Deron Generally
Deron GenerallyTitans
HBO Max
Season 3 Episode 1
Barbara Gordon
Desperate to leave his mark, Jason Todd confronts the Joker once and for all. But when fatal consequences ensue, Dick Grayson is forced to step away from the Titans and return to Gotham City.
Jason gets a lucky break and is able to track the Joker’s location after he causes destruction in the city. With Bruce out of the city, he decides to take matters into his own hands and go after the villain himself despite Bruce’s warnings not to. I’m not a fan of this version of Jason Todd and the first three minutes of this episode solidify why. While the portrayal is meant to show him as a brash, reactionary hot head, it shows him more as a whiny, petulant, moronic child whose entitlement oozes out of every pore. Also, the F bomb he drops is so forced it almost made me laugh.
Jason goes in alone into an obvious trap and frankly gets what he deserves for doing something so stupid. It’s a shame that moment felt so utterly bereft of emotion, but it wasn’t meant to make you care. It was a plot device used to move the story forward. The Titans return is actually much better handled. Nightwing is in control, his fighting looks great and he almost seems to be enjoying himself which is a departure from the previous seasons.
Beast Boy still only turns into a tiger which still sucks, but Conner and Krypto have a great moment in the fight. Starfire has a great entrance, if just a little corny. I liked seeing a grown up version of Gizmo as the bad guy. Embracing the world of the Teen Titans is something I’ve been wanting since the beginning.
A mysterious phone call brings us back to Gotham and a new character is introduced. A character that turns out to be Tim Drake. The intro scene is well done and will reveal a different origin for the character. Dick returns to Wayne Manor in the aftermath of Jason’s death to confront Bruce about what happened. The tour of the manor is well done and makes you appreciate the production design of the series. The production design gets even better when we enter the Batcave. The tension between Dick and Bruce is well done and Iain Glen feels more like Bruce Wayne to me than he did in the previous season. His cold, detached nature is hiding his rage and pain and you get that sense in the performance.
Starfire hits the nail on the head with her speech about Jason and while it is powerful it also showcases one of the flaws in the series being the lack of character growth. Having Jason run off the way he did makes everything he and Dick went through together in the last season meaningless. Dick goes to a multiple casualty crime scene to speak to Commissioner Barbara Gordon about what Jason was working on. After convincing Barbara to talk to Bruce, the three of them have a drink and things get tense. The tension has a great build to it, but it ultimately fizzles out at the end.
Dick continues to investigate what Jason was doing and discovers the lab Jason was using for the compound he took in the beginning of the episode. While analyzing the compound, Dick discovers a file that contains some familiar names and faces. This prompts him to confront Bruce about his looking for a new Robin. It’s a weird scene that makes little to know sense from a character perspective. Things get even more tense when Bruce returns after doing something rash and insane.
Final thoughts on the first episode of Titans Season 3? It’s a mess. It presumes way too much. It assumes even more and it’s so uneven in both its plotting and story that everything just feels off. It gives some great moments and then loses the thread almost immediately in a sea of nonsensical story details that feel forced and goofy. I really looked forward to this season of Titans and the first episode was such a disappointment across the board that I question whether I want to keep going with it.
Titans S03XE01
