Titans 1×06, “Jason Todd,” gives us plenty of Dick Grayson angst, Jason Todd obscenity, and all around Robin goodness in the season’s best episode (so far, at least).
Fair warning — if you were hoping for some forward movement on the mysterious Dr. Adamson, the mysterious organization with which he works, or the mysterious Rachel-bringing-about-the-end-of-the-world prophecy, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you were hoping for more Titans bonding or Dickkory dynamics, you’ll probably be somewhat disappointed.
Because while the Titans do have a fun scene together and Dick and Kory do have a good conversation or two, this episode is mostly a self-contained story about Dick Grayson coming to terms with the fact that he’s been replaced by Jason Todd.
And what a fan-freaking-tastic episode it is.
We finally delve more into Dick’s more recent backstory — including the event which made him start to question the morality of being Robin and the darkness growing within him — and watch him better understand who he wants to be in his present and for the future.
We also spend a good amount of time with Curran Walters’ Jason Todd, who did an absolutely fantastic job as “Robin 2.0” as he dubs himself, playing Jason as a completely earnest, totally eager, and absolutely unpredictable vigilante sidekick to Batman.
Titans has gotten better and better with each episode, and this one in particular is one that impresses on all fronts — character and plot, action and emotion.
Introducing Jason Todd
I was incredibly excited to see this episode and I’m so amped (and relieved) that it delivered on the character of Jason Todd.
Even though Titans could’ve played up the rivalry angle between the two Robins, it wisely avoided doing so, perhaps recognizing that it had all the conflict it needed because of Dick’s inner turmoil at both not wanting to be Robin any more and not knowing how to feel about having been replaced so quickly and easily.
After spending the last five episodes with a Dick Grayson for whom the role of Robin has become a burden, we now get to see someone for whom the role of Robin is an honor and a privilege. Jason Todd describes being Robin as “living the dream” and possesses an enthusiasm for every part of the role that makes him as endearing and likable as it does dangerous.
For Jason, there is no part of being a superhero that is weighty or worth interrogating on a deeper level. Part of this can probably be attributed to his maturity, part of it is probably due to his newness at the job, but part of it is also the deep well of rage that is roiling inside of him.
I kick ass with Batman and I fucking love it.
Because as we know from Marvel’s best hero — with great power, comes great responsibility. There has to be a balance to the power afforded to heroes, otherwise they too easily tip into simply being high-powered bullies, even villains if that power goes unchecked for too long.
Yet despite the fact that Jason Todd — as Dick Grayson says — is clearly dealing with his own shit, we can’t (or at least I can’t) help but like him. He’s so eager to meet Dick Grayson and spend time with him, so excited to fight the bad guys and be part of the Batfamily and so enthusiastic about being Robin that it’s hard to dislike him too much, despite knowing that his rough edges put him and others in danger.
If anything, it makes the path on which he’s traveling that much more tragic because here we get to see the person he was once upon a time.
The best he could
Early in the episode, Jason reveals that he was able to find Dick because of the tracker in his arm — the same one that he has, and one that he assumes Dick knows about as well.
Except, of course, Dick doesn’t know about it at all and finding out about it only further solidifies his belief that “everything Bruce does is in the best interest of one person: Bruce.”
But the flashbacks to Dick’s own past, as well as the sad story of Jason’s life before Bruce came into it, paint a different version than Dick’s black and white rendering of his caretaker and now estranged partner.
Bruce Wayne very well could have ignored the angry child whose parents were murdered in front him — donated money to the circus and moved on with his life. He could have taken the troubled child who tried to steal the hubcaps off his car to the cops, or let him go on to live out his life of crime.
But he didn’t. Instead, he tried to show them another way to channel their sorrow and their rage into something more productive.
“Dick: We’re not animals in Bruce Wayne’s private zoo.”
“Jason: You don’t get it, man. He did it for you — for us. In case anything ever happened, he could find us.”
So what is the truth? Are the Robins simply tools — weapons, even — which Batman sees as his to own, or are they children Bruce took in because he wanted to take care of them and make them better men than he turned out to be?
The answer is likely somewhere in between the two. It’s probably true that there is some part of him that sees his sidekicks less as partners and more as strategic figures in his war against crime. And while it’s probably also true that Bruce was never the world’s best father figure (and certainly there’s plenty of comics canon that backs that up), it’s also true that he took these lonely, lost orphans and tried to provide them with the best possible life he could.
And at the end of this Titans episode, you see Dick at least begin to soften and think differently of his erstwhile mentor. That Bruce maybe didn’t always do right by him, but that he did the best he could.
And maybe he can learn to be okay with that.
And the award goes to…
- Best fight scene: That brutal fight between Jason and the cops in that abandoned warehouse. He just completely runs through all those cops like they’re rampaging villains instead of a group of individuals who are doing their job. I hope some of that Wayne money and technology goes towards rehabbing that cop whose back Jason broke. (Sidenote — Batman and his Batboys sure are fond of warehouse fights.)
- Best Jason Todd scene: Curran Walters is so, so good in this episode and I hope we see him a few more times before he meets his [decades old spoiler alert?] untimely demise at the hands of The Joker. He had a lot of great scenes, but my favorite had to be his confrontation with Dick Grayson about his identity crisis: “This coming from the guy saying I’m not Robin, I don’t want to be Robin, standing there in a Robin suit, carrying that case all over the country.”
- Best individual line: Gar’s “How many Robins are there — are there a lot? Because I would love to be one.” Oh my dear, sweet Gar. His fanboying over Batman continues to be the best.
- Most heartbreaking moment of foreshadowing: Jason saying the tracker in his arm was so Batman could find them in case anything ever happened. Perhaps he goes after The Joker, thinking that Bruce will come find him using the tracker, and so dies thinking that Bruce knows where he is but just didn’t care enough to come in time. Wow, I just made myself really sad.
- Best Dickkory moment: Dick admitting to Kory that he’s struggling with the idea of having been replaced and Kory providing that good ole’ positive reinforcement for actually being honest with her — and himself.
- Most found family feels moment: I loved the entire exchange between the Titans and Jason when they first enter the safehouse. Notice how Dick tries to tell the kids to sit down and watch TV and is completely ignored, yet the moment Kory tells them to sit, they immediately do. I love my found family of freaks and misfits.
- Episode MVP: Gotta give it to Curran Walters’ turn as Jason Todd. I was worried that they’d have him play Jason as trying to one up or lord being the new Robin over Dick, but it wasn’t that at all, thankfully. He did such a fantastic job playing Jason as a kid who’s completely amped to be Robin and enamored with Batman, but who is definitely filled with a darkness and a rage that he isn’t even trying to fight. My heart is already breaking thinking of what’s ahead for his character.