- Story Arc: The Pack, Xanato's Quest for Immortality
- Characters: Goliath, Elisa, Angela, Bronx
- Enemy(ies) : The Pack (Minus Dingo), Coyote
Avalon takes the travelers to Egypt, where they stumble across the Pack, lead by Coyote and under the orders of Xanatos, dealing with the oft-mentioned Emir. Now meeting him in person, they find out he intends to raise and control the God of Death, Anubis himself, to do his bidding. With his power, Xanatos will finally be an immortal. Yet the Emir has his own plans for the Death God. And then there's Jackal and his own wicked designs...
Jackal and Hyena would be seen again in the "The Green", Coyote (a brand new model) would appear again during "Cloud Fathers", and Wolf reappears in "Vendettas".
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: The Emir is motivated towards extreme action that could have dreadful consequences on the world by the death of his son.
- All Are Equal in Death: One of Anubis's arguments is that death has to be True Neutral. Anubis: "I grant but one boon, mortal, and it will be given to you as it is given to everyone... when your time has come."Anubis: "Death is the ultimate fairness. Rich and poor, young and old, all are equal in death. You would not like to see the Jackal God play favorites."
- All Deaths Final: Those dead remain so, even Anubis cannot (or will not) bring them back, even if they were killed by Jackal's misuse of Anubis's own powers. Thankfully, however, any stolen life force can be restored, saving those on the brink of death.
- Ambiguous Situation: During Jackal's terrifying assault on the planet with Anubis's powers, he reduces an entire city to rubble. The series never addresses whether this was one of the "restored energies" which the Avatar corrects when he brings the heroes and the Pack back to their rightful ages, since he also says that "that which is dead and gone cannot be restored" in the same conversation. Word of God says that the people who died in that city stayed dead.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "Must I lose my daughter to prove that this is evil?"
- Ascended Extra: The Emir, after having been mentioned in previously in "The Edge" (intended only as a throw away line for Owen Burnett), now appears in person.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: For the villains' side, at least; Coyote, now in one of his biggest and easily strongest robotic bodies, is the first Jackal "kills" with his newfound powers as an Anubis Avatar.
- Big "NO!": Jackal after the Emir manages to perform the spell to strip him of Anubis's power.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: The Pack subdue the heroes and simply restrain them, despite Wolf's insistence that they be finished off now. Justified because Coyote wasn't programmed on what to do if Goliath and friends showed up; he needs definitive orders from someone in authority and Wolf doesn't fit that. When the Emir later gives the order out of frustration over the interference, Coyote gets to work blasting.
- Continuity Nod: Upon seeing Coyote for the first time since "Upgrade" (in which its head was destroyed), Goliath questions how it could still exist (of which the head of Coyote 3.0 is actually a video projection of the earlier one with only the A.I. being the only surviving remnant of the earlier iteration).
- Crazy-Prepared: Averted. Despite his penchant for plans and counter-plans, the idea of anyone in the Manhattan Clan showing up to interfere was so unlikely that Xanatos never bothered to program Coyote with any directives on what to do in that event. As such, Coyote needs definitive orders before doing anything more than restraining them (much to Wolf's irritation).
- Dark Is Not Evil: While intimidating Anubis is a responsible deity who takes his job very seriously and views all the souls he carries into the afterlife without any bias. He also tries to be reasonable with the Emir, calmly explaining to him why his plan is at fault and urging him to let his son rest in peace.
- Death Equals Redemption: The Emir, finally able to understand the truth of life and death, restores the lost life energy Jackal stole then seemingly perishes. He also destroys the Temple to prevent the power of Anubis from ever being misused again. While it is not elaborated what became of him (or indeed, Anubis until he cameos in a later episode) Goliath expresses the belief that, if there is any proper justice in this world or the next, that he is with his son in the afterlife.
- Death of a Child: What motivates the Emir is he lost his son in a tragic car accident.
- Death Takes a Holiday: Thankfully offscreen. Once captured by the ritual, Anubis is unable to perform his duty, and people around the world are not dying. The Emir threatens to leave things that way to get what he wants, but Anubis refuses still, prompting... stronger measures.
- Determinator: The Emir proves this isn't always a good thing, see his Motive Rant below.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: The already questionably-sane Jackal hijacks the power of Anubis and promptly goes berserk.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: The Emir takes Anubis from Jackal, revives everyone he killed, and then presumably perishes in the destruction of the temple.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: The jackal god does not play favorites. He grants peace to everyone, no matter who they are, when it is their time. Inverted Big Time when Jackal becomes an Avatar.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Most of the Pack, including Coyote, seem perturbed when they see what Jackal's done, though this seems as much pragmatic as standards, since his newfound power and lack of sanity have made them all viable targets.Coyote: "This can't be what Xanatos was expecting."
- Foreshadowing: Hyena briefly notes how Dingo has left the Pack.
- God in Human Form: The Avatar is all the power of (in this case) Anubis poured into a single vessel. First Jackal and later the Emir.
- Laughing Mad: Jackal's sanity, already tenuous, seems to be completely lost once he becomes Anubis's Avatar, not least of which evidenced by his cackling more than his sister Hyena.
- Little "No": When everyone is restored, Goliath asks the Emir if he will still try to revive his son. The Emir responds this way before saying No Man Should Have This Power.
- Long-Lived: With the power of Anubis, Jackal causes the heroes to become old. Elisa can barely move, but Goliath, Angela, and Bronx are still able to keep fighting because turning to stone every day means they only age at half the rate of humans. This means that Jackal didn't make the gargoyles quite as old as he thought he did (or they outwardly appeared).
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Divine: It's not fully elaborated upon just what Anubis is, especially given his later cameo during the Gathering on Avalon. If he is a member of the Third Race, he's easily one of the most insanely powerful seen yet (possibly outstripping Oberon himself), and his role in the process of life and death is not fully elaborated upon.
- Motive Rant:Emir: Death stole my only child before I had a chance to say goodbye. To hold him again, I will move Heaven and Earth with my bare hands!
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Emir arrives at this after Jackal hijacks Anubis power for himself.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: After Coyote is rusted to dust in seconds, destroying him, Hyena implies that this is not the first time her brother has killed a guy she's interested in.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: The Emir notes he never even got to share one last moment with his son before he died.
- No Man Should Have This Power: The Emir's final act is to destroy the temple to prevent anyone else from acquiring Anubis's power. After seeing what Jackal did, one can understand where he's coming from.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Goliath appeals to the Emir, saying that they've both suffered losses. Between that and witnessing Jackal going insane with the power of death proves enough to finally get through to him.
- Omnicidal Maniac: With the power of Anubis, Jackal revels in the chance to cause all life on Earth to wither and die in mere minutes. Drunk on the power of death, he seemed ready to inflict it upon the entire world if he hadn't been stopped.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The plot is built on the idea of a parent outliving their child. The Emir is motivated by the sudden death of his son in an accident. In the climax, Goliath fears he's about to suffer this, as well, and manages to get through to the Emir on this basis.
- Peaceful in Death: It is implied by Anubis that death means peace, and Goliath hopes as much for the Emir and his son in the final moments of the episode.
- Pet the Dog: When asking the Emir to leave his son be Anubis says it in a very gentle tone of voice, low-key demonstrating the care he has for those who've past on.
- Rapid Aging: Jackal when he uses the power of Anubis. He ages Coyote to death and turns Goliath, Angela, Elisa, and Bronx old. He also ages several beings to death (including a whole town) during the beginning of his purge.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: The Emir's motive to summoning Anubis is to make the God of the Dead bring back to life his son who died in a car accident.
- Shout-Out: The tanna leaves that are used for the ritual to summon Anubis are originally derived from the 1940 film The Mummy's Hand.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: Arguably, this was the last episode to feature the majority of the Pack together (Dingo had already left previously), and afterwards they would only ever appear solo (or as a duo, in the case of Jackal and Hyena).
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Anubis and later Goliath warn the Emir not to meddle with a primal force like death. He doesn't listen, which leads to death temporarily being halted across the planet and an insane villain claiming the power of Anubis. It's only after joining with Anubis himself that the Emir truly understands. He also destroys the site to ensure no one can ever access this power again.
- Tragic Villain: The Emir's grief driving him to such extremes is so tragic that Goliath hopes he and his son are reunited in the afterlife.
- Villain Ball: Jackal would've been able to stop the Emir from reciting the spell had he just zapped him dead instead of angrily declaring that the guy's time was up.
- Voice of the Legion: When Jackal and later the Emir serve as avatar for Anubis, due to two voices speaking at once. The main voice actors are consistently the dominant ones, while Tony Jay's voice is secondary and slightly out of sync.
- You Are What You Hate: The Emir despises Anubis for the loss of his son, but the Armor-Piercing Question above helps him realize that his actions threaten to cause Goliath and countless other parents to lose their children as well.
