1. What’s Going On?
When we last saw the Titans, back in December, it wasn’t looking good for the titular team. Conner was incapacitated after boldly rushing in. Jinx took a metaphorical bullet for the team. The son of Trigon walked into the Well of Blood and might have started a prophecy that would begin the end of days (again.) And to put a cherry on all that it appeared the Titans were scattered to the multiversal wind as they all disappeared to … somewhere. As far as midseason finales go it was an effective cliff hanger.
Which is why the start to this second half and the final 6 episodes of Titans feels like such a jarring mess that seems to undercut the dramatic stakes setup in previous episode and spends what felt like half its run time expositing and laying a foundation for what is to come without dealing with any of the character stuff. Even when it nods to it, it is handled in a compulsory manner that just highlights how it’s not dealing with any of that.
The Titans weren’t scattered to the multiverse, at least not all of them. Gar is off somewhere, perhaps having a crossover with Stargirl and the JSA on Earth-2. But his absence isn’t really dwelt on that much because this episode has to establish all the McGuffins and “lore” for the back half of this season. The remaining Titans were just left in the Church of Blood? I phrase that as a question because the storytelling leaves it open ended in a bad way. At the start of the episode Sebastian comes up for air after his blood spaw treatment. He’s now the leader of the Church of Blood who pledge eternal devotion to him as cults tend to do. The Titans are not in the shots. Cut to an exterior establishing shot of the Church of Blood with the tag “6 Hours Later” and the Titans are all there (minus Gar). What? We don’t see them rematerialize; Kory just wakes up. There is some talk about how Gar via the Red I guess saved them from the death realm they were sent to. What all of that means or what happened is left for later episodes it seems. This missing 6 hours should be a potent bit of drama, and entire LOST rip off, FlashForward(2009-2010) was premised on only a 2-minute black out. All of this is shrugged off and at best deferred for another time.
The show undercuts the drama of the previous episode further by showing the world of Titans to be normal, no sign of hell on earth or anything out of the ordinary. The Church of Blood has taken over LexCorp apparently (all of this off screen). Bernard was worried that they weren’t checking in but other than that no one in the shows supporting cast seems all that concerned about anything.
What “Caul’s Folly” is most concerned about is spending the first half of this episode expositing plot details in a blunt fashion. After Conner gets Lex Luthor’s secret journal, Dick takes it to someone he knows, Roberta (Yanna McIntosh), who just so happens to read an ancient Tamarian dialect that even Kori can’t understand. This entirely new character is a pretty standard stock conspiracy nut/nerd type with a dash of vague on the spectrum coding. For her part Yanna McIntosh makes the most of what she has to work with, but nothing about the scene is elegant. The Titans need to go find the Horn of Trigon before the baddies do and maybe that will stop the prophecy from progressing.
Just when I thought Titans had discovered good episodic structure I get sent this. There is a claim to be made that this was actually the first of a two-part arc. HBOMAX did release two episodes, but that doesn’t justify the inelegance and poor drama of everything.
2. Fool Me Once Shame on Me, Fool Me Twice
Eventually the search for the Horn of Trigon sends them to Caul’s Folly a small little township that’s not on any of their maps. Titans pulls a WandaVision as Dick, Kory, and Raven, driving on ahead of Tim and Bernard in the RV, cross an unseen mystical barrier and disappear. It’s an effective moment because it is a plot development that wasn’t foreshadowed and further atomizes the team. The show even has its best gag in this moment as “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes begins to play. This is a gag more based on the title than the core lyrics, though the narrative does setup Caul’s Folly’s prison like nature and the need to escape. And then Titans just keeps on with the needle drops and they get less and less effective.
One was effective and clever, by the third or fourth one the joke is dead. Thankfully the episode ended soon after. I guess if they aren’t going to do any more of these the producers might as well spend the budget while they can.
3. Conner’s Journey
I painted with perhaps too broad a brush early when I said the show doesn’t really deal with any of the character fallout from the previous episode. Conner’s journey of discover continues with him, hilariously, walking away from the team and no one noticing until they themselves turned to leave. It wasn’t a very elegant exist, but the lamp shading was necessary for continuity purposes.
Conner continues to deal with his personal issues by not dealing with them. Luthor’s final letter sends him to a mysterious bunker that contains Mercy Graves who charges him with fulfilling his potential and avenging his father. Joshua Orpin screen chewing scumbag turn continues to be entertaining at the very least. Putting Conner on a quest to honor thy (incredibly flawed) father has a certain resonance within Berlanti Productions. Conner Kent dealing with his parentage and nature of family is core to that character and this show has worked with that arc in its own way quite well. Unlike most of the other Titans Conner’s plot is working toward character growth as oppose to pure plot.
4. Lex Luthor Ultiamte Ally
Mercy’s line about how Lex was the ultimate ally is the second-best gag in the episode.
Working for Lex Luthor was the greatest honor of my life. He was an extrodinary human being. He valued intelligence, hard work, and loyalty, above all things. He gave me opportunities in fields that women and women of color don’t often get. And he always treated me with respect.
Yes, Lex Luthor the ultimate ally! What makes it so funny is how it is a legitimately great way to characterize a neoliberal capitalist like Luthor (or any of the FAANG CEOs really) would look at being an ally an helping people. It’s individualized and based on “merit” not taking a systematic view of a field. And of course loyalty to him and his ego above all else. And through that relationship Mercy has bought into it!
The character of Mercy Graves is often given short shrift, but this is one of the more interesting iterations of the character.
5. Ending You As You Currently Are
So much of this season and the first season is caught up in prophecy and fate. And it seems that Kory is fated to die killing the one she is prophesized to kill: Sebastian. Except, not really, Roberta said it would end the “you” as you currently are. The foreshadowing and storytelling is clear and effective. It also forces us to question the legitimacy of a character we as audience just met, who Dick rightly points out isn’t a psychic. In an episode that is structurally not to my liking this is a nice deft bit of writing that pulls on a lot of existential threads at once.
