Turf
"Turf" is the sixtieth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the forty-seventh episode of Season 2. It originally aired on May 6, 1996.
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Contents
Summary
Main Plot
Tomas Brod has moved his organized crime operation to New York and has gotten into a turf war with Anthony Dracon. Elisa has been working undercover as "Salli", and has infiltrated Brod's gang, planning to decimate both gangs before one wins the "turf war" and becomes too powerful. A sting operation at Dracon's chop-shop fails when Elisa is knocked unconscious, so she goes to the Trio and Angela for help. Things come to a head when Brod plans to raid the prison where Dracon is being held and kill him. Elisa stops him, revealing herself in the process, but the gargoyles come to the rescue at that moment, and both gangs are put behind bars.
Subplots
The trio are at odds with each other, squabbling immaturely over Angela, and becoming careless in their duties. Angela grows increasingly agitated, and after some advice from Elisa, finally sets them straight. At the end of the night, The trio promises to leave Angela alone, but she tells them to just slow down and let things happen in their own time, before giving each suitor a quick kiss and informing them of her fifteen rookery sisters on Avalon.
The Story
Previously on Gargoyles
- Recaps: ("Golem", "The Gathering Part One", "Protection")
Act One
A stray cat dodges out of the path of a speeding car on the streets of Manhattan. The car quickly pulls into a garage and Glasses guides it in. As the garage door closes behind the car, Glasses yells for a crew to hurry up and get to work. Several men approach the car with tools and begin disassembling it. As the engine is lifted out, Glasses jokes about "Dracon's House of Auto Parts. The prices are hot and so is the merchandise." The car, one of many in the warehouse, is rapidly being reduced to sellable components.
Meanwhile, high above New York City, the Trio and Angela are on patrol. Brooklyn explains to "Angie" that he patrols the city every night. "It's a dangerous job, but somebody's got to do it," he boasts. Lexington glides forward and brags that he must've foiled a hundred muggings in New York. Then Broadway glides between his rookery brothers and Angela to explain that the real action is in organized crime and the city has been much safer since he sent Tony Dracon to prison. Angela, somewhat unimpressed, tells the Trio that their actions are "very impressive." Her attention is drawn to something flying ahead of them and she asks if it is normal. Lexington identifies it as a Cyberbiotics Hovercraft and then uses the opportunity to tell Angela that he once flew a helicopter. Ignoring him, Angela tells her companions that she has seen one like that before and didn't like it's owner. She dives to follow the craft and the others follow. The hovercraft arrives at Glasses' warehouse and ropes are dropped down to the roof. Three humans descend from the craft. One, a blonde female, approaches the roof door and kicks it open. Seeing nothing inside, she motions for her companions to join her. Suddenly, Pal Joey appears from behind some nearby machinery and fires a rocket at the woman! She dodges, but the blast destroys the roof entrance and throws the woman down hard. Another of the Hovercraft men is revealed to be Tomas Brod. Looking at the unconscious woman he jokes to his companion, Jack Dane, that "that is why I never go in first." He fires a gas canister at Pal Joey and it bursts open and releases a green gas. Pal Joey starts coughing and then passes out. Several more humans descend from the hovercraft wearing gas masks and join Dane and Brod (who also don gas masks) at the hole in the roof. Dane wonders what they should do about the blond woman and Brod tells him to let her sleep as they have other things to do. He fires another gas canister down into the building and he and his team descend into the warehouse. In the room below, Glasses and his men have armed themselves and are watching the roof access stairway. Green gas is pouring through the door. The door is suddenly flung open and several more gas canisters bounce down into the room. Glasses and his men start coughing and running away while Brod's people begin firing weapons throughout the garage. They are causing as much damage as they can to as many cars and parts as possible. Glasses and one of his men run to dodge the bullets and dive into a car that Glasses explains is bulletproof. As they close the door, bullets hit the glass windows, but don't make it through. The voice of Captain Maria Chavez comes across a bullhorn. The NYPD have the building surrounded! Brod, alarmed, calls for a retreat and he and his men race back up to the roof. Outside, Chavez, Matt Bluestone, and many police officers are gathered. Chavez orders the building's occupants to put down their weapons and come out of the building peacefully. Instead, the bulletproof car rams through the garage door and escapes through the police barricades as officers fire on it to no effect. The car races down the street. Meanwhile, on the roof, Brod hurries his people back into the hovercraft. He picks up the still unconscious blonde woman and grabs on to the hovercraft's rope ladder. The hovercraft makes its escape and is also fired at by the NYPD. Chavez tells her people to hold their fire as they watch the two vehicles escape. Also watching the escape are Angela and the Trio. Broadway tells the others that that is his cue and Lexington, annoyed, brushes him aside. Brooklyn, assuming command, starts giving orders and the other three listen to him. Two will follow the car, two will follow the hovercraft. He tells "Angie" to join him and the two depart. Lex and Broadway give each other a glance and then begin to follow, ignoring Brooklyn's orders. As they catch up, Brooklyn is annoyed. Broadway asks why he gets to go with Angela and the beaked gargoyle explains that he is second-in-command. Lexington accuses him of abusing his power. Brooklyn shoves Lex aside and the two begin a mid-air scuffle. They collide with Broadway and soon all three are physically and verbally fighting. Angela notices something ahead. She tries to warn her companions, but they are too engaged with their argument. Angela veers to the side just as the Trio spot a brick tower right in their flightpath. Unable to stop or avoid it, all three of them slam into the building and fall to a roof below. Angela lands near them and explains that she tried to warn them. "Thanks," the brothers say in unison.
The hovercraft flies over the city. Inside, the blonde woman wakes up and asks her companions what happened. Brod explains that her plan worked... until the police showed up! The woman is angry. Someone must've told the police. Dane explains that he wouldn't have come out of retirement just to turn into a rat. He joined because he sees Brod as tough enough to break the Dracon family hold on the the New York turf. Brod adds that none of the men he brought from Prague would betray him. The woman scoffs and sarcastically quips, "well, then I guess it was me." Brod laughs. This is why he likes her. Dane guesses that Dracon's people probably got sloppy and led the police to the warehouse. Brod says that this explanation will do. For now.
At the Clocktower, the Trio are arguing about their failure to catch either vehicle as Angela looks out on to the city. Each of the brothers attempts to put the blame on to the others. Angela ignores this and tells them that is is almost dawn and Goliath, Hudson, and Bronx still have not returned from patrol. Broadway walks over to her and tries to comfort her by explaining that they've all been caught away from home at sunrise. "But how many of us have turned to stone in mid-air!" Lexington snidely quips. Broadway shoving Lex to the ground, points out that he was being chased by a Macbeth robot at the time. Brooklyn gets between his quarreling brothers to stop the "mutton heads" from fighting, but he only gets pulled into shoving match himself. As they continue to bicker, the sun rises and all four gargoyles turn to stone.
Later that morning, at Rikers Island, Glasses talks with Tony Dracon through the glass visitation window. He explains that Brod has done a lot of damage and is muscling in on Dracon's territory. Dracon is ready to engage in a full on turf war and Glasses asks for orders. Dracon yells for Glasses to hit Brod's crew and hit them hard. Glasses acknowledges his angry superior and exits.
Two police cars are parked in from of a restaurant. Inside, Brod, Dane, the blonde woman, and another gangster are eating at a table while being questioned by Matt Bluestone. The detective wants to know where Brod was during the raid on Dracon's chop shop the previous night. Brod pretends not to know what a chop shop is and then explains that he and his companions were at the restaurant the previous night until very late. The others agree with him and Bluestone is annoyed.
That evening, at the 23rd Precinct house below the Clocktower, Brod and the blonde woman are brought in for further questioning. Bluestone pulls Brod into a room to "converse" away from the blonde woman. Brod tells him that it is a waste of time since "Salli" will only tell the police the exact same story. Bluestone tells "Salli" to have a seat while Brod accompanies him. The woman sits for a moment before some police officers bring a man into the room who soon begins angrily yelling and throwing a fit. Several police officers move to help subdue the man and "Salli" uses the distraction to slip away unnoticed. The woman slips into a broom closet and avoids notice from several police officers while sighing in relief. Outside, the sun sets and the Trio and Angela awaken from their stone sleep. As they move into their Clocktower home, "Salli" has ascended the stairs into the large room as well. The woman looks up at the four gargoyles as they look at her with alarm. "Uh oh," says Brooklyn, "We've got a problem..."
Act Two
Act Three
Featured Characters and First Appearances
| Gargoyles | Humans | Others |
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Quotes
- "Come on down to Dracon's house of auto parts. The prices are hot! And so is the merchandise." - Glasses
- "What about Sleeping Beauty?"
- "Let her sleep. The prince has a kingdom to conquer." - Jack Dane and Brod
- "Hey, am I the second-in-command or not?"
- "Yeah, but how many of us have turned to stone in mid-air?" - Lexington
- "Knock it off, mutton-heads." - Brooklyn
- "Woah, busted." - Broadway
- "Oh, and another thing...Stop calling me Angie!!" - Angela
- "What's going on? I didn't order a break-out!" - Dracon
- "I thought you flew a helicopter!"
- "Yeah, but first I-I kind of crashed it." - Angela and Lexington
- "So, when do we get our World Tour?" - Brooklyn
Continuity
Jack Dane from "Revelations" returns to become a member of Tomas Brod's gang (he should probably have stayed in the Witness Relocation Program), apparently out of hostility towards Tony Dracon and his family.
There are several allusions to past episodes here, including not only "Protection" (with Broadway proudly boasting about how he helped put Dracon behind bars) and "Golem" (with the return of Brod and his hovercraft - though how he recovered it is not explained), but also "Her Brother's Keeper" (Lexington recalls his flying the Pack's helicopter) and "The Price" (Broadway's turning to stone in mid-air during the battle with the Macbeth robot are also mentioned).
According to Greg Weisman, the events in "Vendettas" and "Turf" took place more or less simultaneously (see the Timeline for further details), indicating that Goliath and Hudson's absence was due to their fight with Wolf and Hakon's ghost. This doesn't explain Bronx's absence, however. Greg hints that the gargoyle beast was having an adventure of his own at the time. [1]
Tidbits
Elisa's alias of "Salli" is another in-joke; she was voiced by Salli Richardson.
Brooklyn's question to Goliath, "So when do we get our world tour?" was intended to foreshadow the TimeDancer spin-off. (Like Goliath in "Future Tense", Brooklyn really should learn to be careful about what he asks for.)
Though Lexington is as eager at pursuing Angela in this episode as Brooklyn and Broadway are, in fact (again according to Greg Weisman), he's actually gay - a revelation that would be handled very carefully in the series under Greg's direction. Presumably, Lex must not have realized this at the time of "Turf"; it does help to explain, though, why he wasn't as upset as Brooklyn was in "The Journey" when it became clear that Angela had chosen Broadway.
Toon Disney/Disney XD Edits
Brod and his gang shooting up Dracon's chopshop has been cut.
DVD Release
Links
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