Once again we return to Titans a show that somehow has three episodes left in its season. This weeks’s episode “Fallen” tackles issues such as child homelessness, immigration, and the prison system. How does it do? Well…it’s Titans so really its up in the air. Let’s get into it and beware spoilers ahead!
1. Conner, Gar, & Mercy pt. 1
Mercy Graves is back and her truly sad family is with her. She suggests a game night and a whole car full of #screenagers says NO but she gets to cancel it herself when she’s told Subject 13 (Conner aka the boy who would be Super) is back on the radar. Elsewhere Conner tells Krypto, to “get outta here you stupid mutt!” which is…silly but Conner just feels like a cartoon at this point. Conner tells Krypto to get outta here because he’s very sure that he’s a bad person after seeing a newspaper detailing his attack which conveniently no one died in…A very Zack Snyder way of storytelling.
Elsewhere Gar feels like SHIT at the tower due to him feeling super guilty for Conner’s rampage but just in time everyone’s favorite Super Doggo rings the doorbell. Gar and Krypto find Conner moping in a park and the two have a little chat. Gar wants to know why the heck he did what he did, and Conner says in his best Buster from Arrested Development impression by reiterating once again “I’m a mooooonster”. Gar says big deal because he definitely killed a dude as a tiger but pobody’s nerfect on the Titans and he shouldn’t stress. Just as they finish a bunch of Cadmus goons roll up and just as Conner is about to throw hands, Gar offers another option, making like a banana and getting out of there!
But what happens next? Check out two points down from now because not much happened in this one!
The biggest take away from the first part of this story is the added focus to Mercy Graves, which is unexpected and I think it could lead to a lot of interesting places, especially in what we see later on. Conner’s am I a monster or nah schtick is getting a little old very quickly and him doing the “go on get” to Krypto makes it seem like the writers are bored of Conner also with how they just aren’t taking him seriously.
2. Rachel and the Lost Girls
Remember the last episode when Teagan Croft and Conor Leslie walked out of the episode? Well, we found them! Yay! Donna is calling Dick (where is he???) as she searches for Rachel who won’t answer texts. Rachel is at a local homeless shelter getting a meal before sitting down with a fellow #teen. The two start to talk about their situations and how adults can really suck. The other #teen brings up a specific lizard that lays eggs and before the eggs hatch, all the adults die. #Cool! Then a jerk shows up and tells the other teen it’s time to go and is really pushy. Rachel says she doesn’t need to but the teen says its alright.
Outside the jerk tells the teen that if they run away again that he’ll kill them. The teen says “why wait?” and as the jerk gets ready to strike, Rachel steps in with her creepy powers and spooks the jerk who runs off. The teen thinks this is wonderful and thanks Rachel. Meanwhile, Rachel’s weird bubbly visual effects go rogue and posses a nearby gargoyle, and flies off to attack the jerk. Rachel is brought to a rundown building where the teen introduces her to a bunch of other teens as someone who can help.
Donna reappears looking for Rachel’s trail and finds the very very dead and maimed body of the jerk from earlier and once again calls Dick (Just where the heck is that guy??) and says some things have gone wrong.
A lot of interesting things that may or may not be wrapped up in the next three episodes. I will say I do like Rachel’s interactions with her friends. Personally I just came off of working on a project with at-risk teens and I thought that the dialogue between Rachel and her new friend was really well done. They’re kids from hard lives but they still talk like kids and are kind of dorks. Some of the lizard talk verged on “parents just don’t understand” but like the adults in their lives are truly awful.
Continued below3. Cadmus Calling
Back to Gar and Conner who are now at the decidedly-not-shaped-like-a-“T” Tower. Gar decides its finally time to pay Iain Glenn to come back–I mean call Bruce Wayne but–OH NO! Cadmus crashes through the window! (Maybe next week Iain…) Mercy lets the troops know to capture Krypto and Conner and kill Gar and thus a fight ensues. This fight is pretty standard. Conner uses the superspeed effect and Ryan Potter legitimately knows martial arts. (I remember Supah Ninjas even if he doesn’t.) Eventually, Gar turns into a tiger for the first time in a while and Mercy gets very excited and wants Gar alive. Gar gets tranquilized just as Krypto gets caught in a kryptonite net.
Mercy enters the room and gives her pitch to Conner. She leads that she works with Eve and that Conner is this way because Cadmus messed up but they can fix him if he comes back. Conner is an idiot so he says ok. Later Mercy and Walter are walking through Cadmus discussing that Conner is in stasis before Mercy has a chat with Gar. Gar asks if she’s planning on “fixing” him but she instead she offers help, the kind Niles Caulder couldn’t provide. Gar says the only thing he wants is to be a “Titan”. We love stan culture.
In the final moments of the episode, Mercy looks on at Gar and says if he wants to be reunited with the Titans, she’ll make it happen.
Mercy definitely sells this plotline by having her become more of a focus. I am less interested in what’s going to happen to Conner and Gar but more so in what specifically Mercy is going to do to them.
But look…all this other plot isn’t what you came for… let’s get to the main event.
4. Prison Dick
Dick Grayson is in prison! Wild! Dick is being processed and there’s a guard who gives Dick his whole life story before giving him a private cell and assuring Dick “Former Cop” Grayson that the guards take care of their own. All of this can be Dick’s if he promises to be a snitch. Dick says he’s done helping people and with that Guard Goatee puts Dick in a new bunking situation with three Latino men before calling him “detective” and closing the door. Awkward…
Later in the yard, Dick is strolling and watching his cellmates watch the guards before the leader of his cellmates asks if they have a problem. Dick says he’s just minding his business Goatee Guard pulls him away saying he’s sorry that he put him in the cell but once again extends the offer for him to be a snitch. He also says that his cellmates are from “Corto Maltese” which is a fictional gang equivalent to MS-13 (and also a fictional South American country in the DC Universe). Dick once again denies the offer and the guard says well super awkward now because it looks like Dick’s friends with the guards to everyone else. Okay byeeee. Dick proceeds to do pullups.
One of Dick’s young cellmates is given a shiv and told to kill Dick because he’s annoying and a cop. In the cell, Dick asks them when the escape is because he lacks boundaries. He assures them that he hasn’t ratted them out but that their plan is very flawed. When the leader ask what would Dick do if he were them, he says he’d kill Dick. (We get it Dick you want to die!) Later that night. Dick goes to pee and is confronted by the shiv cellmate telling him he would kill him but he’s not about that life but if they don’t escape then when they are deported, Corto Maltese will kill them.
The crew stays hold up in the cell for as long as possible to keep safe from the prison gang who told them to kill Dick who are also trying to kill them. They all hang out in the yard where Dick works out again. Unfortunately, the rival gang rolls up and shivs the leader of the cellmates. The two other cellmates mourn their leader and pray for him. Dick tries again to talk them out of this escape attempt but the youngest, Luis believes in a mythical (and fictional) figure from their village called Alazul who will watch over them…Alazul…Bluewing…hmm nah that doesn’t sound familiar.
Continued belowIt’s time to escape. The men are escorted in handcuffs to the transport but just as they try to turn on the guards and escape, the guards get the upper hand and beat on them with nightsticks and some sadism. But who would appear but Dick Grayson who is very good at fighting? It’s like he watched over them like *sigh* Alazul… Dick doesn’t join in the escape. He’s ultimately apprehended.
5. Some Brief Thoughts
Look Dick’s plot is awkward. Titans really is trying to hit at very real issues with this plot but it feels really cheap how those issues are used to get Dick Grayson into his Nightwing costume. Some quick research shows that Alazul is made up for the show and “Corto Maltese” is a country from the “Dark Knight Returns”. I don’t know if I would have preferred them to actually use real-life touchpoints and at the end of the day I am not qualified to say what the best approach to this subject matter would be, but having “white savior” and the appropriation of a (fictional) latinx myth is going to leave the inevitable introduction of Nightwing with a bitter taste in my mouth.
I guess we’ll find out in the next three episodes how so many of these god dang storylines wrap up. Lets get that ball rolling next week as we tune in next week for “E.L._.O”
