh. Deja vu. A bunch of color errors in the Sisters’ hair ensue.
Othello and Desdemona decide to check on Iago. Now we’re back to fighting for control. Desdemona holds Iago down while Othello takes the wheel.
The tables turn – and Macbeth and Demona turn tail. I should mention that despite Elisa kicking human!Demona’s butt through all this, Macbeth seems oblivious to Demona’s pain. She gets thrown head-first into a stone gargoyle, yet he doesn’t even blink. Even Greg admits this was a cheat.
All this was for that? Why? If they knew where the gargs were, why not just kidnap them in the day and do this same crap? (How’d they know where to find them?) And why doesn’t Demona just kill them in their sleep on her own? It’s a re-do of Enter Macbeth, using them as bait. It’s got a nice twist though in that Demona is helping to orchestrate it, instead of being the target.
Coldstone is about to blast off, when Elisa stops him long enough to free the gargs. He then says he’s too dangerous to be around people. When he takes off, he’s heading into exile. That puts us back almost to square one with the Coldstone problem. Shutting him down and putting him out of sight, out of mind, is the only way the writers seem to be able to handle him. If they did anything else, we might be stuck with having him/them as part of the clan. That’s just creepy.
Back at Macbeth’s pad, there’s a Big Reveal going down. Demona is pissed, but Macbeth is chill, since they’ve completed their “primary objective,” something Demona apparently didn’t know of. Macbeth explains that they only kidnapped Coldstone and brought him back so he could act as cover for their theft of the Phoenix Gate, Eye of Odin, and Grimorum Arcanorum. Smart! With Coldstone taken, Goliath won’t miss the artifacts for a few weeks.
Makes me sorry for Coldstone, though. Yet again, he’s the pawn, not given any respect or valued one wit. Once they were done with him, they were happy to throw him away. I wonder where he went?
It starts to come back to Demona. She used a spell from the Grimorum to cloak them while in the park. That’s why nobody noticed them! Okay, so it wasn’t from the spells she stole?
Then…she wonders why they stole the artifacts in the first place. Huh? Then they both wonder why they’re working together. Just as they start to turn on each other, the Weird Sisters appear and freeze time around them.
Side note: Demona’s eyes glow red even in human form. Oops.
The three comment that they arrived just in time, since the spell they put on M and D is wearing off. Now it makes sense! Sort of. It doesn’t explain what the Sisters want with the artifacts. It can’t be good. Those are three powerful artifacts. The Arch Mage commented that he would have great power if he collected all three. It’s like the McDonald’s Monopoly but better cuz you don’t have to buy their crappy food-shaped products.
Turns out the Sisters don’t care about Coldstone either. They don’t need him, per Luna. They have what they need for the “coming battle.” Ooh, battle?
Then they vanish – and so do Macbeth and Demona.
Final Thoughts
I gotta be honest. It’s been ages since I last saw this episode. I did a series re-watch last year before this rewatch, but I ended up sleeping through this ep. It’s never been one of my favorites, even though Macbeth is in it, because of…the ending. As a viewer, I felt a little cheated, since this wasn’t really Demona and Macbeth. Instead, it was a mind-altered version. You can’t learn much about a character when they’re under a spell.
But after the in-depth reviews of all the eps leading to this one, I now have an appreciation for it. M and D aren’t totally brainwashed. Also, you learn about how their bond works. You see how they must have worked together back in the good ol’ days. They make a good team. Their dialog is great too!
Overall, it’s a nice transition episode from City of Stone to whatever comes next. They’re setting up the next Tier of the series. It’s gonna be a heavy one.
Next week we review Outfoxed! Not to spoil it for you, but Fox is involved. House Xanatos’s lives are about to change in a big way soon, but in the meantime, Fox has decided to take over Cyberbiotics. Remember that company? It was the company in Awakening that Xanatos tricked the gargoyles into stealing the discs from. We’re about to get the inside scoop on Cyberbiotics and its founder. You won’t want to miss the Big Reveal at the end!
Thoughts? Comment!
“Side note: Demona’s eyes glow red even in human form. Oops.”
Greg called that a glitch in Puck’s spell of transformation, that if she gets mad enough, you get a glitch. Personally, I believe it’s an animation error… but I had fun with it recently, when I wrote a fic about Goliath and Elisa’s commitment ceremony. Demona learned about it, during the day, and… damn straight the “glitch” happened.
As for Demona’s clothes… maybe she just likes that style, and every few decades, tears some rags up to replicate it. I dunno… but I like her look, I wouldn’t want her to change it.
I vote that it’s animation error and Greg’s covering for it with an inventive explanation. You could go further with it and say Puck’s spell glitches there because he’s not by nature an extremely rage-filled being. Her anger overrides it.
Hah, nice touch in your fic!
Agreed on all counts.
It was a “fridge moment” for me about the gargoyles’ clothes…or loin cloths. You get so used to them being in the same garb – everyone, actually – since it’s an animated series, that you don’t question it. Now, Thailog went all-out with his duds. And I kind of think it’s overkill. Somehow I think gargoyles look better in low-key gear.
To make this epsidoe epic:
Imagine Macbeth’s fistfight line, then he’s pointing at something out of screen: “Since I expected it would come to this, I already prepared something.”
Zoom in on a mud wrestling ring.
Cue the women going postal on Mac together.