Young Justice: Outsiders season 3, episode 20 recap: Quiet Conversations

Victor Stone is facing erasure by the father box, and it’s up to his friends and teammates to save him on the latest episode of Young Justice: Outsiders.

Victor Stone has struggled with accepting his transformation into Cyborg, but he hasn’t prepared for the worst yet. Episode 20 of Young Justice: Outsiders begins with Victor practically disowning his father for what’s become of him, before discovering that the father box that he is infused with is slowly transforming him further so that he becomes a ‘walking, talking box’.

Saving Victor

Superboy brings a scientist from New Genesis to examine Victor. She prescribes bed rest to arrest the father box’s advancement over Victor’s systems. Victor’s only hope is the New God Metron, but the New Genesis people do not want to get involved. Instead, Superboy, Black Lightning and Forager boom tube to Metron’s location. The New God is currently located in the Source Wall and rushes away from his pursuers.

As Young Justice follow him, they land up in another realm, where Superman is fighting parademons. Once they are defeated, Forager beseeches Metron to help Victor, while Conner asks Superman to be his best man at his wedding. Clark is delighted at the request but seems unaware that Conner was even getting married. The team and Metron return to Earth, while Superman remains to complete his mission. The Female Furies have escaped with some rare minerals that are essential to Desaad and Granny Goodness’ plan, so the Justice League have their hands full.

Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 20 (Credit: DC Universe)

Victor’s father, Silas, comes to see his son, but this angers Victor so much that he unintentionally sets off another wave of transformations. Silas decides to put his son in a coma to buy Victor some time.

The team arrive with Metron, only to realise that the New God is here to watch Victor die. Young Justice need Metron’s chair to cure Victor, so while Black Lightning keeps the New God at bay, Brion and Jace get Victor in the chair. The chair purges the father box from Victor’s systems – he’s still Cyborg, but at least he won’t change any more. Metron leaves, but not before giving Jefferson a confounding riddle – the Granny he mentioned earlier is the same, and also not the same, as Gretchen Goode. Viewers will know what he means, but it may take Young Justice a little longer to put the pieces together.

Violet’s Goodbyes

Meanwhile, the Outsiders discover that Violet has run away. Terra explains to Artemis that it’s because she and Brion didn’t react well to the revelation of Violet’s previous self – Gabrielle – being part of the reason that their parents are dead. Artemis decides to find Violet and Terra tags along. Interestingly, Dr. Jace doesn’t mention anything about Violet’s degenerating cell disease possibly being an additional reason that she’s run away.

In Taos, Miss Martian asks Harper for Violet’s possible location, but she doesn’t know. The young girl can’t help but add that it must be nice for so many people to be concerned about her. So, where is Violet? She is in Dhabar – she has returned home to her family. Violet wants to say goodbye before she dies.

Violet’s family are delighted to have her back, but the spell is broken when it’s clear that she’s not the same Gabrielle that they knew. She finally tells them the whole story, which, surprisingly, gives her mother the closure she needs. At least now she knows what happened to her daughter, and she briefly had her daughter back. Gabrielle’s mother wishes Violet the best with her new family. Just in time – Terra and Artemis arrive and Violet heads home.

Aquaman Returns to Atlantis

Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 20 (Credit: DC Universe)

Aquaman rescued the new water-breathing meta in episode 18 of Young Justice: Outsiders. In this episode, he takes her to Atlantis. Though the young meta doesn’t reveal her name, she is welcomed by King Orin, who explains that his plan was always to hand over the Aquaman title to Kaldur’ahm when the time came for him to take over the throne. While Orin praises Aquaman for his work with the Justice League and the Outsiders, Kaldur’ahm’s face falls when Orin mentions the Ivo mission from the previous episode. That was staged by Batman’s rogues and Aquaman was part of it. He obviously feels guilty about it.

Kaldur’ahm introduces his new friend to her foster family, and while she is delighted by their Atlantean kindness, she takes a moment to confront Kaldur’ahm about his unhappiness. She noticed him become uncomfortable around Orin, and she assures him that him feeling bad about lying makes him a good person. It’s obvious that this new character is romantically inclined towards Kaldur’ahm, but I would have preferred it if this character had been given the opportunity to explore her new circumstance and how to come to terms with it, rather than making her a buffer for Kaldur’ahm’s character growth.

Miss Martian has taken it upon herself to rescue Harper and her brother Colin from their abusive father. The new meta is enjoying her life with her foster family and Kaldur’ahm is in a clandestine relationship with King Orin’s right hand man. Terra seems to be playing both sides against the middle. She’s not sharing any updates with Slade, so what is she up to?

It’s refreshing to see that Young Justice is attempting to expand its view of gender and sexual identity – Violet is gender non-conforming , Harper is gay or sexually fluid and Kaldur’ahm is bisexual – but at the same time many of the female characters have been relegated to the background and no longer play a huge part in the main plot. It’s time the creators rectified that for this season.