Brief Thoughts On Titans Season 2, Episode 11

Sometimes, help comes from unexpected places.
This week’s episode of Titans offered some curious new ideas. For one: it introduced the Batman’s (Iain Glen) ability to cause car trouble in Ford trucks. It also made Elko, Nevada the most important city in American for exactly twelve hours. Looking it up, Elko is in fact a real place. The city is the seat of Elko County with a population of 18,297 people. Interstate 80 happens to run straight through the middle of it, so it is actually plausible for Dawn (Minka Kelly) to be driving through when Bruce engineered her truck’s “check engine” light to go off. Less plausible, though, is Bruce’s successful doughnut gambit.
That said, it is interesting to see Kori (Anna Diop) turn into a mess. All season, we’ve said she seems more capable of leading the team than Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) and we continue to stand by it. Even in her attempts to drown her sorrows, Kori still ended up doing more constructive and cathartic things than the former Robin. It’s no accident she invited a psychiatrist up to her room. And in the interest of supporting our belief in here, we will also point out Bruce waited to send the Elko message to her until she confronted the fact she was happier on Earth.
As for Dick, we hope this latest kick in the pants will actually stick. As it happens, the DC Daily team’s guess about Jericho (Chella Man) proved to be correct. But we’re inclined to believe Deathstroke (Esai Morales) is not the only person the body jumper is inhabiting. Now that we’ve seen the real Bruce Wayne dispense sagely wisdom, we’re inclined to believe a part of Jericho is the phantom Bruce aiding Dick toward his new identity. The alternative — Dick’s psychotic break — certainly has an appeal, but Jericho brokering a peace between everyone has a stronger thematic underpinning. We want the team to actually exist after two seasons and if it takes a disembodied metahuman to do it, we’ll take it.
And we’re going to need that team in tact if Lex Luthor is taking an interest in them. From Mercy’s (Natalie Gumede) actions this week, it’s pretty clear Lex is not in league with Deathstroke, but is in fact his own bad actor in regards to Conner (Joshua Orpin) and Gar (Ryan Potter). For a moment, we thought his stay at the Lexcorp lab might unlock some of Gar’s other forms, but seeing him programmed to kill Titans is a much dirtier play on Mercy’s part. Also, we appreciate the way Titans is playing Mercy as a Lex proxy. Someone with as many schemes and concerns as Lex must delegate and she seems to take as much pride in her work as he does. But with only two episodes remaining, we’ll be surprised if this plot wraps up before the end of the season.
But the most curious of ideas presented this week is the sort of actually sweet thing going on between Jason (Curran Walters) and Rose (Chloe Zhang). We’ve enjoyed making fun of Jason throughout the series in part because Walters has always given him the exact insufferable punk edge we want from the character. But this week’s episode somehow successfully gave him some depth just by revealing he was a secret drama geek. It explains so much and strengthens the bond between him and Rose — mainly because he was actually able to share something with her beyond his dumb teen boy bravado.
Also, we appreciate that Rose was Slade’s operative the whole time, but in a reverse move from “The Judas Contract,” her budding relationship with Jason made her reject Deathstroke’s plan. With this, we can assume she was the one planting those significant objects in the tower. Will this matter going forward? It is difficult to say. Considering all the secrets and animosities already pulling the Titans apart, Rose’s seeming betrayal will be of little concern for the group when they reassemble.
Titans streams Fridays on DC Universe.