Titans
We've reached the end of season 3 of "Titans" and it continues to be somewhat of an enigma. Season three is basically a Batman story with the main "Titans" cast shuffled to the side. It's an interesting choice for a property that has a proper Rogues gallery and a ton of classic stories to pull from. When Marv Wolfman and George Perez premiered the New Teen Titans in 1980, it was a response to the massive popularity of Marvel's "Uncanny X-Men" being written and drawn at the time by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. It brought us classic stories like "The Judas Contract" and "Terra Incognito." And the show decides to do a Red Hood story with Scarecrow. Sure. "Titans" has been picked up for a fourth season that just began filming. It is going to feature classic Titans villain Brother Blood. They have been slowly introducing the Fearsome Five and the finale referenced classic Titan Roy Harper. I'm hopeful that season four will actually bring the focus back to the Titans themselves, but for now, let's dive into another middling penultimate episode and lackluster finale.
"Prodigal"
Jason Todd: "Did you hear me? I said Nightwing is dead."
Jonathan Crane: "So? Wasn't my monster. He's your monster. Do you want a cookie?"
Raven and Gar find Dick dead and Gar spirits him away to the Lazarus Pit, where Dick goes on a spiritual journey with Crane as his guide. Donna continues to help the Drakes get past the corrupt GCPD blockade. Blackfire gets the truth about her past from Starfire and decides to go back to Tamaran with her ship and Conner's help, but Conner doesn't seem hip to his girlfriend leaving Earth.
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| This is your life, Dick Grayson. |
"Titans" has a track record of less than stellar penultimate episodes and this keeps up that track record. I know I've said this before but the point of a penultimate episode is to ramp up for the finale. You expect big things to happen and like the penultimate episodes that have came before it, this episode does not do that. It sort of meanders. Things that happen are pretty loosely connected. It's boring. And it really shouldn't be.
"Titans" has had a Dick Grayson problem since the show started. It feels like the writers don't really understand his personality or they just find him boring, so they keep giving him these same story arcs. He has a crisis of conscience and has to resolve it. It's super boring and redundant and the things that happen in the Lazarus Pit are fine? But nothing is that exciting. There is the little girl that calls him Dad. Maybe hinting that the Dick/Kory romance is finally going to come to fruition? It also doesn't make a ton of sense that Crane would be Dick's guide through these visions. I felt like it should be Bruce, especially since Bruce is the one that has appeared as a manifestation of his consciousness in the past. Also, Crane taunting Dick about how he's failed his real father is kind of a head scratcher since we've barely heard any mention of Dick's real parents before this. Then, Dick hops out of the Lazarus Pit alive and totally fine. I wonder if there will be any repercussions with this next season. I doubt it, but we'll see.
The stuff with Donna and the Drakes and Blackfire, Kory and Conner are fine, but they would be more enjoyable if this wasn't the second to last episode of the season. I've really enjoyed the relationship between Blackfire and Conner. it has felt really organic and the actors have crazy chemistry. I care way more about them than I do the relationship between Gar and Rachel and they've been "developing" that for three seasons. Though, it was pretty telegraphed from the jump that Conner was going to sabotage Blackfire's ship.
I really enjoy when the show leans into the comic book-ness of it all and that's why my favorite part of the episode is Gar turning into a bat and using other bats to take Dick to the Lazarus Pit. I've been waiting for Gar to start mastering other animal forms and I'm totally hear for it, so I hope they really lean into that next season. I'm just sick of seeing that CGI tiger. Give me more CGI green animals!!
So, I guess we are headed to the final showdown with Crane or something.
Grade: C-
"Purple Rain"
Dick Grayson: "You coming?"
Tim Drake: "Are you serious?"
Dick Grayson: "The question is, are you?"
After detonating one of his explosives, Crane threatens to detonate the rest unless the Titans decipher his clues. Meanwhile, they attempt to use the Lazarus Pit to help the citizens of Gotham. When the threat is neutralized, where does the team go from here?
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| Robins. |
A whole lot of nothing happens in these episodes. Seriously, it's just like the season 1 finale (which was actually the season 2 premiere) and the season 2 finale. It's about 20 minutes of the team wrapping up the fight and putting a bow on the big bad of the season and then a 20-30 minute epilogue setting up things that will be picked up on in season 4. It's a formula that the show desperately needs to shake up because it makes for the most like lethargic finales for a superhero show that I've ever seen. You can poke fun of the Marvel formula of the finale just being one big action scene, but like that's what this episode could use! There's like no action at all. Crane's plan unravels embarrassingly quickly. There's really no like action in the episode and I'm not counting the shoot out between the bad GCPD cops and Donna and the Drakes (which sounds like the cancelled rip off of Josie and the Pussycats). It's jut a whole lot of nothing.
Can we talk about the Drakes whiplash inducing turnaround in letting Tim run off with Donna and put himself in mortal danger? Like, there is nothing that happened in those ten minutes that would make me, as a parent, give my child my blessing to do this. It reads very much like, we need this to happen because Tim is going to be Robin, so who cares if it makes sense? Also, do we really believe that Bruce Wayne would make his password SelinaKyle? This man is the world's greatest detective. You know his passwords are stronger than that. Though Jason choosing a password of "42069" did give me a good chuckle.
The best part of the episode again was the part that skewed more towards the comics, when the Titans banded together to use the Lazarus Pit to create a purple rain that revived the people that had been killed. That was really cool and hopeful and I was here for it. It's honestly something the show needs to lean into a little bit more.
The rest of the episode is straight up set up and some of it seems like it might be interesting. I am hoping for more of Ronnie from Schitt's Creek as Agent Vee of ARGUS. Her name dropping Roy Harper, an OG Titan in the comics, has to mean we are going to see him right? And I would definitely watch a "Titans" spin off with Donna Troy as the lead.
Otherwise, it's kind of what you'd expect. Conner helps to repair Blackfire's ship and she heads back to Tamaran. The rest of the team minus Donna but plus Tim gets on an RV to drive back to San Francisco. And that's it.
Grade: C
So, yeah, not a lot here, but overall a decent season of "Titans." I'd love to hear what you thought of this season and what you want for season 4. Let me know in the comments.
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