Episode 7 of Titans is here, bringing with it delights like ice cream, puppies, and handwritten letters to friends. Let’s get into “51%”.
Liz Large: Jason! You’ve returned from the dead, just like another Jason I know. Glad you’re here to talk about this episode with me!
Jason Large: Lazarus pits take 1-2 episodes. I’m glad you’ve been able to talk about Kori with Corey and Cori. But now I am back to what seems to be the shift to the second half of season 3. Any initial thoughts?
Liz: This episode was what I’ve been wanting—it was fun, and let the characters be the stupid idiots I know they truly are. And Blackfire was perfect. What did you think?
Jason: From a critical perspective, I’m a bit underwhelmed by our antagonists here. But this episode does shine with some great inter-team moments.
Bat Tracking
Liz: Our episode opens with our two remaining cop cast members (rest in pieces Hank) getting late night calls. It isn’t good news! Jason’s drug distribution has resulted in a lot of mayhem. There’s a moment where they teeter on the edge of realizing that this is all their fault, but they move past it pretty quick.
Jason: Not the late night call Dick was hoping for, but we’ll come back to that later. In the meantime we see Jason and Crane have a nice little chat where Jason reminds the audience just how dumb he can be.
Liz: This poor dumb baby bird is doing his best! He is pitiful in this scene, as he lets Crane’s very obviously fake praise get his guard down. Crane is trying to do a “I’m not a regular dad, I’m a cool dad” bit, but he is barely putting in any effort. Obviously the drugs he gives Jason are poison. This kid is so stupid. I love him.
Jason: This is really the biggest failing of season three for me. The show doesn’t seem to get the actual motivation behind the Red Hood and is instead turning him into a semi-mind controlled underling of Scarecrow. At this point I see either having Red Hood reach a point where he kills Crane to elevate his ‘bad guy’ status… Or, more likely, have this become an excuse for Jason Todd to be forgiven and become a member of the Titans for season 4.
For a show that advertises being dark and gritty take on DC superheroes, the inability to actually address the Red Hood’s goals or motivations (sometimes murder is right) is leaving a lot of potential on the table.
Liz: I don’t think you’re wrong! They boxed themselves into a corner by trying to make themselves different from the existing material. They are doing something that started off as unpredictable, at least, which I give partial credit for. Mostly I just want to root for this kid, and therefore will ignore any bonkers plot twists so I can do so. Me and Beast Boy are going to form a Jason Todd fan club, it’s fine.
Jason: We do get introduced to the top-secret Oracle. While in the comics, Oracle was Barbara Gordon, here we get a mashup of AI, Cerebro, and a little bit of that cell phone sonar machine from Dark Knight. Unlawful search and seizure laws have nothing on your ex asking nicely, so we get a location on Crane real quick. Looks like this is going to be one of those short episodes.
Liz: This is the sort of poorly planned dumb stuff I was wanting: Dick calls Superboy and asks him to meet Dick at the location. Dickolas, why did you not simply ask Superboy to listen super hard? Is that not a skill he has? You’re so bad at this!
A skill Conner does NOT have is seeing through lead, so when they arrive at what is clearly a trap from Crane, he’s not able to see through the lead lined car. He’s also not able to disarm the bomb attached to the man inside, since Crane has changed up the mechanism from the previous ones. Not a very super morning for this boy.
Jason: Not only does some guy we’ve never seen before die, Commissioner Gordon gets to watch from the perfect angle. Now she has all she needs to realize Crane has compromised Oracle and Oracle must be destroyed, which is what Crane was hoping for. This kinda just seemed like a convoluted way to make Crane seem smart and throw out a comic book reference.
You may be asking, “Isn’t it important to know how Batman stopped Scarecrow last time?” and I will reply by saying “It doesn’t matter because he’s the goddamn Batman… Also Scarecrow isn’t really a top-tier Batman villain.”
Liz: What’s great about the writing on Titans is that it’s literally impossible to determine if Dick and Babs have some sort of plan here or not. Were they getting into an awkward “exes with feelings” argument because their sexual tension is off the charts, or was it to try and manipulate Crane in some way? Nobody knows! It’s great. Who cares about what happens to Crane? Nobody!
Crane’s plan involves utilizing the increasingly-reluctant mobsters to move his product through the city. He gets power, the mobsters get money, and the people of Gotham get drugs. Win-win-win, according to his business plan.
Jason: Crane sees himself as a businessman and a business, man. Also as a doctor. What he doesn’t seem to recognize is that maybe all the mob bosses don’t want to be under his thumb. This provides an opportunity for the ‘Sisters Fire’ as they look to make a deal without the knowledge, or approval, of Dick. While the actual story beats seemed a bit drawn out, it gave us some quality time for Starfire and Blackfire to get a bit more at ease with each other.
Sister Sister
Liz: I love them so much! They decide to track down a disgruntled mobster that Blackfire heard about last episode, but they have to go alone. As Starfire explains, Dick won’t work with mobsters because they were responsible for his parents’ deaths. Blackfire points out that she must think she’s better than Dick, since she’s here working with the person who directly killed her parents.
Blackfire will eventually explain why, but for now she says the episode title and references one of their dad’s old sayings: if your choice is 51% good and 49% bad, you take it.
Jason: After Blackfire goes along with what Starfire says only to have it come back to bite her (or in this case the mobster’s son) in the face. Starfire then needs to let off a little steam and reduce their mob boss to cinders. The dog walker returns in time for this whole series of events to result in more than just a double homicide.
Liz: I loved how this turned out. Starfire reunited the mob boss and her son in part because she was certain that family is some sort of unbreakable bond, and it’s always worth being with your family. She seemed truly shocked when Nox killed her son—something that the son, Blackfire, and the viewers all expected. This shock is exactly the opening Blackfire needs to explain what exactly happened back on Tamaran.
When Kory stayed on Earth after defeating Trigon, the people of Tamaran began to blame Blackfire (already disliked) for keeping their favorite princess away. They rioted and demanded her death in the hopes that it would bring Kory back—and their parents agreed to it to keep the peace, in a 51% type decision.
Blackfire did what she had to do, but the people don’t love her the way they love Starfire and she’ll never be able to rule alone. She wants Starfire to come back with her and rule together. If this is all true, and not a lie? I am rooting for them.
All Titans got the win, but only some Titans scored.
Jason: And with that and a series of other investigative plot points about power grid usage that is just too exciting to discuss here, the Titans are ready to save the day. Always fun to watch them punch/smash/ignite things/people while the villain Crane defeatedly yells at what he is seeing and the other mob bosses decide to leave out the back.
I like that the show has to let you know, this time, the team wasn’t falling into a Scarecrow trap, he definitely didn’t want this to happen! He does manage to run off with a Red Hood who has spent the majority of the episode tied up.
While the Starfire explosion CGI wasn’t great, the sparks flying between Conner and Blackfire hit the right notes for me.
Liz: I loved the effect when Blackfire put on her gauntlets and her whole costume materialized. The fight flirting is pretty great too, though it can’t measure up to the joy I get every time Krypto plays a pivotal role in the fight.
Afterwards, the team praises Krypto and enjoys some beers back at Wayne Manor while they enjoy the feeling of getting a win for once. They’re all so happy! When Kory suggests they order ice cream for delivery, Conner says that he’ll go get it. He can beat Doordash, and is clearly trying to impress Blackfire. It’s very sweet!
Jason: Meanwhile Barbara announces that she’s leaving but instead ends up in Dick’s bedroom. Now Dick doesn’t even need a phone to make that call he wanted at the beginning of the episode. I hope the kissing leads to those two crazy kids learning to trust and properly communicate with each other, but this is Titans so the goal becomes more: Be better than Hank and Dawn.
Liz: Speaking of being better than Hank and Dawn, there’s one more thing before the episode ends. Beast Boy is the only Titan who we’ve seen worry about Jason lately, and the only one who fully believes that Jason is being manipulated and/or drugged by Crane and needs to be saved.
He uses his abilities to sniff out Jason’s hidden stash of secret items, and it really is a drug sniffing dog moment. He finds a hidden letter, and logically, his next step is to bang on someone’s door extremely late at night. It’s Molly, Jason’s only other friend. Looks like it’s time to team up and help our boy!
Jason: By “our boy” do you mean Tim? Because last we checked he was straight up not having a good time. I’m interested in where they take Scarecrow and Red Hood from here, but I doubt they’re quite as on the run and desperate as Dick thinks. Crane was operating out of Arkham, so it’s not like he had this one built up as a stronghold. But that’s a story for another week.
Liz: If we’re lucky, it won’t be the story for next week, because I want to get a Blackfire and Superboy date sooner rather than later.
Final Thoughts
- I love the recurring “it’s you! From TV!” moments the Titans have with various people. They’re famous and people like them!
- Conner knows what ketchup is!
- The Snowy Cones ice cream mascot is oddly menacing for a snowman, but I loved that one of the mobsters was just enjoying a nice cone while waiting for his drug pickup.
- I hope someone (the dog walker?) is taking care of Nox’s dogs.
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.
