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Gargoyles: High Noon
Reviewed: 09/07/2013
...Low Writing!
So now comes the point after an epic City of Stone story arc where Gargoyles goes from awesome to so crazy; no one seems to know how to keep the story together without explaining it. Example #1 is this episode as Demona and Macbeth return and they are teaming with each other. This is turning into a crappy wrestling feud now. So let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode is written by Lydia C. Marano and story is edited by Brynne Stephens. Animation is done by Walt Disney Animation Japan and additional services provided by Jade Animation, Nakamura Productions, Takahashi Productions, Light Foot, Studio Cats and Studio Robin.
Opening Moment #1: We get the complete recap of Legion; but gloss over Reawakening which debuted Coldstone/Othello. Very interesting indeed.
We begin this one with the fog lifting and a shot of the moon and then more fog as we discover that we are in Coldstone's virtual world of doom which has seemed to be fixed up after the parasite of doom consumed half of it in Legion. So I'm assuming that the virus and Iago are destroyed. So we head to the castle to see Desdemona looking on and then Othello lands and gives her some willow plant called heather (the white version of Calluna Vulgaris). Desdemona sniffs it and it has no scent because this is a virtual world and nothing is real. I guess the Digital World had smell-a-vision after all. It doesn't matter to them because they are in love and they embrace. Then Iago appears in gargoyle form and tries to attack them; but he hyperboles for no reason. Othello and Desdemona point out that due to the programming; they will not be denied their love as Iago flies into the moon which is of course Coldstone's eye and we head out of Coldstone attached with wires as Lexington is playing with the android like a robot. We see Hudson trying to read the newspaper and he's more awkward than Goliath was with speaking. Broadway cannot even say "right" which is the easiest word to say as a babyface and Eliza comes in to correct him. It's hard to place this in a vacuum and try not to realize the lack of differences between Broadway and Patrick Star. See; a couple of teenagers pulled a five year old out of the water and revived him which is a load of courage. They had to be watching TaleSpin at some point. Eliza proclaims that she didn't see it and she's no hero and is just doing her job. Eliza yawns and proclaims that she wants to hit the sack; which completely confuses Hudson. Brooklyn points out that she wants to rest; and Hudson thinks Eliza should have just said that. Forget the reading lessons; Hudson needs slang lessons. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Eliza puts some books down near Lexington as they are about tackling computer viruses. Lex is using his portable computer to check Coldstone out and his programming is wiped clean and the virus is gone. Goliath claims that magic was responsible for giving Coldstone three personalities; so they might still be there.
Eliza yawns and tells them that she needs her rest and walks away stage left. Goliath proclaims that they do too as they all rush outside onto the perch in front of the clock tower and Goliath strikes a pose before they all turn to stone which was great. So we head down to ground level and outside the entrance to the police station as Eliza comes out yawning with a black cop who is clearly Morgan (as per the mustache) as they exchange notes on aging and then we see a red haired police woman dragging in a green hooded man with the handcuffs in front of him; which Morgan and Eliza see as a rookie mistake. So Eliza rushes in (with Morgan warning her to go home afterwards.) and we can see that the green hooded man is clearly Macbeth as his beard shows up right on the hard camera. You couldn't just turn the camera the opposite way? So the "officer" and Macbeth rush up the stairs and then we do the misdirection spot as Eliza sees a door slamming spot which is the Squad Room; which Eliza enters, but there is no red haired officer. Eliza calls this weird and then closes the door and notices the door opens and that one leads to the inside of the clock tower as Eliza rushes in with her gun; and Macbeth and the female "officer" both jump her. Eliza notices Macbeth right away and the red haired "officer" nails her and she goes into the wall and she does the Broadway "no sell for two seconds; then sell like you are dead" spot and that is that. Then we scene change to outside as Macbeth is flying his ship away from the clock tower and we hear Demona's voice as she comes in and gets her hair and dandruff up because she wanted the gargoyles dead. Macbeth claims that there is no honor in killing helpless gargoyles. Demona blows off Macbeth's code of honor as Macbeth proclaims that they managed to get the stolen cargo without a hitch and no one except Eliza will notice. Macbeth also tells Demona to lighten up which is completely out of character for Macbeth I should note. That sounds like something Puck would say. So we get a closeup of Demona's human face (and out of control hairstyle) and segue back to the clock tower as it is nearly sunset now and...
...we see Eliza on the ground barely getting up as she checks her watch as she was out for most of the day. She then rushes outside to look at the perches and sees that the gargoyles are still perfectly intact which gives Eliza a sigh of relief. Eliza then goes back inside to look for Coldstone; and only sees the portable computer on the wooden crate. Eliza wonders how they got it past everyone without anyone noticing. Ummm; Macbeth has a remote control and can use it to recall his ship from the clock tower which we clearly saw when Demona and Macbeth left? Do I win a cookie? So yeah; Demona and Macbeth are working together and they don't like each other which for those who have read my rants; this is the same kind of thing we saw in Bad Tidings and that was a negative star episode. At least the heels are doing it; so that helps a lot to make this episode workable. Eliza retires in Hudson's red loveseat and waits for sunset as we return to Macbeth's castle home and to inside as Coldstone is still not selling anything as Macbeth is now demanding Demona to put the disk into Coldstone right now. Demona refuses because while it's sunset; she cannot let Coldstone see her as a human because he might kill her and he might do worse to Macbeth since he doesn't know you. So we continue to argue as it's nightfall and Demona lives again as a gargoyle and both Demona and Macbeth sell pain; although Macbeth seems to be getting used to it because he almost no sells it. Almost. Macbeth asks about Demona's "gift" and Demona proclaims that Puck's gifts always come with a price. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. She also proclaims that the magical link at least is something to cheer about because Macbeth can now feel his pain. You know something; they should have had a scene before City of Stone where Macbeth is seen then for no reason; starts selling pain the moment night fall comes. That would have been a good setup for the payoff to City of Stone. Anyhow; Demona goes into red eyes mode as Macbeth just wants her to get on with it and gives her the floppy disk (that kids used in Ancient Egypt) and inserts it into the heart of Coldstone...
...and then we segueway into Coldstone's heart as there is a burning sun like portal which appears in front of Othello and Desdemona. The two lovers are shocked of this development as Iago swoops down to tease attacking them; but then goes through the portal. Desdemona is concerned about this; but Othello doesn't give a damn because they are lovers and nothing else matters. What a psychopath Othello is?! And then we zoom out to a shot of Coldstone reviving with his red blinking eyes and he scans Demona right away as Demona is standing in front of him. Demona asks how he feels and Coldstone proclaims that he feels vengeful and that ends the segment nine minutes in. This Bad Tidings redo plot has to be a Weird Sisters plot because it makes perfect sense to do so; so at least the continuity isn't broken at least. At least not yet anyway. Otherwise; this has been a decent episode thus far...
After the commercial break; we head back to the clock tower AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we see Eliza and the gargoyles inside near the portable computer/wooden crate where Coldstone was and Goliath is confused because Macbeth was with the Weird Sisters and how did they find them. Answer: The Weird Sisters knew where you live?! They are shape shifting teleporters you know. Anyhow; the gargoyles ask about the red haired "officer" and Eliza claims that she looks familiar; but she cannot put her "Demona thumb" COUGH! COUGH! On who she really is. Hudson wants to pay Macbeth a visit; but Eliza proclaims that she must get back on duty in 30 minutes. Goliath proclaims that the gargoyles will take on Macbeth and some red haired officer six on one as Eliza tells them to be careful and to file a full report when she gets back. HA! The gargoyles leave as Eliza thanks her attackers for giving her a long enforced nap. Ummm; making light of two guys who can easily kill you is really the definition of not having a clue. So we scene change to Macbeth's castle and head inside as the video camera is clearly showing the gargoyles entering a hallway. The gargoyles pat Lex on the back for his hacking alarms knowledge and Lex calls this too easy. Logic lesson #1945: When something is way too easy; it means that the heel wants you to come in because the heel wants to KILL YOU~! So they go into the fork in the hallway as the babyfaces deduce reasonably that Macbeth must be expecting them; so it's time to flush him out. So we now do the Scooby Doo Spilt Up Of Doom into the first and second floor as Goliath taps on the camera lens and both he and Lex deduce that Macbeth is in the control room. So we break open the door and we are in the control room. Macbeth is not there as Goliath wants to leave; but Lex stops him because they can use the control room to flush him out.
So Lexington pushes buttons as we look at the B&W computer monitor and we see various images inside the house which none of them capture the babyface Gargoyles; but the last one is in the dungeon and it's Coldstone chained up on the floor right in the middle of the dungeon cells. Goliath wants to leave now; but Lex points out that Coldstone is struggling and therefore he is alive and Lex has no clue which of Coldstone's personalities is being used; and one of them hates Goliath's guts so to speak. So Goliath punches the computer console and leaves with a smile. Yes; he destroyed someone else's property for no reason whatsoever. You know where we complain about this BS? Every cartoon in the modern era that we HATE. Hypocrites! So we get a sky shot of Macbeth's office and I swear to god Macbeth was watching TaleSpin because outside of the stain glass window (the one with Macbeth and Demona); this looks like the inside to Higher...For...Hire. We see Brooklyn and Bronx walking in as we have now degenerated into a Scooby Doo episode. I know this because Brooklyn acts like the place is spooky. Whatever Brooklyn. Bronx goes over and claws at a nearby wooden door which Brooklyn notices. They head inside and it's a closet which Brooklyn waves off. Bronx isn't buying this as he goes to the wall which is clearly a secret passage door and it's Demona in red eyes mode. She blitzes and tackles Brooklyn down and throws him around into the fireplace as Brooklyn takes some really sick bumps in the process. Lots of candlesticks and logs fly as Bronx tries to tackle Demona from behind (Backfighter!) but Demona sidesteps him and Bronx collides into Brooklyn (with that look of "Oh S**t! I'm dead.") and into the fireplace. Then we see Demona walking away which segue ways to Broadway walking towards the door. Did they just rib Sally Struthers after Jim Henson died? Hudson just stares into the hard camera and we open the double door to find Macbeth's personal library which looks like he was watching Ducktales; only he was smart enough to make it so it avoided copyright infringement. You don't mess with Scrooge's business model see!
So Broadway is loving all these books (at least it makes sense now for him to like books since this is clearly post Jeffrey Robbins first meeting.) and then someone fires a laser and it's Macbeth on one of the library ladders. So Macbeth uses the ladder to get to a spiral staircase which has a book swinger like door in the background. So Broadway takes a second ladder while Hudson mans the spiral staircase and this goes on for a long ass whomping time which ends with Broadway's ladder colliding with Macbeth's ladder and Macbeth flies off and takes a sick MAN-SIZED bump onto the chair. And since in storyline; his pain is linked with Demona's body (and vice versa) we cut back to the fireplace as Demona oversells pain which is enough for Brooklyn to try to blitz her and manages to tackle her down; but Demona kicks him away; only to get knocked down and out by Bronx. Yeah. So Bronx is praised by Brooklyn and we head to the stone hallway leading to the dungeon as Lex and Goliath notice Coldstone on the ground struggling with the chain which bind him as he pleads for them to leave because it's a trap see. Hudson proclaims that it isn't anymore and comes in with Broadway as they drop Macbeth like a bad habit. This is great to see since it's always a win when the babyfaces actually outsmart the heels in the obvious steep trap gig. Coldstone then mentions Demona being around and Brooklyn throws Demona down next to Macbeth. Coldstone claims that they are working together as Lex thinks his circuits are crossed because Demona and Macbeth hate each other. Goliath thinks they escaped from the Weird Sisters which makes no sense at all since the Weird Sisters can clearly keeps these two in check. It has to be something else. So Goliath isn't sure about freeing Coldstone as Hudson claims that misery loves company. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments.
Lexington is certain Coldstone has Othello's personality and Goliath breaks the lock on the chain and unchains Coldstone. Coldstone gets up and thanks them for helping him and that he should have more faith in them since they could have easily been destroyed coming to his aid. He gets up and walks over to Demona and Macbeth; grabbing both of them. Coldstone proclaims that there is one way to deal with them and it's this as both Demona and Macbeth wake up (complete with Demona in pissy red eyes mode) as the gargoyles are in shock. Yeap; it's Iago what a shock?! Iago is the one who always poisons the well; don't you idiots remember?! So Macbeth brings out the remote control and pushes the red button which is the signal of death in DTVA and the Gargoyles get shocked and fried somehow. Wow; those brick floors have metal in them or something. And how did Coldstone not get shocked? This makes no sense! All the gargoyles fall dead onto the floor as we cut over to inside the virtual Castle Wyvern as Othello and Desdemona gasp in horror of Iago laughing it up and that ends the segment 14 and a half minutes in. Just all right thus far...
After the commercial break; we head back to virtual Castle Wyvern as we see Desdemona and Othello looking at the portal as Desdemona proclaims that Iago is up to no good; but Othello puts his foot down on all this because he earned his measure of peace. Geez; even now, Othello is a complete dick. So we head back to the clock tower in the morning as Eliza is searching around and finding nothing but more excuses to sleep as someone flies into the light (which indicates that it's almost sunrise); but it's...Demona? Demona taunts Eliza as Eliza reminds her that she is going to turn to stone; but Demona waves it off as it becomes daytime and Demona goes into her painful convulsions sequence as she turns human much to the surprise of Eliza. Demona taunts Eliza some more (as Eliza brings out her gun) as she tells her that if she remains silent, she'll never see Goliath again. Demona is still trying to use the "humans are evil bastards" card again as she tells Eliza that she is moving the gargoyles to Belvedere Castle and she dares Eliza to come at high noon. See in Demona's mind; if she comes, Eliza is dead, but if she doesn't come, then Goliath will finally see it her way and she wins. Memo to Demona: That would have worked if you were NOT working with Macbeth who is your arch enemy. More so when you have been loyal to him sort of. Anyhow; Demona runs into the clock tower and down towards the ground floor as Eliza follows her all the way down to the ground as Demona calls for a taxi and a yellow cab shows up. Demona opens the door and climbs in the back seat and the taxi leaves. Eliza is about to follow; but stops at the sidewalk and realizes that she knows where Demona is going anywhere. Eliza is getting more and more sleepy by the second as Morgan shows up. They exchange notes about normal life as Eliza talks about monsters both good and bad will be gone by then. The guise of this is that Morgan wants her to rest and Eliza is trying to avoid it because she needs help. Morgan talks about putting on the badge and suddenly Eliza has what she wants and thanks Morgan and runs off as she stopped selling tiredness. Ooookkkkaaaaayyyyy...
So we scene change to Central Park in front of Belvedere Castle as we see the stone gargoyles chained up like slaves in front of the gate. Coldstone walks around and wonders why he hasn't been turned to stone and Demona explains that he is no longer a real gargoyle; he is Coldstone now. Coldstone then notices the biggest gaping logic break ever: We see Brendan and Margot walking in front of the castle and they completely ignore Coldstone. Now if you recall City of Stone Part Two; Brendan and Margot were turned to stone and Demona shot them and crumble them to rocks. And according to Greg Weissman; they were supposed to stay that way. So now; Brendan and Margot are alive and well! WHAT THE HELL?! This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! This kind of crap has no place in a serial series. You can get away with it in an episodic show; but not in a serial show. Macbeth tells Coldstone to ignore them just the same for his own benefit. Coldstone gets a zoom in and he head back to virtual Castle Wyvern as Othello still refuses to help because they are not gargoyles anymore; they are shadows. Yeah; because you cannot say spirit on a kid's cartoon show. Except Gosalyn Mallard made it her gimmick in DARKWING...DUCK! Hell; even ghost would have worked out. Then we hear Desdemona say that even shadows must heed their true shade as Othello turns around; we see the Weird Sisters looking like Desdemona only with different hairstyles. Why them? Wasn't Desdemona alone enough for this promo? So we get a whiplash jump cut and see Eliza storm in and walk past all the heels and checks on the chained up stone Goliath. Well; Demona got her answer: Eliza will go down fighting like a real ninja turtle! Demona brings out the rocket launcher right away and calls Eliza stupid like people who call our people brain damaged when they think about bringing out any DTVA show back other than Gargoyles. Eliza proclaims that she is unarmed and Demona calls it her last mistake. But Macbeth grabs the rocket launcher before Demona fires it. Why? Because he has honor silly; and wants her to fight Eliza in honorable combat. HAHA! That's legal...
Demona throws the rocket launcher down in disgust and then we have a wicked fight as Demona gets monkey flipped and Eliza taunts Demona saying that she fights like a rookie. HAHA! See; Demona is badass in gargoyle mode; but she's normal in human mode, thus Eliza has the advantage. We sidestep and Demona falls on her face; and then Demona delivers a kick to the midsection and knocks Eliza to the railing; but Eliza comes back and tackles Demona down as Coldstone calls this diverting which is so Star Trek like; I might as well be watching that show right about now. Macbeth claims that he doesn't know half of this. So we have the Desdemona Sisters all asking him about Iago and claim that only Othello can stop Iago and even Othello concedes that they speak the truth. Here's a good idea to the Weird Sisters: come out and stop Demona and Macbeth already! So stupid. Then we get the sisters combining into Desdemona and they screw up her hair color as it's black when she fuses together; but in the next shot where she asks Othello what they should do, it's blond. So they fly together into the portal and we return as Coldstone holds his head in pain and drops to his knees in pain as we cut back to inside the portal as Othello and Desdemona surround Iago and Iago is tripped down to the ground and Desdemona tackles Iago down onto the portal. She yells to Othello to take control of Coldstone and to move quickly. Othello teases not doing it; but then runs stage left. We cut back to Coldstone recovering and proclaims that he is accessing his memory banks; and then turns on Macbeth. Macbeth tries to shoot; but the laser cannon arm kills that quickly. Macbeth calls for Priority 1 Extraction as Demona is shocked which allows Eliza to get a cheap shot in. Demona then gets backflipped and hits her head hard in Broadway's stone belly. HAHA! Demona gets up as Macbeth's ship arrives and both climb up the rope ladder up onto the flying ship and escape. Coldstone is about to go after them; but Eliza stops him because she wants the chains off the Gargoyles. Coldstone agrees and he shoots off all the chains that bind the gargoyles.
Eliza wants Coldstone to stay to see his brother again; but Coldstone declines because the evil forces inside him are overbearing and as long as they exist; no living gargoyle is safe from his wrath. He does promise to come back someday; hopefully as he spreads his steel wings and rockets away out of sight. So we see Eliza slump in front of the statues as the jogger appears wanting answers to these out of nowhere statues. Eliza blows him off and wants to sleep a good sleep for a change. So we get the clawing scene changer of doom as we head inside a room where there is a table containing The Eye of Odin, The Grimonium and The Phoenix Gate. Wait; how?! So they DID steal those relics during the stealing of Coldstone. So why didn't Goliath and company notice that earlier? Demona blows off Macbeth's honor again as Macbeth claims that this is not their objective which stuns Demona. See; the whole point of this exercise was to steal the three relics Goliath had and Coldstone was used as a diversion. Demona claims that she chanted a spell from the Grimomium to make them invisible to humans which we never saw her do in this episode! They start questioning how they knew about the clock tower and why they are working together. Both of them stare at each other and are about to kill each other (Demona goes into pissy red eyes mode again); but then a tornado arises and they freeze as the Weird Sisters arrive. I called this before the episode happened I should note. Apparently; they put a spell on them to make them work together which I wish they did with Drake and Grizzkloff in Bad Tidings; because that would have made the episode suck less. So they grab the relics as they question putting a spell on Coldstone; but decide it was not worth it since they have the relics for the coming battle. The spell is also dying on them since they can only tolerate each other for so long before nature overtakes them. So they believe in nature over nuture. No shock there; since they are magical creatures after all. The Weird Sisters cast another tornado spell and all the humans disappear from the room as we zoom out to a shot of Macbeth's castle and that ends the episode at 21:15 approx. I was told that Morgan and Brendon/Margot were supposed to play a bigger role than usual; but Morgan didn't get anymore screen time than he usually get when he appears. Just your average Gargoyles love in. *** 1/2 (70%).
THE REVIEW LINE
I don't have much to say about this episode as it was fine for the most part. I still don't like the Margot/Branden logic break near the finish and the whole thing was just a Scooby Doo episode with a lot of short cuts to make it so it didn't look like a Scooby Doo episode. The Demona/Eliza fight was amusing at least and the finish made complete sense in the context of the show and it was a perfect explanation for Macbeth and Demona teaming up together. At least without the spell; you know THIS FEUD MUST CONTINUE! So there you go. Next up is Outfoxed as we get the debut of Halycon Renard and Preston Vogel as Biocyberntics is back in focus once again for the first time since Awakening Part 4 and 5. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.