The Silver Falcon

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"The Silver Falcon" is the nineteenth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the sixth episode of Season 2. It originally aired on September 12, 1995.

Summary

Main Plot

Elisa and Broadway team up to try to solve Matt Bluestone's disappearance. Like Matt before them, they stumble onto Tony Dracon's operation at the defunct Silver Falcon nightclub where Dracon and his grandfather, Dominic Dracon, are attempting to locate the jewels that Dominic's old crime partner Mace Malone ran away with years before. Figuring out a clue left by Mace, Elisa tricks Dracon into bringing her and Matt to the Apex Tower. [1] Broadway, who also figures out the clue, comes to their rescue, and together he and Elisa apprehend the two Dracons and have them arrested.

Subplots

Elisa is hesitant at first in allowing Broadway to help her look for Matt. She finally relents at Matt's apartment building after Broadway secretly followed her there and saves her from Pal Joey, who was there searching for Malone's letter in Matt's apartment. Pal Joey blows up the apartment and gets away.

Keeping an appointment she found off of Matt's calendar, Elisa meets Martin Hacker at Cleopatra's Needle. There, Hacker gives her a seventy year-old letter addressed to Dominic Dracon from Mace Malone that Matt had found in Tony Dracon's police files and had Hacker authenticate. Following Malone's old office address on the letter, Elisa meets with G.F. Benton, who is really Dominic Dracon in disguise. He gives her the address of the nightclub where Dracon is working and alerts his grandson of her imminent arrival. Elisa and Broadway are buried by Glasses when they arrive and Elisa is captured while Broadway turns to stone underground.

Matt admits to Elisa that he followed the trail of Malone's letter to Dominic because he believed it had to do with the Illuminati and Mace's disappearance in the organization. He apologizes to his partner for keeping her in the dark about the lead.

Tony Dracon discovers a note left by Mace where he had been searching for the jewels that proclaims "Right idea. Wrong falcon." Elisa directs Tony to the jutting falcon head at the Apex tower opposite Malone's office. She retrieves a satchel in the mouth of the falcon then jumps off and is secretly caught by Broadway. Broadway saves Matt and takes out Tony Dracon while Elisa confronts Dominic Dracon, who finds out that the satchel contains only marbles and a mocking note from Malone.

The Story

Previously on Gargoyles

Act One

On a rainy night, Matt Bluestone picks the lock to an abandoned warehouse on First and Eighth. He enters, seeing light emanating from a cellar door. He walks down the steps where he is ambushed by Tony Dracon and his men.

At Elisa's Apartment, Broadway is watching his favorite thirties gangster movie. He can't help but quote the hero: ". . . and when someone messes with your partner, you're supposed to do something about it." Elisa is meanwhile on the phone with Captain Chavez, talking about Matt. Elisa figures her partner is probably taking time off to chase "Bigfoot or something", but the Captain insists Matt hasn't checked in for forty-eight hours. Elisa decides to investigate Matt's apartment, unlocking her service gun from a lockbox in a kitchen drawer. Elisa shrugs off Chavez's insistence that Elisa call for backup at the first sign of trouble and hangs up. Despite his focus on the movie, Broadway overheard Elisa's phone conversation. Elisa apologizes to Broadway for having to run out, and suggests he take the tape back to the Clock Tower if he wants company. Broadway, on the other hand, wants to tag along with Elisa, suggesting that he can be her partner. Elisa tells him she already has one partner to worry about.

A masked burglar is tearing up Matt's Apartment, looking for something. Broadway is watching from outside the balcony glass doors, now donning a trench coat and fedora (his Halloween costume that Elisa ordered for him). [2] The burglar is ripping through the stuffing of Matt's couch, when he hears a knocking at the door. It is Elisa, insisting that Matt open up. She then reaches to the top of the door frame and finds Matt's spare key on the molding. The burglar makes his way for the door, pulling out a pistol. Broadway sees the ambush about to take place and flings the glass door open, surprising the burglar. At the sound of the commotion, Elisa takes out her gun from her holster and kicks the door in. Broadway has the burglar above his head, and throws him through the open door, where he crashes into a flower vase and table in the hallway. He quickly gets back on his feet and runs down the hall before Elisa can stop him. Or stop Broadway, for that matter, who eagerly pursues the suspect, telling Elisa "Got you covered, partner!" with a tip of his fedora.

The burglar makes it to the elevator down the hall, while Broadway, now on all fours, continues to chase him down. The doors just manage to close before Broadway slams into them, with enough force to knock the burglar off his feet inside the elevator car. Broadway then folds the metal doors open, exposing the elevator shaft and operating cables. He proceeds to manipulate the cables in reverse, forcing the the elevator car back up two levels. Broadway rips open the emergency escape at the top of the car, grabs the burglar, and throws him back into the hallway, now unconscious. Elisa makes it to the exposed elevator shaft and insists Broadway explain why he's there. Broadway maintains he's there to help her. Elisa tells him to follow her and to bring the burglar with them, before anyone else sees them.

Back at Matt's apartment, Elisa unmasks the burglar but can't identify him. Broadway observes the mess in Matt's apartment. Elisa finds on the burglar a torn date of 'Oct 27' ripped from a desk calendar. She recognizes Matt's handwriting and matches it to his calendar on his desk. Figuring it might yield more clues, Broadway turns on the desktop computer, but the sound of the machine turning on startles the burglar back into consciousness. As the burglar yells "Don't!", Elisa realizes the burglar has booby-trapped the device. Broadway grabs both humans and jumps out the building through the balcony before the whole apartment explodes. They crash onto a neighboring rooftop, the momentum of his jump nearly throwing Broadway off, before he catches the ledge. Elisa helps him get back on the roof, giving the burglar a chance to escape. Broadway is unfazed, wondering where the two go next. Elisa however remains upset. She tells Broadway to call it a night while she goes to make the appointment indicated on the ripped calendar page:

Hacker
10 p.m.
Cleopatra's Needle

Broadway apologizes for setting off the explosion, but argues that is proof how dangerous this investigation is. Elisa is adamant that it certainly is dangerous for "an amateur detective playing out a movie fantasy". But Broadway argues back that Matt was no amateur and after working alone, he still wound up missing. He's determined to be Elisa's partner. Elisa considers her choices.

10 p.m. Cleopatra's Needle. Elisa finds and meets Martin Hacker at the Central Park site, who recognizes her. Hacker says that Matt has told him Elisa is the best partner he's ever had, making him runner-up. Elisa is confused, and Hacker explains that Matt used to work for the FBI. Elisa informs him that Matt has gone missing, which genuinely surprises Hacker. He explains to her that Matt called the previous week with a new lead on the Illuminati Society. Elisa shares that Matt has mentioned the Illuminati in the past and Hacker reveals that Matt's determination to prove the Society's existence is what got him "booted from the Bureau". Nevertheless, for old time's sake, Hacker agreed to authenticate a letter from 1924 for Matt. The letter is addressed to a 'DD' from Mace Malone, someone that Matt believed had ties to the Illuminati.

Mason E Malone
3150 Third Ave. #45 D, New York
March 21, 1924
DD
Our little society has racked up quite a nest egg.
Every day I see the Silver Falcon, I have to smile.
Stay in touch partner,
Mace

While not overly confident what a seventy year-old address might yield, Elisa waves off Hacker's invitation to help. After Hacker has left, Elisa is confronted by the burglar, now flanked by two other thugs. He draws his gun at Elisa, telling her, "Payback time."

Act Two

Elisa calls out to Broadway, who jumps down from the top of the obelisk. The burglar recognizes the gargoyle and tells his men to shoot. Broadway pounces on the thugs while Elisa manages to get her gun on the burglar. He stops with his hands raised while Broadway knocks the other two out. Before Elisa can arrest the suspect, a getaway car drives by fast with the back door open and he jumps inside. The car speeds away towards Broadway, who quickly jumps out of the way – his wings tearing through his trench coat to better clear the incoming hurdle. Broadway quips, "New York drivers!"

Handcuffing the two knocked-out thugs to a sewage grating, Elisa explains to Broadway that the burglar who got away may have overheard enough and that he (and the Illuminati) may already be heading towards Mace Malone's old office. She is intent on the two of them getting there "fast and first".

Elisa arrives at Mace Malone's old office, now the office of "GF. Benton C.P.A." An old man opens the door, trying to explain to Elisa that business hours are over, when she flashes her badge asking if she can come in. Broadway watches from a falcon head from a neighboring skyscraper. Inside the office, Elisa asks if Mr. Benton knows the history of the place, and Mr. Benton enthusiastically admits that he is, in fact, "a Mace Malone buff", explaining that is exactly why he rented this particular office space. He says that over the years "the curious" still visit 45D, including one "red-headed whipper snapper" that Elisa realizes must have been Matt Bluestone. Benton shares that Matt noticed a picture of Mace Malone with a 'DD' and then ran off "lickety-split". Asking where the picture was taken, Benton recalls that it was at the Silver Falcon night club, which was Malone's pride and joy back in the day, but has long since been torn down. Before he can continue, Elisa throws Benton's coat over him, telling him that 45D isn't safe that night and hands him the number to Captain Chavez to report the two thugs handcuffed to a grate and to send backup to First and Eighth – the site of the Silver Falcon night club. Benton waves goodbye.

It's raining once more. Broadway glides to the warehouse, carrying Elisa. The two encounter the same lock Matt picked open, only this time Broadway crushes the lock and chain. They enter; and light emanates from the cellar once again. Broadway and Elisa can hear the sound of particle-beam weapons drilling into the brick wall. As they descend down the stairs, Broadway recognizes Glasses, and Elisa explains that he's Tony Dracon's right-hand man. The two take a moment to express their mutual distaste for the gangster. While Elisa also wonders how Dracon is related to the Illuminati, she spots Matt Bluestone tied and blindfolded nearby. Glasses has noticed the two investigators and tells his men that their "overdue guests have finally arrived". Pressing a button on a remote, Glasses triggers an explosion from the cellar door frame, burying both Elisa and Broadway in rubble. Glasses taunts the still-blindfolded and tied-up Matt, glibly telling him that his partner was just buried.

Underneath the rubble, Broadway holds up enough of the debris to save both him and Elisa. While Elisa digs out her flashlight from her jacket, she asks Broadway if he can dig the two of them out. Broadway struggles to answer, his glowing eyes dimming out. Elisa turns on her flashlight and discovers Broadway has turned to stone for the day.

Act Three

With Broadway now a living pillar preventing the cavity from caving in, Elisa begins to slowly dig her way out, carefully removing the rubble around her. Knowing that Dracon wanted Glasses to destroy Mace Malone's letter, Matt provokes Glasses into digging Elisa out, arguing that there's no way to know if she had Mace Malone's letter on her or not. Glasses finds the logic sound enough even though he knows Matt is just trying to save Elisa, so he orders his men to dig her out. Elisa sees the debris moving above her, and while her odds of survival just improved, she figures Broadway's won't if he's discovered. She breaks one of the beams supporting the cavity between her and Broadway, successfully hiding the gargoyle from Glasses and his men.

Glasses takes Elisa's gun and Mace Malone's letter, shredding the letter. Matt asks Elisa if she's OK, just as Tony Dracon (now with a streak of white in his hair) arrives and orders Glasses to help with the drilling. Dracon jokes that with both Matt and Elisa, the scene has become a cop convention. Matt points out that this latest scheme excavating underneath the location of where the Silver Falcon night club once stood must be costing a fortune. Dracon is however confident that he will come out on top, twenty times over, once he finds the uncut gems his grandfather and Mace Malone once stole. He then tells the burglar Pal Joey to remind him to bury both detectives later. Elisa asks Matt about Dracon's grandfather, and Matt confirms that 'DD' is none other than Dominic Dracon and that he and Mace Malone were partners in a jewel heist. Evidently, Mace Malone ran off before sharing the take with his partner. Recognizing the investigation comes down to gangsters squabbling over jewelry, Elisa stresses to Matt that this isn't exactly "Illuminati material". Matt agrees; he came across the letter months earlier when a search warrant turned it up in Dracon's file and quickly jumped to the wrong conclusions. But Matt also realizes, that as her partner, his biggest mistake was not filling Elisa in. Elisa doesn't lecture Matt on that last point, explaining to him that "It happens sometimes".

At that moment, Dracon's men finally hit pay dirt, uncovering a giant vault. Dracon orders his men to make his night complete and Glasses blasts the door open. The smoke clears and Tony sees a single note lying on the vault floor.

Right idea, wrong falcon.
Better luck next time partner.
Love Mace

Dracon is furious, crumpling the note and tossing it. Elisa is now amused, and declares to Tony that she knows where Mace Malone stashes the jewels. Dracon is not in the mood to be played with, but Elisa assures him it's not a ruse, but a negotiation. She explains that if Dracon wants the jewels, he needs to let Elisa and Matt go free. Dracon agrees and asks where they are going, but Elisa asks for patience. Where they are heading is too public for daylight. They'll need to wait till after dark.

Night falls, and Broadway finally awakens, bursting out of the rubble, his trenchcoat barely in one piece. He looks for Elisa, but no one is around. He finds the note Dracon threw away and manages to read the first line explaining they found the "wrong falcon". He walks over to the busted vault door and sees his reflection, wiping the dust from the explosion off his face.

A helicopter flies near the Apex Tower, the skyscraper opposite the building where Mace Malone's old office was. Inside the helicopter are Dracon and his men, Glasses flying the aircraft and Pal Joey guarding Elisa and Matt. Elisa tells Matt that Pal Joey blew up his apartment and Matt warns Elisa that once she reveals where the jewels are, their lives "aren't worth beans". Elisa tries to assure Matt (and herself) that she called for back-up. Dracon and Elisa jump onto the top of the skyscraper, and Dracon reminds her that now is the time to produce results – no more sweet talk. Elisa tells Dracon to turn around and notice that in their line of sight is Mace Malone's old office. She explains that when she was in Malone's old office she noticed he must have had quite a view; seventy years of soot have hidden the chrome of the falcon head Elisa now stands on. She rubs away at the falcon's eye, revealing its silver sheen. Tony watches Elisa produce a satchel out of the falcon's mouth. Elisa manages to take a look at the contents of the bag before Tony reminds her of their deal. Elisa is slow to turn over the bag, and Dracon belittles her options: "Look down, Sugar. You see any other options here?" Elisa spots Broadway out-of-sight from the others a few floors below and boldly declares that she does have another choice; she jumps off the skyscraper. Dracon is shocked by her act, and orders Glasses to take them down to the street, hoping they can still scoop up some of the jewels.

Broadway has caught Elisa, excited that he figured out the clues just in time. Elisa tells the gargoyle that she knew he would, but that right now Matt is the one needing saving. Broadway goes after the helicopter while Elisa begins her climb back to the top of the skyscraper. Broadway breaks the helicopter's hydraulics from the tail and Glasses manages to roughly land in one piece. Tony runs out of the aircraft while Matt wrestles a gun from Pal Joey's hand.

In his escape, Dracon runs into an alley, where he is ambushed by Broadway, who reenacts the climax from the gangster movie he watched the previous night, slamming Dracon to the ground with a fire escape ladder. Dracon is shocked to see the gargoyle again, but Broadway continues to quote the movie while flicking Dracon unconscious with his claws: "When someone messes with your partner, you're supposed to do something about it!" He tears what's left of his trenchcoat off and throws it in the nearby dumpster. "Case Closed."

When Elisa finally makes it back to the top of the skyscraper, she is met by G. F. Benton, now revealed to have been Dominic Dracon in disguise. He explains that he tore down the Silver Falcon night club in search of Mace Malone's jewels, and that it was only later that the idea came to search underneath the foundation. He offers the same deal as his grandson: hand over the jewels and Elisa can go free. But Elisa doesn't trust the word of a Dracon and throws the satchel onto the falcon head. The old gangster jumps onto the falcon head, crawling to the bag and finally opening it after seventy years. Elisa jumps back down onto the falcon head as well, making her way to the elderly man. Dominic Dracon pulls out a handful of marbles and a final note from Mace Malone:

I feel sorry for you, DD, you still haven't learned –
Crime doesn't pay.
Your old partner, Mace

Thoroughly broken, he lets Elisa escort him out of the cold and off the rooftop. On the ground, the authorities usher both Dracons and their crew into a police van. Matt tells Elisa that she pulled it off, while she corrects him that "we pulled it off" before turning her sights to a petrified Broadway (sleeping on one of the skyscraper's windows), adding "partner".

First Appearances

Characters

Locations

Quotes

  • "The way you were glued to the TV, I'm surprised you could hear me."
"Ears like these don't miss much." - Elisa and Broadway
  • "Goodnight Broadway. Glide home safely." - Elisa
  • "New York drivers!" - Broadway
  • "First Bluestone, then Maza. It's like a cop convention!" - Tony Dracon
  • "He blew up my apartment?! D'oh!" - Matt
  • "Look down, Sugar, you see any other options here?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." - Tony Dracon and Elisa
  • "You made one mistake, Dracon. You messed with my partner."
"Not you guys again!"
"When someone messes with your partner, you're supposed to do something about it!" - Broadway and Tony Dracon
  • "I feel sorry for you, DD, you still haven't learned – Crime doesn't pay. Your old partner, Mace" - Dominic Dracon reading Mace Malone's letter.

Continuity

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 did not need it; he had been a distinctive figure from the start.)

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").

Mace Malone is mentioned for the first time, and a black-and-white photograph of him is seen, although Mace does not appear in person until "Revelations".

Martin Hacker is introduced as Matt Bluestone's former partner in the FBI. He reappears in "Revelations".

Tidbits

Broadway's trench coat 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. [3]

A line that rewards subsequent re-viewings: Benton refers to Dominic Dracon in the 1920s photograph of him and Mace Malone as a "sharp-looking young feller" - which takes on a new meaning when it is revealed at the end that Benton was really Dominic in disguise.

The notion of Benton being Dominic in disguise 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 the revelation of Benton's true identity in Act Three.

Broadway turns to stone in the daytime even while underground, without any exposure to sunlight. This illustrates that it is not the sun that turns the gargoyles to stone, but (according to Greg) their internal biological clocks. He is also not particularly lethargic upon awakening, which would seem to put Anton Sevarius's theory of the stone state having a solar energy collection function into doubt, although his body could possibly have tapped his considerable body fat to compensate.

Though not canon, "Religious Studies 101: A Handful of Thorns" contains an excellent depiction of Dominic Dracon driven mad by the crushing discovery he had received, talking endlessly about the jewels that Mace Malone had stolen from him, and easily exploited by Demona in this condition.

The title of the episode is a homage to/pastiche on the 1930 detective novel, The Maltese Falcon, written by Dashiell Hammett. The novel was adapted for the screen three times: The Maltese Falcon (1930), Satan Met a Lady (1936), The Maltese Falcon (1941). The 1941 adaptation directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart is the best known. The movie Broadway watches and later quotes paraphrases a line of dialogue from the The Maltese Falcon: “When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it.” In the episode, the word “killed” is toned down to “messed”. [4]

Toon Disney/Disney XD Edits

When we cut from Bluestone at the beginning to Broadway's movie, we originally saw a close-up of the bad-guy's gun firing, and then him running. On Toon Disney they cut out the scene of the gun firing two shots and go straight to the bad guy running.

When Broadway leaps from Cleopatra's Needle to face Dracon's goons, Pal Joey is supposed to say "You again! Plug 'em!" On Toon Disney, however he can only be heard saying, "You again!"

DVD Release

Links

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