Young Justice: Episode 25 - Review and Recap!

Usual Suspects

- Recap

It all begins at the Hall of Justice, which is all iced up because it's now winter in the YJverse. The Justice League have assembled on the balcony, and Superman is giving a press conference regarding the new members of his team. These include Plasticman, Icon, Red Arrow, Atom etc.

Meanwhile, Rocket, Icon's protege, has joined the Team and they're all watching the press conference from inside the Hall. Wally remarks how he's glad that they didn't kick Billy out, though his reveal that they have a ten year old on the League causes him to get a jab to the ribs as Rocket doesn't actually know about his secret identity. Rocket complains that since she was the one who convinced Icon to join the League in the first place, she should be out there celebrating with him, though Aqualad says that really this is something she should get used to.

When Roy is given his official League Membership card the guys on the Team cheer, and start talking about how no one will call him a sidekick anymore. This gets an irritated comment from Rocket, why do I get the impression this will happen a lot from now on? She asks what's so wrong with being a sidekick as it was people like Robin, Kid Flash etc. that inspired her to be a hero in the first place.

The press conference wraps up, with Aquaman being asked if Atlantis will join the UN etc? And the new members of the League file inside, as they are going to be shown the Watchtower for the first time. Icon comments how Rocket probably won't like being made to wait inside, but when they get to the waiting room they find the Team has disappeared.... dramatically?

Title sequence

It turns out that the Team have gotten information that Cheshire has been spotted in the Smoky Mountains, and they've all gone off to arrest her. This makes Artemis nervous, for the previously stated reasons. They follow the plane to the place that it apparently crashed, and they begin searching the rumble for survivors. It seems that the reason why the police etc. haven't responded to the plane crash was that it was a League alert, thus up before the regular emergency services, and Robin hacked the signal to get it before the rest of the League, as the situation in New Orleans makes them feel it was their unfinished business. They search around some more, only for Chesh to appear from behind a rock, with Artemis looking visibly revealled that her sister wasn't killed. Unfortunately she wasn't the only supervillain around, as the Riddler, Mammoth and a bunch of henchmen seal the Team in with a forcefield. Eddie then reveals via awful pun that it was an ambush.

Cue an actually pretty impressive fightscene, with each of the members of the Team and the bad guys having something to contribute with even the henchmen actually get a few good shots in with their New Gods weaponry. Conner finds that he's only got one patch left, and procedes to use it to start destroying the forcefield pylons. Mammoth tries to tackle him though, but new superpowered Conner procedes to use Superman level heatvision and strength on him. His empowered state is noticed by Robin though, who see that Conner is suddenly flying when he previously couldn't do it.

Conner flips out and beats Mammoth with such force that it causes a landslide, which Chesh actually saves Artemis from getting smooshed. Chesh concedes that, despite everything, they are still sisters and she doesn't actually want Artemis DEAD. Cheshire then promptly disappears, but leaves the mysterious New Orleans case behind. Everything is then wrapped up with Robin knocking out Mammoth's sister, and Zatanna tying up and gagging  the Riddler at long distance with her powers. And the Team have apparently won, huzzah!

Back at Mount Justice, Batman chides the Team for hacking League security and running off without informing them first... BUT they also managed to arrest three supervillains and proved that Hugo Strange is running Belle Reve prison as a hotel for criminals, so Bats smiles and congratulates them. The Leaguers then wander off to their induction party. But the Team aren't happy.

Aqualad says that the fact that they had a trap prepared means that they must have been tipped off by someone, which causes Artemis to complain about the mole thing getting brought up again. Conner complains about it too, though Aqualad does point out that his attack on Mammoth almost got Artemis killed. It's just at this point that Luthor contacts Conner via hypersonic messaging again, and says that if he wants more patches then he has to come to Santa Prisca for another meeting. Conner makes his excuses and leaves.

At the island though, it seems that Luthor and Mercy are waiting with Queen Bee. Luthor then pretty much reveals that existance of the Light to Conner, and complete with how they're now working with Bane now. This makes Conner finally twig that the Injustice League was just a distraction, which is the point that Artemis and Cheshire arrive via helicopter making a bad situation even worse. Artemis claims that she's joined her father and sister as she was fed up with the lack of trust with the Team, and then M'Gann shows up and is promptly hit with the blackmail hammer by Queen Bee. Conner says that he'll join up with the bad guys too if he gets more shields, but Luthor guesses that he's lying and just shuts down his brain with the Red Sun command again.

Later, Sportsmaster is telling the new "recruits" what their mission is. But while Conner is standing in a daze, it flashs back to just before he left Mount Justice, revealling that he'd already told the Team what his secret was. This sudden rush of truth causes Artemis to reveal who her family is as well, which makes Wally realise why the New Orleans mission failed. She says she was worried what the Team would think if they found out, causing Robin to reveal that he already had, and that it doesn't matter as she's on the Team now. M'gann then owns up to being blackmailled and shows why, causing Aqualad to say does she really think that they are so shallow to kick her out based on her looks. Conner then reveals telepathically that he'd known her secret since they merged mentally back in the amnesia episode, before they became a couple, and that he'd been waiting for her to say what her secret was in her own time. Aww.

Back on the Island, Artemis fires an expanding foam arrow at Blockbuster, aka the mad scientist from the beginning of the show, immobilising the supervillain with the most physical strength, while M'gann TKs Queen Bee against a tree, removing the Light's ability to reprogramme Superboy. Artemis then fires an exploding arrow at Chesh and their dad while explaining that she'd been wanting to play her dad just like he'd been trying to play her.

Conner advances on Luthor, explaining that M'gann had already erased the Red Sun command from his brain, while also saying that they've found out that the Team had rescued him from CADMUS before any other commands could be placed in him. Luthor asks Bane and his men for help, and they start shooting at the Team, who in turn call in the rest of the group for reenforcements. The fight scene continues, with Luthor carrying the unconcious Queen Bee while roboMercy just blasts anyone that gets in their way.

Luthor and Co. manage to escape via helicopter, but the Team manage to defeat Bane, Blockbuster and Sportsmaster with a combination of New Gods tech and Zatanna's magic. Chesh just decideds to leave her dad in her young siblings custody though, after Artemis reminds her what an abusive dick he used to be. Then Artemis knocks him out by kicking him in the face. She and Wally then make up, with her giving her dad's mask to him as another souvenir.

The blackmailling crisis averted, the Team celebrate. But, up on the Watchtower, something else seems to be going on. Batman is studing the nanotech that the Team found earlier in the episode, but while he's doing so Roy walks up behind him and sticks one on the back of his neck. So it turns out that he's the Mole, hurmph. Batman and NotRoy walk to the Justice League's meeting room, where everyone is standing in regimented lines while staring blankly into the distance, implying Roy got them too. The episode closes out with Batman teleporting Vandal Savage onto the League satellite just as Roy comes around, who is shocked that he was infact the Mole. The League kneel before Savage, and he glares out at Earth through one of the windows...

- Review

An episode that managed to handle characterisation, action, and both big and quiet story moments all with equal skill, yay! ^^ Managing to complete the plotthreads that were introduced over the course of the season, the Mole subplots, Artemis' relationships with her family etc. it also managed to finish on a great cliffhanger which really makes me want to know what is going to happen next.

It was also fun to see that the Light's overconfidence once again caused their plan to fail, as it hinged almost entirely on the Team continuing to be dishonest to each other for it to succeed. Which, as heroes, it's something that really couldn't have lasted that long really.

There were also a nice series of character moments within the episode that I liked, such as the interaction between Cheshire and Artemis, Artemis and Wally and just how utterly unflappable Lex Luthor was. Rocket seems that she might be a cool character as the series progresses, though this being her introductory episode in the midst of some pretty dense plotting, she probably wasn't able to get as much done she might have.

Roll on Young Justice: Invasion, which I believe starts next week!