- Story Arc: Demona's vengeance against humans, the Archmage's ascent, Xanatos' and Fox's wedding, the Illuminati
- Characters: The Manhattan Clan, Demona, David Xanatos, Owen, Petros Xanatos, the Archmage
- Enemy(ies) : Demona, Xanatos, the Archmage
Xanatos and Fox get married and enjoy a truly medieval honeymoon, as Demona uses the Phoenix Gate to try to change the past, inadvertently causing "the past" to happen in the first place. In medieval Scotland, the Archmage ruminates about how to obtain the "ultimate power" and how close it is to his grasp, while the Illuminati make sure that a certain royal wedding goes smoothly, unwittingly making Xanatos a rich man.
Demona, Xanatos, and Fox reappear in City of Stone, while the Archmage makes his next appearance in Avalon. Petros Xanatos next appears in The Gathering.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- All for Nothing: Demona was unable to change her past and prevent the massacre in 997.
- Artistic License – History: This episode features a Norman ambassador to Scotland in 975... nearly a hundred years before the Normans even conquered England, let alone sent ambassadors to Scotland.
- Bittersweet Ending: Threefold:
- Goliath manages to stop present Demona's machinations for the past but she reveals that all of his had just as much impact as hers did i.e. practically none and Demona still grew up to be the Absolute Xenophobe she is in present.
- Conversely, Demona failed to prevent the massacre of the Gargoyles from happening but she still managed to get one over on Goliath by proving that his actions did nothing to stop her from becoming the monster she is today.
- Xanatos successfully fulfills his gambit but still fails to win the approval of his father, which was pretty clearly his primary goal all along.
- Compound-Interest Time Travel Gambit: Xanatos' coin trick is in the spirit of the trope, if not the letter: Xanatos doesn't gain any interest on the coin, but its antique and historic value goes up over 1,000 years. "It's practically worthless now, in 975 A.D... but by 1975, it should be worth... oh about twenty grand?"
- Continuity Nod: Quite a few references are made to prior episodes which include the following.
- In some prior episodes, The Illuminati was mentioned at times in passing. In this episode, it is not just only shown to have existed for more than a millennium, but that Xanatos is also a member of it.
- As Goliath retrieves his half of the Phoenix Gate from its place in the clock tower, the dormant Coldstone (from "Legion"), the Grimorum Arcanorum (from "Enter Macbeth"), and the Eye of Odin (from "Eye of the Beholder") are shown in storage nearby.
- In the prior episode, Xanatos had given his marriage proposal to Fox. In this episode, they have their wedding.
- In the Dark Age scenes in this episode, Goliath almost refers to Hudson by his name, before remembering that in this time period he has not yet chosen a name for himself. ("Awakening: Part Three") None of the gargoyles in these scenes have names. In addition, Hudson hasn't been blinded in his eye from the confrontation against the Archmage he would get involved in 984 as revealed in "Long Way To Morning".
- Downer Beginning: While the overall status quo doesn't get any worse, but some tragic moments in the past still play out. Goliath hoped his speech to the younger, Past Demona would have some effect in changing how she would respond to the events in her future. However, the present Demona reveals after they have returned to the present that she remembered that speech and that nothing he said made her change her outlook.
- Foreshadowing: The Archmage's attempt at gaining possession of the Phoenix Gate and bitter monologue near the end of the episode talking about how he can achieve ultimate power (by by combining the Grimorum, the Phoenix Gate and the Eye of Odin) provides hints as to what he will do in later episodes.
- Future Me Scares Me: This episode deals with Demona going back in time and confronting her younger self. Demona of the past, who's still young and reasonably idealistic, refuses to believe that she could ever turn into the bitter and emotionally scarred monster in front of her.
- Ironic Echo: When Xanatos is explaining to his father how he set up his own fortune via time travel, he says of the coin he just sent off with the Illuminati, "It's practically worthless now, in 975 A.D... but by 1975, it'll be worth...about twenty grand." After returning to the present, a thoroughly unimpressed Petros flips his son a coin from his pocket, and when asked what it is, replies, "A simple American penny. Not worth much now, but in a thousand years...who knows?"
- Irony: Early on, Petros remarks he'd like to strangle whoever it was that mailed his son the coin that led to his vast fortune. He later learns that it was his own son by way of time travel.
- Properly Paranoid: The Hudson of the past is openly suspicious of the Archmage.
- Self-Made Man: Xanatos repeatedly claims to be one, but Petros counters that his fortune came from coins he was delivered from an unknown source. As it turns out, his fortune came from a deed he did 1,000 years ago (ensuring the coins), and instructions he wrote to himself explaining how to invest the coins and how to ensure the timeline played out properly. He cites all this and triumphantly exclaims he is in fact a self made man. Petros isn't impressed.
- Series Continuity Error: 975 AD's version of Hudson has his signature sword — but he only obtained it in the first episodes, in 994.
- Shout-Out: A somewhat subtle one To Shakespeare. When Xanatos's father asks him why he has acquired so many possessions (such as Castle Wyvern and a suit of Powered Armor), Xanatos replies with "Reason not the need". It is a quote from King Lear.
- Stable Time Loop: No one is capable of changing the past; the present-characters' actions in the past had all already happened (even Demona had always remembered her encounter with her future self and future-Goliath's words to her). When Goliath states his temptation to abandon Xanatos in the past, David smugly replies "But you won't. Because you didn't. Time travel's funny that way."
- Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Goliath gets into this when talking with his Mentor in 975 (who would later take the name "Hudson" in the present) when he is describing his current dilemma.
- Unfazed Everyman: It's easy to miss because of everything that happens in "Vows", but Petros Xanatos demonstrates this. Inhuman species secretly dwelling among humanity, power armor, medieval swordfights, temporal paradox, secret societies... A lesser man might Go Mad from the Revelation. Petros responds by scolding his son for using them to satisfy his greed.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: A lot of this was motivated by Xanatos wanting to prove to his father that he is a self-made man and get his respect. Petros is less than impressed for obvious reasons.
- Wham Episode:
- Greg Weisman has referred to this as the divorce episode. The events here convince Goliath that Demona will not change, so he gives up his appeals and treats her as his enemy.
- This was the first episode to establish that the Illuminati does actually exist and that it's not just Matt's conspiracy theory. Also, Xanatos is shown to be a member.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Elisa chews out Goliath for going to Xanatos' wedding when she told him not to. Goliath, upset with his futility to change Demona, was in no mood to argue.
- Write Back to the Future: How Xanatos makes his fortune and ensures the events of the episode. After he's zapped back 1020 years in time by the Phoenix Gate, he leaves a package in the care of the Illuminati, to be delivered to his younger self 1000 years in the future (1975). The package contains three coins (worth thousands of dollars by the time the younger Xanatos receives them) and a letter with instructions on how to invest the money; and a lengthy letter to be delivered twenty years after that (1995, one week before the beginning of the episode) that details what he will have to do to ensure that he is sent to the past to send the coins and the letter in the first place.
- Xanatos Gambit: Not only one of his most ludicrous, but is more typically bittersweet to the trope namer than as usual. The plot is kicked off by Xanatos wanting to prove that he is a Self-Made Man to his father. In doing so he conducts a Compound-Interest Time Travel Gambit and effortlessly manipulates both Goliath and Demona into helping him achieve it. He succeeds! And yet none of that won him a sliver of approval from his father so while Xanatos still clearly profits from this episode, it feels a lot more hollow than most of his gambits.
