Hunter's Moon Part Three

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"Hunter's Moon" Part Three is the sixty-fifth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the fifty-second and final episode of Season 2. It originally aired on May 15, 1996. It was adapted into a Radio Play and performed at the Gathering of the Gargoyles in 2001.


Summary

Main Plot

The Hunters have destroyed the Clock Tower and reveal the gargoyles' existence to the world once and for all with unfavorable news reports on WVRN. A vengeful Goliath pursues the Hunters to a dam where he sends Jason Canmore plummeting over the edge, but accidentally knocks Elisa over as well, and is unable to save her. Elisa and Jason are seemingly killed, and both Goliath and Jon Canmore vow vengeance, while Robyn Canmore discovers Demona's scheme to destroy human kind. Elisa and Jason return during a climactic battle at Saint Damien's Cathedral, where Jon accidentally shoots Jason, paralyzing him. Wracked with guilt, Jon escapes, declaring vengeance on the gargoyles, and Demona's scheme is foiled when Goliath risks everything and destroys the Praying Gargoyle. Surrounded by the police and an angry mob, the gargoyles are rescued by Xanatos and reinstated to their ancestral home.

Subplots

In a 1980 flashback at Notre Dame Cathedral, Demona retrieves the Praying Gargoyle when she is confronted by the current Hunter, Charles Canmore. She kills him and glides away laughing, while his three children watch from below.

Elisa unmasks Jason after he grabs her from the precinct, and she finally learns the truth about him. He drugs her and drops her off at her apartment.

Captain Chavez's leg is broken when the bombs strike. Elisa and Matt Bluestone visit her in the hospital, and learn about Charles Canmore and his three children, the three current Hunters.

Dominique Destine leaves Nightstone Unlimited to carry out her plan. Robyn Canmore raids her office and steals a disk containing Demona's genocidal plans, where she explains how she will combine the CV-1000 Carrier Virus with the chemical DI-7, and spread it with the help of the inscription on the Medici Tablet, while the Praying Gargoyle will protect her kind.

TheKiss.PNG

After Jason is knocked over the dam, Jon changes his tune from being sympathetic towards the gargoyles to becoming intent on killing them, more out of his own guilt for not killing them when he had the chance.

Elisa visits Jason in the hospital, and promises to be there for him, but admits there is someone who will always come first. She later goes to the castle, where she and Goliath declare their feelings for each other, and she kisses him just before the sun rises.

The Story

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Featured Characters and First Appearances

Gargoyles Humans Others


Places Magic Miscellaneous


Quotes

  • "We are clan; family. We do not abandon each other." - Goliath
  • "The whole city will be hunting them now." - Fox
  • "Take a few days off. Relax, enjoy life. It's so fleeting." - Dominique Destine
  • "I don't suppose you can stop this?"
"I wish." - Elisa and Jon
  • "He was right about them. They're all evil! And they will all pay!" - Jon
  • "And gargoyles will take their rightful place as the rulers of this world. I will take my rightful place." - Demona
  • "This clan stands or falls together, and Elisa was one of the clan." - Hudson
  • "We're not demons, and we're not monsters, we're gargoyles. And we're going to teach you to respect the name." - Angela
  • "You're the one I want, you took my brother from me."
"You'll join him soon enough!" - Jon and Goliath
  • "What have I...what have THEY done?! I will have my revenge! The hunt is not over!" - Jon
  • "You'll thank me for this later."
"Don't hold your breath." - Demona and Brooklyn
  • "I don't understand. He risked his life to save us all?"
"That's what he does. That's who he is." - Robyn and Elisa
  • "It feels weird. Cool, but weird." - Lexington
  • "And so it begins, "Gargoyles" Chapter two. Or is it three? I've lost count." - Brooklyn
  • "You know how I feel about you, right?"
"How we both feel...Yes."
"Good." - Elisa and Goliath

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 pragmatic about it than he was then).
  • In contrast to many 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 the final scene of "Awakening: Part Five". 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.

Familiar faces again show up in the background of this episode. Brendan, Margot, the Jogger, and Dave 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.

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.) [1]

It is unclear when Xanatos first learned that the Manhattan Clan's home was in the Clock Tower. Despite the fact that Puck likely knew of this fact since the events of "Future Tense", that information could not be shared by Puck when he was Owen Burnett, per he and Xanatos's agreement. It's left up to interpretation whether or not Xanatos acted as if he already knew, even if he may not have. [2]

A few more scenes were deleted from this episode for time considerations. The most important of these (see below) 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.) Also, in the original script, Demona and Charles Canmore's battle did not end at Notre Dame; instead, Charles pursued her from the cathedral to the catacombs of Paris, where she killed him. (Bad Guys #3 drew on this original concept, here having the three young Canmores pursue Demona to the catacombs after their father's death.) Finally, a brief scene with no dialogue was originally planned that showed Robyn Canmore under guard and leaving Jason's hospital room moments before Elisa's final scene with Jason. This scene would've been a bit of a lead in to the Bad Guys spin-off.

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 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 adopted 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, took 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 (he does so in "Estranged"), and make a number of attempts to turn him away from his destructive course; Greg Weisman also considered making him Elisa's date in the Double Date story (eventually issues #3-#5 of the Gargoyles comic book), but gave the role to Officer Morgan instead (though Jason has a cameo in "Invitation Only"). [3]

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 visual of the gargoyles tearing through the Hunters' exo-frames was initially considered for Macbeth in "Enter Macbeth". [4]

Missing Scenes

[Note the following scenes were cut before they were sent overseas for animation. There's no lost footage.]

Elisa And Jason At Clock Tower

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:

Elisa, Robyn, Jason at Hospital

INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR – NIGHT

An exhausted Elisa sits on a bench opposite a guarded hospital room. Robyn, handcuffed and under police guard exits the room and approaches Elisa. Elisa raises her head. Robyn doesn’t look happy.

CUT TO:

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM

Elisa enters. Jason is hooked up to multiple tubes and machines. He is weak. But he is conscious.

After that silent exchange, Elisa and Jason have their scene beside his hospital bed.

DVD Release

See Also

Links

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