We’re about to face the Legion in Coldstone’s mind. One look in his skull leaves no question why he’s not the most stable reanimated gargoyle in the world. To make things infinitely worse, the virus that infected Coldstone when he downloaded the Department of Defense weapons specs is growing. It’s destroying the program that creates his world and keeps him functional. Goliath uses virtual reality to enter Coldstone’s mind, but will the clan leader fall victim to the virus too? What will become of Coldstone? And how will Xanatos benefit from all this?
If you need to catch up, read part 1 of the Legion episode review.
Psycho Diver
Coldstone blasts into the sky, firing his laser randomly as the voices in his head ague.
The Trio spots the flying disaster. Well, that made their hunt for Goliath easier. Broadway slams into Coldstone in mid air. They both fall onto the roof of the Ellis Island building. Now what? You can’t lock him up, because just like the demon-possessed man in the Bible, he can break chains. He can also shoot lasers.
At Golden Cup, Matt comes out to find his toys – er, the headgear for RECAP is missing. Not to worry, though, as it comes with a homing beacon! Of course it does. It’s from Xanatos Enterprises. It’s like a trademark. Heck, if XE made chapstick, it’d come with a tracking chip. Actually, that’s a great idea! I’ve personally lost at least 1,983 tubes in my lifetime. I’ve completely finished 3.
Where was I? Oh, right. Lex hooks up the VR goggles to the handy AV port on Coldstone’s neck. I A blue aura surrounds Coldstone and Goliath as the deep dive starts.
Holodeck
Goliath shoots through the portal – and instantly regrets. Ahead is a Castle Wyvern against a sky of purple clouds. Between Goliath and the castle is an abyss. Wait, it gets better! Segmented mechanical…cables are pounding away at the land. That’d be the virus. It’s like House on the Borderlands, but without the pig monsters. Actually, it’s a lot like a Sarlacc.
A flash on the highest parapet reveals – Xanatos? That’s a colorful suit you have there, sir. Not really what I would expect him to wear. I’d think maybe the exo-armor instead? “You didn’t think you could come here without my permission, did you?” He’s quite calm, for staring down a virus that’s destroying the world of Coldstone.
Ah, but it’s not Xanatos, only a program he designed to “enslave Coldstone to Xanatos’s will.” In typical David fashion, he’s learned from the mistakes of others. Victor Frankenstein’s mistake was to leave his creation alone, a ship adrift. That’s what caused the vengeful creature to hunt down Frankenstein and his loved ones. Xanatos has given Coldstone a “god” to guide him – or control him, actually. It’s unknown even by Greg if Xanatos designed it personally, or if he just put his stamp of approval on it. Probably a bit of both.
Also, this is an amazing leap in computer tech! Xanatos has tied the mind to computer images and interfaces seamlessly. Even if most of Coldstone’s “brain” is a computer, it still has to work with souls. Magic united them, probably operating on the concept that energy is energy, whether from science, sorcery, or souls.
The ghost in the machine explains that the virus is interfering with the control program’s ability to keep Coldstone obedient and to keep the personalities in check. That’s why the dominant personality changes from moment to moment now, whereas it did not during Reawakening. It’s as if the program is hoping Goliath will help defeat the virus.
As the tentacles swipe at Goliath, the program warns Goliath that the garg might be next. Then the program avatar blinks out of sight. If Goliath gets sucked into the virus, will he die in real life?
Outside, Elisa radios Lex to tell him the cops are on the way. Matt wants his toys back, and he’s sending in a SWAT team to do it. Overkill?
Now we have two clocks ticking: the virus and the cops.
Devil on Your Shoulder
The female gargoyle recognizes Goliath and meets him on the battlements. Goliath gets excited and hugs her. Oops. That’s not gonna look good.
Above them, the program and the bearded garg are whispering sweet betrayals into Coldstone’s ear.
She explains that since Coldstone is made from parts of three gargoyles, their souls are now trapped inside and vying for control of the body.
According to Greg: As a kid, he watched a TV movie of Frankenstein. It had a scene where the voices of the creature’s body parts spoke (they’re from different people). It made an impression, I guess.
Side Note: So…does this mean the soul always stays stuck to the garg’s corpse, or does it mean that Demona used the body parts to call the souls back? Is it the only way to revive Coldstone?
I don’t really see why it was necessary to do the whole Coldstone project, other than the fact that Xanatos probably thought it was intriguing and Demona wanted revenge.
Coldstone knocks Goliath from the parapet. He manages to grab the portcullis, but the cables wrap around him. They pull him down – but orange female catches him.
He glides down to deal with Goliath, but the female stands up for him. She cites how untrustworthy the evil-looking gargoyle is, and how he tried to turn Coldstone against Goliath 1000 years ago.
According to Greg: while you never hear the three gargoyles’ names on screen, the writers called them Iago (bearded antagonist), Desdemona (female), Othello (Coldstone).
It’s really hard to get into Iago’s head. He’s probably bat crap crazy after all he’s been through – dying, being resurrected, finding himself trapped in a body with two other gargs. Like Maggie Reed after her transformation, he’s clinging to the scrap of normalcy he has: his lust for Desdemona. He’s diverting himself by tormenting Othello. The
While they waffle, the Xanatos program and Iago merge. It’s…weird, but then again, this whole VR and virus world is beyond weird. Apparently they think this is going to help them stop the virus and get the girl. Unless you merge with an antivirus program, you’re probably SOL. The logic of the AI is interesting, though.
They want Othello and Desdemona to merge as well. Again, weird. Isn’t it bad enough being in one body together? What would happen if they merged? Could they merge? A computer program and a soul might simulate merging, I guess… But three souls merging? I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of this.
Othello, Goliath, and Desdemona would like to keep their souls, thank you very much. It’s a good call. But Hybrid Weirdo absorbs the castle and grabs Desdemona.
Othello and Goliath don’t stand a chance against the giant’s claw. Desdemona, however, sinks her teeth into the hand he’s holding her with. That works.
As the three gargoyles fly around the giant, the cables wrap around the Iago/program titan and drag it into the abyss.
Outside, the clan’s doing its best to divert the horde of cops that are swarming toward Ellis. It’s just a slow-down tactic, though.
Goliath can’t do anything to help Othello and Desdemona. He can’t stop the virus. Again, Gargoyles shows its edge by not handing the protags a happy ending.
Othello and Des reassure Goliath that they will be fine here. Even if they are not, then they’ll be together forever. They fly above the tentacle/cables. Goliath agrees. What else can he do? Time’s running out for him. He zaps back to the real world.
Hold up. So…these two souls are just going to glide around in cyberspace for forever? What happens if the virus eats them? They’re still souls, so having the program that links them to the Coldstone body destroyed would…free them? Or it might make it even worse, as they’d be locked to the flesh without any ability to control the body as a whole. What happens if the body is totally destroyed, like with a nuke? Would that set them free, or is magic the only thing that can do it? Greg didn’t give us any insights, so we’re left to wonder.
Goliath and the rest of the clan carts Coldstone back to the clock tower.
Just in time, too, because Matt and Elisa show up. Matt ditches the SWAT team and bounds off on his own to find whatever stole his glasses. Why did you mobilize half the NYPD if you’re not going to use them! What he finds…is a rat. Why there’s a rat on the roof, checking out goggles, is as much of a mystery to me as the rest of this ep.
Tag Time
Oh thank goodness, we have a Xanatos Tag Ending! Owen brings the RECAP goggles into Xanatos’s throne room and hands them over. The Scarab Corp R&D team “confiscated” the wreckage from the cops. Hah, nice wording, Owen. It was easy for them, considering they supplied it to the PD in the first place. That had to amuse the trickster David, eh?
RECAP’s taser probes downloaded the design spec files when it shot Coldstone. Nifty! It’s like SmartShare Beam on my LG G2 and G3. You know what would’ve been cooler? If Coldstone just sent it wirelessly or beamed it to a satellite. Anyway, it’s hilarious that Xanatos used the cops to steal the files for him! I see the time in jail – for stealing design spec files! – really made him change his ways. Nice try, Elisa.
Sadly, R&D wasn’t able to salvage the weapon specs. From what I’ve seen so far, Xanatos Enterprises is centuries ahead of the government’s tech. Remember those plasma weapons in Deadly Force? The exo-armor in The Edge? What about the Steel Clan? Then there’s the Xanatos Cyborg in Leader of the Pack. My rationalization for his interest is that he wanted to use it for blackmail or maybe bragging rights.
“Forget the defense specs.” Xanatos is infatuated with the virus. “It’s the most powerful weapon I know of.” Mmkay. Nobody’s ever said what makes it so great. Oh, it destroys programs, I get that. Many, many viruses do that. So it’s a data nuke…just like the freeware I downloaded, then used to wipe my laptop before I reinstalled the OS. Why is the virus able to escape anti virus programs? Why don’t advanced heuristics affect it?
Well, I’m sure there’s a great explanation. I’m looking forward to seeing how this virus comes into play later.
20/20 moment: That’s what I thought when I first watched the ep. Turns out, the virus never comes up again. They could have used it on the nano machines in the Dreamtime ep. They could have used it in Outfoxed on Cyberbiotics’ robots.
Skeletons in the closet
The clan stashes Coldstone’s vegetable body in a closet in the clock tower. I’m not making this up. Wonder when he/they will be back?
Final Thoughts
Where do I start? This ep doesn’t give closure, it opens a can of worms! Now not only are two souls trapped a purgatory, but we have a hundred questions about the gargoyle afterlife and Demona’s necromancy spell.
It was nice to see some different gargoyles. Learning that there was strife in the clan was refreshing too. They’re not a special species where everybody gets along great. They’re just like humans.
Xanatos using Coldstone and RECAP for the files seemed, well, improbable. I chalk it up to there being a high-ranking officer on the force who pushed for RECAP to be used. What was Xanatos’s contingency plan if RECAP didn’t work? I also figure he used Coldstone because it was dramatic and fun. And it would involve the gargoyles, his playmates.
What did you think of the ep? Comment!
Tune in next week for Lighthouse in the Sea of Time. It’s about Hudson and books. More importantly, Macbeth is back!