"Koriand'r" - Titans S01E10 Review

So Trigon is here, and he looks a lot like that guy from Castle.

"Koriand'r" isn't a bad episode. But it's still pretty much the Dick and/or Rachel show, with bits of Kory and Gar dribbling out. And long sidetrips to Hawk & Dove, Jason Todd, and Wonder Girl territory. There's nothing wrong with it, and it's basically been an entertaining ride. But there's not much to it, either. Given that Titans has dragged out so long--now ten weeks!--we've been able to see all of the major beats coming. Trigon wants to return to Earth, Angela is an obvious set-up, all the machinations will pull the Titans together and maybe drag in a few other maybe members--Hawk, Dove, Robin Mk. 2, Wonder Girl--for the ride.

Oddly, despite the ten episodes, there are still some plot holes that need resolving. Like why does Rachel want Jason there? And how can she send out psychic distress calls at the same time Kory is choking her? And how did Kory end up in Europe with amnesia? Yes, they sorta explained why she went over there. But there's no real reason in the story for her to do so: everything she did, she could have just as easily done in NYC or LA. Particularly since they most likely didn't go over to Europe to film what turned out to be half an episode's worth of scenes with Anna Diop. And who or what were the Nuclear Family?

But what all happened? Let's find out. After a bit of Rachel wandering around either the DC hospital or the asylum and psychically "yelling" to Hank and Dawn, Dick and Donna bust into Angela's house and stop Kory from killing Rachel. Kory apologizes, saying she doesn't know what came over her. And then drives off, and Dick and Donna follow her with the aid of a Wonder Girl tracking star. Although since they're driving along a stretch of open highway, never lose sight of Kory, and she doesn't care when they do show up, I'm not sure why they bothered.

Meanwhile, Gar (Ryan Potter), Rachel (Teagan Croft), and Angela (Rachel Nichols) chill out in Angela's old house. There's creepy old-timey photos on the wall and I'm not sure what they signify. Angela goes out to her garden and gathers some flowers, and a local guy Thomas (Jeff Roop), her former high school buddy and obvious redshirt, shows up. They flirt and Angela agrees to have drinks with him.

Gar has hallucinations of blood on his mouth, and then of the technician he killed a few episodes ago at the asylum. He then gets sick and starts bleeding from the mouth and nose. Presumably from something Angela put into the soup she gave him earlier, but that isn't clear. Rachel can't heal him, so Angela convinces her to summon her demonic father Trigon (Seamus Dever) to do it. She does so, and pulls Trigon through a mirror. He heals Gar, and is all smiley and paternal toward Rachel. Also, Thomas shows back up and when he tries to get help for Gar, Angela stabs him in stomach and presumably kills him.

Meanwhile, Kory drives an hour or two to an old factory. Dick and Donna go inside with her, because she just shrugs when they show up and is all cool with them following her. Kory's cloaked spaceship is inside, and there's an old book and a "future projection" video of Kory's home planet Tamaran burning up. The old book says Trigon will come and destroy worlds, starting with Earth but eventually moving on to Tamaran. There's also a picture of Rachel and her mother in the book, and the trio figure out Angela is in cahoots with Trigon. Under the category of "too good to be true", duh.

And her having landed her spaceship an hour's drive from Angela's house just makes the whole jaunt to Germany odder. Presumably the old house and its creepy supernatural stuff has something to do with bringing Trigon to Earth: why not nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. :) Okay, Kory might not have known it. But since they keep portraying her as a ruthless alien killer, why wouldn't she do it?

Kory, Dick, and Donna, drive back to the house only to find it's disappeared. Dick jumps through the cloaking field and goes into the house, while a force field keeps Donna and Kory out.

And that's it for this week. Next week for the season finale it looks like we get more back story on Dick and his psychological issues, as he confronts his dark self in the old house. So I hope you like Brenton Thwaites, because we'll probably get a lot (more) of him.

As for the rest, "Koriand'r" only spent about a third of its time on the title character. And we didn't find out anything about her that we didn't already know. It doesn't give Ms. Diop much of a chance to do any acting, since it's mostly exposition. Her go-round with Donna and her threat of a rematch is amusing, but it's only about a minute out of thirty-nine in the episode. The rest of it is Rachel and Gar bonding, Dick and Donna chat a little more about Dick's past, with Donna (Conor Leslie) still undermining Dick's "I'm above it all" self-image every chance she gets, and Angela not-so-subtlety encouraging Rachel to use her powers. Not just to save Gar later in the episode, but general "Your darkness can be harnessed for good" dialogue throughout the episode. Which would be a bit more touching if Ms. Nichols didn't portray Angela as such an obvious mole.

Mr. Dever is okay in the brief bit we see of him. I liked the brief hologrammatic glimpse we got of him in his demonic form on Kory's ship more than his human form. And doing a charismatic cult leader isn't the toughest role: ask Julian McMahon over on Marvel's Runaways. Which starts on 12/21, if you want to see more teen heroes.

I think we've got one more episode in the season, and we still have Hawk, and Dove, and Jason to show up. Because having three more non-powered vigilantes will clearly turn the tide against the world-crushing Trigon. At least Donna has a magic lasso, tracking stars, and a knowledge of ancient languages. So she brings something to the table. The other three? Not so much.

And really, they need some power. Gar can only turn into a tiger: shouldn't he be Tiger Boy rather than Beast Boy? Although there are hints he can do more. Rachel is on Trigon's side although she'll probably do a last-minute turn to the light side. However, she seems awfully daughter-happy to see Trigon at the end of this episode.

Kory can throw flame blasts, which doesn't seem like the greatest threat against a demon. You'd think it'd be like hitting Aquaman with water. And Dick can't do jack power-wise and what he does best--the ultra-violence--he's trying not to use. Granted, the Titans weren't powerhouses in the comics, either, but they had Cyborg, Kid Flash, and a Rachel who wasn't trying to make nice with her daddy.

Given the TV Titans don't have the power to lay the smack down on Trigon, my guess will be that Rachel returns to the light and eventually banishes Daddy Dearest back to his imprisonment realm. After Dick faces his dark side (again). Maybe, Hawk, Dove, and Robin Mk. 2 will show up to get knocked on their keisters.

And then hopefully we won't have to wait 41 weeks for an 11-episode Season 2 where the Big Bad doesn't show up until the tenth episode.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?