DC Universe’s Titans season 2, episode 3 recap: Ghosts

The original Titans team up again to bring down Dr. Light, but the new team are at odds with each other and their predecessors in the latest episode of the show.

Dick Grayson decided to take a new meta-human under his wing, but Jason Todd and Gar Logan uncovered her true identity – Rose Wilson is the daughter of Slade, aka Deathstroke. In the third episode of Titans season 2, Dick is visibly uncomfortable at the reminder of Slade.

Deathstroke’s Back

The young team is invested in finding out more about Slade. According to reports, Slade went into hiding following the death of his son Jericho. Curious, isn’t Chella Man set to play Jericho this season?

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Dick shuts down the youngsters’ investigation just as the rest of the original Titans show up at the Tower. Hank, Dawn, and Donna are all itching to get back to their regular lives, but now Dr. Light’s after them, so they agree to team up with Dick to take him down. That’s the idea, till Dick tells them about Rose. They are all livid when Dick reveals he’s got Deathstroke’s daughter in the Tower.

We don’t know what Deathstroke did to destroy the original Titans, but they’re all shaking with fear when Dick shows them footage of Deathstroke trying to kill Rose. Dick insists he won’t turn Rose away and orders the team to concentrate on Dr. Light, while he follows up on the Wilsons.

After interrogating Rose, Dick finds out that Deathstroke apparently killed Jericho and now he’s after Rose. Rose is intent on exacting revenge on her father and is certain she would have succeeded had Dick not intervened.

Unbeknownst to the heroes, Deathstroke and Dr. Light are working together – Slade’s plan is to put the team in ‘crisis’ and see them in disarray. Light is on board with this.

Ghosts of Titans Past

The new team’s sparring sessions include blindfolds and bamboo sticks. While the OG team are busy, the youngsters – Jason, Gar, and Rachel – train. Jason’s way ahead of the other two, especially Rachel, who relies too heavily on her otherworldly powers. When Jason defeats her, Rachel’s latent powers unleash and she almost kills Jason before taking control of herself again. Visibly rattled, Jason demands that Rachel get this seen to.

Rose wanders around the Tower and bumps into Rachel – the two surprisingly bond over their terrible fathers. Maybe some camaraderie will convince Rose to stick around. Dick is concerned about Rachel, but he needs Gar to keep a track on the light grid to spot any unusual activity that could possibly point to Dr. Light.

Dick has a plan for the new Titans, including molding them to be better than the originals. But Donna is not happy with this plan – she believes the OG team messed up, and if Dick keeps their ‘sins’ from the new ones, history will repeat itself. She seems to have less faith in Dick now that he’s given up being a superhero; Donna doesn’t seem to believe he has what it takes in his current garb as ‘camp counselor’. As she says, there are ‘ghosts’ in Titans Tower, possibly meaning that they have had to bury some of their teammates, and she doesn’t want the new team to suffer in the same vein.

Gar interrupts their conversations when he discovers Dr. Light’s location and the OG team head out to face him at a stadium. Jason tries to wrangle his way in, but Dick won’t allow it. The fearless foursome arrives sans their suits, which makes them all vulnerable to Dr. Light’s powers.

While Dick is able to dodge his blasts, Hank gets hit. Donna’s the only one with superpowers and her Lasso of Persuasion is a handy weapon. But Dr. Light is still able to escape. This scene is really rough around the edges, with jump cuts and no rhythm. It feels like it was rushed into editing, which is a shame since this scene had a lot of potential to build on Dick’s skills and the team’s interpersonal relationships.

Kory’s Predicament

Kory was captured by Faddei in the previous episode of Titans. Faddei is here because Kory is required to take over the throne on Tamaran. She is not interested in going back to her home planet, but she and Faddei also have some history, so it’s not like Kory can get rid of him that easily.

When Kory gets a moment, she calls Donna at Titans Tower to get an update on the team and assure Donna that she’s ok. Returning to Faddei, Kory learns that her sister, Blackfire (Komand’r), has asked for Kory. Most comic readers will know that the two Tamaran sisters have an acrimonious relationship.

We get an insight into Tamaran through Kory and Faddei’s interaction. As royalty, Kory had plenty of restrictions imposed on her, including what to eat, wear and who her romantic partners were. There is a strict class divide on her planet, and worst of all, everyone’s only out to help themselves. Seems like the Titans showrunners have eschewed her slave storyline – here’s hoping because it has always been one of the many problematic elements of Kory’s comic book characterization.

Faddei pleads with Kory to return home because there’s a lot at stake on Tamaran. This seems to convince Kory and she leads Faddei to her ship. Except, Rachel calls Kory and explains that she feels something has changed in her, and there’s a being that wants to take her over. Rachel is exhausted trying to fight it, so she needs Kory’s help. A cry for help from Rachel is enough to change Kory’s mind. She traps Faddei in her ship and explains that she’s ready for the legions of Tamarans who will follow suit.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Jason Todd?

The Titans limp home – in Hank’s case, quite literally. He’s frustrated with Dick for letting Dr. Light go, but Dick has bigger problems. Jason is up in his face, reminding him that there are more heroes in the Tower who could have helped catch the bad guy. Jason is obnoxious and annoying, and Dick loses his temper, knocking Jason down. Unlike season one Dick, this time, Dick immediately apologizes and tries to make amends, but Jason’s not interested.

Dick takes his frustrations out in the training room, soon sparring with Rose, who has excellent sword-fighting skills. The entire sparring scene is just foreshadowing Dick’s future as Nightwing – the stances Brenton Thwaites takes are all throwbacks to Nightwing’s poses in comic books. Considering the leaked images of Thwaites in the Nightwing suit, and the hints that the characters keep dropping that Dick has to take on a new moniker since he gave up being Robin, it’s obvious Dick will transform into Nightwing during this season. Let’s hope the event is as epic as fans are expecting it to be.

Dick can’t turn his back on Jason for even a second. Obviously seething at being upstaged by his predecessor, Jason works with Gar to locate Dr. Light’s new location. Jason’s intelligent enough to pinpoint it, but then he manipulates Gar into joining him on a quick recon mission to make sure they didn’t make a mistake.

Decked up in his Robin suit, Jason heads to the tunnels with Gar in tow. Despite Gar’s advice, Jason insists they split up – Jason finds Dr. Light and is able to pummel him, but then Deathstroke shows up. Gar hears Jason scream, but he’s too late to get to him. Jason’s been captured by Deathstroke.

This episode packed in plenty, building on the overall story arc as well as the internal characterizations of the characters. In the bargain though, the actions scenes suffered. They were haphazardly put together and didn’t make much sequential sense. That being said, the episode ends on a great cliffhanger, because kidnapping Jason is honestly worse news for Deathstroke than it is for the Titans. Could this really be the end of Jason Todd? Could the Titans already lose another hero and gain a villain in Red Hood? We’ll find out next week, only on DC Universe!