Matt Bluestone believes in everything from Bigfoot to the Loch Ness monster, but his passion is the Illuminati Society, which is rumored to run the world. His obsession with chasing the shadowy organization lost him his job at the FBI. He’s risked his life to chase dead ends and make tenuous connections. Today he’s following yet another lead. But this one actually pans out in the form of the ancient gangster Mace Malone. The Illuminati knows Matt’s name – which is a frightening idea. They’re impressed by his tenacity. If he’ll do them a favor, they’ll let him into their clubhouse. What does the all-powerful Society want? Goliath.
If you missed last week’s ep, go read Outfoxed‘s Episode Review.
Spoilers are in the 20/20 moments. Info from Ask Greg is in the According to Greg bits.
Season 2, Episode 15: Revelations
Reason(s) for existence: To explore the theme of trust. To reveal more about Mace and the Illuminati. To introduce Matt to the gargoyles. To reveal more about Matt’s character. To show why Elisa keeps the gargoyles secret. I’m sure there’s more, but I don’t see it. I really just want to get to the next episode.
Main antagonist(s): Mace Malone, Hacker (ish)
Time(s): November 2?, 1995
Location(s): New York City, New York
Such a Lovely Place
We open on Goliath falling to the floor in a dark building. A voice welcomes him to the Hotel Cabal. The ceiling opens to reveal a spinning blade like in your food processor. This is no Ninja, though. This is a building designed to kill its occupants. The room turns upside down and dumps G toward the blades. He catches himself, but the blender’s closing in on him.
In a control room somewhere, watching Goliath fight for his life, are Matt Bluestone and Mace Malone. Yep, that ugly gangster who screwed over Dracon’s granddady in the Silver Falcon is finally making an appearance. I wish he’d stayed in the shadows, or at least had the decency to put a bag over his head. He’s even more mummified than Halcyon Renard.
Mace explains that the Hotel Cabal breaks people’s wills and minds, at which point the Illuminati sweeps in to scavenge what info they want from the wreckage of the subjects. I…I don’t understand. That room Goliath was in would just turn you into a smoothy. A human wouldn’t survive that room. There are easier ways to gaslight a person. You could use virtual reality in the garg universe, since it’s very advanced. The best bet would be to just drug the person. Give them some Versed and they’re basically your slave, unable to say no with conviction. Even better, they won’t remember what happened, as the drug blocks the formation of memories. Or just pay the people off, or torture them with conventional methods, or put them in solitary. The expense of running this place, as well as the risk of discovery when you have a building that’s obviously a torture chamber, is ridiculous. The room has giant blades and turns UPSIDE DOWN, for cripes sake!
According to Greg: Disney was going to tie Hotel Cabal into the Tower of Terror ride, but they’d wanted it back in 1994. As it was Gargoyles’ premier already piggybacked on the opening of the TT. It was for the best, I think, since a hotel designed to destroy people’s minds and even kill them might be a bit much for the average Disney folk.
I’m going to quote Greg’s ramble regarding the Hotel: ” An episode of the British TV series, THE AVENGERS, called something like “The House That Jack Built”. This was a classic that we ripped off shamelessly. (Wait, wait, I mean we paid it homage shamelessly.) It was about this nutty house designed, I believe, to trap spies inside and drive them bonkers and break them. Sound familiar? John Steed and Emma Peel redone as Goliath and Matt. Didn’t you notice the resemblance?”
No, Greg, I didn’t, because I’ve never seen that show.
Gumshoe
We shift to a flashback now, with Matt narrating in crime-movie fashion. It’s the first time the series uses narration. He pestered his old FBI partner Martin Hacker until Hacker gave him a lead on Mace’s stepson.
The stepson is in his 60s at this point. He hates his “bum” of a stepdad, who walked out on the guy’s mom (Flo Dame, real name Flora Dreidle) and him. Turns out Mace was at the mom’s funeral and once a week puts a rose on her grave.
Matt corners Mace at the cemetery. Mace cops to being Illuminati. What’s more, he says the Society knows Matt and wants to have him join. Keep your enemies closer, I guess? Matt doesn’t trust them for some odd reason, but he wants to believe. Mace says he has some interesting info “courtesy of David Xanatos, one of our lower echelon members.” What the heck kind of system does this organization use for member status? Meetings attended, probably.
Mace is valuable to the Illuminati because he’s their link to organized crime, helping them become its “silent partner.” The gangs targeted him, though, meaning the Illuminati had to “disappear” Mace. I hate gangster/org crime stories.
That “good faith” info is the existence of the gargoyles. Is that why they want a lowly NYPD detective as a member? To get at the gargoyles? Seriously, I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to find their location. Just follow Elisa for a few days. Another option is to check the city roofs for gargoyles that are there in the day but not at night. It’s not rocket surgery, people.
I’m wondering why they didn’t get Xanatos to lure the gargoyles into a trap. Did they not trust David, given how he only toys with the gargoyles, albeit roughly? Or maybe they figured the gargoyles wouldn’t fall for a Xanatos scheme…despite the fact that they’ve fallen at least partially for every one he’s tried.
Membership Requirements
Matt is enthused about joining the Illuminati, because he believes he can take it down from the inside. All these years, he’s been on a Mulder-esque quest to find evidence that will somehow reveal the Illuminati’s existence to the world. Um, Matt, even when you show the world irrefutable evidence of corruption in politics and the world’s power players, nobody cares. Haven’t you seen enough elections to know that? And what about George Soros?
Besides, does he really think that one poor detective will be able to take down an organization that’s thousands of years old and has its hands in every aspect of society? He’s gonna wake up dead first. It’ll be a two-shots-to-the-back-of-the-head suicide. Mention the Society to the man on the street, and he’ll either ask you what you’re talking about, or say you’re nuts.
Matt finds the clock tower, but Elisa diverts him before the clan awakens.
He gets desperate, though. When he and Elisa are out driving along the cliffs for reasons unknown to me, Matt demands to drive. Elisa allows him. He confronts her with the existence of the gargoyles, then tries to run the car off the cliffs.
The hope is that the gargoyles will save her. She pulls the Fairlane out of a fishtail. Then…she admits it all.
The next step is to introduce them to Matt. Matt kinda comes off as a jerk, saying he’ll keep their secret if Goliath does him a favor. He and the Big Guy go off to discuss this “favor.” Matt wants Goliath’s help in doing a surgical strike on an Illuminati building. They want to be low profile, thus only G and Matt will go.
Halftime!
So we’ve finally gotten to this episode. The plot is needlessly convoluted like many a gangster/crime story. None of my favorite antagonists are present. The plot premise doesn’t make much sense. The villain we do have, well, I don’t find him that interesting. His motives are pretty basic, his plans are simple, and he’s ugly as sin. We don’t see him again after this ep, so getting invested in his character isn’t worth the effort. All that said, Matt is fun in this ep. And Hacker’s back!
I’m sure you’ll want to see how Goliath escapes and what happens to Mace and Matt, so tune in Friday. I think there’s more to this story than meets the eye. I’ll explain at the conclusion.
Thoughts? Comment!