#gs1e6

[thoughtfulfangirling]

What an absolute bafoon. lmao

But it gave us some pretty neat visuals. A fun little action sequence where I'm pretty sure Goliath just played with him for a moment because, well, after the frustrations of all that, he's ready to get a little hunting in himself. lmao. But it doesn't take long. The fight is pretty short. XD

[thoughtfulfangirling]

No mention of his discussing this plot with Fox first. I don't know if they do explicitly say she knew where the photos came from, but we do learn that she is actively working for Xanatos, so I think it's a safe assumption.

There is something tantalizing about the idea that he didn't discuss with Fox first this gargoyles hunting trip plot, as for her to receive pictures like that out of the blue and know what to do with them would mean that she also has had some idea of the supernatural and Xanatos's interest in it.

But I'm not letting her taking hostage of that woman just be a 'narrative needed a reason to arrest you Fox' stand, so I'm sticking to my interpretation that he, or Owen on his behalf, sat down with her and handed her those pictures. She was told what she needed to know in order to keep herself, at least, safe from any explosive reactions by the gargoyles. Personally, I lean toward it being Xanatos. I feel like Owen would say only exactly what Xanatos would instruct him to say and be glad to leave Fox to her own devices. Xanatos, I think, would go on about all his discoveries quite contentedly for quite some time for an admiring ear.

In any case, this is how the episodes leaves off. Xanatos may be 'defeated,' but he's still in the picture and pulling strings.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

And Goliath says what I've been saying all along. Because he is capable of recognizing the truth in where Lexington's heart laid.

Interestingly, I think it is easier for Goliath to say this since Lexington was wrong. He does know they need to trust more humans, but I don't think he's ready to. The two facts do not cancel each other out; they exist simultaneous in Goliath's truth.

Lexington was absolutely ready to trust... up until he wasn't. That said, he does end on a hopeful note. I know his feelings for The Pack continue to be hyper volatile, but I'm going to have to pay attention for a bit to how he reacts to other humans for a bit.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

I love this exchange so much. Elisa is so sympathetic when she gets started. She knows what she is going to say is going to hurt Goliath. She doesn't realize the extent to which what she'll say doesn't make much sense to him. Before she brought this up, he mentioned "defeating Xanatos." They battled it out, and the gargoyles came out on top. He believes then that they have won their territory in a sort of ways, that Xanatos wouldn't want to match mights again.

But that's not this world. And Elisa is so careful to try and explain these things to him. I cut out a lot of her explaining the legal system and how it worked what Xanatos was convicted of, how his lawyers would do this or that etc. None of that is the point, but she knows he wants to understand this world. So she answers him without dumbing things down until it seems like he's not getting it.

And it's not that Goliath is dumb, but once again, he struggles to process that what he doesn't want to hear sometimes. Until she says 'a new home,' he refuses to hear it, but when he does, he explodes. This is where I come back to Goliath not being one to hide his emotions. He is a dramatic bitch who will make sure you know it!

He does not mean this expression of his emotions to be violent toward Elisa; he sees it just as letting himself react to his emotions. But it is scary. On the outside, it does appear for a moment like he means to threaten her, to force her not to say what he doesn't want to hear. And that's always an element at play when someone lets their emotions get that big in the face of another person. Would he be happier if she backed down and told him she was wrong? Absolutely.

But Elisa doesn't do that. Despite this creature twice her size who is able to score concrete, she stands her ground. She picked up on him quick. She doesn't fear he will hurt her, and she won't let him learn that outbursts like this will make her fall in line.

Once again, Elisa is making it clear that she is not a member of his clan who he can order around or expect to acquiesce. And I love how quickly she makes sure to draw this line. She wants to be their friends, but she will not pretend to be one of them, and if someone needs to tell Goliath the hard truths, she will do it.

Her expression from the first cap to the last just... I love her XD

[thoughtfulfangirling]

To add insult to injury, we get this interaction. Not only do we get this moment of The Pack's fame saving Lexington and Goliath in a vulnerable moment, but it facilitates a moment of our protagonists getting framed as evil. Not just seemingly monstrous to some humans, but actively monsters.

Lexington went about all this to seek out community, and not only does he get violently denied this, but he ends up a target of ostracization by children of the people he tried to connect with (humans, obviously not specifically The Pack).

It's a powerful moment. Community is being shown to be important to Lexington, and children are a very vital part of community. We saw him try to connect with Thomas in the pilot and the hope that came from the fact that he had wanted to approach them. And here he gets the total opposite. He's been through so much already that he responds with rage, but this, I think, is an important and incredibly painful moment for Lex.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

Well, if The Pack was trying to see what the gargoyles could do... that was quite a display for them. Personally, I would reconsider pissing these guys off further, but also, I never would have wanted to try and take on mystical huge humanoid creatures on either myself to begin with. XD

[thoughtfulfangirling]

The Pack is doing all this because they want a challenge, but their own gauntlet that they've set up to hone their skills isn't even a challenge even when they could have. It seems to me, what they really like, is just playing high stakes games, not real challenges or a fight. 'Else this would have been a fight and not a circus trap that probably Only Fox would have had any say in setting up. Seems kind of silly.

Part of this is KIDS SHOW, but if I'm going to dig for every valuable mineral in the ground, I'm going with that this was a test. To see if they really would be a good enough challenge. Which okay, I guess, but still seems silly. If they fail it, y'all get no fight whatsoever, and it would just be entirely worthless.

Again... fuckin theater kids XD

[thoughtfulfangirling]

Goliath's tone as he asks where Lexington is very much that of accusation for his being late. The question is actually less 'where were you' and more 'why would you cut it this close,' so I love that Lexington's response blows right past that. He answers the actual question and not the one that actually concerns Goliath, though it's implied in his answer.

It is really neat to me how confident Lexington is now that the interaction has happened and gone well. Now he is assured of his choice and is determined to have the others see it like he does. It isn't until he's pretty much fully made the pitch, after he's asserted his thought process to be unquestionable, that he turns back to Goliath in this interaction and hunches down a bit, finally asking for approval.

It especially strikes me in this interaction how autistic-coded Lexington may actually be. Obviously a fixation and special interest (electronics) can't only be explained by one thing, and specifically only a neurodivergent thing, but the way he blows past the implied question, answering the actual question, and seeming almost entirely oblivious to the tension he arrives to, and then suddenly switching from that confidence to uncertainty... all that together really paints a certain picture. It seems he knows that sometimes he does things others don't see the way he does, but it's only after he's gushed about it that he has the space to consider that, and then acts as tho he really doesn't know what to expect from the others.

Just yet another thing I'm page-marking for further evaluation as the series progresses that I don't think I ever would have thought about before if I wasn't working at the show for as much juiciness I can squeeze out. XD