- Story Arc: Lexington and The Pack
- Characters: The Manhattan Clan, the Pack, David Xanatos, Owen Burnett
- Enemy(ies): The Pack, Xanatos
Dingo, assisted by new Pack member Coyote, who wears a cybernetic suit of armor, break Jackal, Hyena and Wolf out of jail. Fox remains behind as the others escape to exact revenge on the Gargoyles though Coyote and Wolf vie for the leadership of the Pack, they are shocked to learn who lies behind the mask.
The Pack (minus Fox) returns in "Upgrade" while Fox reappears in "Eye of the Beholder".
The Previously on… segments begin on this episode.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Actually a Doombot: Coyote/"Xanatos" is revealed to be a robotic decoy used by the actual man.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Happens at the climax of the episode as the Manhattan Clan is fighting the pack on the burning oil tanker.
- Continuity Nod: Brooklyn makes a reference to the events of Enter Macbeth when he mentions "How come whenever you and I take Bronx out, we wind up like this?"
- Lexington still has it out for the Pack after they're betrayal of his trust in their introductory episode.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Fox gives this as the basis for her reason for refusing to join her comrades in breaking out of prison. It is subverted in that is only a ruse and her real reason was that the incident was engineered by her and Xanatos to get her an early parole. Though it is also double subverted in that Fox isn't evil, but rather amoral.
- Foreshadowing: Coyote, who is impersonating Xanatos at the time, states that part of the reason he wants to go after the Gargoyles is for revenge for what they did to him.
Word of God states this was a clue to Coyote's false nature, as the production had established at that point the real Xanatos has no interest in getting revenge on Goliath and his clan. - Impairment Shot: When Coyote uses his shockwave on the prison guard at the beginning of the episode, the point of view switches to that of the guard as everything in his vision twists and blurs.
- Parental Bonus: Fox and Hyena are sitting in a prison cell, with Hyena flicking rubber bands at cockroaches and Fox reading a book by Sartre. Hyena asks her why she bothers with that, and Fox says, "Because Nietzsche's too butch, and Kafka reminds me of your little friends over there." Kafka's best-known work, of course, involves a man who one day wakes up as a giant cockroach.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Lex might be the smallest gargoyle in his clan, but he manages to take down Wolf in a one-on-one fight. It took Coyote to take him down.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- One of the defining characteristic's of Xanatos's philosophy. Particularly in regard as to why he never pursues any bids for retribution against the gargoyles is best summed up with this quote: "Revenge, as they say, is a sucker's game."
- Fox stops Hyena from killing a guard and refuses to escape prison with the rest of the Pack, stating that she needs to finish her sentence... because the escape is merely part of her and Xanatos' plan to legally get her out of jail.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lexington and Brooklyn have this dynamic in this episode in regard to their approaches to their respective targets of animosity. The former is the red with the ironically red colored Brooklyn being the blue. Brooklyn mentions to Lexington that while he is still bitter with Demona manipulating him in the past, he doesn't let his anger cloud his judgement and that Lexington can't lose sight of the well being of fellow gargoyles and civilians to pursue a corrosive grudge.
- Revenge Before Reason:
- Lexington's animosity for the Pack leads him to launch an uncharacteristic Leeroy Jenkins preemptive attack against the Pack. Though he does get better by the end of the episode when he lets go of his grudge to save Brooklyn falling off the edge of the sinking ship. In effect, it is the basis of the Aesop that applies to him.
- Averted and exploited by Xanatos. While Coyote (posing as Xanatos) claims that he wants pay back against the Manhattan clan for being sent to prison, it is all a ruse to bait the Pack into another fight against the gargoyles so that Xanatos could test his new creation's combat capabilities. Granted the Pack also have a pragmatic reason of their own to get back against the Manhattan Clan given that, as mercenaries who are paid to successfully fight and kill targets for the highest bidder, failing to succeed in taking out a prior target would downgrade their mercenary cred, but the Pack is certainly making it no secret that they also are primarily emotionally driven.
- Robosexual: Before Coyote takes off his helmet to reveal himself as "Xanatos", Hyena remarks that she finds him "kind of cute". Then after Bronx tears off Coyote's face and reveals him as a robot...Dingo: He's a robot!
Hyena: (shocked) A robot? (smirks) Even better. - Robotic Reveal: During an epic fight on board an oil tanker, Bronx tears off half of his face, revealing that "Xanatos" is actually the robotic duplicate, Coyote. Of course, the whole point of the exercise was to get Xanatos' girlfriend Fox a shot at early parole for her actions during the jailbreak at the start of the episode.
- Running Gag: The beginning of one in which Coyote would meet some cataclysmic accident which would destroy his current body.
- Shout-Out: Coyote's partly exposed machine face is a tribute to the Terminator. Another influence for Coyote was the Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote in that it suffers from numerous cataclysmic misfortunes. In the case of its appearance in this episode it gets shot through its chest by Lexington.
- The Parental bonus entry above also reveals allusions to Friedrich Nietzsche and Franz Kafka.
- Wham Line: "Revenge is a Sucker's Game."
- Wham Shot: Fox entering a waiting car and meeting up with Xanatos, leading the pair to kiss in a passionate embrace. Xanatos further explains the whole ordeal was to get Fox out of prison early.
- Xanatos Gambit: In addition to providing an opportunity to test Coyote's abilities, the ultimate goal of Xanatos' plans in regards to the Pack in this episode was to achieve an early parole for Fox.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Jackal tries to invoke this when Brooklyn punches out Hyena. Brooklyn has this to say in response:
