Titans
Oh "Titans." There really is so much to like here, especially after that super rocky first season, but you struggle so much to get your shit together. Let's see how they are doing as we get closer to the second season finale.
"Jericho"
Dawn Granger: "Hey, look what the surf dragged in."
[Jericho signs to the group.]
Dick Grayson: "I was beginning to think you blew us off.
[Jericho signs to Dawn.]
Dawn Granger: "He said, 'Homework. It never ends.' "
Hank Hall: "Aw, it did for me. One day I woke up, no school, no books."
Dawn Granger: "Weren't you expelled?"
Hank Hall: "Some say."
The show flashes back to tell the tragic story of Jericho, the deaf boy Dick met at the record store. It shows how the "Titans" specifically Dick and Donna, manipulated Jericho to get back at Slade after the death of Garth. When Jericho reveals he has powers of his own and the truth comes out, will he be able to forgive their deception and join them against his dad or will blood be thicker than water? And which will take Jericho to his fate?
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| Like father, like son? |
Wow. "Titans" loves a flashback, don't they? Not only is this entire episode a flashback, but there is a flashback within a flashback. Not only do we get the flashback to Jericho, but we also get flashbacks to his life before he met the Titans and how Deathstroke got his abilities. They really blew their flashback wad in this episode. I can only imagine that they are finding a way to get four flashbacks in one episode now. Go big or go home.
I'm giving it shit, but this is actually a good episode. The flashback does the work of kind of showing why the Titans were a team in the first place. A big part of the reason the episode succeeds is because of Chella Man, the actor who plays Jericho. First off, we have to acknowledge that this is monumental. Chella is the first trans man to portray a superhero and he kills it. Jericho is sweet, affable, determined. Due to the injury to his vocal cords, Jericho has very little spoken dialogue, but Man is so expressive and uses his body language so much, it is very impressive.
Esai Morales gets some time to shine here, which is nice, since we are over halfway through the season and I feel like we've seen him very little. His scenes with Man show a kind loving father and juxtaposed against the scenes of him mercilessly killing people really work. Morales gets to really let loose in some killer action scenes when Jericho is telling the Titans his dad's origin.
Slade has sort of been this nebulous villain so far but it's nice to see him get up close and personal with the Titans. The revelation that Jillian was Slade's actual target not Garth leads to her death and a showdown between Deathstroke and Donna. I love watching Donna fight, but I will say, it kind of feels like he takes her down too easy. This is an Amazon we are talking about. The fight between Robin and Deathstroke is brutal and even though you know it's coming watching Deathstroke stab Jericho as he tries to protect Robin is pretty heartbreaking.
Grade: A-
"Atonement"
Conner: "So, Gar. What can you do?"
Gar Logan: "It's no big deal."
Conner: "Come on. Can you show me?"
Gar Logan: "Now's not the best time."
Conner: "Well, can you tell me?"
Gar Logan: "Yeah, yeah. It's kind of weird, but I can turn into a tiger."
Conner: [laughs] "No way!"
Gar Logan: "Yeah."
Conner: "What's a tiger?"
After coming clean with the team about what really happened with Jericho, the Titans disbands again except for Dick, Kory and Gar. Kory gets called away immediately by Faddei to talk about her sister, Blackfire, who has become queen in Kory's stead. Rachel goes with Donna but ditches her right away, Gar stays at the Tower to be there when Conner wakes up and Dick heads out to find atonement for what he did to Jericho.
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| What did I tell you? |
This episode isn't bad necessarily, but like a lot of "Titans" episodes it does feel like it is all over the place. With the things happening, it kind of feels like it should be taking place towards the beginning of the season, rather than heading into the homestretch.
I think if I have one major complaint about this season is that Deathstroke is being underplayed. Slade Wilson is an iconic DC character and he is a classic "Teen Titans" villain. Slade and the Titans are intertwined in a way that few villains are with the team. In the classic Marv Wolfman and George Perez days, they were consistently fighting Deathstroke. Jericho was there. The stuff with Terra. It all involved Deathstroke and he has consistently felt like kind of an afterthought in this season. It's a real shame, because like I mentioned in the last episode recap, Esai Morales really is nailing it. Even in this episode, he just gets that one brief scene with Dick and he kills it. He is triumphant and mournful and threatening all in a brief span and it's great. It just feels like a shame that we haven't had more of that. I was promised a Deathstroke heavy season and I feel like I'm not getting that.
It's not to say that the other stuff we get in this episode is bad. You know I'm here for any Kory centric content, but did we really need to have Blackfire make an appearance in this episode? How about a sting in the finale? The same could be said for Conner. As much as I enjoy the Conner stuff and getting glimpses of that dump truck booty, was he really an addition that we needed in season two? Couldn't that have waited until next season. Even Hank and Dawn's stuff in Wyoming with the sister of the kid who died just feels like one more unnecessary bit when you're ready to explode. It seems at this point "Titans" is serving way too many masters to do them all justice. But who knows? Maybe they will?
As a little sidebar, I am here for any sort of character development and it was nice to see Ryan Potter get some screen time and he really shines. He is funny and it is super in character that Gar would give up on holding down the fort after three days. I do love the Odd Couple energy that Conner and Gar have. I'm still unsure why we're upset that Conner is attacking cops. They seemed like they deserved it.
Oh and Dick finds the atonement he's looking for by attacking security people at an airport and getting arrested. Cool.
Grade: B
"Fallen"
Rachel Roth: "I'm sorry. Being a lizard would be considerably less freaky."
Dani: "You're fucking awesome."
In order to prevent himself from helping people, Dick gets thrown into the Kane County Correctional Facility and he seems pretty committed. Then, he meets undocumented immigrants who are in danger of getting deported to the brutal military state of Corto Maltese. It doesn't feel like this vow is going to last very long. Rachel has made friends with a homeless girl named Dani who feels like trouble. And Mercy Graves and Cadmus are trying to convince Gar that all they want to do is help him and Conner. I'm sure that is true.
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| Take that! |
OK. I am officially petitioning superhero shows, particularly DC superhero shows, to stop having episodes/story arcs where one of your main characters go to jail. Barry Allen went to jail on "The Flash." The whole first half of the seventh season of "Arrow" was Ollie in jail and now this episode and maybe more of Dick in prison. Enough. These episodes/arcs are never great and they never do what they think you're going to do. They are depressing and they are momentum killers. This episode is no different. They aren't reinventing the wheel here and every beat the episode hits, similar episodes in similar shows have hit before. There is never any moment where we as the audience don't believe that Dick is going to help these people. I can appreciate the show kind of trying to bring the dreamer aspect into the proceedings to try to fresh it up, but it doesn't really work.
This episode adds another storyline with Rachel and her new friend Dani and the gargoyle that attacks the douchebag abusing her. Is this Rache's doing? I guess we will find out. If there is one thing that season two needed it was another storyline.
Gar and Conner are at Cadmus and Mercy is doing her best to convince Gar that they really can and want to help Conner control his personality shifts. Gar is not buying it and that's good, because I don't like the way that Mercy is looking at him. I have to give props to Natalie Gumede, the actress who plays Mercy. She is a delight. And I really appreciated that scene in the car with her wife and kids. It is really funny and relatable. I love how set she is on game night. The show didn't need to give us that, but I'm really glad they did. It is my favorite moment of the episode.
This episode was OK, but still, no Slade. No real mention of him. No Slade sightings. There are only three episodes of season 2 left and it definitely doesn't feel like "Titans" is ramping up to anything big as the finale approaches, but maybe the show will surprise me.
Grade: C+
Next up, we close out with season 2 as we learn some surprising news about Jericho, Cadmus gets their hooks into Gar and the team has one last confrontation with Deathstroke.
What do you all think? Do you wish we had more Deathstroke in this supposedly Deathstroke focused season? Do you like all these side tangents? Am I way off base when it comes to superheroes behind bars? Let me know in the comments.
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