Titans’ third season continues with “Lazarus”, which offers some answers about how Jason Todd became the Red Hood while also inspiring even more questions.
Liz Large: Episode five is here, and with it comes a new co-writer. Corey, after watching you tweet through the experience of watching Titans for the first time I am VERY excited to hear what you thought about this.
Corey Smith: Oh my god. First of all, thrilled to be here. Secondly, I don’t think anyone should be allowed to watch as much Titans in as short a period of time as I did? I am absolutely in love with this terrible show, don’t get me wrong, but wow. What an episode to catch up on! Even with a complete lack of every Titan but Jason, I think this week’s offering managed to perfectly distill what gives the show its distinct identity.
Liz: I’m not a doctor, but it can’t be good for anyone to watch this much Titans. Or any! I know this joke is overused, but this show truly has everything. None of it is good, but somehow together it just works. Let’s get into this week’s possibly more bonkers than usual offering.
My Life Isn’t Shit Without Robin
Corey: To begin with, this is a whole episode flashback, detailing exactly how Jason was manipulated into becoming the Red Hood, and what’s driving him. It’s largely what I expected, with how much of the end of last season focused on his PTSD and fear, but it’s a definite change from the usual version! Obviously the typical mindset wouldn’t work, since Bruce’s almost immediate response was to actually kill the Joker, but I’ve gotta say, the show sold me on it far better than I expected. How do you feel about Jason’s new role as the Scarecrow’s sidekick?
Liz: I think they sold it pretty well in this episode! I’ve been on the side of thinking that the connection between Crane and Jason was sort of random this whole time, but this episode left me thinking that the whole scenario makes sense, which is not a sentence I expected to say in one of these reviews. I just feel so compelled to root for this horrible child, and even when he’s making the worst possible choices it never seems as though it’s a plot convenience—he’s just Like This.
We start off with Jason, back from San Francisco, and having horrible recurring nightmares (and the season’s first appearance of Donna!). I was shocked that Bruce’s response wasn’t just “get your shit together”. He legitimately seemed concerned, and insists that Jason see Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who’s a shrink in this universe. Not what I was expecting!
Corey: Honestly the biggest shock for me is that there’s a second therapist anywhere in this universe — the fact that Bruce “Great Coping Mechanisms” Wayne supports therapy at all barely even registers. Honestly, I genuinely enjoyed this rendition of Thompkins, who’s consistently one of my favorite characters in the comics. Her best portrayals are consistently more concerned with the kids than with enabling Bruce’s nonsense, and outright making her a shrink in this ‘verse makes a lot of sense, while also allowing for a convenient bridge from Jason to Crane.
I think it definitely helped that one of the writers for this episode was Bryan Edward Hill, who (your mileage may vary) I feel is one of the stronger writers Batman comics has had recently, and has a pretty damn good grasp of what makes Gotham and its characters tick. Like you said, Crane and Jason is a weird combination, but once you get past the oddness of all of Crane’s influence in Arkham, the episode sold it in a way that was genuinely true to every character involved.
Titans Jason has been an absolute mess since his first episode, but even more than that, he’s been continually let down by every adult in his life, even the ones who try. While this is definitely a less-together version of Bruce than we might be used to, it was pretty damn clear in this episode that he was trying to do right by Jason, which just makes his inability to get it right even more of a tragedy.
Liz: Agreed! We get to see a few sessions between Jason and Leslie, and it’s clear that she’s trying to really get through to him as best she can. She has a group photo with Crane displayed in her home, and when Jason asks her about it (knowing that Crane is Scarecrow), she explains that they were friends once. When she figured out what he was doing with fear gas, he dosed her with it. Leslie really opens up to Jason here, describing the experience as “as close to hell as you can get while you’re alive”, and while it may not be best practice, therapy-wise, it seems to forge a connection.
I really believe her when she says that Jason is her patient and who she’s concerned with—not Bruce, Batman, or Robin. Jason’s brief descriptions of his past—his dad was killed by Two Face, his mom died from drugs, and his time in the system and before Bruce took him in was bad—always come with a lot of anger and fear that he’ll end up back where he was before, but Leslie seems like she might be able to help him. Unfortunately, Jason has a lot of other things on his mind, including some Joker-connected child abductions, and his desire to get back to being Robin ASAP doesn’t really mesh well with the time he needs to work on himself.
Corey: It really doesn’t! The abduction plotline introduces us to his decidedly normal friend, Molly, and it’s a welcome change to meet someone who’s entirely unconnected to all of the superhero nonsense going on — at least until the end of the episode! It’s pretty easy for media to gloss over the issues and risks facing kids who have fallen through the cracks, and I can’t say I expected Titans of all shows to do anything more than pay lip service to the idea. Unfortunately, however, this is still Gotham, and those risks include evil clowns. This plotline, along with Crane’s nudging, provides a little more context (not that it was necessarily needed) to the season’s “Fuck the Joker” moment in the premier, and honestly gave Jason a pretty solid reason to ignore Bruce’s directive to stand down. Is he still an absolute idiot? Yes, without question. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still want to root for him!
Liz: His heart is in the right place! I liked the scene between him and Molly where his suggestions that she rely on cops or Batman to help with the missing kids are met with her basically laughing at him. She’s raising issues that come up every 10 days on Twitter, but in a way that isn’t just the show saying “hey guys, have you ever considered that Batman’s money could help people”. Jason’s reaction to this is to take it into his own non-Robin hands, and it goes poorly! I’m not sure what Joker planned for the kids, but he’s got a creepy guy who’s picking up the kids for him. When Jason heads to confront him face to face he literally chooses “we hate clowns” as an opening line, and that is exactly the over dramatic nonsense I expect from Jason Todd.
Unfortunately, as soon as the other man pulls a gun, Jason freezes. They’re really hammering home that Jason’s fear is affecting his ability to fight crime, and this random goon beating him up is just adding insult to injury. He definitely views all of this as a personal failing of his, and not as a fairly reasonable response to his entire life so far, and just! Someone help this kid!
Corey: Fortunately, we finally get a reasonable adult to answer that request, and it’s… hang on. Scarecrow? Well, shit, that’s just about the worst possible choice. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this version of Crane, but this was a pretty good showing for him, as he nudges and manipulates Jason into being part of his latest scheme. Still, the whole time I couldn’t help but wonder if the Titans universe has its own version of Harley Quinn — it felt a lot like I was watching a less horrible version of Mad Love.
I’m still baffled by just how many strings Scarecrow is able to pull, though — the secret Lazarus Pit totally blindsided me! We know he’s been behind bars for at least a few years, since Jason hadn’t met him before, so Crane’s machinations here make him seem like a genuine mastermind, rather than simply a smart guy who does crime in a ridiculous costume. Speaking of costumes, I was interested to see his mask in Bruce’s trophy case — think we’re gonna get to see him suited up before the season is over?
Liz: I hope so! Crane tells Jason that their plan is to fill Gotham with terror and fear and then present themselves as the solution to Gotham’s problems, so I think we can expect a triumphant scene of Crane in the mask at some point. The Lazarus Pit shocked me too— I truly thought that Jason’s death had been staged as part of the scheme to take down Batman, so seeing his (mangled looking!) body and realizing that he was really dead really raised the stakes.
Jason’s confusion when he wakes up would put him in a vulnerable position on its own, but combining that with the souped-up antifear gas is making me reevaluate a lot of what’s happened this season. Was he lying to lure Hawk in when he cried about being confused and hurting on the phone? Or is he actually not in control of his actions right now? There’s a lot of ambiguity here and I’m a fan.
Corey: Is it wrong that I genuinely don’t know which I’d prefer? I’m not sure if the show’s been picked up for a fourth season, but I do know that Walters’ Jason has been a consistent high point, and I’m not sure I want him to be written out entirely. So he blew a few people up, it’s fine! He killed Hank, that balances the scales, imo. Joking aside, while I do not advocate murder, Hank was consistently awful to him, and I doubt it took much, if any, convincing to make that particular kill. It’s genuinely impressive that the show manages to genuinely pull off the sympathetic uwu softboy serial killer Jason is so often portrayed as in fandom, and even more impressive that it’s managed to get me on board. It works for this universe, and the way it’s treated its characters!
Liz: Look, the writers knew they needed to kill a Titan to get us to take this seriously, but they also didn’t want anyone to be too upset. Hank was the ideal candidate. I also really liked the way they handled Bruce eventually taking Robin away entirely. It’s not the punishment it’s sometimes shown as in the comics—he is truly trying to make the best choice he can for his son, and learn from his past mistakes.
Of course, Jason interprets this as him being the mistake, which was predictable and terrible. Bruce is experiencing character growth, which I was not expecting based on the previous episodes (reminder: he had files on potential Robin replacements, so he’s not universally anti-child soldier, just not for Jason). Bruce made two good choices this episode—sending Jason to therapy and telling him he shouldn’t be a vigilante for his health—and both combine to bite him in the ass. Hate this for him, love this for me.
Corey: Honestly, I’m all about this fucked up Bruce. I don’t know if this episode made RobinQuest 2021 more or less upsetting, but it did give me a new appreciation for his broken “I can’t do this alone” to Dick earlier in the season. He’s clearly regretting every choice he’s made, even if he’d never admit it to anyone but himself, and this just makes it more obvious — taking Robin away made things worse, so the answer has to be more Robins. It’s not quite the level of performance of doing a hallucinatory Batusi flanked by strippers, but this was a pretty good showing! I’m seriously interested to see how Tim gets brought into this whole mess.
Liz:: I wonder if we’re going to see some sort of connection between Jason helping the youth of Gotham and meeting Tim? Tim’s Batman fandom seems like it’s built for getting him in to trouble, and in the current Gotham, which lacks Batman and Robin, he could do something stupid. Plus, it looks like Red Hood’s not solely acting as an assistant to Scarecrow— he rescues Diego, the boy Molly told Jason about earlier in the episode.
He drops the kid off at her home in the middle of the night, and she immediately knows that it’s him (which I appreciate—no way you wouldn’t recognize your dumbest friend if they just put on a mask). Maybe Tim gets involved in the missing children case. But who knows! This is Titans, and generally the actual plot is more ridiculous than I expect.
Corey: You’re totally right, Liz, and I absolutely love it. No matter what happens, it’s gonna be messier than I could possibly imagine, and that’s ultimately what makes this show work. Everyone here is a disaster, and they’re all committed to making the most baffling choices possible in any situation, so I’m fully prepared for Tim’s next appearance to be the start of an ill-advised Battle for the Cowl arc, or something!
Liz: I’m going to put my bets in for the underdog candidate: a Captain Carrot appearance. Fingers crossed for next week!
Other Notes
- I have seen this tiktok a thousand times this week and it ruined some of the emotional scenes of this episode for me
- The closed captioning identified Dick as “Robin” during the previously segment, and it made me laugh.
- I genuinely do not want to consider Bruce and Leslie *awkward hookup noises*, and I think that suggestion was Jason’s first action on the road to villainy.
- This week’s musical highlight: as Jason experiences a bad post-resurrection trip, Crane smokes and dances around the room to In A Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly.
Liz Large is a copywriter with a lot of opinions on mutants.
Lex Smith
Lex Smith is probably tired right now. They're definitely trying not to think about everything they have to write! When they're not staring at a blank Word document, odds are they're tweeting, playing Pokémon or wondering how they ended up with such a smart-ass kid.
