Review: TITANS 4×03 – “Jinx”
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Director: Boris Mojsovski
Writer: Jamie Gorenberg
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Teagan Croft, Ryan Porter, Joshua Orpin, Anna Diop, Jay Lycurgo, Joseph Morgan, Franka Potente, Lisa Hayley Ambalavanar
Reviewed by: Joshua Raynor
Summary
Titans 4×03: With Rachel left powerless, Dick turns to an old friend whose magic could be the key to identifying their mysterious enemy. Meanwhile, Connor and Tim investigate attack victims, and Sebastian finds himself at the center of an eerie plot.
Positives
The horror vibes continue in this episode of Titans as we get a great scene with some sort of small, spider-like blood creature killing some guards so that Mother Mayhem’s disciple can steal forty gallons of blood. FORTY GALLONS! Where exactly did this blood come from? I know it was stolen from the MPD Evidence Warehouse, but why was it there in the first place?
We also learn that Gar and Kory’s storylines seem to connect as they are both tied to this prophecy about the red moon filling the sky and bringing evil with it. I was not expecting that. And I’m pretty sure their stories will connect to Mother Mayhem and her blood cult. They must be the reason behind the red sky.
Positives Cont. – It’s A Nice Day For A… White Raven
I am more than convinced now that we are getting White Raven this season, as Rachel specifically says that her “Soul Self” is gone, and her demon powers with it. And in the comics, after losing that side of her, she unlocked this new power that grew, allowing her to fully explore what she’s capable of and tap into a side of her that she never knew existed.
We are seeing a very different Rachel from what we’ve been used to. Her attitude is so light and upbeat now, which is weird to see, but also strangely satisfying. She genuinely seems happy, even if she does feel some guilt about that. And Teagan Croft is just blowing it away this season!
Positives Cont. – The Mysteries of Gar Logan & Koriand’r
Since I mentioned them at the top, I figured I might as well combine them as I dive deeper into what’s happening in this episode. First up, we have Gar. The always chipper, optimistic Beast Boy we have been seeing over the last few seasons has faded in season four as he is dealing with a lot of internal emotions about who he is and what these powers mean. He opens up to Rachel in this episode about everything going on – the voices calling him “skinwalker” and telling him “when the blood moon is full, the world will fall to evil,” the visions of the tree (which they find), all of it. And they see the red sky, so they know something is coming.
Then there’s Kory. The crux of her story in this episode of Titans happens in a vision she has while encased in stone due to a dark elf’s spell. During this vision, she returns to the Elko Diner, which was first seen in season two, and is visited by a fellow Tamaranian, Zadira, the woman who trained her back on her home world. She tells Kory of a prophecy… her destiny.
“When the red moon fills the sky, my true fight begins.” This is almost exactly what the voices were telling Gar.
She also tells Kory “you alone can save them, all you have to do is listen.” This ties into the end of the previous episode, when we saw that her power (which she still knows very little about) was the only thing that could stand up to Mother Mayhem. And lastly, it seems that Dick may be part of her destiny as well, but in what way, we don’t know.
Positives Cont. – Jinx & Dick’s Magical Past
As the name of the episode suggests, we are introduced to one of the Teen Titans’ prominent adversaries, Jinx. We quickly learn that she and Dick have a past from his time in Gotham, not just from working together, but in a more intimate sort of way. Because of their history, Dick opts to try and get her to help them with their Mother Mayhem problems. They do a great job of showing off some of her magical abilities in this episode, most notably when she escapes from Bludhaven Penitentiary and when she has to use her powers to reverse the dark elf’s spell on Kory.
During their conversation in the car, she mentions that Dick blew her in to Constantine, officially placing him within this universe. This excites me for the future possibilities, or maybe even a Justice League Dark-style spin-off series. By doing something like that, they could dive deeper into the world we glimpse within the supernatural night club.
Dick gets to show off some major ass-kicking skills in this episode as he easily handles a group of bouncers at the supernatural club, as well as taking down Lironne, the Dark Elf.
Also, Jinx seems to be sticking around for the time being, and will hopefully play a decent role in helping to combat the coming mayhem (pun intended). Especially if she wants Dick’s $5 million!
Positives Cont. – Mother Mayhem & The Seduction of Sebastian Sangre
Things continue to move along between Mother Mayhem and the (hopefully) soon-to-be Brother Blood, Sebastian Sangre. Mayhem’s plan is progressing, as she has already stolen Rachel’s power, as well as a bunch of blood… but what exactly is her plan? Is she planning to try and summon Trigon? If so, that could be amazing and would obviously tie directly into Rachel’s story.
We get to see more of her abilities when she mimics the tech guy’s voice when calling Sebastian. This turned out to be a key part to her plan to get Sebastian on her side, which she almost succeeds at, but doesn’t, thanks to the Titans. Over these first three episodes, she has been slowly working her way into his brain with the blood visions, the death of his mother, and now the wrongful murder accusation. She’s breaking him down until he’s ready to accept his destiny.
We also learn that Sebastian has a genetic mutation that traces its origins back to an ancient Assyrian tribe called the Kurzus. Assyria was one of two major Mesopotamian cities, alongside Babylonia, and in ancient Babylonia, the astrological signs were grouped together by threes and called “trigons,” and each trigon represents one of the four elements. Is this at all related to what is happening here? I don’t know. This is just a theory based on my own knowledge, but I do think it would be an interesting way to tie it all together and expand the mythology.
Positives Cont. – Tim & Connor’s Day At The Lab
Lastly, lets talk about Tim and Connor. Most of their time in this episode is spent at S.T.A.R. Labs. Tim is finally starting his Robin training after almost dying last episode. Dick wants him to be ready for whatever is coming. We get some great scenes with him training with his bo staff, using Connor as a practice post. It was great to see the excitement of Tim next to the annoyance of Connor as he has to just stand there letting Tim hit him. We also continue to get some teases of a possible relationship brewing between Tim and Bernard, but they’re definitely playing that one slow.
Connor, on the other hand, is still dealing with the fallout of Lex’s death and being accused of murder. You can see he’s beginning to lean into his anger and frustration a bit, getting testy with Tim, being rude to Bernard, and even arguing with Dick about how to handle Mayhem. I know part of it is that he’s also trying to prove himself after being so easily defeated by Mother Mayhem at the end of the last episode. He feels like he needs to defeat her alone, but I worry that he’s going too far down the loner route and will end up costing the team, and possibly even driving himself down a dark path.
Negatives
Where did the MPD get all that blood from?? Even though it shouldn’t, it really bugged me that there just happened to be forty gallons of blood being transported in some barrels, ready to be stolen by some blood cult.
We barely got any actual power usage from the Titans, which is fine in general, but it’s just something I missed here, especially not getting any sort of transformation from Gar. I know it’s pricey for the show to do those, and they’re probably saving them for the big fight, but I just love seeing him transform, and was bummed we got nothing.
And finally, I would’ve loved more from inside the supernatural club. As I said earlier, I truly hope we get a JLD series that dives more into this world of magic and the supernatural. Bring back Jinx, and have people like Constantine, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, and Enchantress show up. Could be great!
Verdict
Overall, this was another fantastic episode in what is shaping up to be the best season of Titans yet. They are setting up a lot of really interesting things and I just hope they’re able to deliver on them all.
