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Five Thoughts on Young Justice: Outsiders‘ “Terminus”

By | August 21st, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Today is the day, I tell you there is only one more week of Young Justice: Outsiders after this (though you’re getting three episodes next week). As someone in some high-budget, CGI-filled, superhero movie might say, “We’re in the endgame now.” And, in whatever fictional universe such a comment exists, they’d let him say it, cause Sony doesn’t own Doctor Strange, and Disney wasn’t trying to be mad-money hungry in that instance. Anyway who cares about that, we’re here for Anti-Life.

In the original episode release schedule this would’ve been the first of the last four episode drop, just like we had back in January. With that in mind, this episode is meant to set up the season finale in a big way and drop us into the frying pan so we can sizzle over the course of the last three final episodes. And if you’re metaphorical frying pan is also a stand-in for Anti-Life laden nihilism and no free will across the universe, well, you might be in luck. This episode is big. It’s about to get real. Spoilers from here on out, so do watch the episode, but with that, let’s dive in!

1. Failed assault

We pick up right where we left off last week, namely, not in a great place. Granny Goodness manages to find the Anti-Life Equation by hacking the Mother Box that lives inside Violet, and she’s holed-up at her Orphange. The Justice League has caught up to her again and they’re ready to finally rescue all those abducted metahuman kids. Gee we’ve been trying and failing to rescue metahuman kids for two seasons now.

We get a brief cameo of Elongated Man in space, which is almost as fun as the doorman to the Hollywood hideaway being named Kirby Jacobs (I’ll let you parse that one). The full roster of the Justice League’s space unit is there and all of them…get absolutely wrecked by the Anti-Life Equation. No one survives. It’s no contest. Superman, Wonder Woman, the Green Lanterns, Martian Manhunter, and so many more are all in Granny’s grasp. It’s a great cold open after several weeks of thumb-twiddling, and this episode doesn’t at all let up. Which is good, I was getting restless.

2. Savage proposition

All that is happening, while a few days have passed since Jace went nuts and Violet got kidnapped. The Team and the Outsiders have been raiding Goode World facilities looking for her, a fact that Granny “Gretchen Goode” Goodness has used to her advantage. Everyone is hostile toward one another, and really they have every right to be. I had forgotten that Superboy wasn’t in on what he calls the “Anti-Light” of Batman and co. He’s not taking being lied to again by his now fiance real well at all.

All of that is quickly interrupted by none other than Vandal Savage coming to the door. Clearly Vandal is trying to play this scenario to his strategic advantage as he gives the Team the coordinates for Granny’s Orphanage so they can go rescue Violet. I doubt the rest of the Light knows and he’s trying to clip this new development before Darkseid gets ahold of the equation to use on the entire universe. If Vandal’s at an age-old war with Darkseid it doesn’t do him any good for Darkseid favorite lieutenant to discover his greatest weapon. Funny how Darkseid makes it so easy for the heroes and villains to team up.

Now if this was Justice League: Unlimited I’d say this is the set-up for a more hopeful and happy series finale. But that show, this is not. This is a calculated move. Savage has no principles, this is what happens when you’ve already sold your soul, since that seems to be what we’re weighing today. No Savage wants to win, everyone else be damned. We may get a team-up against Darkseid by season’s end, but not a happy one, and not one that won’t have certain divisions already, and certainly not one guaranteed to win.

3. Silent memories

This episode features the main plot of the two assaults by the League and the Team and is laced on the side with Jefferson’s mopey conscience. He meets up with Virgil (Static) in all silence as they sit and watch the water. It’s a calming open juxtaposed with all the now mind-manipulated heroes from mere moments before. Jeff and Static call it a night later in the episode and then he goes and plays with his kids. All this takes place with no dialogue, but interspersed with shots from his memory as he reflects on Batman’s deception. The shot with his kids is cute, but other than that these bits seems odd with the rising action of everything else.

Continued below

I’m glad we’re checking in on Jefferson, and I’m fine it’s not just him whining about being deceived like he did at the end of last episode, which all fell very flat to me. Here at least we don’t have words, but it’s clear he’s playing through that internal struggle. It matches with the themes of the episode: going home again, and what would you sacrifice. He literally goes home, and he reflects on where his principles and positions lie. Still, with such high stakes in the main plot, the scenes seem odd and out of place – and just too small. The universe is at stake, and I don’t care as much about Jeff’s feelings. Come episode’s end though it makes sense. We need these scenes so that Jeff can go lead the Outsiders to the Orphange or to Apokalips and save the day, thus looping things back around to the comic book accuracy of Black Lighting leading the Outsiders.

4. “No one is invincible, everyone is immortal.”

Alright so the Team gets on the station and split into Alpha and Beta squads, oldies and newbies. Brion, Tara, and Forager go off to confront Granny while Nightwing, Artemis, Superboy, Kaldur, and M’gann try to ward off the forces that come to find them. It’s the first time the original old Team have all been together amiably and in fighting form all season. It’s fun to have them all together again, but it gets even wilder when Wally shows up.

I hope you read that quickly, or read it slowly and had a visceral reaction. Watching it had me do a double take, but his presence ends up only being in Dick’s head as a part of a fever dream because of his run in with the X-Pit. It’s a goofy segment as all the original six redawn their old costumes, cycle through old catchphrases, and mimic old habits. Dick hacks the Justice League ship to launch their drones at Parademons and two Furies, and has Wally laughing alongside him. Again, another odd moment in an episode that begins with so much seriousness, but not unwelcome. I miss season one when the darkness hadn’t overtaken the cast and the bigness and lived-in aspects of this universe still felt special.

My other second thought on this is that we’re being primed for Wally to return. After all, if this season is set to end with either a “Final Crisis”-inspired plot beginning or ending, well, you can’t have a crisis without a big Flash moment.

5. Souls, principles, Dead on arrival

After debates about emotions, about damning souls, about what parts of ourselves we give up to save more people, it all really ends in smoke and nothingness. Superboy and M’gann argue about principles, argue about M’gann not brain blasting people like she did Kaldur in season two or lying like she’s done in the past, and it really ends in nothingness. While Superboy and M’gann hold sort of the moral core of the episode, ultimately, we’re shown that their effort is not rewarded. M’gann gains the upper hand for a second, but they’re too late to stop Granny activating the Anti-Life Equation and now the entire Team and half the League are under her control. We learn that regular humans can’t survive the equation, which is why Dick has been having such a hard time. She activates it and it gets bigger, encompassing supposedly the whole universe. Which means we’re spending the next few episodes in a hellscape!

It’s odd though that Darkseid has been as sparse as he’s been. After all, the Equation is really his treasure and goal. If Granny has it, why is she keeping it from him? Maybe we’ll get some answers in the next few episodes. Until then, this was a great episode that threw a lot at you to set up the end. While this season, mainly the back half, has been wildly inconsistent, this episode raised the stakes high and set up huge things going forward. Now let them pay off.

That’s it for this week, sound off in the comments below and we’ll see you next week as we’re blessed with the last three installments all at once!


//TAGS | Young Justice

Kevin Gregory

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