"Together" - Titans S01E05 Review

Well, like the title "Together" says, finally the four protagonist got together. And did some fighting. Okay, a lot of fighting. Lots and lots of fighting. And some bonding. And some sex. So, you know, it's all good.

I'm still digging the Rachel/Gar dynamic. Making them the same age instead of the comic book version of Raven who often comes across as middle-aged or older works a lot better. It makes Rachel less of a loner, for one thing. So instead of the unsympathetic manipulator she was in the comic books early on, Rachel is a young sympathetic girl.

If anything, I'd say that Titans is a bit over-stuffed. We had Hawk and Dove in episode 2, and that doesn't seem to have amounted to much of anything. Now we've got the new Robin. And we're only halfway through. What's next, Jericho and Wildebeast?

But what is over-stuffed? Let's find out. Dick trades in his Porsche for a minivan and the team parks in a motel. The MILF owner Sheila flirts with Dick as he checks in, and we never do find out what happens to her eventually. Dead as a dinosaur, I guess.

The team then goes to a barn, which presumably Dick bought with some of the Wayne fortune. They demonstrate their powers: Kory burns through a tractor, Gar strips naked behind a hay bale and turns into a tiger, and Rachel unleashes her soul self but can't control it so Kory blasts it back in.

Meanwhile, creepy Dr. Adamson (Reed Birney) goes to an asylum and has a doctor recruited a new Father, aka Stepdad (Zach Smako) for the Nuclear Family. He goes home and in another non-plot-moving scene, introduces himself to the family. They find Dick's Porsche at a used-car lot and beat the information about the minivan out of the salesman, Gerald.

Back at the motel, Rachel and Gar chat. Dick doesn't reveal anything about his past, so Kory tries to get him drunk. They have sex, and then Sheila comes by and offers to shack up with Dick. He turns her down, and when she walks off, there's a thump and when Dick looks out, all he sees is Sheila's ice bucket on the floor. Like I said, dead, I guess.

The Nuclear Family then launches an attack on the proto-Titans. Dick fights Mother and Stepdad, and Kory fights Brother and Sister. I guess they're brainwashed humans, since earlier at the asylum we saw the asylum doctor showing the Stepdad-to-be his inner darkness via hallucinogenic drugs as part of the brainwashing. But they sure come across as androids: they take a lot of damage and come back for more.

Eventually Dick puts on his Robin costume and takes out Mother and Stepdad. Gar Tony-the-Tigers on Brother, and Rachel tosses Sister away with her soul self. The subsequent interrogation proves less than helpful, but Dick finds Adamson's address on the Family's tracker and goes to his penthouse. The creepy old woman offers him a butterscotch, and then Dick confronts Adamson in his penthouse kitchen. Adamson has already hit the detonator switch on the Family, blowing off their heads. There are a number of funny parts in the episode, but Kory's reaction when she sees the headless corpse ("He's going to blame me.") is probably the funniest.

Adamson warns Dick the organization knows Dick is there because the elderly woman is one of "them", and Adamson has failed. A bunch of gunmen show up, and soon overwhelm Dick. But then the new Robin, Jason Todd (Curran Walters), shows up and beats them to a pulp.

Basically "Together" is a get-to-know you episode. Each of the proto-Titans flaunts their stuff, and then they get into a big fight with the disposable Nuclear Family. Like I said, the Rachel/Gar pair-off is good, and Ryan Potter gets a good "acting" moment when he describes what it's like to turn into a tiger. I hope eventually he displays his comic-book ability to transform into any beast: right now he's more Tiger Boy rather than Beast Boy. And he's so slloooowww. By the time he turns into a tiger, most fights would be over.

The Dick/Kory pairing also works pretty well. Yes, they're an item in the comics. But it was pretty much a given there: of course two of the prettiest New Titans are linked up. On Titans they're more feeling each other out. And feeling each other up, as we get a bit of PG-13 sex to go with the soft R violence Titans has given us so far. And which we see here as well, as the Family takes a lot of damage. Including one bit where Robin throws a spike into Mother's forehead and she calmly pulls it out. That's more than steroids or whatever drug they're on.

"Together" brings the team together, writes the Nuclear Family finis, and moves the plot along. It clocks in at a brisk 39 minutes, and moves along nicely. It continues with the creep factor: Adamson seems just as divorced from reality as the Nuclear Family are, and the elderly woman is just as weird this time as two episodes ago.

Overall, "Together" is a watchable episode in a watchable series. If you've been waiting for them to do some super-powered heroics, this is the episode for you.

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