Titans Season Two Episodes 5 - 8

 The fifth episode `Deathstroke` packs an enormous amount into its thirty seven minutes, perhaps too much. There are times when it plays like a clips show zapping from one revelatory conversation to another with gusto though the cumulative effect is hugely enjoyable. It’s a plot that pulls at the relationships between young and older Titans and asks questions of their working methods. Has Dick recruited the younger Titans without really telling them what could lie in store? How can Rose come back to life? And just what is that black thing that looks like wings which keeps sprouting from Rachel? It’s a heady brew punctuated by violent action and some heartfelt scenes though I did find the latter somewhat basic at times. Some conversations seemed to just have characters saying one cliched line after another. Yet it all comes together somehow.  

 

Tv and film sci-fi (and for all I know comic books too) have this thing with villains whose plans are ridiculously complex and full of convenient holes that give the heroes their chance to win in the end. Also they have variable powers so one week can be defeated more easily than another week. Deathstroke is such a character and while his plan seems convoluted – why doesn’t he just separate the Titans and see them off one by one- he does retain an on screen menace. I wasn’t sure if Dick’s plan to sacrifice himself was genuine or a trick- did he know that Kori would follow him? (the comment about her hair) I’m not sure but the ending is certainly one to make you watch the next episode.

 In general I’ve found the episodes set away from the main story less engaging but `Conner` is an excellent telling of the Superboy story. Created as a clone with elements of DNA from both Superman and Lex Luthor, this man child escapes from the Project Cadmus laboratories at the start of the episodes and heads out into the world alongside Krypto, the dog with glowing eyes. Though fascinated by each new experience- in one scene he soaks in the warm Sun for the first time -Conner is also prone to mood swings driven by confused memories of his donor’s past lives. Potentially an awkward scenario to put over without a lot of exposition the episode does it by show rather than tell with strong results. Several scenes make it clear how powerful Conner is yet we also witness his conflicting thoughts especially when he goes on the run with Eve Watson, the scientist whose idea it was to create him.

 With much of the episode carried by two new characters it is great how both writers and actors make us feel at home with them though of course the whole Superman lore is something most people watching a show like this would be familiar with. As Conner, Joshua Orpin pitches it just right blending Connor’s naivety in some areas with his fearsome wish to protect people. Genevieve Angelson is terrific as Eve unpeels slowly from concerned scientist to haunted and not always truthful chaser of new scientific heights. It can be playful too, notably having Conner sporting a Superman t shirt  or acquiring money.

 The episode juggles the questions of the morality of science, you gasp when Eve says there’s no such thing as a bad science experiment but then later on she says “of course there is.” The interplay between them, the cat and mouse game between the good and bad sides of truth makes for a satisfying episode. It also changes the tone from the sometimes juvenile arguments we’ve had this season between the other Titans- and not just the younger ones. Here we have more adult dialogue that pivots on important moral and issues rather than who should go on the mission or who moved the chair! It shows an untapped potential as far as scripts are concerned.

 There’s also a strong performance from Peter McNeill as a grizzled, contrary Lionel Luthor. You can see where the Luthor genes in Conner descended from. Alex Kalyminious directs with style underpinning every revelation with just the right moves. Its almost a shame when we get back to the main story at the very end as Connor saves the falling Jason. I suppose there’s a whiff of over convenience in the idea that the Luthors lived up the road from the Kents (is that always the case in other versions?) or that Conner happened to be in the vicinity at just the right moment to save Jason but this is a classy episode indeed.

 It takes the combined powers of Rachel and Kory to save Conner from the kryptonite bullets that hit him and a similar alchemy seems to be at work behind the scenes. Though less visually showy than `Conner`, `Bruce Wayne` is its equal suggesting the series has upped its ambitions more than a notch. With vinyl records, seedy nightclubs, reluctant informers and a monologue with someone who’s not actually there the episode has more than a touch of detective noir about it and it fits well. Bruce Wayne himself is not actually in his own titled episode; that is to say he appears only to Dick as his rather aggressive conscience pricking Grayson’s every move, challenging his motivation, daring him to be the leader he claims to be but only if he faces one hard truth. It’s a device that works extremely well as the latter becomes more wound up on another singular mission. Yet his Bruce Wayne shaped sub conscious knows he’s wasting time because he won’t face the truth of something that happened five years ago, something that created the mess the Titans are now in.

 It is refreshing for a series like this to deal with the awkward ramifications of something as shocking as falling off a building. Jason, till now the gung ho have a go hero, is plagued by different visions constantly seeing himself falling. As someone plants painful reminders of each character’s past in their rooms it is Jason who gets the blame. You may wonder how come nobody suspects Rose but of course they are not privy to Dick’s secret though we have seen her discover her late brother’s Ziggy Stardust album amongst Jason’s collection. The device of the audience knowing more than the characters always works a treat though by the end you do feel like yelling at Jason “tell them about how Rose freaked out when she saw the record”. Then again that would deny us the final rooftop scene where a totally freaked out Jason is about to fall again, this time voluntarily, but then Dick tells him “you’re not the poison…it’s me”. He’d killed Deathstroke’s son which we’d all sort of realised but, like not -really-there Bruce ,we are satisfied he has finally said it.

 The episode does beg the question of whether the Bruce we see is simply how Dick perceives him or if he really is like that, in which case it’s no wonder he ran away! While Dick’s single minded mission is supposed to be foolish (that’s the point of the hectoring hallucination) it seems a bit unlikely he’d go against Deathstroke alone having only just been comprehensively defeated by him. And a single gun is not really going to do the job. Also I did find it irritating that nobody gives Jason any leeway – he had just suffered a near death experience but seems to get no sympathy from anyone except Rose. Kory on the other had remains with Conner even though she doesn’t know him.

 Iain Glenn has a field day as an off the leash Bruce Wayne while you can see Brenton Thwaites pushing his character into a moral corner. Before the dreaded record is found there’s also signs of a chemistry between Jason and Rose, two damaged people who maybe could help each other heal. Called upon to considerably widen the parameter of his hitherto brash Jason, Curran Walters is up for the task and delivers perfectly while its good to see Chelsea Zhang also getting more breadth of material. The main plot sidelines Conner’s plight apart from a couple of scenes but there’s a touching reunion with Eve Watson. The look on her face as she watches Kory and Rachel’s powers for the first time is a picture!

After all the talk of it, `Jericho` shows us the events of five years previous and is introduced by way of a surreal sequence set to the Bowie song `Five Years` appropriately enough. What follows is very well composed scenario which underlines the fact that it is too easy to apportion blame. When Dick told Jason at the end of the last episode he killed Deathstroke’s son we imagined something different to what occurs. As the Titans pretend to be friends with the boy they start to actually become friends making their intended mission more difficult. The viewer also sees how Jericho was more than anything a victim of his father’s life as an assassin which is how he lost his voice when injured by vengeful enemies of his Dad’s.  Yet before we leap to conclusions we also see snippets of the clearly painful process Slade had to go through in the military to assume that role. So- who is to blame? There’s a further twist too when it turns out Jericho has a power of his own, something he inherited from his father’s processing. It’s a rather fun power actually- he can inhabit someone else by looking at them.

Matter unfurl at a brisk pace, with time taken to explore each of these points of view, even Jericho’s mother. At the heart of it Is the need to tell the truth so when they realise he is “a freak” like them the Titans are ready to let him join. Neither family ends up happy. Deathstroke knows what they’re up to leading to a climatic confrontation in a church, heavy in symbolism. Jericho has to watch as his father and new best friend battle it out amongst the pews. How it plays out is interesting but the results are what lead to the separation of the original Titans, something that’s been alluded to in several episodes.

 In the pivotal role of Jericho, Chella Man does a great job, being called upon to show the hurt and confusion without uttering a word and his expressive performance means you hardly need to look at the captions. The episode also gives us a more rounded look at Slade himself and Esai Morales convinces in the quieter moments while remaining a fearsome force as Deathstroke. As for the action this is excellent- in particular one scene sees the camera follows Wilson as he escapes while fights in an art gallery and the church are kinetic.