This episode has flashbacks, knife fights, and the beginnings of a beautiful friendship. Join us as Titans’ third season continues with “Lady Vic”.
Liz Large: Two flashback-focused episodes in a row, and this one featuring a stupid young Dick Grayson? I’m living my best life.
Cori McCreery: And an equally stupid young Barbara Gordon. Both of these children are so so dumb, and also played by their current actors, so do not look young at all. I know I signed on to talk about this episode with you because of what we can only dub… Frat boy Dick Grayson. So shall we, Liz?
Liz: Let’s journey to a beautiful place: New Jersey.
A Warm Welcome
Liz: We’re in for a treat this week, as we get to meet yet another new character. I was inclined to hate her, since she isn’t Tim or Donna, but I gotta say that whatever she’s doing with her accent means that I am now rooting for her. I don’t make the rules, but I am legally obligated to enjoy whoever is doing the weirdest thing.
Cori: This is Lady Vic, and she’s a C-List Nightwing villain created by Chuck Dixon, and she wears considerably more clothing in the live action adaptation. But she has the same absolutely terrible British accent. She’s a contract killer and god bless her for killing those two incredibly dumb cops at the beginning. Live your best life girl.
Liz: She’s having a great time! Driving into the city we see a “Welcome to Gotham” sign that’s been graffitied with “Now go the fuck home”, and I just love New Jersey so much. If I had to introduce some people who weren’t familiar with the highs and lows of life on planet Earth, New Jersey would be the first place I’d take them. Really, Kon and Blackfire are so lucky to be here.
Can you spot the difference between these two pictures?
A Toast to Being Young and Fun
Cori: We’ll get to them in a minute, but first we have to talk about Dick Grayson’s fever dream. His dream is of when he and Babs said, “Ya know what, screw our dads, a life of jewel thievery is what we really wanna do.” And you know what? Good for them. (Writers note: I actually very much do not like this plotline but the joke was too good to pass up). Dick stops Babs from trying to steal from a museum to keep her dad “on his toes” and then the two of them grab a brewski, and the best moment in my life happens when Richard John Grayson puts on his baseball cap backwards and embraces full frat boy douchery.
Liz: This was truly the stupidest thing, I love it. It makes zero sense that the two of them have decided to rob museums, and somehow even less sense that this was a mere six years ago. They do have a great hand to hand combat scene while they fight over a fragile vase, and I think they do a good job showing their chemistry. I think jewel theft is a great date activity, and inviting your date to maybe fight crimes with you in the future is another great idea. Babs saying that she would never join Batman and Robin because they follow too many rules, which is the most bonkers thing anyone has ever said. Cori, do you think his backwards hat gives Dick the power of good romantic decisions?
Cori: Good romantic decisions, but freaking terrible name decisions as he tells her that she should put on a costume and become Robingirl. Dick you are the absolute dumbest person on this show now that Hank is dead. The flashbacks also give us what was Dick and Barbara’s first encounter with Lady Vic as she was trying to steal from the same museum and a fight ensued and now Lady Vic holds a grudge. Before we get to how that grudge plays out though, we should probably talk about the rest of the team a bit I think.
Family
Cori: Conner meets Blackfire by first getting mistaken for a manservant and then getting a knife thrown at his head, which I can only assume is just how she flirts, especially with how much she flirts with him the rest of the episode. She’s got it bad for our baby (I cannot stress this enough he’s like six months old) Kryptonian).
Liz: I simply choose to ignore that. He’s not a boy. (Yet not a Superman.) I just feel like we haven’t gotten a ton for Conner to actually do this season, and I’ll take what I get. Interacting with Blackfire has really been the first time he has really had much visible emotion in a while, and I like it for him. Sure, everything she’s telling him about herself could be bullshit but it’s working for Conner! At the very least, she’s paying attention to him, since she was able to clock him as being half-human, half-Kryptonian pretty easily. (Although, weird, since she talks about how he has Kryptonian strength and I thought that wasn’t a thing they normally had when not on earth, but okay.)
Cori: So it’s not Earth specifically. It’s the yellow sun. Which Tamaran also has, but for real, when did Blackfire meet a Kryptonian is what I want to know. Conner, though, is nursing some grade A survivor’s guilt at not being able to save Hank’s worthless life, and he really needs to stop beating himself up over it. Especially since while hanging out with the Anders sisters he gets a second shot at defusing a heart bomb, and gets it in time this time. He’s a baby, but he’s learning. While he was saving this random doctor’s life, Blackfire ditches both of them and Kory gets real mad about it.
Liz: This sister dynamic is perfect. Kory’s horrible (but maybe cooler) sister is hitting on her friends and making fun of her for doing chores, and then Kory has to bring her out with her friends since she’s too irresponsible to stay home alone, and she runs off?! If we don’t get at least one scene of one of them stealing the other’s clothes, I will be surprised.
Sitcom hijinks aside, Blackfire is really becoming sympathetic here. When she reappears towards the end of the episode, conveniently having found all of the information Kory needed, Blackfire tells Kory that she’s not mad that Blackfire left, but that she came back. Kory has defined herself in opposition to her sister, and she might not be able to keep doing that. She absolutely deserves the large drink she pours herself (and I bet Bruce Wayne’s liquor cabinet is top notch).
Cori: Damaris Lewis is absolutely incredible as Komand’r, and you’re absolutely right that her and Anna Diop have immediately perfect chemistry as sisters. Also this is absolutely the best version of Blackfire we’ve ever gotten. I love her. Know who I don’t love? Bruce Wayne. That dude calls Babs up and asks her to meet him in Crime Alley, and guess what? It’s a stupid freaking trap set by Scarecrow and Lady Vic. But even so, Babs shows that she still has moves. This is perfect, because my favorite version of Babs is the “never gonna be a victim again” version that we see here. She absolutely holds her own against Lady Vic.
Liz: Okay, my only quibble was that Babs fell for the trap, because Bruce is a famous rich guy and I’m looking at over 400,000 results for “bill gates soundboard” so I assume it isn’t hard to fake him saying things. Beyond that though, this was great. She just kept going at Lady Vic! Unfortunately, she gets away with an up close photo of Babs that I don’t think the Scarecrow is going to hang on his wall. It’s concerning, and his drive to make a better version of the drug he’s giving Jason is also concerning.
Cori: Know what else is concerning? Jason giving that very same drug to some random street toughs… Which results in the cliffhanger ending of the episode as they shoot Tim’s dad and leave him for dead.
Liz: I cannot believe this show is going to try and make me choose between defending Jason Todd, who has done nothing wrong, and Tim Drake, my main Robin! Unacceptable! Jason had a really bad week when he realized that (obviously) Crane doesn’t view a literal child as his partner in crime, but this isn’t actually an acceptable way to handle it! Poor Tim is going to be VERY upset when he finds out what his hero has been up to.
Notes
- Babs says “fuck Batman” in this and that meant a lot to me, personally
- During the scene when Dick and Babs drink, The Way by Fastball is playing and the show becomes a period piece (also Fastball is still doing shows so I know what I’m doing post-pandemic)
- Dick Grayson is literally every dude I knew my freshman year of college. He found a way to set fire to your goldfish tank in your dorm room.
- He hasn’t gotten smarter– he tried claiming that BEING SHOT was fine, because Bruce got shot all the time. Not a good example!
- How bad at being detectives are this universe’s Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne? Just so bad.
- Maybe it’s like a “better if the kids drink in the house” thought process?
- A huge thank you to Jason Large for the images in this article.
Liz Large is a copywriter with a lot of opinions on mutants.
Yes, it's Cori McCreery—strange visitor from DC fandom who came to Xavier Files with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal critics. Cori, who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, race a speeding bullet to its target, bend steel in her bare hands, and who, also works as an editor for a great Eisner winning website, Women Write About Comics, fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice.
