Yes, I’ve ranting about Titans for 5 weeks now, this is the last one, I swear this is the last one I’ll be doing for a while, even I need a break.
So, let’s talk a little about my history with the Titans. Teen Titans by Geoff Johns was the first superhero team book I ever read. I wasn’t collecting monthly issues at the time but I bought every trade of the series until the travesty that was Felicia D Henderson’s run on the book. No iteration of the Titans since has come close to the book’s peak quality and whilst recent events make this statement unfortunate for many reasons, Geoff Johns’ writing deserves credit for that.
I was a late bloomer to the Teen Titans animated series but
I very highly enjoyed it. The show has a unique style that no-one’s managed to
fully capture since, although there have been imitators, it has a unique blend of
comedic and serious stories. And because of its popularity, I understand why
Robin, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy were chosen as the main Titans for this
show. Cyborg regrettably gets left out, though he apparently is in the Doom
Patrol series, despite Robotman basically serving the same role. It’s
understandable given that Cyborg has been ‘elevated’ to the Justice League.
But the Titans has been a comic aimed at a younger audience,
it’s kids and teens that are supposed to aspire to these characters. But it
seems like they wanted a tone akin to Arrow but without the restrictions of
being on the CW channel. This was always a bad show to go for this tone. Doom
Patrol actually probably would be a better fit, though I haven’t seen that
show.
But I can forgive a lot when it comes to this show, but Dick
Grayson has been royally screwed over by it. I get him and Batman parting ways
on not-so-great terms, that’s definitely happened in the comics but Dick
Grayson is usually the upbeat one, it’s such a shame to have him so moody and
miserable in this. And do I have to go over the whole debacle with Zucco again?
Titans was originally conceived as a 12-episode series, but just as the show was about to premiere, the episode count was dropped to 11, with the final episode now becoming the opening episode of the then recently announced second season. I’ll get to my suspicions as to why this came about later but for now, let’s dig into the season finale and discover why I felt this was worthy of a Rage4Media review.
Quick recap, Rachel Roth and her mother Angela had called
forward Trigon to help heal Garfield Logan. He then placed an invisible barrier
around the house, saying he can only begin his conquest after Rachel’s heart
breaks. Dick managed to get through the barrier but his mind enters a reality
where he is married and has a child with Dawn, but Batman has gone over the
edge, murdering everyone at Arkham, and then killing a ton of cops as they stormed
Wayne Manor. Dick delivers the fatal blow to Bruce, formally embracing the
Darkness and is now under Trigon’s control. Oh, and Dawn has awoken from her
coma and says her and Hank need to find Jason Todd… reasons I’m sure to follow.
Rachel is horrified by Dick embracing the darkness and tries
to get Trigon to stop, but he takes away her magic as if it were nothing. And
tries to talk her into embracing her darkness too. But Garfield comes to her
rescue. Dick heads off in pursuit of the two of them.
At Wayne Manor, Jason Todd is continuing to be Jason, riding
a motorcycle around the house and tumbling down some stairs, right into Hank
and Dawn. They suspect they need Bruce but he’s half way across the planet with
the Justice League. They know about the disabled tracker but Jason tells them
that Bruce, being, well Bruce, implanted multiple trackers and they can still
use it to track him.
He also figures he owes Dick after the incident with the
cops. Next scene they meet up with Kory and Donna and compare notes.
Apparently, Trigon can only assume power after breaking Rachel’s heart. This
feels like the plot spinning its wheels. What logical reason is there for
Trigon to require this, what does breaking Rachel’s heart actually accomplish.
Gar and Rachel find themselves running from Dick. Rachel
wants to try and turn him but he’s still currently possessed. They see the
others outside and decide they need to get to him before Trigon does. She takes
a convenient secret exit. Trigon sees them too and believes they can hurry
things along and invites them in.
We see Kory’s enter and she soon runs into Rachel and Gar.
Rachel tells her that they need to kill her to stop Trigon. Eventually she does
just that but of course it’s one of Trigon’s visions and Kory succumbs. Donna’s
vision is next and she sees her younger self get served an ice-cream by Trigon.
It’s the day her father dies, she runs into their apartment building, finding
the room clouded in smoke as a fire rages in the apartment, Donna arrives but
is too late to save him. She tries to rescue herself but her younger self but
she disappears.
Coming out she finds the arsonist that did this, a
pyromaniac who she chucks out the window, embracing her darkness. Jason’s turn
and now and he’s in the end of the version of Dick’s vision, but this time Dick
only killed Batman because of his potential to break and now says that Jason
needs to be put down too.
“You think you’re better than me”
“I didn’t say that”
I’m pretty sure you did, repeatedly, but… It’s Robin vs
Robin, but Jason’s not a match for Dick has he edge in both age and combat
experience. And this time he’s willing to kill too. Jason finds the gun that
killed Bruce’s parents, which Bruce would never keep loaded but somehow Jason
loaded it… what? He kills Dick, succumbing to the Darkness. The question that
comes to mind when I think of this episode is why Jason? And this battle is a
massive missed opportunity.
Jason already has a darker mindset than the others, it’d be
his ultimate test of his self-control to not succumb and actually be helpful but
no, he’s controlled just like the others. Hank’s vision sees him and Dawn
taking drugs to control the pain from the whole affair with the coach that we
shall not speak of here. By doing that both of them fall under Trigon’s
control. I guess taking Drugs is embracing the darkness.
The final betrayal as having all of them gang up on
Garfield. Rachel appeals to Dick to get him to stop them. Dick nods in
agreement as Gar lies on the floor, beaten and unconscious, but it’s a trick,
Dick gets close and tries to choke him to death. Now Gar is ‘dead’ she screams
and Rachel’s heart is officially broken, with that Trigon reaches inside, takes
out her heart and transforms it into a crystal, allowing him to transform into
his full demonic form and suddenly I wish they’d kept him human but that’s just
f*cking stupid.
He inserts the crystal into Raven’s forehead and she awakens
and they leave, ready to conquer the world and my god, Trigon looks even
sillier in daylight. Trigon kills Angela as Trigon moves slowly, transforming
everything around him to ash and dust. However, Garfield isn’t as dead as he
seemed to be, he’s transformed into a snake and is slithering, slowly towards
them.
Bloodied and beat, but alive he appeals to Rachel and with
the power of clip-shows, Rachel is brought back. Believing that Dick may still
be her best bet, in part because of the dream. She reaches out to him, finding
him at the end of his dark story, but under Trigon’s control he tries to kill
her so reaches deeper, taking him back to the circus, she swings out and falls,
hoping that he’ll catch her and her faith is not misjudged as he does exactly
that.
With Dick back out, I guess no-one else actually matters, so
Rachel can go and confront her father… hahahahahaha, sorry, I just take that
look seriously. And she unleashes her powers, sending him back rather easily.
Wow, that was what 11 episodes of build-up was worth? That’s deeply disappointing. None of the others are involved in his defeat at all, not even as
a stall tactic, Garfield maybe but only in the sense that he survived, he
wasn’t actively helpful.
And somehow, we’ve got around 20 minutes to go. So build-up
for the real season 2 is about to begin. And it starts with Jason Todd loudly
declaring “Titans are back, bitches” – I think they wanted a meme to top “Fuck
Batman.” Didn’t work.
Hank, Donna and Dawn part ways with the group again and
exchange some banter, the kind of dialogue that would’ve helped season 1 a bit.
Dick’s going to be heading out with Rachel, Jason and Gar, he invites Kory along
but she decides she needs to figure out her next move.
Meanwhile in a house in the middle of nowhere, our main
antagonist for season 2, Deathstroke, gets himself prepared by grunting in front
of a mirror. He notices the news report and Jason’s declaration that the Titans
are back. He pays a visit to an old friend, Wintergreen. He enters his old house, finding
all his old equipment. A large collection of guns, knives, grenades and
naturally, the Deathstroke costume.
Dick stops by Wayne Manor and by this point they’d actually
cast Bruce Wayne with Iain Glen, an interesting casting choice. This
conversation exists to allow Dick to course-correct on his season long hatred
of Batman. The fact is I like this scene, the biggest problem is that it wasn’t
in the original season 1 plan.
Dick has decided to try and reform the Titans again in San
Francisco, and Bruce allows them to use what I presume is one of his
safehouses, or possibly the same house they used the first time the Titans were
formed. Anyway, his one condition is that Jason comes with them, as he wants
Dick’s help in sanding down his rougher edges.
Gar looks upon the legacy, Jason makes himself at home in
the gym, filled with all the pointy things and Rachel is just happy to have a
permanent home.
The episode is dedicated to the memory of Warren Appleby,
the special effects co-ordinator who was tragically killed during a stunt test
for this show.
So that was the finale to Titans s1 and the opening of s2
wrapped into one and before we get to why I decided to highlight this episode
on Rage4Media, rather than in my next retrospective, I want to offer a theory
as to why this episode came about like it did.
My suspicion is some of what we saw in the episode happened
in the original episode, but I also feel substantial reshoots took place. I don’t think
Jason was originally in the episode, but they realised they were onto something
with him, so when season 2 got a greenlight they tried to pull him into the
fold. All that required in s1 is to add a moment with Hank and Dawn where Dawn
says they need to find him.
I argue this because there’s no reason Rachel would think
he’d be useful, nor Batman for that matter. She didn’t even know Jason that
well, they met each other only briefly in his debut episode. Moreover, the
finale would’ve played out almost identically if Jason hadn’t been there. To be
honest, Hank and Dawn didn’t need to be there either. The Superboy escape was
likely meant to be attached to this episode, but was moved to this one when the
episode count got pushed back, it’s annoying because it made it seem like he
was supposed to be a part of this, but we won’t see him again for a few
episodes. Moreover, I suspect to accommodate this, certain scenes were cut
which is why the first half seems rushed and the climax so disappointing.
So, let’s get onto that shall we, the part of this episode
that serves as the season 1 finale is frankly dreadful. A finale should feel
like an event, but everyone here’s just standing around, it’s pathetic. The
nightmares didn’t have the necessary development time which specifically hurt
the Hawk and Dove one. It would’ve been nice if at least one of them could’ve
resisted the darkness, if only for a while.
Rachel’s saving of Dick ultimately amounted to nothing, he
played no part in the ultimate defeat of Trigon, neither did anyone else other
than Rachel, who just kind of suddenly found the power to do it. And the less
said about Trigon’s demon form the better. I wasn’t fond of seeing him take a
human form but if that’s the alternative, I do see why.
I have to wonder what the original Titans plan was for the
end of s1, where the group would ultimately end up, because obviously those
changed with the move to San Francisco organised by Bruce, which ultimately
ended up being a Headquarters for the Titans in the past. This is the first
time that’s properly hinted at.
This episode does have some net positives, mostly in that
conversation with Bruce. I gave s1 a lot of flak over its portrayal of Batman
as some violent sociopath who hunts down and hurts criminals, it’s nice to see
him portrayed here as a flawed but rational human being. These scene helps
humanise Dick further by cementing that he was angry and latching onto the
worst parts of Bruce to exonerate himself from the blame.
His decision here to let all the blaming go is a smart one,
but I’ve got to wonder what the original plan was here, this moment was the
culmination of Dick’s entire arc in season 1, and it couldn’t have been in the
original finale because Iain Glen hadn’t been cast yet.
My conclusion, I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed, and
that’s pretty much been my experience with s1 of Titans as a whole.
Rage Rating 23%
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