Titans Aqualad Season 2 Episode 4 Television 

Five Thoughts on Titans‘ “Aqualad”

By | September 30th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to another week of Titans with “Aqualad” where we see the untold history of the Titans as a team and get to explore the background teased in the previous episode. Whether or not we needed to actually see the background is up for debate and whether knowing the conclusion the stories brought up in the episode detracts from the stakes. But what is sure, the amount of soap opera fit into one flashback episode is truly impressive so let’s get into it and beware spoilers ahead!

1. Murder…but FUN!

The episode starts off with a murder montage to show off Deathstroke’s murder skills and it certainly is a choice. Titans has done an excellent job at building Slade up to be a very weighty threat with the scarcity of his screen time and a menacing piano score, so for him to be introduced in this episode with a jazzy score is a definite tonal shift. Sure he is still a threat but his place in the show has been a true boogeyman. His return at the end of the episode where he solidifies his status as a threat also feels like it has less weight because of that tonal shift amongst other reasons which we will get into.

2. Twenty-Something Titans

We get to see the original Titans in their prime, consisting of Robin, Hawk, Dove, Wonder Girl and Aqualad. Aqualad, wow a character who we have not seen in the present but appears in this flashback episode, after many mentions of Deathstroke taking something from the Titans. I think Garth has a bright future.

The Titans’ main purpose this episode is to stop new villain Dr. Light. The Titans as a team don’t seem to have a focus. They go from stopping a group of muggers to chasing down an exploding light man. The team dynamic does feel like the cast of a mid -000s CW show which makes sense because this is meant to be before their grim trauma. The Dick-Dawn-Hank love triangle feels severely under focused on in this episode and Hank and alcohol do not really get any attention despite being a major aspect of his character in present episodes. Most of the Titans other than Garth and Donna really get pushed to the side until the very end of the episode.

Dr. Light’s origin story is not necessarily compelling, and sort of like the present-day episodes he feels like an appetizer for Deathstroke, except in this episode it isn’t a misdirection for the Titans its a staller for the viewer. I did really like the incorporation of Jacob Finlay into the origin like in the comics.

3. Garth and Donna

The bulk of the episode is dedicated to the will-they-won’t-they of Garth and Donna. While this story is the focus, it feels like one of the weaker elements of the episode and it’s hurt by knowing the present. Drew Van Acker’s Garth is charming enough (mostly due to his boyband hair) but Garth’s persistent attitude towards a relationship with Donna verges on being uncomfortable in 2019. One of the scenes that work to sell the romance was the reminiscing of Garth and Donna’s New Year’s Eve as kids, which may just work on me because I am a sucker for acknowledging that these twenty-somethings were doing this superhero gig as tweens.

Donna’s dilemma is choosing between Garth and Themyscira, a plot which felt a little undercooked. She gets council from Jillian who is a character, we really don’t know anything about other than she has ties to Themyscira and keeps tabs on Donna. She may be a character from the comics but the show does not really give any insight on what her role explicitly is. We get notions of Donna wanting to be a warrior and that is the life she wants for herself but there is not a lot that sells the immediacy of the decision.

Donna and Garth acknowledge their feelings for each other just before Donna leaves, and Garth shows up to get her to stay. I was tense during this scene not because the show wanted me to be, but because the episode was almost over and Garth obviously was going to die. Garth’s death was really meant to be an impactful moment but it fell flat for me because it was just so clear that it was going to happen and his and Donna’s plot just felt like it was worked backward from this moment which is the most frustrating thing about the episode.

Continued below

4. Jericho, what a nice young man

This episode introduces us to Jericho, Joey Wilson, aka Deathstroke’s son, who is portrayed by trans and deaf actor, Chella Man. This is an excellent piece of representation because more trans folks on tv is always a plus but also Man has stated connecting with the character’s use of sign language to communicate which is a great statement on the importance of having disabled actors to play disabled characters. Titans also made an interesting choice to not subtitle the signs which seems like a good choice letting everything remain diagetic. Folks close to Jericho can interpret and it feels pretty natural in the show and authentic to life.

Also, Jericho seems so nice and sweer which is true to his original incarnation and makes the following point even harder…

5. Be Batman

In retaliation for Garth’s death, the Titans go on the offense to get revenge on Deathstroke. To do this Dawn tells Dick to “be Batman,” and we see Dick befriending Jericho at a record shop, only for it to be revealed that Dick has ulterior motives. This ending was unexpected because it leads me to think that this isn’t the last flashback story with the Titans of the past. This plot also seems to push towards an ominous outcome with Rose saying that Deathstroke killed her brother. I am really looking forward to seeing the Wilson family drama unfold in the future. Be sure to tune in next week to see if Slade kills another Titan in “Deathstroke!”


//TAGS | Titans

Kenneth Laster

Kenneth is a cartoonist, critic, and cryptid somewhere in the crumbling empire of the United States. Hit him up on twitter @disasterlaster to see dumb jokes and artwork.

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