In the forty-fourth episode of the second season of Gargoyles, the gargoyles must defend their nemesis from an all-powerful being. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Gargoyles.Â
Sometimes, the most obvious answers are right there in front of me. I was so convinced of how obvious it was that Titania was Puck that I ignored the more obvious clue: Titania and Anastasia Renard were both voiced by Kate Mulgrew. I EVEN POINTED THIS OUT AND JUST ASSUMED THAT THE SHOWRUNNERS HAD CAST HER BECAUSE WHY NOT.
OH MY GOD. I’d say I’m embarrassed but this is just par for the course with this show, y’all. “The Gathering, Part One,” presents the newly-reunited clan with one hell of a dilemma: what do you do when your number one enemy needs your help? What do you do when the victim of a terrible injustice is someone you hate? Do your ethics still apply, or is the situation too personal?
There’s a bit of set-up here before we get to that critical point, and I’m impressed that there’s still room for mysteries and revelations for these characters after so many episodes. Yet this also comes off of “Future Tense,” so the fact that Alexander Fox Xanatos has now been born feels like the start of something terrible. It’s just that, for the time being, that terrible thing was not what I or anyone else expected. (EXCEPT FOR OWEN. HOW THE FUCK DID HE KNOW ANASTASIA WAS TITANIA??!?!?!? WHY ISN’T HE STICKING AROUND? I NEED ANSWERS.) Oberon’s Gathering – which is shown to us briefly in an early part of this episode – has an unintended consequence for Fox and Xanatos. Initially, I couldn’t see how this story would evolve from the Gathering into something that warranted more than one part. So, Oberon’s children returned, all except for Titania and Puck. (And I still believed at that point that they were the same person.) I side-eyed the fact that a lot of characters we’d met were Oberon’s Children because it’s still invoking that trope of taking cultural beliefs and stripping them of their meaning. (Which I talked about in “Heritage.” This also retroactively makes the events of “Cloud Fathers” susceptible to the same criticism.) Otherwise… they were back home! There was fighting! The Banshee was forbidden from using her voice as punishment! So… what else was left? Getting Puck, who had told Goliath in “Future Tense” that he didn’t want to return.
Given that we had watched the Children return home to Avalon, I was bothered that we didn’t get the same sequence for Elisa, Bronx, and Goliath. I really wanted a moment where the Brooklyn Bridge or Manhattan Bridge came into view, especially since Gargoyles had been building towards that for some time. Granted, I was satisfied with the reunion in the clocktower, and LORD DID IT MAKE ME TEAR UP. I’m so glad that they got home safely and that the magic of Avalon let them go! But – again – I couldn’t see how any of this was connected.
The key, however, was Alexander. Alexander, who was born of Fox, who was TITANIA’S DAUGHTER, and who wasn’t trained in magic and THUS IT NEVER DEVELOPED IN HER, but Alexander… oh, he’s magical. So how do you stop someone like Oberon from getting what he wants? Iron, sure, but even that weakness isn’t absolute. Owen seems to have done his homework, employing a number of devices and science shit I don’t understand to counteract Oberon’s power. That doesn’t help the MILLIONS OF NEW YORKERS WHO ARE PUT TO SLEEP BY OBERON. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW.
What I’m most interested in going forward is how the gargoyles and Elisa are going to deal with this hellish reality. They refuse to help Titania, and she warns them not to interfere. We all know they aren’t going to do that, but what are the consequences of this? Is Xanatos going to actually appreciate them for this, or is he just going to continue being the worst? I have some faith in Owen’s defensive measures; he clearly knows what he’s doing. Goliath and Elisa know about the iron weakness, but… what can they possibly do when he’s grown to the size of a giant??? Will Oberon’s children be okay with this? Will Titania retaliate?
THIS IS SO GREAT AND SO DISTURBING.
The video for “The Gathering, Part One” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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