Ah crap now we’re already to December here in the show. Why are we still doing this? I’ve come this far though, and we must march on! Only four more weeks! This week we get more Artemis family time, Red Arrow sucking, and some finish line plot points. Let’s dive in!
1. Bad Peter Parker! Bad!
This episode actually starts off really cool with Artemis and Green Arrow teaming up in Star City to keep a guy being killed by,who I think is supposed to be the Batman villain Black Spider, but is absolutely just an evil snarky Peter Parker, who is as evil as Tobey Maguire pointing to women on the streets of New York in Spider-Man 3. It’s a fun fight against a villain who gets around swinging by webs and makes jokes about his “Web slinging way.” Nonetheless it’s nice to see Green Arrow actually training and taking a liking to Artemis, because outside of Superman, he’s the hero that has seemed the most distant to the version of him that exists on the team. Especially given the dichotomy that Robin seems to be gone a ton fighting crime with Batman. Great bonding moment and opener.
2. Roy joins the team
And then that that great opener turns into to more Red Arrow, which honestly I couldn’t care less about, the guy isinsufferable. The one big drop in this episode is the reveal that Roy is going to be a part of the Justice League after the long debate last episode about new members. I kind of hate that Roy gets to be a part of the League over any of the other members of the team, but I digress. Green Arrow tells him he should join the team in preparation for his induction into the League, to which after 23 episodes, finally agrees to.
From there, he just continues to berate Artemis and tell Aqualad that there’s definitely still a traitor on the team, despite us getting past that plot point several episodes. Clearly Roy knows that Artemis and Cheshire are sisters, but also Roy is sleeping with Cheshire, so like, who’s really the bad guy here? Anyway, Artemis tries to go out on her own to prove herself because of him and I wish he would go away.
3. Damn Wally
Finally a version of Wally on this show I like. Wally seems to have grown up a ton after his cross-country heart transportation. Thank God.
All of Wally’s big moments in this episode have a real sense of maturity and weight, from him telling Artemis she has nothing to prove with the addition of Roy, to his sense of betrayal at the end of the episode when’s it’s revealed that Artemis launched two trackers one for Cheshire and one as a decoy. You can tell he really wants to trust her, and actually likes her. It’s great to see all the build up and how clearly it’s all led to here.
4. It’s alllliiiiiivvvvveeeee
The other fun subplot in this episode is the rest of the team stuck at the cave being bored and therefore sneaking into Red Tornado’s apartment while he is away. Superboy, Miss M, and Zatanna all go up there and find an android body and are really confused. I hadn’t put this together the last time I watched this, but Zatanna totally makes a sex joke when she asks if “Red was building a friend,” and then proceeds later to put pants on the robot when Red of course stumbles in on the group invading his personal space. It was actually really hilarious to think Red Tornado might be building a sexbot for himself and a teen calling attention to it. Robots having sex with other robots. Yikes.
5. “Thanks for the pep talk dad,”
The final tidbit in this episode has to do with the reveal that Sportsmaster is Artemis’s dad, which seemed pretty obvious from the getgo but perhaps for some of you is a big deal. He sneaks back into her room after the mission and invites her to join The Light, as it’s clear they move into their endgame reviving the piece of squid both Professor Ivo, Klarion, and the Brain were all working on during the episode. This continues the pattern of giving all the members of the team a big reveal to get through by the end of the season between Artemis’s family, Megan’s White Martian status, and Superboy’s other father. Only three more to go!
I should also note that Peter David wrote this episode, meaning Nick is gonna comment below telling me all the things I missed. The rest of you feel free to. Cheers until next week as we hit the circus with Robin!
