*sigh…* Welcome back to Titans a show that makes me look forward to Watchmen! This week we are covering “E.L._.O”, a title purely made to frustrate me by typing it over and over. This week we see the Titans, slowly, mysteriously reunite and Dick Grayson discovers a big twist! Also Jason and Rose are GROSS! Follow along and beware spoilers ahead.
1. The Long Winding and confusing Road to Elko (Kori,Rachel,Dawn)
Ok so the cliffhanger of what happens to Gar is answered as he is having a conversation with Rachel at the tower–BUT WAIT he’s actually got someone from Cadmus poking at his brain through his wig which is wild. This serves as setting up the goal for the episode. Most of the rest is Elko baby.
Rachel is at a funeral for…Dick Grayson??? But then Dick shows up behind her…but then he’s stabbed??? By Deathstroke?? Oh, it was only a dream…but a Rachel dream so cryptically prophetic. Cut to the tower where Donna gets a call from Rachel(?) where she can only make out the words “Donna” and “Diner,” we won’t see Donna until much later. Rachel is squatting with her new friends when Denny, the shelter friend from last episode. The two of them are chilling with tarot cards that are very plot specific but before Rachel can get too into them, Denny hears that the jerk, her dad, from last episode is dead. Rachel says it wasn’t her powers that did it but Denny says that she knows but believes this is a good thing because he was an abusive asshole. The um…BIG CUT to Rachel booking a ticket to Elko, Nevada which she saw in her visions.
Meanwhile in a pickup driving around town, is Dawn, free of Hank driving somewhere in between Wyoming and Nevada. The radio plays an ad for “Elko Diner”…I think this might be important but I can’t tell… She switches the station to “You Don’t Own Me” which gave me flashbacks to Suicide Squad. before stopping near a dumpster and throwing away Hank’s things but going back for a picture of the two of them with Ellis.
Also meanwhile, Kory is really going through it. We see her in the cockpit of a spaceship seemingly headed to Tameran but in reality, Kory is drunk in a Casino arcade being bullied by a little girl. Kory fights back but kids are mean.
Next, we see Kory gettin a lil freaky with a rando and we are proud of her. Unfortunately, this rando is a psychiatrist who tries to add to spice up their foreplay by diagnosing Kory’s manic episode. Kinky! They keep going but this guy really doesn’t understand that therapy and sex are two different vibes that shouldn’t overlap. Kory reflects on her past year of not knowing who she was and then discovering so many good things in that time but since rediscovering herself only struggling. She tells the guy to leave (obviously). But then…a commercial…for…Elko Diner and their world-famous donuts.
2.Jason + Rose
While the Titans are getting together, two Titans are getting together. And god do I hate it. Rose and Jason have been fighting crime and spending the night in people’s houses that they broke into. They take selfies but Jason wants more and for Rose to open up. Rose also wants Jason to open up. I want to open up my eyeballs.
Later Jason takes Rose to the rafters of a high school theater Jason lived in like a teen phantom of the opera. Jason reveals he used to make fun of the theater kids but now he’s the one in a mask and cape. There’s some vulnerability but then Rose pushes Jason away. Jason says he gets it but promises that there’s a place for them. They quote West Side Story at each other and I literally screamed at my computer “I hate this! I hate this! Stop!”
I like romance but…god not like this.
3. Elko, Shmelko
Rachel has her dream again of Dick at his own funeral being cut down by Deathstroke and wakes up on a bus that arrives at the Elko diner. Inside Kory argues with a nice lady about donuts that they don’t serve there. After melting the little bell thingy, the cook goes and tries to make donuts just as Donna, Dawn, and Rachel enter. They all have different reasons for coming some of which go beyond coincidence. Then arrives, Bruce Wayne (not the one in Dick’s head).
Continued belowBruce essentially says that Conner and Gar are missing and family needs to come together and bring them back home. He has a little speech and then grabs a donut and leaves in a fancy car. Lmao what?
A tv report plays reveals that Dick has been in prison this whole time and the remaining group is split between rescuing Dick or rescuing Conner and Gar. Dawn and Donna reason that Dick is on one and that they should let him figure his shit out while Rachel and Kory are all about that prison break.
What the hell is the deal with this diner??? Did Bruce Wayne organize this? If so, is he literally God??? I refuse to accept the “he’s Batman” excuse with him organizing this because the things that led them to the diner are so minuscule and also if he is Batman, why doesn’t he do the Batman schtick to help out Gar, Conner, and Dick. Why was he here???
On the other hand if it was Rachel, she actively denies calling Donna, so she’d have to have done all of these things unconsciously. Which might tie into the part of her powers that went rogue and possessed that gargoyle?? But there are only two goddamn episodes left so we probably will never know! AHHHHHH! This SHOW! They needed to get the characters together again and they did it in the laziest way possible!
4. Dick if you don’t hurry your ass up and become Nightwing I am going to scream
So you know how Dick is in prison. He’s in solitary after helping the dudes from last episode escape. He also has a fever and has eaten a rat. Time for vision Bruce to show up and roast Dick for a chunk of the episode. Bruce reminds Dick that Jerich has powers and truly telegraphs the twist of the episode immediately in one line. We hear the same thing out of Dick that he’s not leaving prison because he deserves this as Bruce tells him that he’s running out of time.
Dick continues to have a fever. Bruce shows back up and the two bicker and bicker before they start to spar and the cell transforms to a circus stage. This fight is not bad, but the real props go to Titans convincing me that Iain Glenn can whoop some ass. The scene cuts back and forth from this and Dick shadowboxing in his cell which is objectively funny. At some point, there’s a really on the nose shot of a bird’s wings matching Dick’s shadows making it look like Dick has wing…and its at night… Dick then looks at a bunch of screens of what he’s seen and then a whole new piece of footage of Slade using sign language appears and Dick starts to suspect something is off…
5. The big twist(s)
Elsewhere Rose calls her dad after deleting a message from Donna on Jason’s phone. She tells her dad that she’s done playing the Titans for her dad and Slade breaks a glass.
Can someone please tell me what Rose has done to play the Titans? Was she moving shit in the tower?? What else? Why! AHHH!
Also elsewhere Rachel and Kory are breaking into prison to break Dick out of prison and when they get there Dick is gone with the words “Jericho is Alive” scrawled onto the walls.
Also, also elsewhere, Gar is playing out a scene with a Cadmus worker where he thinks she’s Rachel until Mercy plays some music and he turns into a tiger and mauls this poor woman.
A lot of things happening! Two episodes left! Oh GOD! AH! Ok… Well tune in next week for…”Episode 12″! Mysterious!
