Hunter's Moon Part Three

Story Editor: Michael Reaves
Writer: Michael Reaves
Director: Dennis Woodyard

Summary

The episode opens in Paris, 1980. Charles Canmore is killed by Demona in front of his three children, as she steals the Praying Gargoyle. In the present day, the Hunters destroy the Clock Tower and reveal the gargoyles' existence to the world. A vengeful Goliath pursues the Hunters to a dam where Elisa and Jason Canmore are seemingly killed. Both Goliath and Jon Canmore vow vengeance, and Robyn Canmore discovers Demona's scheme to destory human kind. After a climatic battle at Saint Damien's Cathedral, Elisa and Jason return, only for Jason to be paralyzed. Jon escapes and Demona's scheme is foiled. Surrounded by the police, the gargoyles are rescued by Xanatos, and as the sun rises, Goliath and Elisa acknowledge their feelings for each other and kiss.

Tidbits

As in the first two parts, there are several echoes of Season One, and especially Awakening, here. Among these are:

The gargoyles are forced to abandon their home again, as they had done in Enter Macbeth (though this time, Goliath is far more realistic about it than he was then).

In contrast to other episodes, Goliath fails to rescue Elisa at the dam.

The public is shocked anew by the revelation of gargoyles, just as they had been in The Edge.

The final scene parallels Awakening Part Five's final scene. After seeing a few light-hearted moments involving the other gargoyles, we join Goliath and Elisa at the top of the tower, where we see the close bonds that they share, bonds that will be even closer now after Hunter's Moon, followed by Goliath and the other gargoyles turning to stone at dawn.

A few more scenes were deleted from this episode for time considerations. The most important of these was a meeting between Elisa and Jason Canmore at the ruins of the clock tower, in which Elisa urges Jason (in vain) to give up his feud with the gargoyles. She finally asks him what caused the feud in the first place, and Jason has to admit that he doesn't know; his family has been at war with the gargoyles for so long that they can't remember how it began. (A deleted line in the flashback had Charles Canmore telling his children that "We can no more stop hunting gargoyles than breathing the air", another echo of the first season.)

Familiar faces again show up in the background. Brendan, Margot, the Jogger, and Dave (the pool hall guy from Protection) are among the frightened citizens watching Jon Canmore's news broadcast about the gargoyles. Travis Marshall reports on the battle at Saint Damien's Cathedral, and Officer Morgan discusses the escalating situation with Matt Bluestone there.

Robyn Canmore was to initially face prison for her attack on the police station, but the mysterious Director would see to it that she would lead his "Redemption Squad" instead, resulting in her becoming one of the regulars in the upcoming, SLG comic mini-series Bad Guys spin-off. Robyn, the only member of the team who would have contact with the Director, would recruit a number of other "semi-reformed antagonists", consisting of Dingo, Matrix, Fang, and Yama, taking them on one secret mission after another; in the process, she would enter into a stormy relationship with Dingo.

Jason and Jon's fates, however, would be incorporated into further episodes of Gargoyles itself. Jon would adopt the new alias of "John Castaway" (following the Canmore tradition of using surnames beginning with a hard C as part of their assumed identities) and, with secret funding from the Illuminati, take advantage of the public's fear of gargoyles to start up a new version of the Hunters known as Quarrymen (a sort of Gargoyles Universe version of the Ku Klux Klan). Jason would eventually find out Castaway's true identity, and make a number of attempts to turn him away from his destructive course; he was also one of the candidates for Elisa's date in the never-made Double Date story (the other being Officer Morgan).

Greg Weisman planned to do a story for the never-made Team Atlantis spin-off that would have included elements from Hunter's Moon. In it, Demona would have a run-in with Fiona Canmore (a great-great-aunt of Jason, Robyn, and Jon) in Paris in 1920, involving the Praying Gargoyle (revealed here as being an Atlantean talisman); Fiona would stop Demona from using the Praying Gargoyle to bring the gargoyles of Notre Dame Cathedral to a state of quasi-life and form them into an army to slaughter the humans of Paris (indicating that the Praying Gargoyle had other abilities besides protecting gargoyles from powerful curses); the Praying Gargoyle would be destroyed in the struggle, but Demona would conceal it in a secret compartment in Notre Dame - from which she would retrieve it in 1980.

The Hunter's Moon is a real astronomical phenomenon, applied to the full moon during October. (However, the opening flashback incorrectly places a Hunter's Moon as shining on the night of September 28 - not that this nit need interfere with our enjoyment of the episode.)

Missing Scene

EXT. CLOCK TOWER RUINS - DAY

Elisa picks sadly through wreckage, occasionally placing something in a cardboard box. She bends to pick up a charred photograph.

TIGHT ON PHOTO

It is a snap-shot from last Halloween: Elisa in her "Belle" gown arm in arm with Goliath. Both very happy.

ON ELISA

A tear rolls down her cheek. A shadow falls over her. Elisa turns.

ANGLE INCLUDES JASON

behind her on his sky-sled, in Hunter garb except the mask, aiming a tranq gun at her. Elisa drops the box and reaches for her holstered gun.

JASON: "Please don't. I'd just have to tranq you again, and I came here to talk."

FAVOR ELISA

She lowers her hand slowly. But she's still on guard.

ELISA: "Okay. Let's talk about what a monster you are."

JASON: "I never meant to hurt you --"

ELISA: "You really are a piece of work. Using me to get to the gargoyles."

JASON: "No! I admit I infiltrated the twenty-third because there were so many gargoyle sightings here. But I never planned--"

ELISA: "Lies. Everything was part of your plan. That phony accent... even that phony kiss..."

ON JASON

He looks desperate and vulnerable, despite the gun in his hand.

JASON: "That kiss was real. And I never planned on falling in love with you."

FAVOR ELISA

This hits her hard.

JASON (CONT'D): "The hunt's been my whole life -- I never realized how lonely I was...

ELISA: "But why are you hunting them?"

ANOTHER ANGLE

We see a flash of Jason's fiery determination. Elisa responds in kind.

JASON: "Those monsters killed my father!"

ELISA: "Those 'monsters' are my friends!"

FAVOR JASON

He looks shocked and disgusted. This, he was not expecting.

JASON: "What?!!"

ELISA: "And they couldn't have killed your father. When he died, they were in Scotland, frozen in stone by a magic spell."

JASON: "So they weren't personally responsible. They're still evil! All gargoyles are! My family has been hunting them for generations!"

FAVOR ELISA

Trying desperately to reach him.

ELISA: "BUT WHY? What started this blood feud?"

FAVOR JASON

He's stumped. His fury won't help him on this one.

JASON: "I -- I don't know. It doesn't matter."

Elisa senses his uncertainty, presses her attack.

ELISA: "Of course it matters. You hate an entire race and you don't know why! Listen, Jason. You've been lucky so far. No one's been killed. Give up the feud. Turn yourself in. It's not too late to walk away from this."

TIGHT ON JASON

He hesitates, then shakes his head.

JASON: "Yes, it is."

WIDE

He revs up the skysled and takes off fast. Elisa draws her gun, but she does not fire -- it's ambiguous whether that's because he's already too far away or because she feels too much for him to shoot him in the back. Her arm drops to her side. PULL BACK to show her forlorn and surrounded by rubble.

DISSOLVE TO:

Links

2001 Radio Play Script

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