Leader of the Pack

"Leader of the Pack" is the fourteenth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the first episode of Season 2. It originally aired on September 4, 1995.

• Story Editor: Michael Reaves.
• Writer: Steven Perry.

Continuity

Fox, Wolf, Jackal and Hyena are all released from Rikers Island prison in this episode (although only Fox does so legally). Fox and Wolf have been in prison since "The Thrill of the Hunt", and Jackal and Hyena have been imprisoned since "Her Brother's Keeper".

Fox effectively quits the Pack in this episode, and the role of leader is occupied by new recruit Coyote.

Hyena and Jackal allude to the events of "Her Brother's Keeper" when they learn (incorrectly) that Coyote is really David Xanatos.

Brooklyn alludes to "Enter Macbeth" when he asks Lexington, "Why is it that whenever you and I take Bronx out, we wind up [in trouble]?"

The tag for this episode reveals that Fox and Xanatos are a couple. This was hinted at in Fox's dialogue in "Her Brother's Keeper". Xanatos soon proposes marriage in the episode "Eye of the Beholder".

Coyote 1.0's head survives this episode, and reappears in "Upgrade" (first on its own, then as a part of Coyote 2.0). The half-robotic and half-human face of Coyote 1.0 after Bronx attacks him becomes a recurring image through all of Coyote's incarnations.

Tidbits

Originally, Coyote was to be called "CY.O.T.I.", short for "Cyber Operational Technical Intelligence", and imagined as a robotic head which could fit onto various robotic bodies of differing shapes. Both concepts were lost in the process of developing the series (though a trace of the latter can be found in "Upgrade" with the flying head of Coyote 1.0, which becomes a component of Coyote 2.0). Coyote's name, of course, is doubly appropriate, in light of his introduction into the series. On the one hand, it fits the "wild canid" imagery of the Pack's names; at the same time, it also recalls the Coyote of Native American legend, a celebrated trickster figure - and Coyote is playing a trickster role, both in masquerading as Xanatos (himself a definite trickster by his own admission) and in carrying out a strategy based on deception and misdirection (just what a trickster would do). This aspect would become especially prominent in "Cloud Fathers", many episodes later.

Coyote also was influenced by Wile E. Coyote of Warner Brothers' animated cartoons, in his suffering from numerous cataclysmic misfortunes (being shot through the middle by Lexington, run over by a train, reduced to rust by Jackal-as-Anubis's-avatar, and being crushed by a falling set of girders).

Bronx suspects Coyote to be a robot from the start, singling him out for attack during the first fight that he, Brooklyn, and Lexington have with the Pack in this episode. (It helps to have a strong sense of smell.)

Links

• Season Two Ramble
• Background Memo #1
• Background Memo #2
• Background Memo #3
• Greg's Ramble
• Extensive Synopsis and Review

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