The Titans are not on a bridge over “Troubled Water,” they’re crashing into after the titular water washed away the bridge in a slow-motion tsunami of fear.
1. Advertising the Magical System
During the pre-title sequence, Crane once again goes down the road of intellectualization as a cover for his feelings of inadequacy, and to prove his dominance over Jason, by wrapping their standard Scarecrow Plan (poison Gotham and let it tear itself apart through fear) in a history of advertising, public relations, and the subtle art of exploitation. Through association he compares himself to godfather of modern public relations, and influential marketer, Edward Bernays. Crane brings up Bernays work with the pork industry and the creation of the modern American breakfast (bacon/pork sausage, eggs, potatoes etc.). Noting that his pitch was not the value of the breakfast but the idea of the breakfast. This transformed commodities marketing from one of improvement to the idea of improvement, a concept that would be further theorized by Raymond Williams in a classic bit of cultural studies Advertising the Magical System.
It’s interesting that the writers didn’t go a step further with the Bernays-Crane comparison, since Bernays is also responsible for participating in various U.S. Government backed coups in South America, in particular the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état. Bernays never used the power of fear, but he did use the power of mass media to developed a strong public image for his clients, who then exploited the workers and the land for capitalist gain. Such a coup attempt is exactly what Crane is doing now with his fear drug contaminating the city and his political backing of the Red Hood.
Crane’s discussion cracks open a different Marxist angle into the realm of superheroes that I didn’t quite see before.
2. Well, that Escalated Quickly
In the immortal words of Ron Burgandy “Boy, that escalated quickly… I mean, that really got out of hand fast.”
As the Titans go to turn themselves in, on the nebulous charges of what exactly, it was going so well until it wasn’t. Blackfire’s past traumas of incarceration on both her home world and Earth are triggered. Conner tries to help. And the police as they often do just make it all worse with their willingness to become jack booted thugs with a badge at any perceived slight of their total authority. Along with some dirty money from Jason and Crane. The weird part is the police seemed to not comprehend who they were fighting. The Titans are at worst national celebrities and with a pernicious surveillance state, the idea that they were caught off guard with the powersets to these individuals seems odd.
It did make for a cool, Conner is bullet proof moment … which then quickly turned into a lesson in physics as the bullet ricochets and wounds Blackfire.
As far as action sequences go, it was an effective battle royale that gave everyone their spots and had coherence. The action in Titans hasn’t been the best, with choreography in particular reading as stiff and slow, this is one of the better group sequences of the season if not the series.
Before Dick Grayson stairs off into the middle distance as the episode does what feels like its most outlandish thing: arresting Commissioner Barbara Gordon, for shooting the guy Red Hood bought off. I’m sorry the idea that the Commissioner would be arrested is hilarious in a cinematic history of cops. Gun and your badge scene for some administrative stuff, sure. Being arrested, not so much.
3. Trust and Sisters
Got to admit part of me expected Black Fire to die after she was shot in the abdomen. Would a single bullet seem incredibly minor for someone like her? Yes, but this is also a show that killed Donna Troy by electrocuting her (and I guess crushing her) at a fair like it was nothing.
Sensing the danger, Starfire spirits her sister away to try and heal her. In the process Blackfire appears to absorb all of Starfire’s energy/powers. This is a wonderfully ambiguous sequence. I air on the side that Blackfire wasn’t aware of what she was doing, the ability to do that sort of thing is new and previous moments of Starfire healing her teammates haven’t indicated she is giving them her energy so much as using it to heal them. In that ambiguity, Starfire makes some mean, if understandable, accusations that show how much work is yet to be done to heal the space between these two sisters. Damaris Lewis’ body language leans into the accusations and ambiguity, she might not have intended for this but now that she has power it isn’t such a bad thing for her either.
Continued belowThe relationship between these two is some of the secretly best stuff this series has done. This sequence also gives me the feeling that Lewis’ time might be coming up, permanently. With all indications of Donna Troy becoming a regular for next season I doubt Lewis will be around, which means they could kill her off as opposed to just writing her off to show up for guest spots.
4. Slow Motion Zombie Movies
I couldn’t help but wonder what an alternative version of this season, without the pandemic, would look like. Despite shooting in the Chicago area for most of production, the real-world city most associated with Gotham City – due to the first two of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy – feels decidedly un-Gotham and Chicago. It exists in a un-space. It clearly isn’t Vancouver, but if you’d told me it was shot in the chameleon like space of on the outskirts of Toronto, I wouldn’t be surprised. This creation of a un-space results in an interesting tension in the series, allowing the show to achieve a certain Gothamness, which proves to be detrimental dramatically in a few spots. The lack of geographic clarity and contiguity, focusing instead on depictions of spaces that serve functions, is central to the depiction-development of Gotham City in the comics and other mediums – see The Batman’s Gotham CityTM: Story, Ideology, Performance by William Uricchio
At the same time as a viewer without a sense of clarity or continuity it lessens the impact of Dick Grayson staring out into Gotham City as it slowly tears itself apart. I have no frame of reference for what it is I’m seeing, a generic city skyline with some smoke and non-diegetic sound telling me that mayhem is ensuing.
“Troubled Water” is a slowly unfolding zombie film that happens in the background of the episode. Perhaps it would’ve been more effective with more people, the sequence of the Titans “helping” had width but not depth in terms of extras. It all looked safe and was still solidly blocked out to give a sense of scale, but after watching the final looting montage it all felt so small.
5. Donna Returns (along with Raven)
Meanwhile Donna Troy, freshly back in the land of the living, is on her way to Gotham City. As with most of this episode it was mostly about pushing characters around to set them up for the final batch of episodes. While It did seem odd for a show to suddenly have a ‘C’ plot, and one that felt so decidedly isolated from everything else, Donna’s anxiety over her identity is a nice support-counter weight to Jason’s season long identity crisis. The nature of the Amazons in this universe are still obscure, by Lydia pushes Donna to accept her role as a leader. Titans has rarely indicated that she was part of some larger destiny but massive retcons are part of Donna Troy’s brand. The show transitioning to one where Donna leads the team would be interesting considering the treadmill Dick Grayson has been on for three seasons.
Her run in at the military outpost did provide the episode with some needed physical comedy as she dismantles the men around her.
Also Raven is back! How? Who cares she’s magic, it’s all magic, just go with it.
