When Casey Met April: “Nano”

“You want a daddy?  You do what I tell you–I’ll be your daddy.” — Harry Parker

Written by: Eric Luke
Original Air Date: March 8, 2003
Narrator: Donatello
Introduces: Nano; Harry Parker; Dr. Marion Richards; 2nd Time Around

Synopsis:

In a lab somewhere in Manhattan, Dr. Marion Richards records  information on her project, codenamed “Nanotech”.  As she watches the nanomachine colony disassemble and re-assemble machinery, she notes that despite her attempts, the artificial intelligence controlling the nanomachines keeps personifying, exhibiting a personality akin to that of a 3-year old.  Complaing about a headache, she exits the room, and does not notice that the nanos which she had stunned into inactivity, have once again regained consciousness and forced their way out of their testing tube.  Using the room’s ventilation systems, the nanomachine colony escapes.

April O’Neil has plans to re-open 2nd Time Around, an antique store that once belonged to her father.  She has asked the turtles to help set up the shop, and they in turn have recruited Casey Jones.  Despite an initial mutal attraction, Casey immediately antagonizes April after he slights her decision to keep the shop open until she figures out what to do with her life, and after his attempt to help results in broken china.

Elsewhere small-time con man Harry Parker is complaining about his lot in life when he finds Nano, who has turned a cassette tape to create a tiny robot, and has decided that the crook his “daddy”.  Initially confused, Harry quickly realizes the potential applications of Nano, and succesfully uses him to dissassemble a jewelry store’s alarms.

Days later, April has once again recruited the turtles, this time for protection (there’s been a series of robberies near her store).  The turtles have once again called upon Casey, who stands watch outside the building.  Good thing, too, since Harry has decided to rob the store.

As Harry and Nano (who has stolen a series of masks in order to make himself look more expressive following a comment by Harry), they run into the masked vigilante.  Panicky, Nano absorbs a car in order to battle Casey, and  knocks him against a wall.  The turtles, hearing the ruckus, join the battle, eventually forcing Nano and Harry to retreat, thanks in part to Don’s timely application of a blowtorch to the A.I.’s backside.

As the turtles recuperate and try to figure out just what the shell happened, Don notes that Nano had left something behind–a small piece of himself, which is now moving independently.   As a now-awake April bandages a hurt Casey, Don inspect the nano remains and discovers what makes it tick.  Realizing the danger that a continously-multiplying, uncontrollable nanomachine colony poses, and noting its apparent weakness to intense heat, he stresses the importance of stoping it as soon as possible.  Asked how they’ll be able to track it, he notes that he should be able to cobble up a tracking device from the machinery in the Battle Shell.  Casey, however, declines an invitation to join them, as he lays on the couch under April’s care, a position he seems to be enjoying.

Inside a junkyard across town, Harry reflects on how Nano has turned his life around when the turtles’ Battle Shell arrives.  As the warrior terrapins do their best (which, unfortunately, is not good enough) to dissasemble Nano faster than it can reassemble itself, Harry tries to aid his “son”; after Don immobilizes Nano with a crane-mounted magnet, he deactivates it, not quite realizing that Nano had been positioned directly above a blast furnace.  As he watches his partner-in-crime scream in pain as it “dies”, Harry laments his stupidity and misfortune, until a squadron of policemen appear and take him away.

As the turtles drive back to April’s shop, ruminate on whether Nano’s fate was deserved, given its infantile demeanor and less-than-ideal father figure.  Once they arrive at 2nd Time Around and  overhear Casey bickering with April, they wisely decide to give them their space.

—-

I remember this episode not being terribly well-received back when it first aired.  I have no idea why, since I think its quite good–even more so when you consider that it’s the first story not based on existing canon.  Sure, it may not have much to do with the season’s overarching plots, but so what?

The idea of a monster made out of nanomachines is not a new one, but I think it was overall well executed.  You have a distinctive design—the mask motif is a nice touch; a solid motivation that makes the character sympathetic and thematically ties it to the turtles; and a good plot built around him.  He’s no Hun—for one, there’s only a limited number of stories you can tell with the character—but he’s still a worthwhile addition to the mythology.

Still, Nano really isn’t the star of this episode; Harry is.  In less than 20 minutes, the grifter manages to get some significant (if ambiguous) development.  Does he truly feel affection for his “kid”, or does he just see him as a meal ticket?  It’s incredibly hard to say.  In any case, he comes off as a rather likeable–if by no means squeaky clean–guy.  One wonders if he was similarities to Oliver Twist‘s Fagin are intentional or merely coincidental.

Moving on…

Casey and April’s relationship is a pretty unique in Western Animation.  With any sort of cartoon (and western television in general) the rule seems to be that happy couples are a thing to be avoided.  Writers will work their asses off to bring a couple together, but once that happens, it’s time to either 1) work just as hard to separate them, so that you can try to get them back together again or 2) end the series.  Most writers just seem incapable of conceiving the idea that a couple can be interesting to watch; conversely, they seem to believe that once two people get together, there are no more obstacles left for them to face (which further implies that couple obstacles are the only obstacles worth discussing, which opens up a whole can of worms I don’t plan on discussing right now).  Given that, the fact that April and Casey get together midway through the series and stay together until the end (except for that one time) makes the couple pretty damn special.

Even among the get those couples who manage to get together and stay together (which includes couples  such as Kim Possible/ Ron Stoppable and Xanatos / Fox but otherwise seems pretty exclusive) Casey and April’s relationship stands out for the way it evolves throughout the show: over the course of seven seasons, we get to see them meet, become friends, begin a relationship, and eventually marry—a quite satisfying arc which I don’t think any other cartoon couple can really claim.

More substantively, I like the coupling because, under the superficial differences—mostly stemming from their different upbringings—they’re actually a lot alike.  Even when you take away superficial stuff like their similar taste in movies (Rio Gato) or mechanics/engineering, they share similar cores.  I’m not entirely sure I could explain it, except that it has something to do with their mutual acceptance of the turtles as their surrogate family, and their apparent inability to form significant friendships outside of them (note that their wedding guest list is comprised almost entirely of people they’ve met through the turtles; while this is partly for the benefit of the viewer, it’s still quite suggestive).  The fact that they tend not to put too much of a premium on money also suggest quite similar world views.

Aaaaanyways…the whole point in bringing this up is to say that while I really like how the relationship ends, I really don’t like how it begins.  Until about midway through season 2 (specifically, the second Nano episode, which is a turning point for the relationship), the two characters follow the usual “they’re-obviously-attracted-to-each-other-but-are-embarrased-about-it” pattern (I’m sure TV Tropes has a specific  name for that; I’m not looking for it) , which is frankly, quite boring–it’s been done, guys.  While it starts promisingly enough—their discussion about April’s motives for reopening the store actually says quite a bit about the individual characters—it soon devolves into discussions on broken china and other inanities.  I know that we can’t have the characters meet and immediately have sex (kids’ show) and given that they haven’t had time to see through their differences, it wouldn’t really make sense anyway, but I do think there could have been a middle ground.  Fortunately, things get a lot better after this episode.

The most poignant bit in the episode is one that had initially flown over my head: April’s admission that she didn’t know what to do with her life.  Back when this first aired, I was a senior in high school with the next four or so years of my life planned out, so I didn’t think much of it.  Now, after going through very similar feelings of stasis, it feels like one of the most real, most mature scenes in the series, and its a pity (or perhaps not—things like these tend to work better as subtext with this series) that it’s really not really elaborated upon much, since I think this actually provides significant insights into April’s character.  It’s also sad that, as the series goes on, 2nd Time Around goes from being What April Is Doing Right Now to being What April Does, which clearly isn’t where she saw her life going; while we know that she eventually becomes the co-founder of a multi-billion dollar company, its disappointing to not see her recover from her initial setback within the series.

Random thoughts:

Viewers with good memory will note that the man seen at the beginning of this episode being scammed by Harry looks identical to the eventual recurring character the mayor of New York–obviously, the character designer took an existing design, gave it a suit, and told him “you, sir, will be my Michael Bloomberg substitute.  Have fun!”  I occasionally wonder if the similarity is intentional and they’re supposed to be related—or even the same character.  Given that the mayor eventually proves to be very gullible (or just very corrupt), it makes a certain amount of sense.

There’s a set amount of tropes for battling robots in a junkyard, and this episode hits most of them.  Trash compactor?  Check.  Magnet.  Check.  Blast-furnace?  Check.

Voice-actor check: Harry Parker: Eric Stuart.  Nano: Veronica Taylor.  Dr. Richards: Megan Hollingshead.

Stone (by Day) Beats Steel: “Awakening Part 5″

“Giants?“ — Goliath, on yet another feature of New York.

Story by Eric Luke and Michael Reaves
Teleplay by Michael Reaves
Original Air date: October 28, 1994
Characters or item introduced: The Steel Clan

Synopsis:
Despite heavy resistance, all three groups of gargoyles manage to complete their missions and retrieve the disks.  Not everything goes as planned, however; not only does Goliath’s Angel of The Night destroy the Cyberbiotics airship they had boarded, they are both seen by Elisa as they make their escape.

Back at the castle, Goliath confronts his Angel on her actions.  She argues that humanity as a whole (with the exception of Xanatos) is their enemy, and that they should all pay for their crimes against gargoyles.  Disturbed by this admission, Goliath leaves for his appointed meeting with Elisa.

After Goliath finds Elisa, the detective demands an explanation for the ship’s destruction, explaining that the discs that the Gargoyles had retrieved had been Cyberbiotics’ all along.  She suggests that he and the other gargoyles had been tricked by Xanatos, using the bug found on Goliath during the previous episode–which, as Elisa found out, was made by a Xanatos Enterprises subsidiary–as evidence.  She asks Goliath to trust her.

Back at the castle, Xanatos has concluded that he will not be able to keep the gargoyles under his thumb.  Using the stolen disks, he activates what he hopes will be their replacements: the Steel Clan, a series of robots bearing Goliath’s likeness.  Goliath’s Angel, who, it is now clear, has been working with Xanatos all along, suggests he test the robots by pitting them against their flesh-and-blood counterparts, a suggestion Xanatos accepts.

As they comment on the wonders of  20th century New York, the trio is ambushed and overtaken by Xanatos’ robots.  However, the tides eventually turn when Goliath and Hudson join the fight, forcing Xanatos  and Goliath’s Angel to intervene.

As she holds Goliath at rocket-launcher-point, his Angel explains that she had been a co-conspirator in the captain of the guard and Hakon’s plan to take over Castle Wyvern;  that it had been that knowledge that had saved her and that while she had not planned for the massacre,  she would not mind killing its  survivors if they would not join her in her vendetta against humanity.  She explains that she also has a name, given to her “long ago”: Demona.

As Demona proceeds to shoot her former lover, she is tackled by Elisa.  The rocket goes wild, causing a segment of the castle to fall, along with both women.  Without hesitation, Goliath glides after Elisa, saving her and leaving Demona to fall to the streets below.

A short while later, as Xanatos (who had been knocked unconscious by a stray bit of falling debris) is being arrested, Goliath and Elisa muse on their new circumstances.

—-

As I’ve said before, I’d first watched the pilot after having already watched most of season 2, so its twists and turns weren’t all that surprising.  Still, these are by far the most enjoyable episodes of the series’ first season.  This particular episode is possibly the weakest of the five—most of the time is spent on action scenes, which aren’t usually the series’ strong suit—but still a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the pilot.

I once read a statement from someone in TVTropes complaining that Xanatos was acting uncommonly dumb in these episodes by allowing his tracking devices to be traced back to him, and listening to Demona’s suggestion of killing the Gargoyles while they were awake.  Given his future badassitude, The case can definitively be made.  Still, leaving aside the metatextual reason for these episodes’ plot developments–the Gargoyles could not lose again at the end of the pilot–it brings up some interesting sides to the character.

It’s important to note that Xanatos’ misteps here stem from one single source: Elisa Maza.  Were it not for her, Goliath would have likely never discovered the truth about Xanatos’ bug or about the disks, and probably taken considerably longer to conclude that he was being duped by Xanatos.

Lets focus on the bug first.  Given what we see of the castle’s surveillance, it’s hard to believe that Xanatos was not aware of Elisa’s meeting with Goliath; given the 20+hours between Goliath and Elisa’s first and second meetings, it’s also hard to believe that Xanatos didn’t have enough time to prepare a less identifiable  one.  I see two reasons why he wouldn’t:

1. He did not think Elisa would be capable of figuring out the truth regarding the bug.
2. He did not think Elisa and Goliath would hit it off as well as they did.

Now, given the bug’s huge honking logo, I don’t imagine it would be too hard, to find its maker, even without the benefit of the internet as we know it.  I’d like to know if the bug itself is designed for mass consumption—if it is, Elisa’s argument has no teeth and Xanatos had little to worry about—but since it’s not really elaborated upon, I’m concluding that it probably isn’t—which means that once you identify the bug’s maker, it’s game over.  So, given that Elisa had already demonstrated both curiosity and tolerance for the weird, I’d say that Xanatos has underestimated Elisa pretty severely.

It’s a funny relationship, the one between those two.  Despite all his claims about revenge being a sucker’s game, Xanatos definitively feels the need to tweak Elisa when possible—see “Maza, Derek”.  Why is that?  Suggestions would be welcome.

That aside, I’m glad that Xanatos was not set up as an infallible villain.  Not only would that be boring, it leaves him nowhere to go as a character.  Having him be the type of villain who can learn from his mistakes is what makes him stand out from the pack.

As for Demona, there’s very little to say here about her, except that her confrontation works on almost every level (and I say “almost” because I’m pathologically wary of absolutes).  I do wonder how much of her backstory had been planned out at this point, thought, aside from the connection with MacBeth.

Next time, The Pack.

Goliath and Elisa

So I was going through fellow Gargoyles-fan Greg Bishansky’s blog when I came across this old post of his about the tendency of some fans to hope for easy solutions to the obstacles fictional characters face out of “too much” love for them–even at the cost of interesting stories.

I used to read a lot of “Gargoyles” fanfiction, and I still mingle with a lot of the fans on various forums. But whenever we get into a serious discussion on what should happen next, I am honestly surprised whenever someone suggests something good, or even credible. Because almost all the time, fans throw up wish lists that would completely rob the series of its teeth.

Take Goliath and Elisa’s love story, for example. It took them sixty-five episodes to even kiss, and almost as long for Elisa to acknowledge her feelings for him. When Elisa briefly got cold feet in “Invitation Only,” a good portion of the fandom revolted. Weisman was accused of violating the integrity of the characters, people were angry, and accused Elisa of acting out of character. To which I ask, did any of you ever watch the sixty-five episodes of the series? Ever? This isn’t just an interracial relationship, this is interspecies, and it has a lot of very real consequences.

What do most fans want? For Goliath and Elisa to quickly get married and have lots of babies together. As for the former, Weisman has said a commitment ceremony is coming eventually. As for the latter, gargoyles and humans cannot procreate together. May I add that the notion upsets a lot of fans?

While I don’t read a lot of fan-fiction (I really don’t have the time, even if I were to go directly with the cream of the crop–although I did read Bishanky’s excellent “Rhapsody“), I can largely agree with the sentiment.

That said, there’s a part of his post I have to raise objections to.

When Elisa briefly got cold feet in “Invitation Only,” a good portion of the fandom revolted. Weisman was accused of violating the integrity of the characters, people were angry, and accused Elisa of acting out of character. To which I ask, did any of you ever watch the sixty-five episodes of the series? Ever?

As I expressed once the initial issue came out, I do feel that that particular plot was bad writing, and that Elisa was being out of character.  However, it’s not for the reason Greg states here–the opposite, actually.

If you believe that Elisa has been in love with Goliath since at least “Sanctuary“, then she has had months to ruminate on the potential consequences of beginning a relationship with him.  The moment when she kisses him in “Hunter’s Moon” would seem to indicate that she has indeed accepted those consequences.

At the point in the story where “Invitation Only” takes place, it’s been less than a week since the events of “Hunter’s Moon”.  The one event of note she has faced so far was a Quarrymen attack which happened to take place on her appartment–no worse or different than any of the dozens of other attacks on her person she has faced since meeting Goliath.

But what’s this?  Elisa, after taking the initiative in taking her relationship with Goliath to another level, no longer feels the confidence she’d felt four days ago.   She decides to break things up with Goliath, claiming that she wants a normal life which Goliath cannot give her (including kids, which, while natural enough, she’d never mentioned before).  So what’s brought about this sea-change in Elisa’s thinking?  It’s never really explained, and in a couple of issues, after she sees Goliath in mortal danger, she changes her mind again.

Am I saying that it’s unnatural for Elisa to doubt herself?  Not at all–choosing to pursue a romance with a gargoyles is a momentous decision which will affect her life forever, and Elisa is, after all, human.  However, I feel the timing is wrong. Having her change her mind now, after she’s had months to make her decision but has faced none of the consequences that come from it (is anybody even aware of the kiss?), makes her seem, in my opinion, cowardly*, which Elisa has proven time and time again that she isn’t.   Why not have this moment later, after they’d actually tried to have a relationship, and faced the challenges that come with being a closetted Gargoyle-lover**? Not only would it have given the reader the pleasure of actually seeing Elisa & Goliath as a couple and witnessing how that changes things for them, it would have felt like a natural step in their relationship.

On broader terms, I disliked this moment because I’ve grown to hate the tendency for writers to immediately try to separate a couple soon after they’ve gotten together, because it seems to indicate that being in a relationship is easy and therefore uninteresting.  Like Greg says, there are plenty of challenges Goliath and Elisa face in embarking on their newest adventure; why not face them together, instead of folding at the first sight of a pebble in their path?

Now, there’s all sort of subtext here, for whomever wishes to look for it.  Who’s to say that Elisa was actually sure in “Hunter’s Moon”?  Who’s to say that the reasons she gave are her true ones?  One might even get some interesting stories out of that.  However, given how space was at a premium, those are not the stories I was (or are) interested in.

* Not to mention, terribly unfair to Goliath.

** A personal favorite possibility would have been if Elisa got cold feet after she’d tried to explain her relationship to her parents.  After all, knowing and accepting the existence of Gargoyles is one thing; having their daughter date one is another.  Having the Mazas asking the obvious questions, when they are played as sympathetic characters who respect both people in the pair, would have make for great drama (it still can), and would have done a lot to make Elisa’s attempted break-up ring true.

A Hockey-MaskWearing Punk Appears! “Meet Casey Jones”

“Look, freak-boy: if you’re protecting these Purple Dragon scum, then you’re in my way…and you’re going down too!” — Casey Jones

Written by: Michael Ryan
Original Air Date: March 1, 2003
Characters introduced: Casey Jones, Dragonface

Synopsis:

After faring poorly in a sparring match against Michelangelo, Raphael attempts to take his anger out on his brother with the help of an iron bar.  Stopped by the rest of his family and horrified at what he had been about to do, he runs out of the lair and into the city, where he meets up with another angry individual: Casey Jones, a hockey-mask wearing vigilante who will stop at nothing to destroy the Purple Dragon gang.

After witnessing Jones almost murdering a trio of Dragons, Raph, who sees way too much of himself in the vigilante, intervenes and attempts to calm Casey down, explaining that there is a limit to how far he should take things in his quest for justice.  Casey is having none of it, however, and begins fighting the mutant turtle.

As the two hotheads battle it out, Mikey, back at the lair, tries to convince Don to overhaul the armored truck they’d stolen from the Purple Dragons into a “Battle Shell”.  Exasperated, Don asks Mikey to hand their “Sewer Sweet Sewer” sign on the wall: one overemphatically-nailed railroad spike later, Mikey has broken through one of the lair’s walls to reveal a mysterious elevator—an elevator sharing the same design aesthetics as their lair, no less—leading to an abandoned warehouse above.

After sucker-punching Raph, Casey makes his escape, offering to have a rematch the next Friday at Central Park.  However, Casey is overheard by one of the defeated Purple Dragons, who calls his leader, Dragonface, to tell him of the news.

After filling his brothers in on the events of that night, the turtles agree to meet up with Jones in order to convince him of the errors of his way.  Hopping into their new Battle Shell—Mikey had convinced Don along with some help from Splinter—they make their way to the agreed-upon meeting place, where this time, Raph is more successful in getting through to Casey.  Casey tells Raph the reason for his vendetta: apparently, the Purple Dragons, led by Hun, had burned Casey’s father’s store after he’d refused to give them shakedown money.  Sensing that they are indeed kindred spirits, the two become friendly with each other, only to be interrupted by the approaching Purple Dragon gang.  However, the Dragons prove to be no match for five turtles and one sports-themed vigilante, and are defeated with ease.

—-

I’ve never really liked this episode; although it’s a fairly faithful adaptation of Raphael #1, several elements hold it down severely.

The first thing that bugs me is the way the Casey/Raph conflict gets resolved.  Usually, in fight-then-team-up plots, the battling heroes reconcile their differences when faced with a common enemy.  Here, Casey and Raph fight until they don’t, and become downright chummy for no particular reason.  It’s supremely jarring.

The second problem with this episode is that it runs headfirst against S&P restrictions, and isn’t quite able to get around the obstacles it presents.  It’s hard to believe that Casey is being any tougher against the Purple Dragons than Raph is when we don’t get to see it.

There’s also the matter of Casey’s origin, which seems strangely muted—as far as reasons for a vendetta go, a burned-down store lacks dramatic weight.  In season 4—when the series was allowed to get away with pretty much anything—we find out that his father was later killed by the Dragons, which has some nice “oomph” to it but the reveal consequently makes this moment feel weird—if the Dragons killed your dad, why focus on the burnt-down store?

That said, one has to commend the writers on making Casey a more coherent character than the random masked punk he was in the Mirage and movie continuities.  Not only does he have more solid ties to the turtles thanks to the Purple Dragons and Hun, it allows him to have his own nice character arc.  Mirage later adapted elements of this story back into Casey’s comic-book backstory, so Goldfine and Co. had to be doing something right.

There’s also a weird disconnect between Raph’s characterization here and in future episodes, in that we’re supposed to believe that he finds killing the Shredder acceptable while still keeping goons off-limits.  It’s a hold-over from the original comic book, and while one could explain it—the turtles’ vendetta is much more focused than Casey’s, and if pressed, the turtles would probably explained that Shredder is too dangerous to be left alive, while the same cannot be said for the Dragons—it still feels somewhat weird.

This episode also continues laying groundwork for the “Notes From the Underground” arc, in one of its nicer bits.  The underground arc is the season’s biggest original subplot, and although it doesn’t reach the heights of more important arcs, it’s quite well-handled.

Plus, the Battle Shell.  Peter Laird has said that the idea of the turtles’ car being an armored truck was a hold-over from an abandoned subplot in his own comics—where Don found an abandoned truck that had been lost after a bank-heist in the 70’s—and as obligatory action figure tie-ins go, it’s quite alright.  It’s introduced naturally enough, in any case.

This episode also introduces the concept of Mikey’s combat savvy, particularly when it comes to Raph.  Given that Mikey is sometimes annoyingly portrayed as “the dumb one”, it’s nice to see that he knows how to use his ability to push his brother’s button to his advantage, and that Raph will always fall for it.

I like that while we’re clearly supposed to conclude that the large punk in the flashback is Hun, it’s never explicitly said—the music is left to do all the work.

Given how Casey’s competence levels drastically decrease later on, it’s kind of weird to see him hold his own against Raph here.  While it can be explained as the result of having the element of surprise, I wish they’d been more consistent.

So with Casey Jones introduced, season 1’s main cast has been assembled.  Next episode we meet up with April again, and are introduced to the series’ first all-original villain.

Elisa vs. The World: “Awakening: Part 4″

“Goliath…there’s someone here I want you to meet.” — David Xanatos

Story by Eric Luke and Michael Reaves
Teleplay by Michael Reaves
Original Air date: October 27, 1994
Characters Introduced: Central Park jogger

Synopsis:

While the trio discover how not to deal with Manhattan cab drivers,  Goliath and Elisa try to fight the same group of armed goons that had previously attacked the castle.  Unfortunately, with Goliath severely weakened by a tranquilized and later (to Elisa’s surprise) taken out of the fight entirely by sunrise, it’s up to the NYPD detective to protect them both, a task which she fulfills admirably.  Once Goliath reawakens and realizes the extent of Elisa’s aid–she had spent all day beside him after dispatching the goons–they agree to meet up later.

Later, back at the castle, the trio are choosing names for themselves and for the gargoyle beast when Goliath is summoned by Xanatos, who has a suprise for him: as it turns out, his Angel of the Night survived both the massacre and the intervening 1000 years, and now wishes to rejoin the clan.  She convinces Goliath that, in gratitude to Xanatos, they should agree to help him retrieve his stolen information from Cyberbiotics.  Goliath agrees.

The gargoyles are briefed on their mission, inside three Cyberbiotics facilities–an airship, another in a tower, and the other in an underground base–are three different diskettes (remember those?) with vital information.  The gargoyles will split up and retrieve the disks simultaneously. The three teams are: Goliath and the Angel of the Night (henceforth referred to as AotN), who will take on the airship; Brooklyn, Broadway and Bronx, who will infiltrate the tower; and Hudson and Bronx, who get the remaining base.

While Goliath and AotN have little trouble entering the airship, the trio soon find themselves facing a small army.  Oops.

—-

Call me stupid, but something about this episode used to bug me: for the longest time, I couldn’t realize why Xanatos had ordered his commandos to attack Goliath and Elisa.  It wasn’t until I rewatched if for this post that I realized that Xanatos was using them to give Goliath a personal reason to attack Cyberbiotics, which like, duh.

I’m still not sure what their orders were supposed to be regarding Elisa, thought.  If they were supposed to actually kill her, they’re pretty crappy commandos.  If they weren’t supposed to kill her, they’re pretty careless commandos and/or have x-ray vision–what would have happened if they’d actually killed her while she was hiding on that shed?

In any case, this is where we learn that Elisa is apparently all sorts of bad-ass, capable of holding her own against the goon squad.  I’m not entirely sure I like it, though.  While I can understand Elisa working to get a level or two in badass after meeting Goliath and company,  I don’t get why she’s all Sydney Bristow now–after all, it’s not like the police academy has mandatory martial arts training.  So what caused her to build up?  Traumatic past experience?  Family discipline?  Boredom?  It’s something about her backstory I’d like explained–heck given how we get backstory for every character under the sun, it’s a wonder that we know so little about Elisa’s pre-gargoyle life.

So the gargoyles get names.  Because Greg Weisman is psychic and predicted the existence of this blog, he was kind enough to mention in his commentary for this episode that part of the thought behind the names was to evoke the sort of feel of the Ninja Turtles’ names.  That said, they’re pretty much perfect names, in that they manage to feel appropriate, timeless, and iconic.

Maybe its becuause I already knew how the story went, or perhaps because I watch/read too many stories, but I’ve always felt that Demona’s alliance shift had been telegraphed here, even before her actions on the Fortress 1.  While the story still definitively works, I wonder how it would have looked liked if they’d tried harder to mask her intentions, at least in those first few scenes of her.

Gargoyles-feels-dated alert: it always makes me chuckle seeing Xanatos place so much importance on floppy disks.  Just what vital information could have fit in there?

As a huge fan of flying airships, I have to say: Fortress 1 looks AWESOME.