Today is the day…for big emotions and true quiet one-on-ones. Indeed the episode name is true to form, and very on the nose, but in a good way. After two weeks of a couple of stinkers of an episode, Young Justice: Outsiders returns to prominence, and delivers a very strong episode. While it doesn’t redeem necessarily the poor treatment of Violet, it does allow her some closure in a moving way, as well as gets back to the core group we started this journey of a season with.
I will be exploring and spoiling the episode in depth with my thoughts, so if you haven’t watched it turn back now! Hehe, I had thought that merely my thoughts in my head would spoil things for every person alive. I get the feeling I’d have WAY more internet hate if I could think spoilers into existence.
This episode features about 4-5 different plotlines, which works out great for the form of this recap. We have Vic being overtaken by his Father Box, which splits to him and his father at home, and Conner, Forager, and Black Lightning in space trying to get Metron to save him; Violet back in Qurac with Gabrielle’s family; M’gann meeting with Harper; and lastly Kaldur back in Atlantis returning the metahuman who developed gills from “Early Warning.” We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive in!
1. To the Source Wall and Back
The episode kicks off right after New Year’s (which somehow makes the weekly drops all the weirder since it’s July, but that might just be a me thing) with Vic succumbing to more Father Box misfortune. It’s taking over his whole body and he’s probably going to die. Superboy, being I guess liaison or something to the New Gods – at least the Forever People – gets Dreamer to diagnose Vic, which spawns a universe-wide hunt for Metron. Dreamer tells the heroes that Vic sitting in the Mobius Chair of Metron is the only thing that will cure Vic. It doesn’t make any damn sense, but it’s this show at its most comic book-y and cosmic so heck yeah let’s do it.
Superboy, Black Lightning, and Forager all chase after Metron using Dreamer’s Mother Box, which takes them to the actual Source Wall. Dope. Then they end up at Minosyss Rings, which has ties to Green Lantern mythos. Even better. They run into Superman there and Conner asks Supes to be his best man. All of these plots are quick-paced, after all the episode is only 23 minutes long. This segment is the longest, with the trio convincing Metron to return to Hollywood with them and fighting ensues which ends in a cure for Vic. All of this thread is fast, it puts the spotlight back on Vic, Forager, Conner, and Jeff, and it takes us places we haven’t gone on this show. It moves Vic’s story forward, and honestly gives him a way cooler origin than his New 52 comic one. I ragged on seeing the Cyborg origin story three times in recent memory back in January, but tweaking the story a little to include this is a great addendum and a tribute to what this show can do when it’s inspired.
2. Off to Qurac
Ok great Violet isn’t dead. Whew. There was so much awful with her the last two episodes, and her weird ending last week left the possibility open for the Edgelord Chronicles. I’m so glad the writers have more taste than to play suicide for plot development. And actually come next point, there is proof this show can have much more tact when it wants to. Seriously last episode was so bad I’ve been stressed all week that this might be a possibility. Whew.
So Violet goes back to Qurac to visit Gabrielle’s parents and give them closure about her death and Gabrielle’s. Really she just wants to tell them that she doesn’t have much time left and to say good-bye. Gabrielle is already dead, but they don’t know that. She winds up feeling overly guilty, and as she melts we get back the Violet we’ve had all season, who is so kind, genuine, and compassionate who seeks to do no harm. Whew. Artemis and Tara show up to take her home by episode’s end, and Gabrielle’s mother offers her peace after Gabrielle’s brother shouts that she’s a demon. It’s very touching, and powerful for a character who’s had a rough go, especially recently. This is a step in the right direction. Now just stop killing her every episode.
Continued below3. Abuse
This episode also manages to sneak in another quiet conversation that isn’t initiated, instigated, or connected to Vic’s worsening condition. We haven’t seen much of M’gann at her day job being a teacher and counselor at Happy Harbor High, but here we do. She has Harper Rowe in her office, to talk a little about Violet, and a lot about the bruises on her arms. Harper’s brother Collin, also has a black-eye at school today as well. Their conversation progresses in the smallest of bits as we continue to cut to them, and it ends with Harper buckling and admitting her and Collin’s father hits them. He’s an abusive alcoholic, who also owns the gun that Violet was caught with. M’gann promises to take care of her and Violet and Collin, by episode’s end, are in the custody of DPS. There’s even a flash for the National Domestic Abuse Hotline before the credits role.
From a story standpoint, this signals that Harper will be getting more to do in the future. All of this about follows her comic book origin sans M’gann and swapping Happy Harbor for Gotham. All of this leads her to Bluebird. But that doesn’t really matter standing next to the portrayal of domestic abuse, that isn’t at all done exploitatively or irresponsibly. In this episode at least. It works to explain the behavior from two episode’s ago, but parts of that episode still just urk me. Even after this. Not that is all needs to be sanitized, but still. Anyway, I think this plot of the episode is really powerful. And I can see the inclusion of the hotline at the end being powerful, and possibly lead to the hotline being used if there are persons watching this show that are experiencing abuse or know people who are. It’s powerful.
4. Aquaman returns home
The last of the 4 (or 5 if you count the Vic/Silas conversations) plotlines of the episodes consists of Kaldur taking the unnamed metahuman girl (Unnamed Metateen A41 as the Computer names her) to Poseidonus, to Atlantis, to be with people like her. The girl is Hindi, and Kaldur translates to where they are both speaking Atlantean. She looks a lot like the comic character Dolphin, most recently seen in Dan Abnett and Stepjan Sejic’s run on “Aquaman,” though she’s never called that.
These bits are cool because although we’ve seen Kaldur doing League and behind the scenes Batman stuff, we have not seen him on his own at all this season. And how could we? We’ve had to check in on the 50 other people first. Plus we haven’y seen much of the League by themselves in this season, or show, because they aren’t the focus. If anything, this helps to solidify that Kaldur is as important as ever. We see Kaldur’s actual parents, and watch him lie to Arthur who has assumed fulltime king duties of Atlantis. Dolphin manages to catch him in the lie, and kisses him on the cheek as she parts to hang with Kaldur’s parents. All of this is cool, and is additive to the character, but people are going to be talking about…
5. Montage (feat. Aquabi)
Yeah Aquaman has a boyfriend, or a makeout buddy who’s to say, and it’s the man we see with Arthur earlier in the episode. This show spawned a comic version of Kaldur named Jackson Hyde who debuted during “Brightest Day” in 2011, and it appears that the comics have now reinfluenced the show and given us a bi/pansexual or gay Kaldur. I’m hesitant to say gay since Kaldur had a thing for Tula and a moment with Rocket on screen. But still the loop of how this happened is super fascinating and I love this reveal.
We get this moment in a montage in episode’s end. All the plots “end,” but they get a series of endings in flashes at the end, which is new for the show but actually very cool since this was a packed 23 minutes. That’s where the kiss takes place, and the episode ends with Tara happy in Hollywood lying to Slade. I really like this montage bit and think it was a fun device in this episode. I just hope we get to see more of Kaldur and his unnamed man before we break at the end of August!
This is the seventh installment of part two, which means we have six to go. This was honestly the best episode of this part, and parallels as my favorite episode of part one was the seventh as well. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but this episode made headway in a fantastic fashion. We’ll be back next week with more, so sound off in the comments and we’ll see you then!
