Future Tense

"Future Tense" is the fifty-sixth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the forty-third episode of Season 2.

• Story Editor: Michael Reaves
• Writers: Marty Isenberg & Bob Skir
• Director: Bob Kline

Summary

One aspect of the Gargoyles Universe is sufficiently bizarre that it needs its own special section in this Guide. This is the world of "Future Tense", a dark and bleak alternate future set in the year 2036, which only existed in a vision that Puck conjured up to dupe Goliath into giving him the Phoenix Gate.

In Puck's nightmarish illusion, Xanatos took advantage of Goliath and Elisa's absence from New York to grow increasingly stronger, until, by 2004, he seized control of Manhattan, breaking it away from the rest of the United States and turning it into his private domain. The gargoyles fought desperately to stop him from doing so, but failed; Hudson attacked Xanatos in single combat, and was slain. However, Xanatos was also slain in the battle. Only Lexington knew this, however, and he chose to keep it secret. By this time, Lexington had somehow become corrupt and power-hungry, and decided to step into the void left by Xanatos upon his death; he created a "Xanatos Program" to masquerade as Xanatos. This program not only duplicated Xanatos' style perfectly (if even more cold-bloodedly ruthless than its original), but also served as a "front man" for Lexington, preserving the illusion that he was still alive. It even produced hologram images of Xanatos giving public broadcasts to the city.

During the time leading up to 2036, numerous disasters befell the clan, their allies, and Manhattan, although we do not know where they took place on the timeline, nor which of them took place before Xanatos and Hudson's deaths and Lexington's takeover, and which took place afterwards. The clock tower was destroyed and the gargoyles forced to take refuge in the Labyrinth. Xanatos (or Lexington masquerading as Xanatos) set up a fresh Mutate program under Sevarius, turning the humans of New York into Mutate soldiers in vast numbers; Broadway, Talon, Maggie, and Coldstone finally went up against Sevarius and the Ultra-Pack (presumably a freshly upgraded version of the Pack) to put a stop to this, but all of them except for Broadway were slain, and he himself was blinded. Thailog was slain in the "Clone Wars", but Xanatos or Lexington masquerading as Xanatos produced a number of subservient clones of his as Thailog Shock Troops, to guard Castle Wyvern. After Thailog's death, Demona joined forces with the clan, presumably with the realization that they would have to put aside their quarrel in order to survive against the tyrant who had usurped the government of Manhattan, and eventually became Brooklyn's mate. Claw lost his wings in an unspecified battle, and Lexington became cybernetized (presumably to assist him in his secret rule over the city).

By 2036, New York was a city in ruins, only a shadow of its former self. Mutate soldiers and Steel Clan robots (the latter redesigned to sport Xanatos' goatee on their faces) patrolled it constantly, while the remaining citizens lived a miserable life on the streets, reduced to eating rats. Brooklyn had become the leader of a resistance movement in the Labyrinth, consisting of, besides himself, Lexington, Broadway, Demona, Matt Bluestone, Claw, and a grown-up Alexander Xanatos who had become thoroughly horrified and disgusted with his father's actions. Lexington continued to run the Xanatos Program in secret, planning now for the final coup; he would release it over the Internet, seizing control of every computer on the planet, and thus become dictator over the whole Earth. He had already advanced the defenses of Castle Wyvern, including the raising of the enormous Eyrie Pyramid above it.

It was at this point in 2036 that Goliath and his companions returned to the island. The skiff was sunk by the city's defenses and Elisa and Angela captured by Steel Clan robots and taken to the castle. Goliath and Bronx were rescued by Matt and Claw, however, and taken to the Labyrinth. There they met the other members of the resistance, and learned of the horrible events that had befallen Manhattan.

In the meantime, Alexander had penetrated the Eyrie Building to battle the Xanatos Program in cyberspace, only to be destroyed by it; in so doing, the computer program learned the whereabouts of the resistance's headquarters. (Admittedly, since Lexington was the real controller of the program, that discovery would have been made long before, but Puck can be forgiven an occasional inconsistency for dramatic purposes). However, before Alexander died, he was able to transmit his location back to the resistance, which used the information to launch a desperate attack on the Eyrie Building. Matt, Bronx, and Claw assaulted the building on the ground level, while the gargoyles swooped in from above. But Matt, Bronx, and Claw were disintegrated by the Mutate ground troops, while the gargoyles were attacked by the Thailog Shock Troops in Castle Wyvern's courtyard; Lexington was "captured" (actually, he had arranged this to happen so that he could quietly get to the computer to start launching the Xanatos Program over the globe) and Broadway was killed. Goliath, Brooklyn, and Demona entered the great hall of the castle to be transported into cyberspace, where Elisa and Angela were already being held captive, and there came face to face with the Xanatos Program, learning its true nature. The Program created a cybernetic sun, turning the gargoyles to stone, shattered Brooklyn and Angela to fragments, and then disintegrated Demona (who, even in cyberspace, still became a human when the sun rose). Goliath, however, broke free from his stone prison to save himself and Elisa and flee cyberspace, only to discover that Lexington had launched the Xanatos Program all over the world, and that it was too late to abort this procedure. Goliath, in his ensuing fury, slew Lexington and set off an explosion which destroyed the Eyrie Building, then fled from it with Elisa. However, with the Xanatos Program continuing to spread across the world even after Lexington's death, there seemed no way to avert it, except, according to Elisa, by time travel with the Phoenix Gate.

Goliath had been badly wounded in the escape from the Eyrie Building, and even if he had been in condition enough to use the Gate, he knew that it would do no good: history is immutable. But when Elisa insisted that he hand the Gate to her, he became suspicious - and so at last learned the truth from Puck, that it had all been an illusion for the purpose of obtaining the Phoenix Gate. (In fact, throughout the illusion, Puck had used one or another of the principals in his dark drama to urge Goliath to turn over the Phoenix Gate to somebody, Elisa's demand being only the last of these). Puck left, his scheme having been foiled, though not before asking Goliath "Was it a dream, or a prophecy?" - and refusing to answer his own question.

A Dream or a Prophecy?

So which was it? On the surface level: definitely a dream. Goliath and his companions returned to New York shortly afterwards to indeed find that it was still 1996 there, and their arrival forty years earlier than 2036 would be enough to show that the "Future Tense prophecy" will not be literally fulfilled. But on other levels, parts of the vision have been achieved.

Two have already taken place. The first was the birth of Xanatos and Fox's son, Alexander Fox Xanatos. The second was the destruction of the clock tower. Furthermore, in the future, an Ultra-Pack will indeed be formed and Brooklyn will undergo an absence of forty years from the rest of the clan through his Timedancer adventures (although from his perspective rather than from theirs). Could Puck have been perhaps tapping into the real future of the Gargoyles Universe when he created the vision?

While this is not impossible, it should be pointed out that the fulfillment of the two already-achieved prophecies in Puck's illusion can be explained without such a theory. In his function as Owen Burnett, Puck would be well aware of what name Xanatos and Fox were intending to give their son, and so would most likely have been drawing from that source when he added Alexander to the weave. And the destruction of the clock tower is a logical element of any "doom-and-gloom" scenario for the gargoyles (not to mention that in Puck's "Future Tense" vision, the destruction would have most likely been caused by Xanatos rather than the Canmores; it is doubtful that Puck was even aware of the Hunters at this point). Likewise, the upgrading of the Pack into the Ultra-Pack was probably something that anybody could have predicted through purely mundane foresight, particularly since it had already been upgraded once. And the forty years that Brooklyn spent Timedancing could equally well have only a coincidental similarity to Goliath's forty years of absence from New York, particularly given the traditional mystical significance of the number forty (the rain that caused Noah's Flood lasted for forty days and forty nights, the Israelites under Moses spent forty years wandering in the wilderness on the journey from Egypt to Israel, etc.); it is also worth noting that the differences between the two events are as strong as (if not stronger than) the similarities.

It is also worth pointing out that we already know that some of the predictions in "Future Tense" will not come true. Not only did Goliath return safely to New York in 1996 rather than 2036, but Xanatos called off his war upon the clan the same night, because Goliath had helped save Alexander from Oberon. It is therefore extremely unlikely that he will undertake the proceedings that led to the conquest and enslavement of Manhattan. Aside from that, Xanatos's actions during "Future Tense" seem very melodramatic and out of character for him. Perhaps this was Puck's way of poking fun at his human form's boss. According to what we know of the distant future of the Gargoyles Universe, furthermore, many of the principals involved in the events in "Future Tense" will lead very different lives. Alexander, far from being killed in 2036, will still be alive by 2198. So will Demona (her death in Puck's vision is impossible, in any case, since only Macbeth can slay her; obviously, Puck did not know about her magical bond with the immortal Scottish king). Broadway and Angela, at least, will survive to the middle of the 21st century and possibly beyond, given the birth-dates of their three children.

As the Gargoyles story continues through the comic series, it seems that some of Puck's visions for the future may be coming true not through the characters we saw in "Future Tense", but through the Clones. In the fifth issue, "Bash", Lexington's clone Brentwood is the only one of the clones to choose to remain with Thailog, a possible parallel to Lexington's betrayal of his clan in the Future Tense nightmare. There are also hints that Brooklyn's clone Malibu and Delilah who is mostly (90%) cloned from Demona, may be a couple, echoing the pairing of Brooklyn and Demona. Interestingly, Lex's costume for the masquerade in this same issue is pretty much identical to his cyborg form in "Future Tense", but it's tough to say whether this is significant or just a joke on the part of the comic.

So the dark future in the nightmare that Puck gave Goliath will almost certainly not come to pass in full, although it is likely that further ingredients of it may surface over the years. It is most likely that Puck's comment was nothing more than a teasing taunt to annoy and alarm Goliath. Most likely.

Tidbits

During its duel with Goliath in Act III, the Xanatos Program misquotes the "Alas, poor Yorick" line from Hamlet (as "Alas, poor Goliath; I knew him well") and also alludes to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when it asks Goliath's head "What are you going to do, bite my kneecaps off?"

Links

• Background Memo
• Greg's Ramble
• Extensive Synopsis and Review

<< Previous Episode: "Ill Met By Moonlight"

Next Episode: "The Gathering" Part One >>