- Characters: the Manhattan Clan, Eliza Maza, Demona, Puck
- Enemy(ies): Demona and Puck
A magical mirror is stolen by Demona who summons the mischievous Puck through it; purposely re-interpreting Demona's wishes, he makes the Gargoyles human and the humans gargoyles. In the chaos Goliath and the others are able to detain him and send Demona fleeing, but as a gift for the fun he'd had, Puck grants Demona to become human during the day instead of her vulnerable stone sleep.
Demona returns in the episode "Vows", and Puck's next appearance is in "Future Tense".
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Elisa as a Gargoyle. She was able to fight on even footing against Demona and win.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When it's all over, Puck admits this was a most enjoyable romp. He also remarks he enjoys granting wishes for humans because they typically have a sense of humor.
- Animation Bump: The first episode in the second season to get an improvement in animation and the third over all after The Edge and Reawakening.
- Batman Gambit: Her plan to steal the Mirror of Titania involved this. While Elisa Maza and Goliath pursued her, a pair of thieves, now free to take it by her luring the heroes away, swiftly wrapped up and removed the mirror from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then dropped it off to her house at the appointed time.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: More or less the Aesop for this episode.Puck: "Did you say that human, or that human? Oh, never mind, I'll figure it out..."
- Beautiful All Along: Goliath realizes this about Elisa after seeing her transformed into a gargoyle:Goliath: I never realized just how beautiful you are.
Elisa: [chuckles] Are you saying you thought I was ugly?
Goliath: Uh, well, that — Careful, updraft! - Berserk Button: Puck puts up with a lot of crap from Demona over the course of the episode, but only visibly gets angry when — after he's freed — she rejects his offer for a gift in reward for his good time, at which point he curses her to become human during the day, which is very much a classic characteristic of The Fair Folk.
- Big "NO!": Demona when she sees that Puck turned her into what she hates the most.
- Bittersweet Ending: Everyone in the city is returned to normal, but Demona gains the ability to move about in the daylight. For her, it's sweet to roam around in the daytime, but it's bitter that she gets to do it as a human. The experience has also made Elisa reflect on her feelings and how she and Goliath are essentially Star-Crossed Lovers.
- Brick Joke: At least it is one from Puck's point of view. Near the start of the episode Demona offhandedly mentioned that she would like to once be able to walk out during the daytime instead of turning to stone. At the end when Puck is demanding she ask for some reward to repay her for the "fun time" she took him out to in the last few hours, she demanded him to leave in which the disgruntled Puck decided to grant her previously mentioned desire, though in a fashion she would not approve, as her "reward".
- Bullying a Dragon: Demona in her case is not just mistreating any ordinary powerhouse, but a Reality Warper who could really make her life miserable if given the opportunity to be freed. Indeed, he would repay her by having her turn into that which she hates most during daytime. Somehow her shoving him around and making threats throughout most of the episode doesn't faze Puck, but her weary, aggravated "Please leave" at the end offends him. Presumably he expected a level of coercion from similar-minded people who tried to use him in the past and took precautions, but Demona refusing to accept his sincere offer of thanks for the fun crossed a line.
- Company Cross References: Shortly after Demona has summoned Puck and starts shouting commands, the latter protests this treatment by pointing to Titania's Mirror saying that "Does this look like Aladdin's lamp?". This line was confirmed by the creators to be an in-joke about Disney's version, of which the spin-off series was also running at the time.
- Cute Monster Girl: Elisa proves that she makes for a "beautiful gargoyle" during her small stint as one in this episode. Goliath certainly thought so but, technically, she's not a "monster" from his perspective.
- Deadpan Snarker: Many of Puck's interactions with Demona are tinged with sarcasm.
- Dramatic Irony: When the Clan are turned into humans, Goliath reasonably assumes that Demona did it on purpose to weaken them, never realizing the truth that she had absolutely no control over the situation.
- Exact Words: "The human Elisa Maza is no more."
- Fake Memories: Puck's transformations are packaged with the belief that the victims have always been that way and everyone else has been changed. This seems to be to keep them from reacting to the transformation as strange, since their actual memories of events are untouched and it takes little scrutiny to notice a discrepancy between what they believe and what they remember (for example, the transformed Elisa still remembers that she and Goliath met when he flew down to save her from falling, but it's only when he points it out that she realises she wouldn't have needed him to save her if she already had wings then).
- Fair Cop: Decked out in a buttoned up security guard outfit doesn't do anything to hide Elisa's sexiness.
- The Fair Folk: They are introduced into Gargoyles cosmology, where they are known as the "Third Race" and the "Children of Oberon". The first of their number to be revealed is Puck who debuts in this episode. He has the classic traits of amorality, trickery, doing thing for the fun of it, and weakness to Cold Iron.
- Female Gaze: The real gargoyles get "the eye" from three transformed women who pass by them in the subway. Lexington thinks it's "kind of fun" for a change.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Demona first summons Puck, she says, "You served the human", referring to the fact that Xanatos's assistant Owen and Puck are the same being. Other episodes would hint at the same thing, but this one was the first and most noticeable.
- Also the fact that if you listen to Puck, you can't help but feel you've heard his voice before. It's very similar to Owen's own, except Puck has none of the emotional restraint in it that Owen has.note
- Though not said outright, Puck is bound by Cold Iron. The Children of Oberon being vulnerable to iron will be hinted at in a few other episodes before being formally revealed towards the end of the World Tour arc.
- First Time in the Sun: Subverted. The Manhattan Clan is returned to their gargoyle form before sunrise, leaving Hudson to lament he would have liked to have scene a sunrise. Just once.
- Hot Librarian: Subverted. Security guard actually, but Elisa wearing glasses and her hair done up in a bun certainly makes her resemble one.
- Hypocrite: As usual with Demona. Puck turning all of New York into gargoyles would otherwise be exactly what she wanted, if she were that she genuinely honest when she claims she wanted salvation for the gargoyle race. But since it doesn't satisfy her hatred, it instead incenses her and she demands he change them all back so she can kill them all properly. Puck, for his part, knows exactly how hypocritical Demona is and did it on purpose.
- Ignored Epiphany: Puck uses the mirror to expose what Demona truly desires deep down, for Goliath to still love her. Even though he says he can make that happen and it would just be a simple yes, Demona instead sees Eliza being close to Goliath and demands to be rid of her, saying that's what she wants.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The appearances the Manhattan Clan gargoyles take when turned Human are based in large part on those of the voice actors who portray them, even having Goliath be Ambiguously Brown in reference to him being voiced by African-American actor Keith David. Though Greg Weisman has said that the in-story reason for Goliath's darker human skin color is actually to match that of Elisa
. - Jackass Genie: Puck makes an effort to subvert this trope when he deliberately misconstrues Demona's wishes, not only to screw with her, but to avoid having to kill every human in the city. Though it is played straight at the end when Puck grants Demona's original wish of not turning to stone during the day by making her become human during the day instead. So it would be more accurate to say that Puck is indeed a Jackass Genie, but he's only being a jackass toward Demona, who really deserves it.
- Karmic Trickster: As the Jackass Genie entry details, Puck behaves this way towards Demona, who basically got on his nerves the minute she summoned him, and thus relentlessly messes around with her.
- Knight Templar: This episode really shows how far Demona has fallen from her motivation of restoring the gargoyles- when Puck turns all humans in Manhattan into gargoyles, essentially granting that wish, she's just furious that they were given the "gift" of gargoylehood.
- Literal Genie: Puck pulls this when he feels like jerking Demona around. I.E. "Don't worry, I will do exactly as you ask." Thus fulfilling the letter of her wish while deliberately ignoring the spirit.
- Magic Mirror: Titania's Mirror (which is used throughout this episode) is one of two known ones (along with its twin, Oberon's Mirror) to exist in the Gargoyles universe. She uses it to summon Puck.
- Megaton Punch: Gargoyle Elisa gives Demona a hard punch to the face when protecting the currently human Clan from her.
- Mirror Reveal: Demona is at first very happy and overjoyed to notice that she is now no longer turning to stone in the day, likely realizing she now has extra time to carry out extermination plots against humans...only to then walk by a mirror and realize, to her horror, that she's now been enchanted into transforming from a gargoyle to a human during the day instead!
- Not So Above It All: Elisa striking a supermodel like pose in front of Titania's Mirror is an unexpectedly girlish thing for our ordinarily straitlaced detective to do.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Demona doesn't seem to recognize Elisa when she's disguised as a museum guard (with just a uniform, different hairstyle, and glasses). She does recognize it's Elisa upon hearing her voice though.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Puck sports these while he pleads with the Gargoyles to "let him homeward wend".
- Rage Against the Reflection: Demona's immediate reaction upon seeing herself as a human.
- Sacred Hospitality: A possible explanation as to why Puck was so gravely offended when Demona told him to leave. He genuinely wanted to give her something in return "for all this merriment", and said how he might be a lot of things, but "never a poor guest". It's possible that in his mind he would have been left owing her a debt, something the Fair Folk aren't exactly fond of.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: With the entire clan showing up and Puck out of it, Demona beats a hasty retreat for the time being and escapes on the subway.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode features allusions To Shakespeare, more specifically to A Midsummer Night's Dream with the introduction of Puck and also a mention of Oberon (when one of the thieves hired by Demona uses as his code word "Oberon sent me" and also in form of the beings of the Third race named as "Oberon's Children") before he would appear physically later on. For that matter, the episode as a whole is somewhat of a loose recreation of the play with Fairies wrecking havoc by spinning spells on unsuspecting people for amusement at the latter's expense, some characters being turned into other species, and some romantic developments (e.g. Goliath and Elisa's budding relationship) occur.
- Goliath's appearance as a Human is strongly reminiscent of Conan the Barbarian.
- Something We Forgot: A sound effect of the mirror being smashed was included so viewers would know Demona can't use it in future episodes.
- Swapped Roles: Goliath had always caught Elisa when she fell from a high place. When Goliath turned human in mid-air and fell, Elisa, now a gargoyle, had to catch him.
- Throat Light: And eye light too, from Puck.
- Wham Episode: This episode established the Fair Folk as part of the setting, established a new attribute for Demona (the ability to turn Human during the day instead of stone), and started the transformation of Goliath and Elisa's relationship.
- Wham Shot: Human!Demona.
- Why Won't You Die?: Demona's reaction to Elisa once again surviving an attempt to get rid of her.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Puck is getting a workout from all this, but he pretends to be in worse shape to get Demona to ease off. It doesn't work because she deduced he's been making himself invisible to onlookers.
- Wrong for the Right Reasons: Goliath repeatedly assumes that all the mayhem was purposefully caused by Demona to throw them off. What he can't know is that Demona never meant for any of it to happen, as Puck repeatedly screwed her over by deliberately misinterpreting her wishes.
- You Are What You Hate: Demona hates humans with a passion, so she doesn't take becoming one at the end very well.
