DC Universe’s Titans season 2, episode 10 recap: Fallen

The Titans have disbanded. Superboy’s gone rogue, Dick had himself arrested. What are these heroes and the rest of the team up to in episode 10?

To atone for his sins, Dick attacked two police officers and has now been arrested, charged and sentenced to seven years at Kane County Correctional, without probation. Elsewhere, another Titans member, Superboy, is on the run after he went berserk on cops in a separate incident. Hmm… anyone else seeing a disturbing pattern here on DC Universe’s Titans?

Dick Behind Bars

Dick seems intent on serving out his sentence with minimal confrontation, but people know he was a detective. One of the guards, Len Armstrong (Evan Jones), offers Dick a private cell in turn for snitching on his fellow prisoners, but Dick ‘doesn’t help people’. So, Dick ends up in general population.

As luck would have it, Dick’s cellmates are planning a prison break and Armstrong’s continued attempts to recruit Dick as a narc only makes the situation worse for Dick. Now his cellmates have been given an ultimate by a rival team – they need to kill Dick.

When Dick tells them that he knows that they’re planning on breaking out and also that they’ve been ordered to kill him, Raphael (Orel De La Mota) explains that they will not go through with the plan to kill him. I’ve been wondering why all three of Dick’s cellmates are Hispanic or have Latino origins. There’s a reason for that – turns out they’re not thugs and gangsters, as the stereotype would have us believe. They were escaping their violent homes when immigration picked them up. These guys have no choice to break out of prison because if they’re deported, they’re as good as dead.

The following day, one of Dick’s cellmates is murdered by their rivals. The remaining two are desperate to escape; their only sign that they deserve freedom is their continued existence. Perhaps Dick sees that these are just innocent men, (Luis, played by Julian Works, is barely an adult), and helps them escape.

He swoops in like a bird, like the one that Luis prays to, and saves them. The tired white savior trope aside, I really appreciate that Titans has taken a moment to bring a sense of reality to fantasy. It’s not the boldest statement that a show has ever made, but it’s a departure from the usual safety net that most genre shows work under. For his efforts, Dick is caught and will probably end up with a worse prison experience. When is Bruce going to bail him out so Dick can become Nightwing? Isn’t that the plan?

Gar and Superboy, the Saga Continues

Superboy knows that the cops are looking for him so he sends Krypto away. Krypto races back to Titans Tower where Gar is still alone and desperately trying to get through to Dick. Unbeknownst to Superboy, Mercy Graves is back on his tail.

Krypto’s nose leads him and Gar straight to Superboy, just as Cadmus sends more goons after Conner. The goons follow them to the Tower, where the three Titans (Krypto’s a Titan, right?) valiantly fight, but they are no match for Mercy’s manipulations. She knows that Superboy is young and inexperienced – she’s also aware that he’s afraid of his dark side. Mercy tells Conner that they can fix him, as long as he comes ‘home’.

Conner acquiesces, and the next thing we see is Gar stuck in a collar that inhibits his powers at Cadmus. Mercy promises to ‘help’ him because Niles Caulder didn’t do a good enough job. When Gar expresses surprise that Mercy knows about his and Niles’ connection, she explains that Niles helped Cadmus from time to time. Mercy believes no one’s asked Gar what he wants, so he tells her – Gar just wants to be a Titan.

Rachel

Rachel ran away from Donna and is now in a shelter. She befriends another young girl, Dani (Sydney Kuhne), both of whom bond over their messed up families. Honestly, the Titans writers have unnecessarily accelerated a lot of the central conflicts this season, and it’s resulted in the second half of season two being less focused, almost directionless.

Rachel’s plan is to find an outlet for her soul-self. The moment her new friend is in trouble, Rachel unleashes her powers on Dani’s father and saves the day. What Rachel doesn’t realize is that her soul-self has a mind of its own. While Dani takes Rachel to her hideout, which she shares with other runaways, Rachel’s soul-self kills Dani’s father.

Donna finds the mutilated body of Dani’s father and realizes that Rachel is far too dangerous on her own. She returns to the Tower and finds it smashed to bits. Donna has way more to worry about than just Rachel.

The episode ends with Mercy Graves intending to fulfill Gar’s wish. But, if she lets Gar rejoin the Titans, that’s not good news for the team. The credits roll with the original version of ‘Smash it Up’ by The Damned. Fun fact – a cover version of this song by The Offspring opened the Batman Forever album. Now that’s what I call an Easter Egg.