Titans recap: Dick's date with Deathstroke
We’re now five episodes into Titans season 2 and have seen not one single whiff of Superboy, the big character teased at the end of season 1. More frustratingly, the plot we do have is confusing and repetitive.
As an example, this episode starts almost exactly the same way the third episode did. Jason beats up Dr. Light and makes his escape, only to be cornered by Deathstroke. Literally the same sequence that kicked off his kidnapping!
His friends aren’t having much luck finding him. Gar feels bad for going along with Jason on their ill-founded mission — as well he should! Rose injects some life into the proceedings when Gar gets mad at her for not freaking out about Jason’s absence, prompting her to remind him that she literally got ripped away from her life and stuck in a tower full of superheroes just a few short days ago. Unsatisfied, Gar goes to complain to Rachel, but she points out that it’s kind of his fault, which makes him freak out about her growing post-Trigon powers. Luckily, that’s right when Kory shows back up. In typical big-sister fashion, Kory tells Rachel that her anxieties around her powers are natural. Kori’s own powers also exceeded the standard on her home planet. People like them are born special, she says, and it’s up to each person to decide whether to use their powers for good or evil.
Dr. Light gets bored of working with Deathstroke and tries to flee, but doesn’t make it far before Slade headshots him through his car window. Good riddance, I say! Dr. Light has a long and storied history as a Teen Titans villain, but this version was exceedingly one-note and more than outlasted his welcome. Deathstroke cuts the tracker out of Jason and leaves it with Light’s body, which is how the Titans find out about his involvement.
Once they know it’s Deathstroke they’re dealing with, Hank proposes they go along with Deathstroke’s trade: Rose for Jason. Hearing this, Rose naturally decides to try and flee, and even manages to outbox Hank. Rachel is a different story; in order to stop Rose, she unleashes her new Raven powers, which, uh, kill the girl. Luckily for everyone, Rose has a healing factor that immediately stitches her body back together. But Rachel freaks out, telling Kori she’s wrong and not everyone gets to choose to be good. I mean, I guess, but also there were probably 10 different ways to handle that situation without hurling demonic energy at Rose. Just calm down!
Meanwhile, Dawn rips into Dick, telling him that all the bad things that have happened are a result of his decision to reopen Titans Tower. If you ask me, it’s pretty goofy that we had an entire flashback episode last week and I still don’t really know what she’s talking about here. She talks about things they did, whereas Garth’s death was something that happened to him. That flashback did not really teach us that much.
Dick decides to give Deathstroke something else in exchange for Jason’s safety: himself. But meeting Deathstroke without any weapons turns out not to be the best idea. Thankfully Kory followed him, and her powers are the only way they manage to keep Deathstroke on his toes. At one point Dick grabs a pipe and has a pretty fun swordfight with Deathstroke, but eventually the assassin takes the advantage and detonates the scaffolding holding Jason up, causing him to plummet toward the ground. For the second time this season, we get a cliffhanger of Deathstroke doing something bad to Jason. We’re really due for a shake-up. If you ask me, a character almost falling to their death seems like a perfect time for a flying super-person to show up, but I guess we’ll see next week.
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