Titans Season 3 continues with some surprise life and death changes. The first three episodes premiered on Thursday, August 12th 2021. The first episode, “Barbara Gordon” was covered previously and can be found here. The following discussion is for the second and third episodes, “Red Hood” and “Hank & Dove.”
Liz Large: I gotta say, I’m not sure how I feel about the choice to drop three episodes of Titans at once. I love a binge watch, but part of me feels like we could have done with more time in between to let the plot settle. I mean, your namesake died and we never got to mourn him!
Jason Large: To be honest, I’m surprised we didn’t spend more time on the dangers of vaping. I mean, you think it’s all fun and games and then you get a crowbar to the face at the abandoned carnival.
Liz: It’s just so common, but still a tragedy.
Jason: Well, it’s not like they’re going to kill another member of the team so soon, right?
A New Player at the Crime Meet
Liz: Episode two opens with one of my favorite tropes: all of the rival crime bosses are having a super secret crime boss meeting. Seems like a lot of crime bosses! Batman is just so bad at his job!
Jason: This seems like something that could have been handled via email. I kinda wish this was done in a similar way to shows like Mythic Quest handled filming post-Covid and had all the crime bosses join a Zoom. You can really tell a lot about a criminal from their webcam setup.
Liz: I would have loved it. Just asking one guy to please go on mute while he shouts at his underlings or whatever. The Red Hood could have asked to share his screen for a presentation, instead of delivering a bag full of the decapitated heads of all of their seconds in command.
Speaking of heads, we get to meet the mysterious Red Hood! He is a live action Funko Pop, with his large head, no real mouth or nose, and regular sized body.
Jason: Yea… I feel like the helmet especially is a scenario where keeping it less busy would have been better. The way the nose and mouth (?) with the weird valve/gears on the cheek areas just make the look a little too over-produced.
That being said, I think it did a good job of showing there’s a new head bad-guy in town. At least in terms of the non-powered variety.
Liz: Agreed. He offers a deal to take a huge cut of their profits in exchange for keeping the cops and capes off of their backs, and look— dropping the pretense, this is all a huge leap in skills for Jason, right? He’s going to be taking on this huge responsibility, coupled with major planning, and the ability to utilize drugs and bombs in hard to defend against ways. I enjoy the little shithead, but this is a huge improvement for the kid who spent most of last season in an ill-advised romance and everyone seems to think was an idiot.
Jason: Oh, it doesn’t line up at all. So either there’s more to the story and he is actually the pawn of someone else (perhaps someone we will meet in this very episode) or this is just a case of bad writing to fit the desire for this character to be part of the story this season.
Liz: I hadn’t thought of that!
Jason: For Pete’s sake Liz! It could be any one of these ‘Mad Men’…
Liz: …Are you done with the bad puns yet?
Jason: …Son of an Angel? Is that anything?
Liz: …
Jason: …
Liz: So anyway, the Scarecrow is here! He’s been serving as a consultant/profiler for the GCPD, at Batman’s suggestion. Dick and I both agree that this seems like a less than ideal plan. What do you think of our new friend?
Jason: So I don’t know if you’re aware of this Liz, but he is being played by actor Vincent Karthheiser, who is known for his roles on Mad Men and Angel, among others.
Anyway, the show is clearly setting up a sort of superhero Silence of the Lambs interplay between Dick and Scarecrow. Oh also they go out of their way to show that not only is Scarecrow very smart, he knows a lot about drugs and how they impact mental faculties… in case that could come into play at some point this season.
Kartheiser does a great job with the dialogue that is given and really properly sells the idea that he knows exactly who Dick is without beating the viewer over the head with that knowledge.
Liz: I’m fairly certain that Dick didn’t have lambs in the circus. But Scarecrow is clearly doing a bit here, and whether it’s because he’s directly involved or because he’s locked up and messing with Dick is entertaining remains to be seen. He does provide some fun clues to Red Hood’s motivations, which all essentially boil down to him being jealous of Nightwing.
Jason: If this were a very different show we would get a supercut of Bruce letting Jason know that Dick did it better for tasks ranging from taking out criminals to taking out the recycling. Alas, this is not that show.
All Cops Are Birds
Liz: Meanwhile, in Washington DC, we get some truly tragic updates on Hawk and Dove. Hawk has become a bike cop. I’m pretty sure this is worse than when he became a cage fighter, and I also hate it more than the time he moved to Wyoming and had a ranch. So, yeah. Hawk is here. With too much mustache and not enough shorts.
Jason: Look, when your cagefighting career to support your drug habit doesn’t work out, the next best thing you can try is: bicycle cop.
This does allow us to eventually see Dawn take down a criminal in broad daylight which both establishes that she is still wearing a cape even if Hank is not and highlights that while her codename may be Dove, she does not have the ability to fly away after the takedown and simply walks away in broad daylight.
Liz: That part was pretty great. Also great: she turns Hank down when he asks to go get coffee— because she’s got plans with someone else. They broke up at the end of last season because their relationship is toxic, but as much as they want it to end it’s clear that their connection is still there.
When Dick summons the Titans to Gotham, Dawn answers the call, but everyone is surprised when Hank also shows up, dry cleaner-repaired suit at the ready.
Jason: To be honest, the previous two seasons of Titans have not given me any reason to root for Hank. As a viewer I keep being told about ‘Hawk & Dove’ like they are some great team, but then only see them in a toxic relationship where Hank seems borderline abusive and more than borderline controlling.
Now it would be one thing if he came to help, but he admits he’s just following Dawn. His best scene in the second episode is when he gives a dog-food fueled pep-talk to Dick after the team gets played by the Red Hood.
Liz: A delight! This scene not only gave me Hank having a bad time, it also let me know that The Boys are taking great care of Krypto! A pet is a big responsibility and with their lack of work-life balance it’s good to see that he’s a priority. I also liked seeing the Titans work and hang out together, which we got a lot in these episodes. Gar and Kory play chess together and Kon reads enough to toss out some fun facts to the group.
I guess we should talk about what they’re actually facing (Red Hood capturing people and using drugs and threats to get them to deliver messages and rob banks) and not just the fun times they have in between trying to solve the clues, huh?
Breaking Red….Hood’s mask.
Jason: I mean sure… I guess. There’s a lot of chess discussion where the solution of using the specific names of chess moves to do a lookup doesn’t really make any sense but no one really cares because that’s not why we’re watching this show.
Anyway, we get to have a confrontation between the Red Hood and Nightwing, and Dick brought escrima sticks to a gunfight.
Liz: He’s doing his best! He’s taken a lot of hits this episode— he was a step behind all of the clues, leading to the deaths of at least two people and $25 million dollars getting stolen from the bank.
Jason: What kind of bank has $25 million cash on hand?
Liz: The worst part is that Barbara let the Titans take point on the bank heist, and they fucked up. Now she’s the one who has to deal with the fallout, and she’s mad at Dick. So the day has gone poorly, and the team just rushes into what’s another Red Hood trap. Also! His little brother just died and his dad is a clown murderer. A rough one for Dick.
Jason: Yes, but at least he gets a dramatic reveal that the Red Hood is none other than… (unnecessary pause for dramatic effect) his brother Jason Todd! Except he doesn’t go by Jason anymore.
Liz: He’s now going by The Mumbler because I swear I could not understand half the words he said. Dick apparently gets enough of a sense of what happened, because as we open Episode 3 he is digging up Jason’s grave. And, dramatically, it’s empty.
Remember that song, Tick, Tick, Boom?
Jason: We now get the episode where the viewer has to be shown that Jason really is a bad guy now. This is done by drawing Hank into the most “how are you this dumb?” trap in order to strategically place a bomb to his chest. Jason seems to be studying anatomy in addition to chess and chemistry as Hank’s bomb is strategically placed against major valves and arteries.
Liz: This whole setup is so weird. When the team discusses what to do about Jason (including reeling off people who could have been involved in the resurrection), Hank almost immediately wants to murder Jason. The others talk about Jason’s motive, Kory points out that he wasn’t always evil, and Hank jumps in with an accusation that the others are going soft. Sir, you’ve quit being a hero like eighteen times for a variety of dumb reasons, calm down.
Jason: Yeah, after a series of more and more outlandish instructions and some questionable skinny-dipping conditions, we get the mustache-twirling villain move of strapping a bomb to Hank’s heart that will explode after a certain number of heartbeats. So the Titans have a little over 4 hours to either defuse the bomb or agree to Red Hood’s demand to rob gold bars from an armored truck.
Liz: It’s a reverse-Crank! Dick and Hank are both vocal about not giving in to the demands, so while Hank gets medicated and lies down, Dick gets started on investigating.
He ends up talking to Scarecrow, trying to figure out how to stop Jason. In what is not, um, shocking, Crane points out that there’s clearly some daddy issues at play here. Is Red Hood perhaps searching for a father figure to replace one he’s lost? In the Gotham underworld that would describe Joker, but he’s not an option for obvious reasons.
Dawn, on the other hand, wants to save Hank regardless of the cost. After making out with him (DAWN, THIS IS A REVERSE CRANK, YOU CAN’T DO THAT!) and having some meaningful conversation, she heads off to do a robbery.
Jason: Gar has very little to do outside of a scene where he leaves Bruce a message (which is making me want to see the look on Bruce’s face when the murder he broke his no killing rule to avenge didn’t actually happen… whoops).
Kory has a side quest where she confirms that Jason’s body was taken from the GCPD morgue before being released to Bruce.
Connor gets to use his abilities in a way that seems a bit contrived to the plot especially when it’s dealing with trying to deactivate a machine and they know a guy who is currently on another show with the ability to talk to and control machines…
Liz: Reunite them! Cyborg needs an age-appropriate friend to hang out with while he’s on Doom Patrol, and Beast Boy could probably use a friend who isn’t enmeshed in Titans drama. But alas, it is not to be.
Back to Dawn, she’s taken the gold bars to Jason in the hope that fulfilling the deal will get him to free Hank.
Jason: But there’s one last thing she needs to do. Just take this gun provided by Red Hood to shoot and kill Red Hood. Dick shows up to try to talk her down, but she knows Connor hasn’t finished his device yet and we are less than a minute from the bomb detonating now.
Just as Dawn appears to be out of time, they get word that Connor has finished the device and is speeding over to Hank to use it now (Wayne manor is really big y’all). Dawn uses this to shoot Jason anyway. Except the gun wasn’t actually a gun! The trigger was actually linked to the bomb and the countdown timer goes straight to zero.
Liz: I have to say, I liked this outcome. I assumed that Hank was dead the moment he showed up with a bomb attached to his chest, but the actual method was unexpected.
The fact that Dawn was willing to kill Jason for putting Hank at risk, even though she assumed Hank was basically safe at that point, is a pretty big jump for one of the heroes. There’s going to be consequences above and beyond what it would be if Hank died in any other way. What did you think?
Jason: I’m not positive that Dawn knew Hank was safe… it’s not totally clear if she could also hear what Dick was hearing. Regardless, she did end up doing everything Red Hood wanted her to do, and I’m interested in where this takes the character this season.
I did enjoy the realization that hit Connor as he was greeted by the explosion at super-speed. It was a well-done moment which also gave us a bittersweet moment of Krypto emerging from the flames.
Overall, I am not loving how they are making Red Hood into just a villain. His character is built around the desire to do what the capes don’t and escalate the war on crime, not to wage war on capes. The current motivations of Red Hood seem ill-conceived and lacking reason, but maybe they will be better explained in future episodes.
Liz: I suspect that between the hints from Scarecrow and the general weirdness, something else is afoot here. Drugs? Aliens? Clones? That random mutated Ebola virus from episode one? I’m not picky.
Jason: I am also looking to see what takes Kory and Connor away from the Red Hood story as I do not see Jason being able to do much against either of them.
Liz: Red Hood is going to bring a gun to an alien fight and we’ll see how that goes.
Well that’s the first weekend of Titans! Thanks again, Jason, for talking about these with me here.
Jason: Anytime.
Final Thoughts
- Hawk ate dog food and really, is there a better eulogy for the character.
- The Titans could’ve used someone with a little more ‘booyah!’ on the electronic device disarming front…
- Did I go back and try to color-correct all of these screens because this show is laughably too dark? Yes.
- I forgot the Scarecrow casting announcement and when we got the setup description of someone who’s great at profiling for a beautiful 30 seconds I hoped we’d get Criminal Minds’ Matthew Gray Gubler.
- Do you think that the terrible banter between Hawk and Dove in the explosives factory fight scene was a sign of their strained relationship, or a result of the fact that it’s hard to transfer comic-style banter to real life?
- Superheroes have a good relationship with your father figure challenge
- Krypto is such a good dog!
Liz Large is a copywriter with a lot of opinions on mutants.
He/Him
Jason is born, raised, and currently resides in New Jersey with his wife, two cats, and one dog. He enjoys comics, games, art, and helped put together the logo and website for ComicsXF. He'd rather be in the woods.
