Titans 1×11, “Dick Grayson,” was an episode where so many things happened, yet literally nothing happened.
Unlike the previous episode, “Koriand’r,” which was named for a character that received a scant 20 minutes (maybe) of screen time, this week’s episode, “Dick Grayson,” focuses exclusively on its title character.
From the very beginning, it’s obvious to us that the entire setup of Dick being married to Dawn, with a young son and another child on the way, is part of an elaborately crafted illusion (or Knightmare scenario, if you want) foisted onto Dick by Trigon.
It’s an immersive experience — not only in its length (which I’ll talk about later), but also in how deeply it takes us into Dick’s psyche, Gotham and the Batman mythos.
And while I’m very much a Dick x Kory shipper, and found myself deeply moved by Dawn and Hank’s origin story and subsequent start to their relationship, I will admit that I didn’t completely hate the fake life concocted by Trigon for Dick. Of course, most of that definitely has to do with the fact that I knew that none of it was real and my ships were still safe and sound in the real world. Still, I do love Dick and Dawn as individual people, and so couldn’t help but enjoy seeing them both so happy and carefree — even if it was with the wrong person.
Dick’s marital bliss is interrupted by Jason Todd (literally) rolling up to tell him that after years of worrying that it’ll happen, Batman is in danger of fully succumbing to the darkness within him and needs someone to talk him away from the ledge.
“Jason Todd” was one of my favorite episodes, and, again, even though I know this is all a dream, I still really enjoyed the interaction between Jason and Dick, as well as the plethora of names casually dropped by Jason and his admission that Dick has always been The Robin to Bruce Wayne’s Batman.
Our journey into Gotham gave us one easter egg after another — from the Wayne manor, to the (murdered) rogues gallery, to the Batcave — while also continuing to explore Dick’s complicated feelings towards Bruce and his own identity issues as the superhero formally known as Robin.
And, really, as both a longtime Batman fan and someone who’s really enjoyed the way that Titans has developed Dick’s arc of heroism and identity, I will say that Dick’s journey to Gotham and his showdown with Batman was absolutely fantastic.
But I also wish it’d been about 25 minutes shorter.
When I initially saw the preview for this episode, I was amped, but also sure that the obvious dream sequence of Robin versus Batman would be 20 minutes, tops. It had to be, was my initial thinking, in order for the rest of the episode to deal with the fallout of calling Trigon to our world and wrapping up season 1’s storylines.
“Dick Grayson” did exactly none of that, instead extending Dick’s dream sequence to cover almost the entirety of the episode and closing out season 1 without having resolved any of the storylines (the existence of Trigon, Raven’s struggle with her powers, Kory’s forgotten origin, Dick’s identity crisis) and doing so by giving us a cliffhanger that was as perplexing as it was — honestly — kind of boring.
Honestly, it felt like Titans had cut an entire episode off of the season. If “Dick Grayson” had been part 1 of a two part Titans season finale, I would’ve been unequivocally singing its praises.
Instead, I’m left to write a negative review of a show that I’ve really enjoyed watching over the last 11 episodes, but which fumbled the ending.
So with the season now behind us, and season 2 slated for the last quarter of 2019 (at the earliest), let’s talk about the first season as a whole.
While I loved almost every single episode on its own, I do think that the overall pacing of this season was rather choppy.
At times, it felt like this first season of Titans was attempting to launch three different shows at once — the adventures of Hawk and Dove, Robin’s journey towards becoming Nightwing, and Rachel’s confrontation with her father. Now that we’re on the other side of the season, I do wonder if it might’ve been better served had Titans chosen to focus on one of those storylines rather than all three.
Regardless, I do definitely think that that Titans could have benefited from a few more episodes to really flesh out each of the characters and to allow the story arcs more breathing room.
The switch from one storyline to the next could sometimes be jarring and, in the case of the second Hawk and Dove episode, a momentum killer for the general flow of the season. If the season had been 16 episodes — or even the previously slated 13 — I think the pacing of the story would’ve improved dramatically. It’s a cliche, but I do think that the parts of Titans season 1 were better than the whole of it.
But I’m really not that upset about that — who can be, when the parts of it are so damn good?
Titans season 1 gave us a fantastic cast of characters — with Brenton Thwaites’ Dick Grayson and Anna Diop’s Kory Anders being the particular standouts — and consistently gifted us with strong individual episodes littered with DC easter eggs and references.
And if it wasn’t the perfect season or the best season finale, it is still one of my favorite TV shows on air and one that I can’t wait to see return in 2019.
Not just for Superboy (but also for Superboy because holy shit that end credits scene had me out of my chair and yelling), but to see how this ragtag group of misfits figure out their place in this world and with one another, and combine to kick the ass of whatever demon, alien or deranged supervillain comes their way.
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