#gs2e2

LOOOOOVE that we end on this moment with zero dialogue. It's so sweet that Lexington is comforting Brooklyn. On the one hand, it could be hard for Brooklyn to accept comfort from Brooklyn after everything, but also further confirms to me that he and Lexington are closer individually than either are to Broadway.

And what's perhaps even more interesting to me is that Broadway is not comforting Elisa, and I can't help but suspect she shook off any attempts to comfort her. She wants to be alone here. And while Brooklyn's pain is obviously being taken seriously, I love this nod to that there are different levels of experiences. Brooklyn went through something rough, but Elisa went through something absolutely heartbreaking.

Oooh this is fun! It's completely unnecessary, really, for the show to try and add in an explanation, but it's fun for them to OFFER an explanation without making it explicitly canon.

It's a good hypothesis of Dr. Sevarius's, but he never gets to test or prove it. Do we, as the audience, prefer to wave our hand and go, "Actually it's MAGIC!" or do we like trying to make it more scientific? Are they just another kind of animal/creature in the world, or do they share something with the fae? Plenty of the fictional creatures used in the show are presented as just really rare or nearly extinct animals. But also we get magical creatures like the fae.

WE get to decide FOR OURSELVES which category we want to put the gargoyles in. And the show is plenty happy providing us either possibility.

It is so funny to me when Xanatos and Owen put on these performances for a single person. A single person that is literally on their payroll.

Though while I absolutely think it is 100% like them to put on these performances and I think have in the past (and is some peak shipping concepts ngl), I have to wonder if this is one. This might not be a performance even while the later reveal scene would have to be. Xanatos knows exactly what he's asked of Sevarius and how far the doctor is willing to go. That's why he hired him.

I am fine with thinking of Xanatos as a great chess player of people, but there are certain lengths to which I think is unbelievable even for him. I suppose this one is not the most unbelievable however. If Derek didn't offer to go along here himself, Xanatos could act later like he's changed his mind. It's easy enough too to have someone in Sevarius's lab aim a gun at him. If Derek does as he's supposed to and body blocks for him, then Derek is who Xanatos thinks he is. If he doesn't, it's easy enough to expect that lackey to miss the shot and fire again at Derek if the mutation is what Xanatos is aiming for. But I think if Derek failed the test of body blocking, that he's not as perfect a subject for the experiments as Xanatos desires. Xanatos wants another Goliath, so such a person would require Goliath's sense of honor and duty. And if Derek fails the little test, then Xanatos could use his feelings of failure to tie him all the closer to Xanatos's cause.

My response to, "But she needs us," is 'does she though?!' XD

I do have to give it to her, she did not just sit down and sit there all day doing nothing. I don't actually remember what she did go do, but I suspect it was go right back to Gen-U-Tech. lmao

So I do love that Goliath's response isn't to go there, go looking for her. He's going looking for Xanatos. Because Xanatos is behind it, and he said he would try to find her a cure. And the only place he could think of to do that or demand that is at Xanatos. He's not trying to whisk her back to the clock tower and try again to get her to do something she's clearly expressed she doesn't want to do.

Because at the end of the day, no matter what she may need or what might be best for her, she gets to make her own decisions for herself. Brooklyn doesn't get to decide who needs to help her.

I've been working so hard to be thoughtful and take things out of this whole sequence at the castle, but ultimately this whole thing feels messy and rushed and some of the weakest writing I feel like the show has presented yet.

Which is a damn shame. Because Elisa is my favorite, and I should love the angst of this moment. But it's just such a mess. And I say this as someone who has four siblings. I know shit can get messy and ugly and even stupid. If there was room for this moment, it would probably work fine, in general, what they're doing here. But there wasn't any room.

Still, what I will extract from this is that Elisa still can't help herself but to be an annoying sibling even when it's the worst possible way to handle the situation. 'I told you so' is the least helpful thing to say, even if what you think you're saying is, 'now will you please get away from him?'

God what I wouldn't have given for her to have been responding not to Derek saying 'it was an accident' but rather something like, 'he's the only one who can help now.'

It's so interesting to me that the first thing that makes Maggie think that maybe these creatures have also been through something like she has was to hear them say she is among friends. Like the only fathomable way they could mean well by her is if they aren't what she assumed them to be at first, which are monsters.

I'm gonna be honest here, my mind is not fair to Maggie. I don't actually like her. She drives me nuts. And the re-watch hasn't changed that. I want to blame her for a lot things that are going on as a result of her being really scared, really helpless, and very emotional. And yet what I find myself seeing is someone who chooses to be helpless time and time again, to reject help where it is offered because of what she sees and this feeling of superiority. It comes back to her saying, at the beginning, that she's not like those other homeless people.

She feels to me very 'wallowing in my misery' type person. She's so trapped in her feelings of self misery that she has no awareness of the gargoyles as creatures with sentience or feeling or not monsters just because they look scary to her. And it just aggravates me. Even while all those feelings she's having and her reactions are, actually, quite understandable. XD

We talk a lot about how Brooklyn loses his mind over Demona, but he's bringing that same energy to Maggie here in the opposite direction. Which is just interesting. It definitely seems to be saying something about him being prone to this sort of drive. And on the one hand, it's good he feels empowered to act, but on another, he needs to learn to be rational about it!

LOVE that it's Goliath who says that Brooklyn knows just as much about this new gargoyle as Broadway does. What a tempering comment. Especially coming from Goliath. Broadway has already upset Brooklyn in a way that means he won't hear him out. But Goliath can't be ignored.

And yet even though Goliath seems to back up Broadway here, he doesn't. He seems to be explicitly calling out Brooklyn's impetuousness but not his drive to act.

The panic Derek has when he realizes his sister is not far away during probably the scariest moments of his life so far. It's rather heartbreaking really. Before this job, would he have looked to his big sister for comfort? Instead of being unable to face her? Xanatos has come so firmly between them now where they both aren't emotionally stable when trying to talk about any of that, that he's not sure what kind of reception he'll get from her.

But even more, I think he's questioning himself and all the choices he's made. Xanatos is putting on a really good show, and I think that's just confusing for Derek. I think he largely believes the show Xanatos is putting on, but that doesn't mean he has to absolve Xanatos or think well of him. It's still because of his power and influence that this was ever able to happen at all, let alone happen specifically to Derek.