The Silver Falcon

"The Silver Falcon" is the nineteenth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the sixth episode of Season 2.

• Story: Cary Bates

Tidbits

Beginning in this episode, Tony Dracon now sports a white streak in the middle of his hair. According to Greg Weisman, this was to make him stand out better, since he'd thought that Tony had appeared a little too bland in Deadly Force; the in-story rationale was that the streak was due to his shock at encountering the gargoyles for the first time. (Greg briefly considered also giving Glasses a similar streak, but decided against it, simply because Glasses didn't need it; he'd stood out in a memorable fashion from the start).

Broadway's trenchcoat and fedora were partly inspired by the similar outfit of Ben Grimm aka "The Thing" from the Fantastic Four in Marvel Comics, who wore it to disguise his "monstrous" appearance when in public.

A line that rewards subsequent reviewings: Benton refers to Dominic Dracon in the 1920s photograph of him and Mace Malone as a "sharp-looking young feller" - which gains a certain amusing quality to it when we discover that Benton was really Dominic in disguise!

The notion of Benton being Dominic in disguise, incidentally, entered the episode late in its development; originally, he really was the CPA that he appeared to be. However, the production team realized that Elisa needed her own antagonist to face at the end (Broadway taking care of Tony and Matt of Pal Joey), and so added on the revelation at the end of Benton's true identity.

Broadway has begun taking reading lessons after A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time, enough to read and understand Mace Malone's note to the Dracons (though he has some understandable difficulty in pronouncing the word "right").

Note that Broadway turns to stone in the daytime even while underground, without any exposure to sunlight. This illustrates that it isn't the sun that turns the gargoyles to stone, but (according to Greg) their internal biological clocks.

Links

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

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