We continue with Netflix Month 2 as we take another look at Titans, now Beast Boy has joined the team, will there be an up in quality?
Together
We open with Doctor Adamson who finds something rather
unusual in his eggs, none-the-less he continues to use it for his omelette. The
family of 4 arrive at a dingy motel. Kory doesn’t like it but Dick replies that
it’s quiet so they should hear trouble coming and there’s only point of access
to watch. True, but it’s not like trouble can’t come from the woods and climb,
just sayin’.
They manage to get 4 separate rooms and it turns out the
owner had the motel dumped on her by her ex-husband and she has no clue how to
run it, her words, not mine. She seems to flirt a little with Dick. With the
Nuclear family still likely on their trail, they’ll need to work together to
get out alive, that means knowing what each other can do. Good thing there’s a
convenient barn nearby that no-one cares about.
Kory reveals what she knows, she believes her powers come
from the sun and she’s weaker at night, sometimes drained completely requiring
time to recharge. Gar’s up next and once again they find a weak excuse for us
not to see him actually transform. He hasn’t bitten anyone yet, but given that this show is giving everyone a body-count, give it
time. It’s Rachel’s turn and naturally she isn’t best pleased with showing off
her powers since she tends to hurt people close to her.
None the less she agrees to do it, unleashing her soul form,
but she seems to have trouble reeling it back in and Kory has to use her flame
to kickstart the process. She claims to need a bit more practice. Back with Dr
Adamson in an asylum, they see one guy underdoing intensive brainwashing to
become the new nuclear father. We’re nearly 13 minutes in and only now do they
roll credits.
The new nuclear dad arrives at the family’s house. They
quickly stop by at the garage Dick traded in the vehicle for, interrogating the
owner to find out what he knows. With the information in hand and likely one
dead mechanic, the family set off in search of Rachel.
Garfield and Rachel have a moment where Garfield discusses
exactly what it feels like to transform. It’s surprisingly optimistic for this
show. And we get another thinly veiled conversation about why Dick left his
role as Robin. You know it takes till the end of season 2 before he becomes
Nightwing, just thought I’d throw that out there.
Rachel is once again disturbed by her evil self. Dick helps
by taking down the mirror and turning it away from her, Rachel says he does
need to show what he can do too. Garr begins playing a game, whilst Kory buys
tequila with a very big note. She brings it to Dick, hoping to get him to spill
his secrets. It seems she’s really interested in a different type of move that
Dick was referring to. I’d care more about this scene if they had any romantic
chemistry at all.
On her way back to her room, she brushes by the Motel owner,
who has the awkward joke of trying to flirt after that. Thankfully that joke
doesn’t linger too long as the nuclear parents attack Dick. The Nuclear kids
attack Kory, Dick is knocked out the window and out and as it’s night time,
Kory can’t summon the flames. Thankfully the distraction allows to change into
his Robin suit and be better equipped to fight them. Beast Boy and Rachel join
the fight and with the 4 of them working together they manage to incapacitate
the entire family.
They split the family up with Dick and Kory interrogating
the mother and father, whilst Rachel and Garfield have the children. They each
get equal amounts of very little, no really, from this show, who would’ve
guessed?
Dick knows that they’re brainwashed and instead decides to
check their car, finding a Sat-Nav with the co-ordinates for a Doctor Adamson.
Dick and Rachel relate over how embracing their other selves leads them to
changing who they are and Garfield is fanboying about meeting Batman. He hasn’t
been cast yet, so don’t bet on meeting him this season.
Dick pays Doctor Adamson a visit but he knows immediately from
the cameras that he’s not able to take a stealthy approach. Knowing that Dick
is approaching, he activates the kill switches on the family, blowing their
heads off. Starfire is only annoyed because Dick will think she did it, our heroine. Dick enters the apartment, but is told a strike team is coming to kill
them both.
Dick gets very little from him, surprise, surprise, before
the team arrive. Dicks fights off some of them but he’s simply outnumbered
before a gas grenade and another Robin enters the fray, taking down the rest of
the strike team.
Honestly, this is another of the stronger episodes this
season has, the plotlines still continue to crawl but at around 40 minutes the
runtime is less excruciating than previous episodes.
Rating 7/10
Jason Todd
15 years ago, we see Dick Grayson at the funeral of his
parents, alongside many of I presume his posse from the circus. He’s the last
to lay down a white rose on their graves.
Dick talks to a guy who I presume is Mr Haley (he isn’t),
though I don’t hear his name, and he sounds like he might need a throat
lozenge. He confirms that the Grayson deaths were indeed murders and encourages
him to stay with Bruce Wayne, as with his fortune, Dick will want for nothing. Roll
credits
Adamson is knocked out and we get a name to the new Robin,
Jason Todd, in case the title didn’t give that away. He’s the new Robin and
he’s an egotistical little sh*t. Jason Todd is among the better characters in
this show, and they clear knew they had something with him, as they upped him
to the main cast in season 2.
"So how long have you and Bruce been..."
"Together? Almost a year"
And since I’ve used one of his memes, may I use this opportunity
to say f*ck the Nostalgia Critic. Yeah, there's a reason I don't do this often anymore. Bruce brought Jason on board after
catching him trying to steal the hubcaps from the Batmobile. He found Dick
because Dick has a tracker in his arm, which Jason knows about, there’s a
tracker in his too, but Dick clearly didn’t.
They need somewhere to keep Dr Adamson off the grid and
perhaps the motel is not the best place, because this plot has the best part of
nothing to do with the main plot. They head to one of Bruce’s safehouses. Dick
has been to them before but this one doesn’t recognise his retinal scan, only
Jason’s.
Jason is a lot more excited about being Robin than Dick is.
Even happily admitting the bright colours of his suit exist to draw the fire.
They drag in Mr Adamson and Dick heads to the bathroom, locates the tracker in
his arm and cuts it out, all whilst on the phone to Kory. Come to the
safehouse, he says, it has safe in the name. Yeah, you know what else it has,
the guy who’s been out to get Rachel, maybe not doing that is safer, you never
know.
Dick hands Jason over the tracker and politely tells him to
get lost but Jason has a file he thinks Dick will want to see, pictures of the
corpses of various performers from the circus, sent to Gotham PD addressed to
Robin.
Gotham PD are either useless or dirty, according to Jason
and they came up blank to sent the file to Batman. Atlas the Strongman, the guy
Dick was talking to in the flashback. He’s still alive and likely the next
target. Unable to warn him over the phone, Dick plans to visit him in person in
Milwaukee. The other Titans arrive and make themselves at home.
Kory is left in charge of the good Doctor as Jason and Dick
head out to protect Atlas. He currently appears to have given up the life and
is ignoring phone-calls and serves as a security guard. Unfortunately, the
killer is not far behind. Dick uses his police credentials to work his way in
but Jason is stuck outside when his ID is rejected.
Atlas is the bouncer at the VIP lounge. No password, no
entry. No matter, the use of the words Haley’s Circus allows them some time to
talk. Jason manages to sneak in using the side entrance. Dick and Atlas switch
numbers so they can finally keep in touch, not that tracking him down was that
difficult. Dick wonders what his life would’ve been like if he’d stayed and
sh*tty is the confirmed answer.
Jason is an ass at the bar but it’s interrupted as a car
explodes outside, causing the windows to all smash and the bar being evacuated,
unfortunately Atlas is kidnapped in the mess by a man who looks to have damage
to his face. He calls Dick and tells him to come and rescue Atlas
We flash back to Tony Zucco being arrested 2 years ago. At
this point Dick is working with the GCPD, and we’re introduced to Tony’s son,
Nick. Dick wants to talk with Zucco which is every kind of a bad idea. The DA
agrees with me and is about to cut a deal with Zucco. He reveals information about
various crime assets across the city, potentially taking down the entire Maroni
crime family for which he works. He has an argument with the guy but Nick
happens to hear it.
In in act of complete stupidity, Robin jumps the prison bus and breaks Tony out. He beats him within an inch of his life. And that buys time for the Maroni crime family to arrive to kill Tony and stop him from testifying. Robin decides to let him be gunned down, and I think this is probably why he chose to leave the costume behind.
I hate this, especially
because all it would’ve taken for me to be okay with it, is Robin trying and
failing to stop the Maroni assassins. Nothing else needed to change because of
it. The guilt could still make Dick want to distance himself from Bruce and the
life, and Nick’s motivation would be mostly unchanged. And Dick would come off
as much less of an ass and morally in the wrong.
Dick arrives in costume to save Atlas, I guess Atlas knows
now. And we find out what the deal is with Nick. With Tony Zucco no longer
alive to testify, Nick lost the police protection that was in the plea deal, so
Robin acting completely recklessly and stupidly directly resulted in Nick’s
current condition, not to mention the deaths of every member of his family. And
in any other show, Bruce would’ve fired him for acting so f*cking stupid,
instead it’s Batman’s fault, apparently.
Not saying that Nick is right to kill all the circus folk
because f*ck him for doing that but his grievance with Dick is absolutely
justified. But one thing he didn’t count on is there being 2 Robins and with
that advantage they easily take him down. The police arrive and Jason brutally
assaults them to stop them getting too close. This is something even Batman
wouldn’t approve and Jason calls Dick out on being someone who hates being Robin
continuing to carry the Robin suit around with him. I did mention it would not
be till the end of season 2 where he dons the Nightwing suit, right?
And if this were in Gotham City, the reputation of Robin
would be ruined, here it’s just some ass wearing a Robin suit. With that
side-tour over with it’s back to the business of Adamson, who Kory proceeds to
wake up and interrogate him. But Adamson says he’ll only talk to Rachel.
Whilst Jason is a net positive for the show overall, this
particular episode has major problems. It’s another example of Dick doing
something that may have been excusable if he were younger but with the way
acted, he no longer deserves the title of Robin and it’s no wonder someone as
egotistical and reckless as Jason took his place. If Bruce teaches anything to
his prospective partners it is the importance of discipline and following
orders (to varying degrees of success). It’s bizarre to me that Bruce didn’t
bat (ha) an eyelid at this, even if he didn’t know at the time. Also, this is
another example of this show being primarily about Dick Grayson, when it’s a
Titans show. It’s fine to do character focused episodes but too many have been
about Dick and not enough about the others.
Rating 5/10
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