So it's kind like the Star Trek movies. The odd-numbered ones are one way, the even-numbered ones are the other. In the case of Titans, the odd-numbered episodes have to do with the Titan. While the even-numbered ones have to do with someone else. In Episode 2 we have Hawk & Dove, in episode 4 we have the Doom Patrol, and in episode 6 we have Jason Todd. One wonders who we'll get in episode 8: oh, wait. It's titled "Donna Troy", so I guess we'll get Wonder Girl.
"Jason Todd" is more about Dick Grayson as the former Robin, as presumably we see how he becomes Nightwing. There are token appearances by Rachel and Gar, and Kory gets a few things to do. And there's a token amount of the main plot with Dr. Adamson (Reed Birney) being taken out of his apartment and kept for interrogation. But mostly it's Dick, Dick, Dick!
And Jason Todd (Curran Walters). We find out Jason came to Chicago following the implant tracer Bruce put in Dick's arm. Someone is killing the people in the Haley Circus using hydrofluoric acid, and there's just one member left: strongman Clayton Williams (Lester Speight). Clayton is now living in Milwaukee, and Dick goes there to protect him and takes the young over-eager Jason with him to keep him out of trouble.
It turns out the son of the man who killed Dick's parents, Nick Zucco (Kyle Mac), is out for revenge. As we find out in flashback, Dick-as-Robin wasn't happy when the Feds captured Tony, Nick's father and the man who killed Dick's parents. After intercepting the federal transport van, Dick beats Tony to a pulp and then leaves him for the gunmen sent by his former boss in the Maroni crime family. Nick heard Dick threatening his father and figured out that Dick = Robin. Now he's using the same hydrofluoric acid the Maronis used to kill Dick's friends, to lure Dick out since Dick got his father killed.
However, Nick (who himself got hit with some acid to the face along the way) didn't anticipate Jason would come along. The second Robin takes him down, and while Nick guns him in the bulletproof chest costume, Dick knocks him out. When the police arrive, Jason beats them to a pulp until Dick stops him. Jason cheerfully admits since the police kicked him around in Gotham, he's glad to kick some Milwaukee police around since Batman isn't there. He totally likes the crime-fighting and driving the Batmobile and considers Dick a weak sister, and takes off.
Meanwhile, Dick keeps Adamson at a Wayne safe house and brings the proto-Titans there. In the end, Adamson tells Kory he won't talk to anyone but Rachel. The end.
If a lot of this doesn't make sense, it's because you have to know a fair amount about the Dick Grayson's back story. Some of it, like why the Maronis killed his parents, is explained. Some of it, like the whole hydrofluoric/Two-Face thing, is tossed out there. Good thing it's on a channel dedicated entirely to comic book fans.
"Jason Todd" also tends to demonstrate that so far, the show is more about Dick than anyone else. Judging from the episode titles, that will hopefully change. But even Rachel is more a convenient plot device to bring the Titans together with Dick as their leader. While exploring Dick's background, anger issues, and so on.
Titans is actually a bit like Gotham. Both of them are origins stories, of the Titans and Batman, respectively. "Jason Todd" is more Gotham-like than the previous five. Nick is the kind of wacky disfigured villain that you get on Gotham, and they might be setting him up as the Joker to Dick's Robin. The "is he or isn't he Joker?" thing they've played with on Gotham is a lot like what they do here with Nick. He's not a total nutcase like Jerome Valeska, but it's clear the acid bath to the face has knocked a few screws loose. Nick doesn't have superpowers: he's just a guy with a gun and a never-seen bottle of acid.
There's a fair amount of time dedicated to Jason Todd as well. Which is more than the comics did with him originally that I recall. He's a "This is what I could have turned out to be" mirror version of Dick: confident, swaggering, happy to be a Robin and give into the violence inherent in the role, and glad for the opportunity to beat up on cops when Batman can't catch him. So he basically exists to throw more light on Dick's character. But I could see him coming back in his Red Hood role to fight the Titans and specifically Dick a few seasons down the road. Maybe not as a season-long threat, but as a one-off.
Basically "Jason Todd" is for the viewers who really really want to get into Dick's psyche. Brenton Thwaites is still good in the part. There are bits of humor scattered throughout: Rachel and Gar's reactions to the new Robin, Jason trying to get into a bar with an obviously phony ID, and Kory's still hurt reaction to people thinking she killed the Nuclear Family.
"Jason Todd" is really for the die-hard fan. But if you're watching it on DC Universe, you probably are a die-hard fan. The channel is aimed mostly at die-hard fans. So if you're one of those, you won't be disappointed in "Jason Todd". It brings out another previously unseen live-action version of a comic book character (Jason), it out-Gothams Gotham, and it loosely ties it all together to the ongoing Titans saga of season 1.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Written by Gislef on Nov 17, 2018
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