- Story Arc: Lexington and The Pack
- Characters: the Manhattan Clan, the Mazas, the Pack, David Xanatos
- Enemy(ies) : the Pack, Xanatos
Elisa Maza is suspicious of David Xanatos and thus she and her brother, fellow Police officer Derek, follow him via helicopter. Meanwhile, Hyena and Jackal are pursuing there own scheme, which puts them on a collision course with Xanatos. When the Mazas intervene to stop the Pack members, Derek manages to impress Xanatos with his piloting skills under pressure and offers him employment at his company. However, Elisa is well aware that the scheming businessman has his ulterior motives and seeks to persuade her brother not to accept his proposition.
The Pack is reunited in the season 2 opening episode "Leader of the Pack" while Derek returns in the episode "Metamorphosis".
This Episode contains the following Tropes:
- An Aesop: To quote Goliath while breaking up an argument between Elisa and Derek "You don't know how lucky you are to have siblings to fight with! All of my rookery brothers are dead. And there is nothing...nothing more important than family."
- Ax-Crazy: Hyena demonstrates this when Jackal tries to restrain her so that they can pull off their heist without drawing attention to themselves. He certainly also enjoys killing as much as his sister, but he refrains from doing so based on Pragmatic Villainy.
- Blinded by the Light: Happens to Jackal and Hyena while they are attempting to attack Xanatos. They try to get him at night at his Xanadu retreat, using nightvision goggles, however their strike is foiled when the Manhattan Clan blinds them with a spotlight from their helicopter. The effect lingers even after they take the goggles off, and both of them have trouble seeing the gargoyles even from a few feet away for a few minutes.
- Brother–Sister Team: Jackal and Hyena operate as one of these following Fox and Wolf's arrests and Dingo's escape to Europe.
- Chekhov's Skill: Lexington's practice with the flight simulator certainly pays off in the latter part of the episode.
- Continuity Nod: Plenty of references are made to Gargoyles S 1 The Thrill Of The Hunt such as Lexington's animosity towards them for manipulating him that episode and also the fates of Wolf and Fox (in prison) and Dingo (on the run hiding out in Europe) at the end of that episode.
- Curse Cut Short: While in an argument with Broadway, Lexington retorts "You wouldn't know what's important if it bit you on the-!" Granted in context the word that could have been used instead could have been tail.
- Description Cut: At a bar, Peter suggests Elisa tell Derek that quitting the force would devastate Diane. The scene cuts to the Maza household, where Diane fully supports Derek and says neither Elisa nor Peter can make his decisions for him.
- Foreshadowing: Two plot developments are given varying degrees of focus future events in the storyline:
- While Fox is being interviewed by Elisa about Xanatos, she speaks very admirably about him including praise of him as being "The most brilliant man on the face of the Earth". This precedes the revelation of Fox and Xanatos being a couple in Season 2.
- Goliath chides the Maza siblings for their argument and brings up the unfortunate fate of his own rookery brethren. One (or actually three of them to be more exact) would appear in the next episode.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Helicopter that had previously belonged to the Pack would be used against the twins by the Manhattan Clan.
- Irony: Siblings Jackal and Hyena are dangerous criminals, but in this episode, they get along and work together much better than Elisa and Derek or the Trio.
- It's Always Spring: Averted. This episode, the following one ("Reawakening"), and "The Price" have it snow in New York, and they're not Christmas episodes. However, these are the only snow days we see in the Big Apple.
- Man Behind the Man: Fox reveals this that Xanatos is the man behind the Pack to Elisa in a prison interview. Only she knows that Xanatos is the one who brought them together; they think their orders come from her but she's just passing them on from Xanatos.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Hyena's plan to steal the diamond was to simply smash the case and shoot up the place while running for the door. Jackal scolds such a plan, due to both the lack of style involved and how it would be a surefire way to end up in prison. He prefers a far more covert strategy, which gets interrupted by Xanatos buying the diamond outright. Jackal still tries to play it calmly, only for Hyena to flip out and make a scene. By that point, Jackal figures he has nothing to lose by doing similarly, though he still pointedly reminds Hyena of the mess she caused.
- Put on a Bus: Dingo is said to be off in Europe.
- Ron the Death Eater: In-Universe discussion. Derek accuses Elisa of doing this to Xanatos who as far as he has seen hasn't done anything to make him believe that he is any bit as devious as his sister says. Though the audience knows in that her warnings about Xanatos are justified based on her first hand observations of his actions that Derek lacks. It also includes an example of Demonization when Derek remarks that he thinks that she is getting information "from a snitch who told you that he is the Prince of Darkness".
- Shout-Out:
- While Lexington is trying to prevent the Pack's chopper from crashing, Brooklyn tells him "Use the Force, Lex!" and later afterwards remarks about Lexington's plans to rebuild it with "You and what Starfleet?"
- Xanatos's upstate retreat is named Xanadu in reference to the film Citizen Kane, of whom Xanatos is similar to Charles Kane in so far as being an scrupulous businessman with ambitious goals, which in turn was in reference to the poem Kubla Khan.
- The title of the episode itself is an allusion to the The Bible, more specifically a phrase said by Cain shortly after killing Abel when questioned by God responding with "I know not; Am I my brother's keeper?". Also worth mentioning that Sibling relationships was a theme for this episode with particular emphasis on that of Elisa and Derek as well as the younger Manhattan Clan members and Jackal and Hyena.
- Stupid Evil: In-Universe expression of this from Jackal when Hyena pulls out a knife on an attendee at the auction which he was trying to achieve without setting off security.
- Take That!: To the show's own toy line, which forced the crew to put in a helicopter. Brooklyn echoes Greg Weisman's own complaints about the gargoyles not needing one, and it's never seen again.
- Unwitting Pawn: Fox reveals that the other four members of the Pack are carrying out Xanatos' orders without realizing it. Both the diamond heist and the assassination attempt against Xanatos himself are his own plans. When Elisa accuses that Fox is no better because she is still in prison, Fox fires back that the only reason she's spilling the beans is simply because he told her to, and Xanatos is too clever to be stopped.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Xanatos is certainly able to maintain a good public appearance even despite his prior arrest. Derek is stone-cold set against anything painting him as a villain.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: An inanimate object example in regard to the Manhattan Clan's Helicopter which never reappears after this episode. Greg Weisman
has said that it was hidden permanently and possibly used as a planter. - What the Hell, Hero?: Goliath after he has enough of Elisa and Derek's arguing. It also causes the Trio to reevaluate their own squabbling."QUIET, both of you! You don't know how lucky you are to have siblings to fight with! All of my rookery brothers are dead! And there is nothing - nothing more important than family."
