Young Justice: Outsiders season 3, episode 12 recap: Nightmare Monkeys

Young Justice: Outsiders debuts its quirkiest episode yet with a look into Beast Boy’s mind and what his life has been since the conclusion of the second season.

Young Justice convene at Conner Kent/ Superboy and M’gann M’orzz/ Miss Martian’s house to meet the latest recruit, Victor Stone. He had tagged along with Violet Harper/ Halo in the previous episode because Victor was distraught that his father turned him into a cyborg. However, Victor is pleasantly surprised to see how unphased by his appearance the superheroes are.

Halo explains that she discovered a new power that connected her to the tech that transformed Vic. While Dr. Helga Jace is baffled by this revelation, Superboy explains that he had spotted a dissected mother box at Bedlam Central which is where Halo’s powers were created. This also ties in with what Doctor Fate had told Artemis Crock/ Tigress – she has an old soul in her young body.

When Artemis found Halo, she was being buried by Bedlam’s goons. It seems like the meta-human experiments conducted on Halo killed her original being, but the mother box resurrected her body. Halo is ecstatic to learn that she is indeed a new person and not Gabrielle Daou any more. Brion Markov/ Geo-Force is equally pleased that they have solved the puzzle of Halo – looks like love is in the air.

Since Halo is a living mother box, she is able to re-wire Victor’s father box. At the mention of the father box, Superboy’s super-cycle goes berserk and threatens Vic. This, in turn, activates the father box tech in Vic and he attacks the cycle. Superboy gets in the way, and while his favorite t-shirt is damaged beyond repair, he survives. Once again, Halo has to purge the father box’s influence from Vic. Dick Grayson/ Nightwing asks her to stick close to Vic as Halo’s healing ability only has a temporary effect on him.

Young Justice: Outsiders episode 12 (Credit: DC Universe)

This is all well and good, but Vic still wants to go back to his old life. There are college scholarships waiting for him, after all. Jefferson Pierce/ Black Lightning suggests they bring in Vic’s father, but the boy is dead set against the idea. He still blames Dr. Silas Stone for his current predicament, so he’s not going back to him.

"I guess we’re adopting another stray. – Miss Martian"

Meanwhile, Garfield Logan/ Beast Boy has been making a name for himself as an actor on Space Trek 3016. He utilizes his shapeshifting abilities to make a convincing action scene, but he’s no rookie when it comes to the emotional scenes either. As he tells his co-star in episode 12 of Young Justice: Outsiders, he’s ‘had practice’.

Gretchen Goode, who was revealed to be part of the Light in episode nine of the show, is a producer on Space Trek. She and Gar’s co-star, Paul, reminisce about bringing back the magic of Hello, Megan, the series that starred Garfield’s mother, Marie. Among the cast from the 70s sitcom, Paul name-drops Rita Farr, who DC Comics fans will recognize as the real name of Doom Patrol’s Elasti-Girl. Nice little Easter Egg there for fans looking forward to Doom Patrol releasing in February, and it won’t be the last in this episode.

Rita Farr was Gar’s godmother on Young Justice: Outsiders, while her comic book love interest, Steve Dayton, is Gar’s stepfather. When Steve arrives on set, he and Gar are barely civil to each other. I guess they don’t get along.

Gar was looking forward to his date with Perdita, Queen of Vlatava, but she has some work to finish. He takes the time to try out her Goode HR goggles. Playing himself on ST 3016, Gar doesn’t notice when a needle emerges from the goggles and takes a sample of his DNA.

Young Justice: Outsiders episode 12 (Credit: DC Universe)

The goggles then instruct him to go to Encino, but he faints instead. While in-game, he sees the holograms of his many dead colleagues – Wally West/ Kid Flash, Tula, Ted Kord/ Blue Beetle, and Jason Todd/ Robin. The alien villains from the show appear and begin shooting. Tula, Blue Beetle, and Robin disintegrate before Gar’s eyes, leaving only Wally. At first, Wally jokes about how they were all dead, to begin with, but then his final moments flash on the viewscreen.  This is some messed up stuff by the VR machine.

Gar then sees his pet monkey from his childhood and chases after it. Bored, Wally turns to the viewscreen to watch Doom Patrol Go!? The regular Teen Titans Go! characters (aside from Gar), are replaced by Elasti-girl, Chief, Robotman, Negative Woman, and Rita’s husband, Steve Dayton/ Mento. This is either a ham-fisted promo for Doom Patrol, or for Teen Titans Go!. Either way, it really doesn’t fit with the tone of Young Justice: Outsiders.

The VR game is a whimsical way to fill viewers into Gar’s life since the second season. After Gar’s mother died, he was adopted by Rita and Steve, but she died on a mission with Doom Patrol. Despite living with Miss Martian, Gar was taken away to live with Steve, who was legally his guardian. Now Steve appears to be exploiting Gar’s meta-powers through the television show and thereby pocketing a lot of cash for himself.

At her wit’s end, Perdita calls Miss Martian for help and she psychically enters Gar’s mind. Gar tells M’gann that he wanted to be on TV like his mother, but it was really a distraction from all the people he’d lost. Now, he needs a healthy dose of reality. He snaps out of his psychic dream and, back in the waking world, tells M’gann what he’s learned. Gretchen Goode is a bad guy.