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Gargoyles: Legion
Reviewed: 08/13/2013
...Of Cold Stone Egos!
If this feels rushed; you are not alone. I had an appointment with the shoe guys because after I decided to walk on the new orthotics full time and I was fine for about seven hours and then my feet blistered again. At least I was able to walk home without pain or aches this time. I was pondering doing the rant yesterday; but chose to sleep early and get as much as I could done before the appointment and then finish the rest of it when I get home. So yeah. So today's episode is proof that Goliath just cannot buy a break as his brother has returned; only we discover that he's NOT just one gargoyle. Yeah. Let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode is written by Michael Reaves, Marty Isenberg and Robert N. Skir. Robert started in his own work Screenplay in 1989 as writer, producer and had a cameo appearance as an actor. Then he did mostly cartoons starting with Beetlejuice, Dog City, The Legend of Treasure Island, Ultraforce, Battletech, Batman The Animated Series, X-Men, Dino Squad, Action Man and Beast Machines: Transformers. Gargoyles is his only DTVA appearance. Transformers Prime is his most recent credit. He has 18 writing and three story editing credits to his resume. Marty you know from Kick Buttowski: The Suburban Daredevil a long while back. Animation is done by Sunwoo Animation.
Opening Moment #1: Recap of the Coldstone/Goliath feud during the episode Reawakening. The episode was better than the recap though.
We begin this one with a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge as a boat sails through the harbor and then we pan into the sea with a school of fish. We pan down further and there is Coldstone buried in sand like Kit Cloudkicker was buried in mud in the fanfic Scars Of The Past; before he went into the mud fully. How could Goliath not find Coldstone in there?! So Goliath left him for dead then! That's...ummmmm...cold. We get a closeup of Coldstone's face and then his eye opens up making Goliath look like a bigger heel now as we get a long computerized sequence of Coldstone repairing itself. Then we head to a purple/blue spiral thing as we see Coldstone in his organic form spinning around with a blond haired orange female gargoyle as she calls him her love. And they kiss on the lips from the side; as we get more repairs and an image of Goliath consoling the female gargoyle on top of a pillar as we zoom out to see Coldstone watching on in anger as a almond gargoyle with anime dark black/purple hair and blue shoulder pads is saying to Coldstone that they betrayed him. So wait; I thought Coldstone hated Goliath for causing the clan to die at the hands of Hakon and company? What does this love square have to do with this? Anyhow; Coldstone scratches the post in response and then we get another repair sequence ending with Coldstone landing on the pillar and pushing Goliath into the abyss below. Well; that's a literal way of saying "If I can't have her; no one can!" as the blond haired female gargoyle swoops down to try to reason with Coldstone; but Coldstone smacks her into the side of the pillar and she falls. Well; it's not like they haven't violated the "male on female" contact rule already in this series, so I refuse to comment as we return to the ocean as Coldstone manages to completely repair himself and fly into the air as he manages to redesign his new commands as he goes all Batman: The Animated Series on us. Please stop doing that; it's just as bad when certain people make fun of TMNT or Warner Brothers characters. You are just daring them to mock you in return. So we see Coldstone fly to above the Golden Cup; which apparently is a tea making factory. Ookkkaayy.
So we find out that it is NOT a tea factory; but a android/cyberbionetic lab as some lab guy crushes a brick with his new cyberdroid hand. Oooookkkkkaaayyyyy. So Coldstone goes through the window and lands as the lab people bail. The green army like security guards fire their blue laser weapons despite the fact that there is machine gun firing sounds; and there are no bullets at all. Funny considering that Sunwoo Animation animated actual bullets in the TaleSpin series (War of the Weirds where Kit and Baloo are dodging gunfire from Colonel Grogg is the spot you are looking for in case you need evidence.). So we scene change to a pan shot of the clock tower AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we head inside with Goliath and Lexington walking down the stairs. And Eliza comes up with a headset as Lexington is giddy and grabs it as he gets to play test something called RECAP. Eliza: I'm breaking the fourth wall! (Waves to the hard camera). It's called a Reconnaissance Emergency Cyber Automated Probe which Eliza calls just a machine used in high risk situations. Lexington calls it the latest in technology to connect to virtual reality. Eliza; Lexington is from 994 AD; even your 1950's car would be considered high tech by their lowered standards. Goliath is confused about this virtual reality stuff and Eliza calls it the next best thing to being there before bailing. So we head back to the CYBER DROID TEA FACTORY OF DOOM as the security guard keep firing and losing to Coldstone as there backs are against a steel security door. Coldstone breaks through that easily as he knocks out the guard. You know Coldstone sounds so different for some reason. Coldstone scans the area with his red x-ray vision and discovers the machine that stores the weapons directory. He goes over and uses his blade like arm to insert into the socket and gets shocked as a result; but still manages to download the files. Then we get a Batman like segueway using Coldstone's head and he then suddenly sounds like Commander Worf now as he has no idea where he is. The guards come in with their machine gun sounding blue laser guns and fire them at him. Same old crap...
...so Coldstone takes the black console machine and gorilla presses it over his head and then throws it at the security guards as we head outside the factory (AFTER HAPPY HOUR; which means Coldstone was in the factory for HOURS! Why? I don't know...) as police take the injured workers out as they are selling being knocked out it seems. So they are placed in an ambulance and it leaves as the police van is shown with it's backside opened as Eliza has arrived with Matt Bluestone wearing those goofy 3D glasses which sadly shows that RECAP is more portable than Virtual Boy which Nintendo was releasing during this period. Eliza asks if he knows what he is doing and Matt claims that his spent months reading the manual. So he comes from the school of Rebecca Cunningham piloting planes. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm... So out comes a small blue robot which is being controlled by Matt Bluestone which cannot be a good idea as we discover that the robot has the same logo as the bug David Xanatos planted on Goliath in Awakening Part Two! And Eliza doesn't even NOTICE it despite the fact that Eliza researched the logo to be part of Xanatos Enterprises. Yeah, FACK LOGIC~! So the robot goes into the factory as Eliza taunts Matt and hopes he handles this vacuum cleaner better than a squad car and Matt gleefully retorts that for me. Now this episode really sucks! HAHA!
Ron Sparks: It sucks more than Sean Desmond.
So the robot enters the hallway of the factory as we see Lexington and Goliath watching from the roof tops about 30 feet away from the factory. So the robot sees Coldstone throwing away the iron door and we are supposed to believe that according to Disney Captions; Matt proclaims that this is the police and he is surrounded. Except that the voice clearly sounds like David Xanatos! Hmmm; David Xanatos voice and a logo of his business on the robot. You don't suppose there is a conspiracy looming about don't ya? Nah; couldn't be. I mean, wouldn't that make Eliza's declaration of war on Xanatos sound so hallow? So the robot fires the gas canister and it bounces off like Barney The Dinosaur Doll in Royal Canadian Air Farce; only a lot less funny. Coldstone suddenly changes voices and yells at the robot claiming that IT sent for him to be here and IT is now attacking him. Yeah; there is a conspiracy afoot which is apporos since Matt Bluestone is controlling the robot. So it fires the Taser Gun and Coldstone actually sells pain....for about five seconds and then uses the laser gun arm to MURDER the robot senseless and cause so much pain to Matt's brain that he has to throw down his headset in pain. Then a hole is made in the wall and the robot goes flying into a heap of flaming metal. So Eliza and Matt look at the hole made in the factory wall and out comes Coldstone who flies away stage right. Lexington is still on headset as he notices that it looks like Coldstone and Goliath is shocked by these event and flies after him. So Coldstone flies over to a rooftop overlooking the harbor and perches on the edge for a bit as Goliath arrives and lands behind him. Coldstone turns around and tackles Goliath to the ground as he notices Goliath right away and then stops and his voice returns to Commander Worf again. This Coldstone sure has a multiple personality disorder going on in his mind. Goliath is stunned to see his alive as Lexington addresses himself and holds Coldstone's hand. Coldstone admits that he is lost; but Goliath puts his hand on his left shoulder and proclaims that it will come in time; but that he's alive is what is important. Yeah; Goliath is sucking up to him now.
Goliath offers to welcome Coldstone back into the clan and Coldstone accepts and we get a long flying sequence into the night sky as Coldstone does some stunts for fun. Lexington questions Goliath about welcoming him into the clan again since he wasn't always his friend. Goliath insists on doing it because without trust there is no clan. So we head back to the clock tower and inside as the goofballs huddle with Bronx not looking amused at this as Hudson greets Coldstone and they embrace. Coldstone calls him his mentor despite not sounding like Commander Worf. So we exchange notes and then Coldstone looks stunned as we get another closeup of his eye after he proclaims that there is one more gargoyle that he misses the most. Then Coldstone changes voices again and he goes nuts demanding answers to this outrage and holding his head. Goliath wants to know what is going on; but Coldstone no sells and flies out of the clock tower making sure to do no damage whatsoever. Hudson and Goliath follow him as the goofballs stand there looking confused. Lexington thinks something is wrong in his head and he has a way to find out what it is. So we head into the night sky with Coldstone flying right into the hard camera and then out of sight towards the Statue Of Liberty with Hudson and Goliath in pursuit. Coldstone then suddenly runs out of gas as his rockets go dead and he drops into the ground in front of a building in Ellis Island. Then suddenly; Coldstone stops selling and gets up and has an evil smile on his face. This is going to get worse isn't it? Goliath and Hudson land in front of him as Goliath greets him. Hudson warns him that something is wrong here and wants him to stand back. Goliath moves forward anyway as Coldstone proclaims that it's a pity that he is being addressed as a brother and invokes the laser gun arm on Goliath; effectively turning on him. Well; Goliath did leave him for dead, so it's apporos. This ends the segment 10 minutes in.
After the commercial break; we see Coldstone shooting and Goliath takes the shot and impacts the lamp pole in the background. Wait; why didn't you just extend the scene for five more seconds and then go to break? After all; he gets up about two seconds after flying into the lamp pole so it is kind of silly when you think about it. Goliath cannot believe that he would betray his trust and Coldstone cannot believe Goliath would extend his trust to him as we shoot some more. Hudson and Goliath are left with no choice and they go into white eyes mode and Hudson brings out his whacky sword again. They growl and we head back to the crime scene as a police officer is helping a security guard out of the building as the police are checking around for clues. Matt rubs on the door and apparently; it is still hot to the touch as he deduces that it's the same monster from last winter and apparently; NYC is crawling with them. Eliza then hear Lexington on her bug device as she tells Matt that she is going to help clean up the place and Matt can go outside to get official statements. Matt sees that as a plan and walks out. Eliza and Lexington then start exchanging notes as we discover that Coldstone was stealing weapons and government data from the machine; but he picked the wrong one because it was infected with a computer virus that they made if there were unfamiliar files stored from within and then erase the files off the downloaded data. UH OH! Lexington asks Eliza for a favor and then we return to Ellis Island as we circle each other on the sky shot for a while. Weird animation on the sky shot: Coldstone is not moving on the near shot and Hudson appears to be able to grab Coldstone; but on the close up shot, Hudson is way behind him and Coldstone is moving. So Coldstone shoots and Hudson slashes the cannon arm down and Goliath shoulder tackles him down to the ground near a wall; and it looks so contrived and forced that I swear Kennedy is animating this episode!
So Coldstone gets up and suddenly; his eye beeps and he's Commander Worf again. Coldstone has no idea where he is as Hudson thinks he's playing them for fools. Coldstone wonders why Goliath attacked him as his eye beeps again and he wants Goliath's head. Then the eye beeps again and Coldstone remembers nothing as his head is throbbing and now it's clear that where this is going as he holds his head and rolls around the ground in pain yelling and screaming for silence. We get a closeup of his eye as we see in the whites of his eyes; the female gargoyle from the beginning of the episode pleading for him to stop fighting his rookery brother. Then we get the evil purple haired gargoyle claiming that he's betraying him because she sides with Goliath as Coldstone zooms out screaming for them to keep silent and shoots his laser gun arm which is a segueway to the sky with the goofballs of doom. Okay; I admit that after reading the Gargoyles Wikia; they do have names; but they are never said in the actual episode. However; the evil gargoyle inside of him is Iago and the female gargoyle is Desdemona. Anyone who has read Shakespeare's plays can point out that these are characters from Othello. Ironically; that means Coldstone is not his real name, it was merely a handle given by Demona; and that Coldstone's real name is Othello. Yeah. Iago is voiced by Xander Berkley and according to IMDB: Xander's father was a painter and his mother a school teacher who sewed, providing him with costumes (his preference over toys). School plays and Community Theater were next. An experimental theater troupe in the area (which was an offshoot from Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater in New York) took Xander under their wing when he was 16. He credits this group for shaping him as both a person and an actor, committed to taking risks and remaining open to the unknown. Xander went to Hampshire College, the progressive brainchild of Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and the University of Massachusetts.
He would continue in the theater at Hampshire, studying and doing plays at each of the other schools, all of which were there in the area. A move to New York after college brought him access to private teachers from the Royal Academy of the Arts, the Moscow Arts Theater and HB Studios. Later in Los Angeles, Xander would spend time with Lee Strasberg at The Actor's Studio during the last years of his life. Xander worked in Regional and Repertory Theaters in addition to off-Broadway while living in New York but, despite a classically trained theater background, he was increasingly drawn to the subtleties of film acting. A play, written by the great southern novelist Reynolds Price, called "Early Dark" had such a cinematic feel to it, that an agent saw the film acting potential in Xander and encouraged him to make the move out west. Soon Mommie Dearest (1981) provided Xander with his film debut in the role of "Christopher Crawford", and simultaneously gave his career a slightly cultish twist. Alex Cox with Sid and Nancy (1986), James Cameron with Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Bernard Rose with Candyman (1992), Todd Haynes with Safe (1995), Mike Figgis with Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Andrew Niccol with Gattaca (1997) all helped to further associate Xander as an actor in his own rather unusual category. Xander's choices were often determined by the opportunity to learn from directors he admired, certainly all those listed above fell into that category. Clint Eastwood with The Rookie (1990), Ron Howard with Apollo 13 (1995), Rob Reiner with A Few Good Men (1992), Michael Mann with Heat (1995), Wolfgang Petersen with Air Force One (1997), Steven Spielberg with Amistad (1997) are obvious examples of others Xander actively sought to work with and learn from.
From obscure independent movies where Xander could play lead roles to the big budget studio movies where he might often play smaller character-driven parts, an education was taking place. Just as working with older directors like Mihalis Kakogiannis on The Cherry Orchard (1999) and Robert M. Young on Below the Belt (2004) (aka "Human Error") brought insights to ways of working that are being lost in pop cultures tendency to slide toward slickness. Not to mention bringing him to places like Bulgaria and China along the way. Perhaps because a life in the foreign services, or espionage was seen as a road not taken, living on location in foreign countries, working as an actor, has somewhat fulfilled the impulse. As early as 1987, a film took Xander to Nicaragua while the Contra War was taking place. It was during this three month shoot on the film Walker (1987) (starring Ed Harris) that Xander got an offer to do a film with his friend, director Jon Hess, in Chile for the following three months. Taking him straight from the revolutionary left-wing Sandanistas to Pinochet's fascist, right-wing regime. In 2001, an offer came in to play a part on a TV pilot called "24" (2001). It was another shady agent-type, and reluctant to repeat his performance from Air Force One (1997) as the turncoat secret serviceman, Xander almost passed on the job. Fortunately for him, he said yes. He met his future wife, Sarah Clarke during the first day of filming. His character, "George Mason", was just a guest star in the pilot, but the producers liked what Xander brought to it and continued to write more episodes for him. By the second season, it had become perhaps the most interesting, leveled character Xander had ever gotten to play. Sarah and Xander were married in 2002 and had their daughters, Olwyn in 2006 and Rowan in 2010.
Other favorite roles of late have been "Arlen Pavich", the middle management dweeb, in Niki Caro's North Country (2005), and the Irish hooligan/railway foreman in David Von Ancken's Seraphim Falls (2006) and, more recently, "The King of Sodom" in Harold Ramis' Year One (2009), "Sonny" in David Pomes' Cook County (2009), the recovering meth head coming out of prison to discover the life he had left (and destroyed), and crazy "Uncle Doug" in David Wike's Champions (2006) (aka "Out There"). He began his career as Christopher Crawford (adult form) in Mommie Dearest in 1981 and was a cameo appearance in Tales of The Golden Monkey in 1982. Gargoyles is his DTVA debut and he also appeared as Phineas T. Viper in Mighty Ducks The Series. ETXR as Gordon Shafer is his most recent credit. He has 202 acting credits, 1 makeup credit (for 24), three producer credits (The Booth At The End, Cook County and The Consultants.) and seven self credits to his resume. Desdemona is voiced by CCH Pounder (Now THAT'S a neat booking name!) and according to IMDB: CCH Pounder (the CCH standing for Carol Christine Hilaria, her birth name). As can be said of other similarly styled actresses such as Alfre Woodard and Cicely Tyson, most of Pounder's characters are enriched with these same positive attributes and it is a testament to this actress' abilities that she continues on such a high plane in a nearly three-decade career. Born on Christmas Day 1952 in Guyana, she was raised on a sugar cane plantation. Her parents moved to the States while she was still a young girl, but she and her sister were sent to a convent boarding school in Britain where they were introduced to art and the classics. Following high school graduation, she arrived in New York and studied at Ithaca College, where her acting talents were discovered.
Regional and classical repertory theater followed, earning roles in such productions as "The Mighty Gents" with Morgan Freeman at the New York Shakespeare Festival and "Open Admissions," her Broadway debut. Her preference for a warmer climate led to her move to Hollywood in the late 1970s. After bit roles in All That Jazz (1979) and I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), she found cult status in the art-house film Bagdad Cafe (1987) ("Bagdad Café" in the US) as the offbeat owner of a roadside café, but Pounder's prominence came with television. Usually cast as a confident, strong-minded professional, she is known for her understated intensity and earned an Emmy nomination for her stint on the hospital drama "ER" (1994). She has performed in a number of highly acclaimed topical dramas, including "American Playhouse: Go Tell It on the Mountain (#4.5)" (1985), Common Ground (1990) (TV), Murder in Mississippi (1990) (TV), Funny Valentines (1999) and Boycott (2001) (TV), for which a number of kudos have come her way. She began her career in Coriolanus as Valeria; followed by Nurse Blake in All That Jazz in 1979. Gargoyles is her DTVA debut and she also appeared on WITCH as Kadma. Warehouse 13 (Irene Frederic) and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Madame Dorothea) are her most recent credits. She has 120 acting credits and 29 Self credits to her resume. Othello is Coldstone; so it's Michael Dorn which I already did a tribute for him. They fly around as Brooklyn wonders where to find him and Broadway points to Ellis Island giving them three guesses as we see red laser fire around Ellis Island. So we cut to Coldstone shooting and somehow Broadway teleports all the way about three miles away and tackles Coldstone with his head and they falls down onto the roof of the building they were fighting in front of. Then we see Lexington land and he places a headphone wire right into the neck of Coldstone which conveniently has a jack on it. How convenient is that? It's so convenient; the Backyardigans would point out: "That was convenient man!".
Coldstone feels like me in 2001 as Goliath and Hudson climb up and Broadway is confused as to what is going on. Goliath proclaims that Coldstone is being tortured from within as Lexington states that someone will have to go in and stop this madness right now. So we scene change back to outside the factory near the police truck as Matt is inside complaining that someone stole a headset and RECAP from the box. Eliza claims that she thinks it was returned to the station. Matt no sells because after all; no one told him beforehand. However; he brings out a remote control device with a screen and proclaims that RECAP has a homing tractor and Matt thinks it will lead him straight to the creature. He pushes the button and the sonar is activated as we scene change back to the rooftop as Goliath is wearing the VR device part of RECAP as Lexington wants to go instead because he's the tech expert; which Goliath no sells because if he's the tech expert, being outside is the better way since Lex can bail Goliath out if anything goes wrong. So Lexington plugs the wire right into the right eye jack of RECAP which is kind of creepy and then Lexington pushes the button on the remote on the ground which has wires connected to Coldstone and Goliath and we get blue sparks coming out of both creatures as we pan over to Goliath. Then we get the WHITE FLASH LIGHT OF BLINDNESS and Goliath wakes up in the most poorly drawn stupor ever. Geez; Sunwoo, nice of you to make Goliath look like he's a goofy moron.
We zoom out and rotate the floor with clouds and thunderclaps in the background. At least in the VR world; Sunwoo's cardboard fake floor drawings make a lot of sense here. So this goes on for a long ass whomping time as we see Castle Wyvern in the background and then the floor crumbles as large tentacles come out from the bowels of VR hell as they crumble the floor and it gets wiped out. I'm guessing those tentacles are the viruses. So we do a really choppy zoom in towards the castle gate which looks like a comic book has entered the screen for no reason; and then we see the castle tops as there are three stone statues and they are Desdemona, Iago and Othello from left to right. And then who should appear; but David Xanatos wearing the most fruity suit in the history of exoskeleton suits as he blows off Goliath for entering Coldstone's mind without his permission and that ends the segment 14 and a half minutes in. Sunwoo's animation is getting worse as this goes on; but I'm FEELING this episode and it's in virtual reality in 1995; so it's forgivable. At least it's not Virtual Boy; can you imagine the pain and suffering Goliath would go through seeing red, literally?!
After the commercial break; we get a closeup of Goliath in shock that Xanatos is here; but Xanatos no sells because he's merely a computer avatar created by Xanatos. David explains that Coldstone was made from a combination of science and magic; thus he wanted to enslave Coldstone's mind (Xanatos does the giant Blink status on himself which looks really cool); but the computer virus is destroying him from inside as the tentacles go after Goliath and Goliath is forced to dodge them. David claims that he might be next as Goliath tries to pounce on him; but he disappears in a flash. The virus wrecks havoc and destruction on the castle as the stone statues crumble and they live again. Iago consoles Coldstone who is in a lot of pain as Desdemona swoops down and lands in front of Goliath. They embrace as Desdemona explains that Coldstone is made from pieces of Gargoyles and although she doesn't say how many, it's at least three since we clearly see three gargoyles here. I should also note that Goliath never refers to her as Desdemona at this point; and only as rookery sister as Iago is poisoning Othello's well again. From now on; the cyan gargoyle in organic form is Othello; and the machine is Coldstone since CS is three gargoyles instead of just one. Which begs the question; how did Xanatos and Demona get the souls of Desdemona and Iago? And then Xanatos comes back and agrees with Iago which enrages Othello as he swoops down as Goliath shoves Desdemona out of the way and Othello shoulder blocks Goliath over the castle destruction and Goliath free falls. Goliath grabs the castle walls and tries to climb up; but the tentacle snag his ankles and are trying to drag him down. We get another white flash and we're back to the roof top as Lexington isn't liking this at all because Hudson thinks it's magic of the darkest kind. No; it's technology and magic combined in the darkest kind. So Lexington hears Eliza on the headset as we see her on the police boat being driven by Matt Bluestone who is driving it just fine. He sure showed you didn't he, Eliza? Did I mention that he has boat loads of the BAD EPISODE POLICE...ERRR..I mean the SWAT Team riding with him?
So Lexington tries to drag Goliath away; but he gets shocked by the blue electrical beams and gets knocked on his back for his troubles. Hudson goes over to the roof's edge and proclaims that they'll have to buy them time and run interference as we zoom in towards Goliath; do another white flash and we resume as Goliath is struggling to get up, but the tentacles are still snagged around his ankles and his tail now. He manages to climb up to the rampart; but Othello drop kicks Goliath and he free falls. Desdemona swoops down and makes the save; grabbing Goliath's hand and hangs onto the iron gates as the castle is in at least 20-30 pieces depending on Sunwoo's mood when animating this. Othello swoops down beside her and blows her off, claiming that he is not blind. Desdemona claims that her love is eternal to Othello; but Goliath doesn't want her love. You know something; Desdemona is a perfect name for her because it creates complete confusion on Othello's part because Goliath's true love is DEMONA; not DES-DEMONA. Hyphen intentional. I can see why Othello is so confused now. Desdemona claims that Iago is poisoning the well as Othello's head is pounding and asks why he should trust her and Desdemona proclaims that he should follow his heart as Desdemona's hand slips and Goliath is about to be deleted forevermore; but Othello grabs his hand and hoists him up to the gate bars. Othello perches on them as Goliath proclaims that the enemy is trying to screw with Othello's mind and they must hurry. However; Iago then somehow grows into a giant and grabs Desdemona. Wait; that didn't sound right. What happened was the gate bars turns into a giant hand and arm which grabs Desdemona and the entire castle turns into a giant ass Iago. Then Xanatos's image merges with Iago; which proves who was screwing with Goliath's mind all along, and both Goliath and Othello must fight Iago King Kong Gargoyle style! Yeah; that is what is occurring. Thank goodness this is virtual reality because if they did this in NYC; then we would be stooping to Feats of Clay levels in terms of absurdity and stupidity.
So Iago squashes them like bugs on the only pillar left in the entire area as somehow; Iago is still alive despite the virus. Something tells me that Xanatos planted the virus from the very start. Prove me wrong writers of this show! Prove me wrong! So Iago grabs them with his other hand as he demands that Desdemona merge with him so they can be together. Sadly; the continuity is broken since there is no white flash and we head to the roof tops as the helicopters have shown up for fun. They are loaded with non helmet SWAT team members as they feel something grabbing the helicopters as Brooklyn and Broadway are hanging on them. Then we cut to the water as Hudson is behind the boat and somehow, no one sees him as he is swinging the boats using his sword to force them to sway in opposite directions. Yeah; that is not a logic break in the very least, no siree. Matt is so confused as to what is going on and what does Eliza do in response? She shrugs her shoulders. Lexington is with Goliath as he proclaims that there is not much time left; which equals to three minutes. Did I just say..? Oh wait; never mind. And then we do the white flash of doom and get a closeup of Iago's face as he asks why Desdemona is fighting her; so I assume that she refuses to merge with Iago. Apparently; in this world, Iago is the machine of Coldstone's organic nature while Desdemona is his conscience. That's kind of neat. Desdemona proclaims that she chooses who she loves and bites his hand which is enough for Iago to try to bat it away; but that frees Goliath, Othello and Desdemona. We play King Kong as the virus tentacles wrap around Iago's arms and neck in a spot that 4Kids would paint out in an instant. Iago gets dragged into the abyss below with the virus and that is that. So then they do a really stupid thing by landing on the bridge in the middle of where the virus is. WHY? So they can talk silly! So Othello orders Goliath to return to his body which is across the bridge in front of a white circle in the middle of smoke. Yeah; that's really stupid. Why not just go to the end and then say your goodbyes?
Goliath asks about Desdemona and Othello and they both proclaim that they are together at last and if they stop the virus, they will be together and if they die, they die together. Well; that is awfully depressing. So Goliath runs like a dog on the bridge while Desdemona and Othello take to the skies. We don't know what happened to those two because Goliath is shown running and he jumps right into the white vortex which is funny because there seems to be a figure in the far shot when they showed the vortex. I'm guessing that originally, Goliath was supposed to be an image and he would merge together with the body and then the vortex would consume them, but BS&P stepped in and change it to a zoom in shot of the vortex. Either way; we get the final white flash of doom and head on the rooftops as Hudson, Brooklyn and Broadway leap down. Okay; here's a question: What happened to Bronx? Where is he in all this? Thankfully; the blue electrical waves have died on both gargoyles and Goliath wakes up and it's time to leave as the entire SWAT team led by Matt Bluestone arrives. Goliath cradles Coldstone in his arms as he appears to be dead now thus proving that the virus destroyed his mind and he's brain dead. The helicopters land in the front of the grounds as the boat make it as well. We then head to the roof; and there is only the RECAP left as we get Matt opening the door leading to the roof top and uses his flashlight and remote sonar as he wants to see this monster up close and when we see it; it's only a rat. Eliza points it out to us and he's shocked and appalled. So we head to Xanato's tower BEFORE HAPPY HOUR as Owen informs us that the robotics division confiscated the remains of RECAP from the police. We see inside the office that Owen is giving the RECAP stuff back to Xanatos who is sitting at his desk; as we discover that indeed; they supplied RECAP to the police as expected. Xanatos is on the computer as we find out that Owen proclaims that it was a pity to lose Coldstone and not getting the defense specs; however, Xanatos doesn't care because they got the deadliest virus in the world because it defeated the mighty Coldstone.
So we head inside the clock tower as we see the gargoyles huddled together with a lifeless Coldstone with his eyes open as Goliath hopes that he'll come back soon. This is almost as creepy as Astro Boy gaining Natasha's robotic legs after she died in that episode where she was basically a bomb. The unedited version; the edited version was happy and cheery; although the edited version allowed us to see Natasha's robotic nipple as she was naked during the failed operation to remove the bomb. I'm not joking; that was the Canadian version. The American version had her breasts showing; but no nipples. Anyhow; we get a shot inside as Desdemona and Othello are flying in virtual reality which indicates that they destroyed the virus; or at least it's repressed for the time being since the virus tentacles are still alive. Goliath ends by saying that he hopes that they will be among friends soon and that ends the episode at 20:30 approx. Really good episode with more Sunwooish animation that annoyed me. Logic breaks didn't help either; but the story had intensity and I cared about it a lot. Hopefully; this leads to the virus being beaten because I would hate to see Desdemona and Othello killed off since they are great. At least now we know that it was something poisoning the well on his relationship with a girl that had a name that confused him (Demona and Desdemona's only difference is three letters). **** (80%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Geez; I'm feeling this Goliath/Othello relationship now since they are actually building on the character of Othello and actually explaining why Othello hates Goliath. The love triangle between Iago, Othello and Desdemona has a lot of heat and I felt for Othello which was the whole point of the episode because Goliath was the tweener. Remember that they made it look like Goliath had abandoned his brother in Reawakening even though he could have been clearly found as indicated in the opening. The whole virtual reality thing was goofy; but it made for great television and it made Sunwoo's crappy animation skills more believable. I still didn't like the finish where they landed on the bridge to say their goodbyes right in the middle of the path of the virus because it was contrived and made no sense; and it only served to do a silly running sequence that I didn't care about. It would have been nice if Goliath's body was there and his image merged with it like Iago; that would have rocked, but BS&P stepped in I guess because I did see a tease towards it. So overall; this was a really fun episode with a silly finish sequence and a good ending that made sense. Also the Gargoyles win their third battle in the series because Iago is dead (at least in theory), Xanatos lost Coldstone, Goliath beat Iago and the only thing Xanatos got out of this was a computer virus...and that cannot be of any threat now can't it? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~! So next weekend will have three more episodes: A Lighthouse In The Sea Of Time as Macbeth returns; Greg Weissman's favorite episode of all time which is The Mirror (featuring one of the most ironic endings you will ever see in a DTVA cartoon) and The Silver Falcon which Matt Bluestone goes missing and Broadway and Eliza must battle wits against Tony Dracon again. So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.