Titans
We have reached the final two episodes of "Titans." I have been on a real journey with this show. This show really never knew what to do with the characters. It wanted to be one thing, but the characters didn't really facilitate this. The acting was usually sub par. The writing was mediocre. I am a big fan of these characters so I hope at some point they try again to give them a live-action movie/tv series they deserve. Let's see how this all ends.
"Project Starfire"
Mercy Graves: [to Kory] "Lex knew you had the power to stop Brother Blood. He wanted that power for himself, so he attempted to replicate it."
Rachel Roth: "Replicate powers, is that even possible?"
Dick Grayson: "If anybody could, its Lex. You'd be surprised what jealousy and a shit ton of money can do."
Mercy Graves: "It wasn't jealousy. He was determined to leave an enduring legacy. Show the world he was as beneficent as Kal-El."
Gar Logan: "Sounds like jealousy to me."
Things are moving in to position for the final battle with Brother Blood. Dick sends Tim to Gotham under the guise of getting information from an informant but he ends up linking up with his predecessor as Robin, Jason Todd. Conner keeps trying to take care of Sebastian on his own, but quickly learns that he may need some help from his friends and teammates. The Titans discover that the key to defeating Brother Blood may lie with a secret project that Lex Luthor was working on before his death: Project Starfire.
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| You're wet. |
"Titans" has a tradition of mediocre penultimate episodes. I was thinking that maybe with only two episodes left in the series that the show would buck that trend and give us a penultimate episode that made me actually excited for the series finale. I should have known better. You know what they say. Fool me once, shame on me. Shame me four times in a row, I mean, that is probably on me.
One of the worst things about Titans was how they portrayed the Red Hood. I was all for Curran Walters's portrayal of Jason Todd when he was Robin. He was young. He was brash. He was an asshole. And Walters was perfect and the show really leaned into all that. The choice to keep Walters on as Jason after he was killed and returned to life through the Lazarus Pit and keeping him on as Red Hood was a terrible, terrible mistake. Walters just doesn't have what it takes to portray Jason Todd as the Red Hood. I was hoping that after the end of last season, we'd seen the last of him, but of course, we haven't. I audibly groaned when he showed up in that rainy, Gotham alley to help out Robin.
The show likes to take these odd detours at strange times and the "Tim gets training from Jason" subplot is a great example. This would have made sense if it happened at the beginning of the season. Its also extremely transparent. I can't imagine anyone watching this episode thought that Tim was actually being sent to Gotham to meet a contact. And the fact that Tim never figures it out kind of makes Tim look like a dumbass, which is unfortunate, because he is not an idiot. This whole thing is a shrug and I spent most of my time just wondering who is policing Gotham. Is it Red Hood? They are fucked. The Bat signal is in the sky but Batman's not around, right? Also, what's the point of bringing up Shimmer, a "Titans" villain, when you're not going to show her. "Titans" likes to name drop and it feels like its just a way to get cred with fans, and it always falls flat. If you're not going to show Shimmer, then you might as well have just not brought her up at all. Jason's Riddler name drop also made me roll my eyes.
I've ranted a lot about Conner Kent this season and that rant continues here. Conner's turn at the end of the episode makes zero sense. When he's appealing to Dick and Kory in the tunnel outside Project Starfire and talking about how he thought he could take out Sebastian on his own, but he couldn't, yadda, yadda, yadda, I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. The whole time that he is trying to help Starfire power up that grenade, I thought, he's going to destroy it, but nope. He doesn't. Apparently, he was being sincere. And it really makes zero sense. It would have been nice to see more of Conner's change of heart. Maybe I missed something? Was it really him watching Sebastian kill the Confessor that got him back with the team? Or was it just lazy writing. I'm guessing the latter.
Franka Potente's Mother Mayhem has been a highlight of this season and watching her get killed by Sebastian, for real this time, was a real bummer. I will say I didn't love the scene in the beginning when it seemed like she was sending her son a real life honeypot. I was super glad when she just ripped the girl's heart out instead. May getting her power sucked out by her whiny son with some of the worst effects of the series so far (snake, you're forgiven) was not what she deserved.
You'd think that for an episode called "Project Starfire," the titular project would be this huge deal, but its really not. It's a macguffin that we know won't work from the jump. And guess what? It doesn't! Gar explains what's going on with a bunch of pseudo science gobbledegook. It immediately starts to go wrong. Dick can't fathom letting Starfire sacrifice herself so he shuts it down before it is fully charged. Conner takes it to try to take out Sebastian, but guess what? You're never going to believe this. It doesn't work! Conner is killed. He blows the horn and it feels like Trigon is on his way.
Grade: D+
"Titans Forever"
Bernard Fitzmartin: "S.T.A.R. Labs as always been about the betterment of mankind. We debate our research and development and the possible consequences of our actions. Project Icarus is as close to the line as we've ever gone."
Rachel Roth: "Does anyone else hate where this is going?"
After Superboy's failed attempt to kill Sebastian, he becomes Brother Blood and blows the horn to summon Trigon. The father/son reunion is short lived as Raven watches her brother murder her father and eat his heart. The Titans scramble to try to stop Brother Blood who finds himself at S.T.A.R. Labs where he intends to use a machine to open a wormhole with Starfire as the power source. Can the team stop him from destroying two planets?
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| At least he looks kind of cool? |
"Titans" ends its fourth season and the series not with a bang but with a whimper, which should really shock no one who has watched the series.
I don't think I've talked enough about how lame of a villain Brother Blood was this season. The "Titans" writers took one of the biggest Titans villains and boiled him down to a whiny, try hard mama's boy. He's really grating and not really scary at all. They really try to make him seem threatening but I never feel menaced by Brother Blood. I really think this failing falls at the feet of the writing staff. I know Joseph Morgan can play a scary villain. If you watched "The Vampire Diaries" or "The Originals" and are familiar with Klaus then you know he has the chops. None of the things that happen with Brother Blood in this episode feel earned. He kills Trigon and eats his heart after stabbing him repeatedly. He murders a lobby full of people in S.T.A.R. Labs. But again, this just feels like plot. There's nothing behind it. There's no strong character arc that gets Sebastian Sanger from where we first met him to here. They just need him to be this way so here he is. It's incredibly disappointing.
Kory Anders aka Starfire and her portrayer, Anna Diop, have consistently been one of the best things about this series, but this season it feels like Starfire has kind of been wandering aimlessly. She hasn't had a clear arc. I know, I know. You're going to say, Eric, what about these visions she's been having of sacrificing herself to Brother Blood? That's not really a story arc so much as a cheap plot device to have a fake out death in this finale. I'm super disappointed with how this finale utilizes Starfire. She really doesn't get any standout bad ass moments that she deserves. She spends most of the "climactic" final battle being drained of her energy while the rest of the team fights around her. She does take Blood up into the atmosphere to kill him and herself and even that is muted because we see everything from the Titans perspective. I would have loved to see the camera follow them into the atmosphere, but they can't do that because then they wouldn't be able to fake us out with her death. It just had me rolling my eyes.
Brother Blood's whole final plan is a real head scratcher. First off, I don't understand why S.T.A.R. Labs has a wormhole generator and why Dick Grayson is the only person on the team who knows about it. Did he ask them to build it? And why? And look, I get that they want to tie this all back to the first season, but Brother Blood's endgame being using the wormhole to send Earth to collide with Tamaran because Trigon knew that if Earth people and Tamaraneans united they'd be unstoppable? It feels extremely random and like it comes completely out of nowhere. I have a feeling they found out this was going to be the final season late in the game and they had to scramble to make this feel like a season and a series finale. And we know that the "Titans" writer's room isn't talented enough to make that pivot.
Then there is Conner who was basically dead at the end of the last episode. They find him and inject him with epinephrine and Red K, shrug and hope for the best. And guess what? It work. There's very little explanation, he just shows up to whale on Brother Blood with Nightwing. At this point, I'll accept anything. They clearly don't have any rhyme or reason for what they are doing here, so I need to stop looking for it.
In the end, the Titans basically disband. Beast Boy heads back in to the Red. Raven enrolls at Bludhaven University. Superboy stays in Metropolis to train with Superman. Robin decides to split his time between Metropolis and Gotham so he can stay with Bernard. (This is the one thing about this finale and this season that I am A-OK with. Tim + Bernard = Tru Luv 4Ever.) And I guess Kory and Dick are going to start dating. Gross. Kory could do way better. Remember that hot psychiatrist that she fucked in Vegas in like season 2? Whatever happened to him?
Well... that's it. This is a journey we went on together. I hope you enjoyed it.
Grade: F
Season Grade: C-
Series Grade: C
Next up, we return to quality DC television with the first three episodes of season three of "Superman & Lois."
What about you all? What did you think of this season? The series as a whole? Are there any die hard "Titans" fans out there? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
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