Gargoyles: "The Edge"

In which Xanatos is Red Leader.

I was a little hard on "Enter Macbeth" last time, so I'm glad to say I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. We start off with several characters feeling off-balance: Goliath is still smarting over losing Castle Wyvern, despite the awesome library near the Clocktower, Elisa is back on the job after being shot only to be saddled with a conspiracy theorist partner, and Xanatos literally as Owen knocks him on his ass in a sparring match and a reporter brings up his prison time as he publicly donates the Eye of Odin to a museum (geez, the media are so annoying, bringing up the very recent past and all, amirite? And it's not like he's currently up to anything nefar...oh).

Their different ways of regaining their balance are illustrative: Elisa protests at first, then sucks it up and deals (I love Matt Bluestone, by the way), Goliath takes comfort in fighting his enemy to a standstill, and Xanatos...well. Okay, let me see if I've got the plan straight (I've been unexpectedly busy lately and only watched this ep once prior to writing this, instead of my usual two or three times): Xanatos donates the Eye of Odin. Then, dressed up in his brand-new Red Steel Clan armor, steals it back, raising public interest in "urban legend" gargoyles. When Goliath predictably show up to confront him, he goads him further by offering to house the clan in a safe "research facility." Then back in the armor, where he fights Goliath until his two robots are destroyed and he's facing FOUR gargoyles, then flees back home to declare to Owen that he still has "the edge."

To which I say: HEE!, and AWESOME! and "you're kinda full of shit, Xanatos." This is a man with a very low threshold for boredom or feeling the slightest bit out of control, or both; plus I think deep down, he's just a kid who wants to do cool shit like fight and fly around in super-armor and shoot lasers instead of meeting with emirs.

Is this an example of the oft-mentioned Xanatos Gambit? The man himself thinks so, but I don't know, I think that fight could easily have gone worse for him.

Random points:

• Seriously, is there always a full moon in the Gargoyles universe?
• I like the reporter guy, too. I totally want to see Matt collect on that favor.
• Speaking of Matt, Elisa better be careful. He's already starting to pick up some weird vibes from her.
• Xanatos, as usual, gets the best lines. "If you want to be picky, we'll never get anywhere." "You're taking this much too personally!" "It's a great tax write-off."

Next time, more Demona in "Long Way to Morning."