We’re taking another look at season 2 of Titans, the last season before the show moved to HBO Max
Aqualad
We flash back to 5 years ago with Slade Wilson, there’s a
major trial going on right now and 2 key witnesses are being flown in to
testify, and following the Netflix superhero code, if you try and testify
against anyone, you're dead. Without key witnesses, several involved police
officers and even the judge, whoever the guy was got off scot-free. Slade is
delivered a new assignment in San Francisco, which just so happens to be the
place where his ex-wife and son live.
Now, for those not in the know, Slade’s son, Jericho, had
his vocal chords severed and whilst he’s capable of understanding human speech,
he needs to sign to communicate. His mother returns home and it turns out
Jericho knew Slade had been watching, his mother warns him that they can never
let their guard down.
After the credits we see a family be attacked by thieves who
could probably find easier prey than people with a car. Easy to conceal
weapons, or the car itself could be used as one, just saying. Anyway, these
poor and probably mentally ill people have the crap beaten out of them by
Robin, Hawk and Dove. Oh, and Aqualad and Donna have arrived too, Aqualad using
his hydro-kinesis to take down the last guy.
Back at the tower, they’re celebrating Aqualad’s birthday
and they’re celebrating it by getting pissed, except Donna for some reason
until Dove persuades her otherwise. Meanwhile Doctor Light is looking for
something called an activator as we get treated to a lot of exposition, I’m
sorry, I’m all out of fucks to give. They’re trying to update Doctor Light to
be more intimidating but he’s still saying shit like “anyone who gets in my way
will suffer the consequences” it’s almost sad.
They’re interrupted by power fluctuations and it’s time for
Dawn to flirt with Dick and Donna to run to run from her feelings toward Garth.
Donna had broken ties with Aqualad as she’s been told to return to Themyscira.
Garth tries to convince her to stay and she texts a mysterious J saying they
need to meet.
Doctor Light and 2 crummy henchmen break into a bank as
Donna enters an art Gallery to meet with J. Apparently she doesn’t have to go,
at least for another 6 months but for whatever reason she wants to. J agrees to
arrange her travel to Themyscira in 2 weeks. Once again, our Titans make the
brilliant decision to talk about their super-hero work out of costume.
They’re at the bank, but apparently no money was stolen,
just a safety deposit box. Garth and Donna both agree to check out the security
footage, so did they even have to go to the bank to do that? The thief had
already come and gone; they could’ve done all this from the tower. Still, Garth
and Donna get time to talk and reminisce and also to stare at the photo.
Garth asks for some advice with Dick apparently since Dawn
rebounded to him after falling out with Hank. This is gonna make for some
awkward conversations. Dick’s advice is to stop trying so hard. Donna comes to
Dick immediately after, telling him that J, which we found out here is short
for Jillian, is summoning her back early. And we seem to have gone from 2 weeks
to tonight in an impossibly short amount of time.
But before then they got a lead on Doctor Light, turns out
the activator is for a laser capable of taking down nuclear missiles because of
course that exists and naturally the security for such a device would be
pathetic. He places the activator on the laser and begins absorbing its light.
Hawk and Dove take down the henchmen, with Garth coming in for the save when a
third one arrive. Robin stops him absorbing the laser, Aqualad is cable to take
some of Doctor Light’s blast, keeping him distracted long enough for Light to
be taken down.
Jillian texts Donna telling her they’re departing a
midnight. Garth invites to celebrate with the others, just as friends, and she
passionately kisses him, which soon becomes full sex. Donna leaves in
the middle of the night, with only Dick knowing and able to say a silent
goodbye. Garth is starry-eyed from the sex but then Dick has to tell him that
Donna is leaving.
And Garth is fast enough to catch up
“Can we please not do this right now”
When else are you gonna do it, Donna? You had to know that
this was using him, right? Garth confesses that he loves her but before things
get anymore intense Deathstroke shoots Garth and kills him. Garth’s death feels
really unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. If they’d put him in hospital
and forced him to return to Atlantis it would’ve have the same impact and open
up his return in future stories because he’s was a fun character who honestly
might’ve lightened the mood in this very dour show. Plus, it would make what
happens in the next flashback episode more on the backs of the Titans rather
than an eye-for-an-eye situation. But I’ll get more in to that next time.
Jillian manages to save Donna and Deathstroke chooses to
retreat for now. With this Donna decides to stay and help the team take
Deathstroke down, I mean, they only discover that it is Deathstroke thanks to
Dick spotting him on security footage. Donna is warned that vengeance can be a
dangerous path.
One week later, at a record store, we see Jericho at a
record store run into and befriend Dick Grayson.
Beyond the ending, I quite liked this episode, it still has
the usual issues this show runs into frequently but it has fun to it that’s generally
lacking in the present-day stuff.
Rating 7.5/10
Deathstroke
22 minutes after being abducted by Deathstroke, Jason wakes
up, arms chained to the ceiling. Unfortunately, they didn’t chain his legs down
and with some talking, Jason is able to choke out Doctor Light and easily
escape the chains by dislocating his fingers. Unfortunately before he can leave, he finds himself on the sharp end of Deathstoke’s sword.
Kory tries to call Rachel but Rachel is asleep, with black
goo swirling around her. Gar decides to go to Rachel and not immediately to Dick
because he’s an idiot. Gar tries to wake her up and whilst he does so, he cuts
his wrist in the process.
Gar catches everyone up to speed on what happened with
Jason, or at least what he knows. They can’t find the signal from any of the
dozen trackers Batman embedded into him, indicating that he’s deep underground.
The OG team head into the tunnels and bicker…, before discovering that Slade
had a camera on the tunnel. So they overhear that Jason has a tracker in him.
Doctor Light has become impatient and storms off, but Deathstroke does fuck all
until he leaves, he then cuts out the tracker with a knife. Hope he cleaned in
before-hand, very unsanitary.
Before Doctor Light can drive off, Slade kills him… so he
went out like a bitch. Now for the Gar guilt to start rolling, first with him
projecting himself onto Rose, and now Rachel projecting onto him. Just as
everything blows up Kory arrives at the door, and Jason’s tracker becomes
visible, leading them right to Doctor Light and a cell phone that… who uses
phones like that anymore, those have been outdated for a decade now.
Also, they call him Jason to Slade, this group is really
f*cking stupid. He’s a kid and his secret identity could compromise him. Slade tells
them he wants to arrange an exchange, Jason for Rose, and to meet him at 3am.
Rachel is honest with Kory about what’s been happening, Kory
says that on her planet something similar is called Transfiguration… is that
referring to Transformation, the Tamaranian equivalent to puberty from the Teen
Titans animated show? She theorises that the longer Rachel suppresses her
abilities the more violently they’ll lash out.
The OG Titans have a meeting, discussing how best to handle
this. Hank is all for handing her over to save Jason, but the other Titans are
a little more reserved or outright against this. Dick’s trying to be the
pragmatist, if they give her up or let her go they lose any leverage over
Deathstroke, but it’s a road they’ve been down before and it didn’t end well
last time.
Gar, Rose and Rachel overhear the conversation and Rose
takes off. She manages to take down Hank with superior combat training but has no idea what to do when Rachel loses herself. Rachel ‘kills’ her but her body
seems to quickly heal itself. Rachel runs off. Lots of drama follows and I can
really not be bothered to cover any of it. All this Titans are finished crap
would have a lot more impact if new Titans did anything of relevance other than
Jason getting himself captured.
So Dick comes up with a plan and contacts Deathstroke, the
others work to cover the Plaza but Dick goes off-plan, intending to surrender
himself in exchange for Jason. It’s not a deal Deathstroke wants to accept and
he’s about to execute Jason when Kory arrives for the save, able to take most
of his bullets with her powers, but grenades are another matter and she’s
knocked down. Still, now Dick can get in on the fight and the two of them
manage to hold their own, until Deathstroke stuns them with a flash grenade and
sends Jason falling. Dick manages to hold on but his grip is slipping and he
does eventually fall.
This is one is really bogged down by the melodrama. I get
needing to fill in 45 minutes but geez, lighten up a bit, this show is still so
morose.
Rating 7/10
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