Recap / Gunnerkrigg Court – Chapter 25 "Sky Watcher and the Angel"

And yet there are no pliers in this chapter.

A robot grasshopper, Sky Watcher, sits at the top of a spire. Robot (S13), in a new human-sized body, climbs up to him and asks if he sees anything interesting. Of course he has, responds Sky Watcher, his job is to monitor the weather. Robot asks if he's seen any angels, which Sky Watcher denies. In response, Robot tells the grasshopper that he knows of a place where an angel watches over a shrine. Sky Watcher thinks Robot is crazy until he mentions Jeanne, bringing with it the usual response, "She died and we did nothing." As Robot leads Sky Watcher through the Court, Shadow 2, riding in his hoodie, asks him if he should be calling Kat an angel. Robot responds that he's certain that Kat is an angel, because who else would be chosen to guard Jeanne's tomb?

As they arrive back at the lab, they are greeted by Kat. She asks Robot how his new body is holding up, and he finds it much easier to get around in than the mouse body. Kat reminds him to go easy on it, since it's just cobbled together from spare parts while she works on a proper body. Noticing Sky Watcher, she's thrilled, as she's never seen his model, and takes him onto her hand before setting him under a magnifying glass. She quickly determines that he's a weather station, flustering Sky Watcher, and Kat sends him on his way with Robot, as she assumes he's here to see the painting. Sky Watcher is now willing to agree with Robot that Kat is an angel.

In the underground chamber, Robot points out a large form covered by a sheet, telling Sky Watcher it is the body of a terrible demon that had to be covered to stop upsetting visitors. At the entrance to the shrine, Robot tells the grasshopper that he must enter alone. After viewing the shrine, Sky Watcher flies all the way out of the lab, past a surprised Kat, who greets Annie as she arrives. Annie has a question:

Annie: Kat, what would make two people deny their love for each other?

Kat is confused, and Annie explains that Parley and Andrew have become unbearable, unable even to look at each other, ever since she teleported everyone to her bedroom. She notes that it's painfully obvious that they like each other, but they act like enemies. Kat responds that love can make people act in strange ways, and Anne says that she thought love was supposed to be a good thing. Kat agrees, but bungles the metaphor of "better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all", prompting Annie to say that's not how she thinks it goes.

Later, Sky Watcher returns, with the Robot King and his entourage. When Kat says hello, several robots exclaim, but the Robot King orders them to be silent. Hopping down from his carriage, he walks over to Annie and Kat and draws another face on his whiteboard-like face, before asking Kat if she is the angel that guards Jeanne's tomb. Kat introduces herself and explains it's not a tomb, just a painting. The Robot King draws Angry Eyebrows on his face and demands to see it.

Down below, the Robot King's court, along with Annie and Kat, wait while the King looks at Jeanne's painting. When he comes out, he's redrawn his facial expression to look very sad, with tears, which the other robots deem "the saddest face". The Robot King begs Kat for her help, explaining that robot society has been in turmoil for a very long time, but she may be able to provide an answer. Kat says she'll help if she can, and the Robot King responds that she has to come with them so they can show her what they're confused about. Kat is fine with that, but only so long as Annie can come, which the robots agree to. A trumpet-bot toots, and Annie asks it why it played a series of random notes. It responds that it never learned to play.

On the way, Annie asks about the symbol at the top of the Robot King's banners, and is told that it's the Tic-Toc, which the robot she's speaking to describes as a "mythical ornithonic", apparently older than the Court itself and created by a "divine being" to watch over everyone. Whatever the birds are, they weren't created by Diego. As they pass through a familiar-looking robot-only area, Annie gives a wave to the confused reception-bot. They arrive at an old-looking door. The room beyond it is full of stuff, and when Kat asks what it is, the Robot King explains that it's the only known collection of Diego's original work before the discovery of Jeanne's tomb. Revealing a small robot on a bookshelf, the King explains that it is the last remaining original model robot with an intact memory. He asks it to awake and play its story. The robot activates and projects a video onto the opposite wall . . .

Diego, the inventor of the robots, proclaims his latest creation "perfect", exclaiming "She will love you!" Leaving his workshop, he presents the robot to Jeanne, sitting by a window staring pensively out of it. She half-heartedly thanks him, before falling silent, and Diego asks her if she's sad again today, as a shelf full of small robots is seen behind him. Jeanne says that ever since Coyote divided the Forest and the Court, they've been busy cutting down all of the trees on their side, and she wonders what they will have then. As the little robot climbs a chest of drawers, Diego exclaims that they will have a new life, of advancement and safety. Jeanne retorts that it will be in a "prison of stone and glass", and Diego brushes it off, claiming that he can build as many mechanical companions as she wants. She tells him that that's enough, and Diego continues that he's instructed them all to love her, just as he does.

Diego: You need never think about him–
Jeanne: [gets down from the windowsill] Be quiet! Don't you talk of him! Get out!
Diego: D-didn't you hear me? I said I lo–
Jeanne: Get out you horrible little man!

Jeanne then begins to smash the various robots on the shelf, other gifts from Diego, as he cries out in horror. Finally, she grabs the robot recording the entire conversation and hurls it away, screaming "Je te deteste!" The recording shows it breaking.

Later, Diego fixes the robot, wondering in shock how Jeanne could love a "traitor" instead of him. Even later on, Diego arrives at a meeting with Sir Young, and others, where he is greeted as "the architect of our scheme". Diego reveals that the "device" is ready, which is revealed to be an unusual-looking, glowing green arrow with a forked tip. Steadman, examining it, says that it has an odd weight to it, which he considers fitting for the weighty task at hand. He promises to make it fly true. One man, calling the plan "abhorrent", requests to be counted out and leaves the room. Sir Young says that this is not the time for weakness, and that they have to "take these steps to fortify the Annan Waters and protect the Court." Another person is uncertain, because of whom they've chosen as the . . . sacrifice. Diego is insistent that it must be Jeanne, as no one else will work, as he switches his robot off.

In the next part of the recording, Jeanne asks Diego to talk to those in charge, but he says it is out of his hands. She says that she doesn't want to go down to the Annan Waters, as she's uncertain of what will happen. As she cries, Diego softly says that it didn't have to be that way. As the robot is switched off again, Jeanne, overhearing, asks Diego what part he had to play in this. When the robot is turned on again, Diego is checking his watch as he states that enough time has passed since Jeanne was lowered to the banks of the river, and he tells Steadman to ready the device. Steadman walks to the edge of the cliff and, leaning over, fires the arrow into the canyon. He confirms to Sir Young that he hit the target, and as that part of the recording ends states that "Jeanne, the plan, everything, will be stricken from all records. We will bury what was done here this night."

The final part of the recording. Diego is old, on his deathbed. He claims that he had no choice, that it wasn't his fault, it was Young's, that he was forced to devise the plan that led to Jeanne's death. He says that Jeanne was waiting alone when she died, and asks for his children, the robots. A robot places its hand on Diego's as it says that they are here just as Diego dies, and the recording ends.

The Robot King asks Kat to help them understand why Diego did this, why he condemned the woman he loved to death. Kat and Annie, shocked, begin to cry, which upsets the robots. Later Sky Watcher, back on his spire, muses over what happened next: Kat cried, turning to Annie for comfort, and didn't speak for a while. When she did, she explained to the robots that Diego was not a nice man, and that love can make people act in strange ways. The robots have put their finest minds to the task of analyzing her words, since as mere machines they can only hope to understand her meaning. Sky Watcher thinks that Robot has brought a change to their society, and that the robots feel as if they are closer to understanding why they exist. As he continues to watch, Sky Watcher has a new observational metric: he has seen one angel, and will keep watch for more.

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Tropes:

• All Love Is Unrequited: Diego is infatuated with Jeanne, but she doesn't reciprocate it.
• Angry Eyebrows: The Robot King draws a set of these on his face when demanding to see the painting of Jeanne.
• Arc Words: "She died and we did nothing." It's revealed that the words come from Diego's last words.
• Berserk Button: Jeanne is furious when Diego mentions her old lover, and she smashes most of the robots he gave her and chases him out of the room.
• Big "NO!": Diego, when Jeanne smashes the various gifts he gave her.
• Book Ends: The chapter begins and ends with Sky Watcher on his spire.
• Call-Back:
  • In "Mainly Involves Robots", Robot asked Kat if she was an angel. He still wholeheartedly believes this, and is spreading the word among the robots.
  • Robots keep coming to see the shrine to Jeanne under Kat's lab first seen in "S1". The body of the large robot fought by S1 was covered by a sheet because it kept upsetting visitors.
  • Annie comes to talk to Kat about Parley and Smitty's relationship issues since "Terror Castle of the Jupiter Moon Martians".
  • Not even the robots know where the Tic-Toc birds came from.
  • The Robot King and his entourage take Annie and Kat to the same area that Annie infiltrated in "Mainly Involves Robots", and Annie gives a wave to the confused receptionist.
  • Sir Young and Steadman appear, involved in a plan Diego was the "architect" of.
• Call-Forward: Jeanne's white dress in her first appearance in the recording echoes her appearance as the ghost by the Annan Waters.
• Chekhov's Gun: The arrow Diego built as part of a mysterious plan, on examination, appears to be the same arrow drawn in the Annan Waters in "Coyote Stories".
• Continuity Nod:
  • Robot's time in a mouse body is mentioned.
  • S1 is still kneeling in front of Jeanne's portrait.
• Face Doodling: Played for Laughs. The Robot King's face is a literal blank slate upon which he draws expressions with a dry-erase marker.
• The Faceless: The Founder who refuses to participate in Diego's plan, considering it "abhorrent", is drawn fron a distance with light coming from behind him, so we don't know who he was.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Jeanne had a lover that she doesn't want Diego to talk about, who it's hinted she couldn't see again for some reason, who Diego refers to as a traitor. She also died after Coyote created the Divide.
  • After Steadman fires the arrow, Sir Young specifically asks him if he hit "the target", not Jeanne.
  • On his deathbed, Diego says that Jeanne was "waiting" when she died.
  • The robots don't know who created the Tic-Tocs, and believe they were created by a divine being.
• Get Out!: Jeanne orders Diego to do this after he brings up her lover.
• Gratuitous French: Jeanne drops some French words when she thanks Diego for the robot.
• Human Sacrifice: It's revealed that Jeanne's death was this, in order to "fortify the Annan Waters and protect the Court".
• If I Can't Have You…: Jeanne's rejection of Diego is, quite clearly, the reason why he chooses her as the one to be sacrificed for the reasons above.
  Diego: It didn't have to be this way . . .
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Steadman is able to perfectly hit a target in the bottom of a deep ravine at night with a heavy, unusually-shaped arrow.
• Love Confession: Diego tells Jeanne he loves her. She's very much not interested, and winds up chasing him away.
• Love Makes You Evil: Diego's feelings for Jeanne drove him to arrange her death when she made it clear she didn't love him back. Kat even brought this up to the robots afterward:
  "Love makes you act in strange ways."
• The Magic Versus Technology War: Jeanne mentions that ever since Coyote created the divide, the Court has been cutting down all of the trees on their side. Diego suggests that the Forest residents have torn down all the buildings on their side.
• Meaningful Echo: "The saddest face" is first said when the Robot King's comical "sad" facial expression is shown, and it's Played for Laughs. After the recording of what Diego did to Jeanne is shown, a robot says it again when a shocked Annie and Kat begin crying from what they saw in the recording.
• Meaningful Name: Sky Watcher monitors meteorological phenomena, ergo he watches the sky.
• Metaphorgotten: This chapter provides the trope image.
  Annie: I thought love was supposed to be a good thing.
  Kat: Oh it totally is! But, uh . . . I dunno. Better to have loved and lost than to be . . . dead or something.
  Annie: I don't think that's how the saying goes.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Jeanne sees the Court's decision to remove all of the plant life after the Divide as depressing, while Diego doesn't care, pronouncing that his robots can compensate for all of that.
  Jeanne: A better life? In our prison of stone and glass?
  Diego: Who needs the plants and animals of the Forest?
• Never My Fault: On his deathbed, Diego refuses to accept any responsibility for Jeanne's death, blaming the plan on Sir Young even though he was explicitly called the scheme's "architect".
• Le Parkour: Robot gets around the Court this way.
• The Reveal:
  • Diego was in a one-sided love with Jeanne, and he programmed all of his robots to love her as well.
  • Jeanne had a lover that she lost, who was, apparently, a "traitor" to the Court.
  • Jeanne's death was because she was sacrificed, in a plot orchestrated by Diego.
  • The Arc Words that the robots say whenever Jeanne is mentioned come from Diego's deathbed denial of his role in Jeanne's death.
• Robot Religion: Robot is starting one, centred around Kat, who he sees as an angel.
• Shrouded in Myth: No one, not even the robots, know where the mysterious Tic-Toc birds came from. The robots think they're older than the Court and created by a divine being.
• Sickly Green Glow: Diego's arrow looks like this.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The rules Robot has set up regarding visits to the shrine to Jeanne include that visitors must view the shrine alone.
• Trick Arrow: As part of the plan to sacrifice Jeanne, Diego builds an elaborate arrow out of what seems to be etheric technology, which glows green and has a V-shaped head.
• Unperson: After the plan to sacrifice Jeanne is carried out, Sir Young declares that everything about her and the plan will be wiped from the Court's records, vowing to "bury" what happened.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Annie explains that ever since Parley teleported everyone to her room, she and Smitty aren't even looking at each other, and generally acting like they're enemies.
• Wham Episode: Annie and Kat are shown a recording of Diego and Jeanne. It's revealed that Diego was in love with Jeanne, but she loved someone else, and in revenge he orchestrated her death.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • The robots believe that since they are not human, they can only hope to understand what Kat meant when she said that love makes people act strange.
  • The bonus page shows the Court's official guidelines for what students are supposed to do if a robot is attracted to them, and they're rather callous.

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