Awakening Part Four

"Awakening: Part Four" is the fourth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the fourth episode of Season 1. It originally aired on October 27, 1994.

• Story by Eric Luke & Michael Reaves
• Teleplay by Michael Reaves

Summary

Elisa defeats her attackers in Central Park and guards Goliath while he sleeps over the course of the day. The other gargoyles continue to get used to this new world. Goliath learns that his mate is still alive, and the clan goes to track down the stolen diskettes.

Tidbits

The Alice in Wonderland sculpture that Elisa runs past while pursued by the Commandos is an actual Central Park landmark, but it was not shown for mere local color. The animators deliberately placed it there (as Greg Weisman and Frank Paur explained on the DVD commentary for "Awakening") to symbolize Elisa's having "fallen through the rabbit-hole into Wonderland", in a sense, through having met the gargoyles and becoming involved in their adventures.

The Jogger, another familiar recurring figure, appears in the series for the first time as he passes Elisa watching over the stone Goliath.

Vinnie makes another cameo as a Cyberbiotics guard (though we won't discover that it was him until "Vendettas").

When Hudson is channel-surfing, we have a brief glimpse on the television screen of the scene at the beginning of The Lion King where Rafiki the baboon holds up the young Simba.

Greg Weisman has humorously suggested that the stray dog whom Elisa plants the tracking device upon in Central Park is actually the grown-up puppy in the dog food commercial that Bronx growls at (another sad case of an out-of-work actor going downhill).

Xanatos' first name is revealed in this episode to be "David", obviously for the purpose of providing a reversal of the biblical tale which Goliath's name is derived from.

The names chosen for the supporting gargoyles are particularly appropriate, in that they reflect how well their bearers respond to the modern world. Hudson, the most conservative member of the clan, who has the strongest difficulties adjusting to the 20th century, takes his name from a river, a natural feature that had been part of Manhattan even before the humans came to dwell there. The trio, on the other hand, who are filled with enthusiasm over their new surroundings, take their names from man-made features of New York, two streets and a borough. (As for Bronx, his name was no doubt chosen on the grounds that it was the New York place-name that most evoked an animal's bark or growl!)

Links

• Greg's Ramble
• Extensive Synopsis and Review

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