Complications
Recap: The episode begins with Twilight Sparkle singing about how everything is fine... wait, no, that's the MLP finale. Whoops. YJ begins with Deathstroke giving Black Manta a progress report on how Miss Martian is doing in repairing Aqualad's brain, saying that she's partially restored his psyche but she's still a long way from completing the job. He walks off to check for himself, and while he does so M'gann is having a gloomy conversation with Artemis about how she knows that BM plans to kill her as soon as the treatment is completed. ...Only it seems that AL is already cured, and that they're actually faking his paralysis at the moment to buy time until they're able to save M'gann's life. BM then tells them that they have 24 hours to save AL or he's just going to take what he can get and kill her anyway, which sets up the time line of the episode.
Title sequence.
Elsewhere, War World is still on orbit around Earth following the events of the last episode (weird, I wonder if the tidal effects effected BM and Co. in their submarine?). On War World itself, Nightwing is understandably annoyed abour how his entire Team has gone missing, with the exception of Jaime. Jaime lies, saying that Mongul used a Boomtube to escape and kidnapped the rest of the Team into the bargain, and that he only escaped by instinctual flying upwards to escape. This, understandably, puts the League on alert, as the key to WW has gone missing as well, and they won't want it falling into enemy hands. Dick tells him that he didn't do anything wrong, and sends him home with Green Beetle. Dr Fate looks suspicious about the situation, but Nabu has just gone one of those faces I guess. Jaime keeps saying he's sorry, though whether it's part of the act of part of him trying to break out of the mind control... we'll just have to wait and see.
Back at the BM sub, Cheshire and Sportsmaster are making their attempt as murdering AL for "killing" Artemis. Chesh says that she's only working with her father to avenge her sister, while he makes it abundantly clear he's only there to get revenge for BM damaging his reputation. Chesh heads out to kill AL while SM heads off to kill BM. Surprised that Jade's hair managed to fit into her deep-ocean diving suit, really. They head off to their respective targets, JUST as AL and Artemis come up with a plan to save M'gann. Unfortunately just as Artemis leaves the room to start her part of said plan, Cheshire starts off her plan by electrocuting Artemis' replacement guard. M'gann tries to tell Jade what's going on, only for Deathstroke to deactivate her telepathy and tell BM about the attempt on his son's life.
While Artemis tries to find the remote control to M'gann's collar, SM launches his attack on BM, presumably counting on Cheshire's attempt to kill AL as a distraction. He actually... does really well against a guy in a suit of power armour, and manages to beat the crap out of BM with a ball and chain, but he's chased off by some of BM's henchmen before he can finish the job. He knocks them out with an exploding disk thing and advances on BM menacingly...
Cheshire, meanwhile, is becoming confused as to why M'gann is trying to save Aqualad when it's evident that she's the one responsible for putting him in this situation in the first place. She and the non-powered M'gann fight for a while, and eventually she manages to fake wrestle the earlier henchman's gun to shoot out the camera Deathstroke was using to monitor her progress with AL. M'gann tries to use this time to tell Cheshire that Artemis is alive, but she has trouble due to being punched the face. With M'gann knocked out, AL stops pretending to have a mental condition and just tells her that Artemis is both alive and on the submarine... only for Jade to assume he's lying and trying to save himself.
Back on War World, Nightwing is investigating the scene of the disappearance... and demonstrating why Jaime shouldn't have bothered trying to lie to the apprentice of the World's Greatest Detective, quickly finds evidence that Blue Beetle was lying about the entire thing. And not only was he lying... but there's evidence that Robin attacked BB there too...
In the submarine, Artemis manages to deactivate M'gann's collar... only to find that it isn't doing any good as she's been knocked out. Rushing back to AL's room, she finds her dad fighting BM in a battle that has pretty much wrecked the section of corridor they were in. To maintain cover, she ends up having to take BM's place in the fight while he goes to check on his son, which doesn't help matters as now her dad is trying to kill her instead. BM pretty much outright kills the henchmen trying to open the door to AL's room with explosive charge by prematurely detonating it with his eyebeams. Finding that the door has apparently hit AL as it was flung inwards (whoops), BM rushes to his son's side... only to be knocked out by a stun thingy thrown by Cheshire. Before Jade could kill AL and SM could kill Artemis though, M'gann wakes up and uses her powers to knock out everyone in the sub and transport herself, Artemis, Cheshire, SM and Aqualad to a mental plain. Which coincidentally looks like Artemis and Jade's old apartment. Chesh almost immediately works out what's going on, and angrily calls out M'gann for stealing a memory from her childhood. Only it's actually a memory from Artemis'.
M'gann gives Chesh and SM the lowdown as to what's going on, and Jade quickly comes to accept that her sister's alive, to her relief. SM doesn't buy it initially though, until back in the real world Artemis beats him in their fight using a move that only he had taught her. SM and Cheshire are surprisingly good sports all things considered (Jade is just happy Artemis is alive, while SM is proud about how Artemis has so thoroughly managed to pull one over on Black Manta and the Light) and agree to fake an extra fight to allow M'gann to escape. AL fakes a degree of recovery to save BM from getting "killed" by M'gann, which keeps up the charade as Cheshire and M'gann escape. And SM caps it off by blowing up the control room of the sub, erasing the security tapes of Artemis, M'gann and AL revealing their secrets to Artemis' relatives.
Later, in Gotham City, Cheshire comes along to pick up Lian from her mother's house. She tells Jade to cherish her time with her daughter as much as she can because she never knows if some day she'll be gone. Jade uses this time to provide her mother with some much needed good news regarding Artemis (aww). Meanwhile, BM is proudly showing off his son to Vandal Savage and the Reach Ambassador, saying that seeing his life in danger was the catalyst needed to fully reform his mind. The Ambassador gives his congratulations... And this is followed by Nightwing watching the TV in his Bludhaven hideout as the Ambassador showers praise on Blue Beetle for saving the Earth from the War World, closely followed by Jaime publicly unmasking and thanking the Reach for giving him the ability to save the world. This turns out to be the final piece in the puzzle needed for Nightwing to work out what exactly happened in the last episode, and that Blue Beetle just screwed him and the Team over...
Review: I really, REALLY liked this episode. Possibly the one that I've enjoyed the most out of the 2013 run so far. One of the things that I've liked in the show (seasons one and two) are the character moments, and there are certainly plenty in this episode, and not just between Artemis and her family either. I liked the possible implication that Jaime is somewhat aware of his actions, in addition to the little moment with Artemis and Jade's mum at the end of the episode. Considering they implied that she had become somewhat suicidal after Artemis' death, letting her know that she's still alive was probably a very good mood on the part of Jade.
The interactions between the family members was certainly the high point of the episode to me, with the action scenes being a close second. BM and Sportsmaster's fight, in addition to his brief fight with Deathstroke were both really cool. I also thought that it was a surprising move showing BM outright murder his own crew in his attempt to rescue his son, though it makes sense in regards to the characterisation that they've already established with him. I am kind of left wondering how exactly they'll resolve his relationship with Aqualad though, considering the whole thing between him is surprisingly sweet, if somewhat one-sided.
Other things I liked... I liked that SM and Cheshire weren't actually mad at Artemis for her deception, being too amused at the audacity of the con she's pull and just happy she's alive respectively to care. I also liked that Nightwing was shown doing detective work to work out what exactly happened at the end of the last episode. As I said, you don't attempt a lie like that when you're dealing with the apprentice of the World's Greatest Detective. Though it does now raise the question as to what exactly he's going to do about it, will he outright confront Jaime about it while backed up up some heavy hitters (Dr Fate, Captain Atom etc) or will he carefully move him into less important activities until Dick can work out some kind of new game plan here.
Good episode overall, though I am left wondering where it'll go from here. A return of the, now Luthor sponsored, Superfriend analogues (yes, Asami is meant to stand in for Samurai, thank you blog commenter)? A back-up team made of new heroes that Jaime, the Reach and the Light don't know about to fill their ranks? Uncertainty is actually a good thing, as becoming predictable would have made the rest of this already short run kind of less fun to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment