Titans 2×04 ‘Aqualad’ gives us our first real look at the first generation of the Titans, but mostly functions to set up the upcoming episode.

After my first watch of this week’s episode of Titans, I immediately turned to my husband and said, “well, that was a table setting episode if I ever saw one.”

After my second watch, I thought, “I think this might be my least favorite episode of Titans.”

The jury’s still out on that one, but I do feel comfortable in saying that this episode was the weakest out of all the season 2 episodes we’ve been given so far.

After a stellar and seasons (yes, both seasons) high episode 3, Aqualad is a complete momentum killer — one that develops the current plot in the least efficient way possible, while also giving the most development to a character we’re not attached to and who we likely won’t see past this episode.

In fact, this episode brought to the forefront an aspect of season 2 that’s been on my mind — the continued focus on the first generation of Titans. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoy the first generation of the Titans team, but it’s strange to me to shift the focus to them in this season when Season 1 was all about the new generation of Titans.

When season 2 started, I initially thought that the focus would be on having the new generation come together as a team after having spent the first season getting to know them as individuals. However, right now, it seems that the show has a split focus — getting us up to speed on what happened with the first generation while also trying to put together a new generation.

I’m not overly fond of having the season split its focus between the two, if only because the first season did such a good job fleshing out the next generation Titans that I actually want to see those characters come together for the first time — not rehash what happened with the first generation.

Still, it’s early in the season, so it’s more than possible that the rest of the season will focus on the new team Titans coming together. I sure hope it does. While I do think it’s important to understand the sins of the past, as a viewer, I’m much more interested in the potential for the future.

Since the episode was called Aqualad, I assumed that we’d get a lot of him — and I was right. The episode is a full 42 minutes of flashback, wherein we get to meet Titans 1.0 at the height of their glory.

That means meeting Garth/Aqualad, a character we’re told has had a heavy emotional impact on the Titans but whom we have never before even heard mention of until the last episode.

Because of this, the episode has to do a lot of heavy lifting with guest star Drew Van Acker’s Aqualad — too much, in fact, so that to me personally, the story of Aqualad just didn’t land like I felt like it needed to or was meant to.

To be fair, I think that both the writers and Drew Van Acker did the best with what they were given — it’s just that they weren’t given enough. The episode was responsible for introducing Garth, building a full romance between him and Donna, and then killing him in such a way that it makes us understand why the Titans fractured like they did.

That’s way too much for one character and one episode to take on, and the seams didn’t quite hold. We don’t know enough about Garth for his character’s death to really hit us for its sake, and the romance between him and Donna seemed stilted — at best — and weirdly coercive, at worst.

Had Titans slowly built up the character and loss of Garth over the last season and a half, dropping hints as to what he meant and who he was, then the episode wouldn’t have had to shoulder so much of the burden with regards to his character.

In fact, one of my biggest takeaways from this episode was that if Titans was going to be so intent on focusing on the first generation, I wish that season 1 had instead been season 3. That way, the show could’ve given us two full seasons of the original Titans and their adventures and exploits, and then ending with their dissolution.

That way, season 1 could’ve started with a time a jump and progressed as normal, with the season 4 being a focus on the new Titans coming together as a team, rather than forcing the show to split its focus between two different teams and storylines.

But enough of my alternate universe version of Titans, let’s get back to this actual episode that aired.

Aqualad’s characterization aside, this episode felt very much like a table setting episode. Not much happened that we hadn’t already inferred through context or by close watching of the trailers. It ended right when I wanted it to begin, which bodes well for the next episode but doesn’t say too much about this one.

However, there were some bright spots — though they mostly served to make me wish that we got more of those stories rather than the one we actually got.

I really enjoyed seeing the first generation Titans act as a team, and the chemistry between the actors is so good that you can easily see why they quickly became such a found family. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Dawn and Donna, as I feel like we could always use more female friendships on our screen, and the continued brother-sister relationship between Dick and Donna.

I also was very interested in Donna’s background and destiny, and of course lit up at the name drop of Diana and Themyscira. That’s actually the story I want to learn more about, because I’m not quite familiar with the backstory of Donna at all.

In episode 1, I requested a webseries of the misadventures of Hank and Jason; in episode 2, I wanted a webseries that centered around Kory and Donna’s superhero team-up. In this episode, I formally put in a request for a webseries that provides us more backstory on Donna.

The highlight of the episode for me — as they have been in all the episodes thus far — was Slade Wilson and Jericho Wilson.

Seeing Slade at his prime is unreal, and in just a scant four episodes, Esai Morales take on the character is honestly making a bid for best on-screen version of Slade Wilson.

We are treated to Deathstroke as a professional assassin, badass and all around just someone you do not want to fuck with and it is simply delightful. There is real menace and power to Deathstroke that Trigon didn’t have, and I’m nearly giddy thinking about his titular episode next week.

It wasn’t all Deathstroke, however, we also get to see a bit of his side as Slade Wilson, a father who couldn’t keep the people closest to him safe.

Chella Man has been excited about his casting ever since he was able to announce it online, and that enthusiasm for the role and the character really shined through in his performance. We don’t get to spend too much time with Jericho, but — just as it was with Rose — the time that we did spend with him was enough for me to both stan him forever and wrap my arms around him to keep him safe.

Also, as with Netflix’s The Dragon Prince, I really liked the choice not to subtitle or translate Chella Man’s sign language — we’re able to infer what he’s saying through context, and it’s fantastic representation for the Deaf and HoH community.

Given that we’re headed back to the present day with the next episode, I still have no idea whether Jericho is alive in the present day or if his death in the past is what leads to Slade’s vendetta against the Titans.

But damn, am I excited to find out.

Stray Thoughts and Lingering Questions