Teen Titans S02E12: Aftershock, Part 1
Man, this two-parter. It's not as good as the earlier Terra episodes, I think, but it's a great finale to the second season, to the Terra arc, and indeed to the first part of the Teen Titans as a series -- the show was initially pitched as a 26-episode season, with this adaptation of the Judas Contract arc being the season/series finale. We did get a definite end, with a darker ending, a 'death' and getting rid of Slade as the constant big bad, shaking up the status quo a bit.
I absolutely loved the two-parter as a kid, and I liked it a fair bit as an adult watching it nearly ten years later. I've since read the actual Judas Contract comic and am surprised that Terra was a gigantic double-agent bitch from the very beginning and every friendship moment with Beast Boy has been an act... and this is a great adaptation that actually makes the Terra story a lot more tragic and emotional-string inducing.
Here in this two-parter Terra is slightly less interesting because, well, the big 'which side of the coin will she fall' has been done with, and she spends most of it just hamming it up and being evil, which, while an expected occurrence after the reveal that she's a villain and been sent to that line after Beast Boy (from her point of view) has 'betrayed' her, but that's a lot less interesting than her being conflicted.
We get Terra assaulting the Titans on the T-car and winning over them, getting a power upgrade from the evil Darth Terra costume that allows Slade to help her get an edge over Robin in close combat fighting, and she's grown her powers stronger that she can create rock creatures. We get a bit of a moment where the other Titans want to treat Terra as another criminal, while Beast Boy tries his best to defend Terra because, well, she's Terra. There's a nice moment on Beast Boy, showing that he's conflicted and that he's more than just the comic relief, with her defending that he knew Terra better than the other four did, and arguing Robin with an armour piercing "did we give up on you when you worked for Slade?" And, yeah, for all they knew, Slade might've injected the other Titans with nanobots. The showmakers probably won't repeat the plotline, but that's a valid point to bring up.
Terra and Slade, meanwhile, have recruited Cinderblock, Plasmus and Overload, the three 'monster'-type villains that have shown up several times throughout the series, and put them under Slade's control. Slade does a bit of a 'divide and conquer' bit, unleashing the three monsters on three parts, forcing the Titans to split up and allowing Terra to take them all down one by one. It's a bit wonky because it's odd for Terra to be able to travel between places so quickly, and the apparent 'demise' of the Titans didn't feel dangerous at all. Raven drowning in a pool and Beast Boy/Cyborg falling into a collapsing fissure kind of works as a PG-rated death/defeat, but Starfire -- who can freaking FLY -- falling down into the ocean? Yeah, show, at least make it look like Terra actually beat them.
In any case, though, Terra and Raven's fight is the highlight of this long, long sequence, with Terra confronting her dislike of Raven for suspecting her way back in 'Titan Rising', and Raven at one point transforming into the demonic tentacle four-eyed form to attack Terra, and the two's interactions are really well done.
We get a bit of a interaction between Robin and Terra, both apprentices to Slade, former and current... and honestly it fell a bit flat. Maybe it's because Robin never had any significant interaction with Terra, again, a fault of the show for including Terra in so little episodes... but what are you gonna do? Terra apparently bashes Robin's head in with a rock but didn't check if he's dead, but presents Robin's insignia to Slade.
And, of course, the episode ends with a creepy and cool scene of the Titans, underground and in the shadow, deciding as one to show no mercy and treat Terra just like any criminal and that she has to be stopped. Honestly the long montage of Terra taking out (and failing to permanently kill or at least injure badly) any one of the Titans could've been shortened to an expanded and more believable scene of her taking out several -- Raven and Robin, maybe, and trapping them in stone or whatever to make them actually removed from the game. It just felt a bit time-wasting, really, and a bit choppy there.
Teen Titans S02E13: Aftershock, Part 2
The episode starts with Slade's robot army (and the three stooges) marching through the city through a dark filter, with a great monologue by Terra noting that she took out her former friends, but she has no regrets over it. It's a very atmospheric scene, even if Slade conquering the city apparently means 'let's have robots patrol through the streets'. I think it would just be more poetic to show less and tell more, and have Terra standing on the ruins of the Titan tower while the city burned or something. I dunno.
We get a pretty cool scene with Terra being ambushed and beaten down by the totally-not-dead Titans, and she retreats and earns the displeasure of Slade. The Titans' viciousness honestly felt a bit out of character, and yeah they had the whole 'decide to fight Terra' thing last episode, but it felt a bit strange to have them behaving so viciously. Terra runs back while Cinderblock, Plasmus and Overload combine into one big monster (called 'Ternion', apparently), but Slade beats Terra up like the abusive fucker that he is because Terra failed him.
Terra, realizing that Slade doesn't care for her at all, tries to call it quits and walk out the door (what did you expect, really, girl?) but Slade, of course, is able to take control of Terra by using the suit, which has integrated into Terra's nervous system. Honestly this all would've worked better if we actually saw Slade and Terra interacting before this, showing just how Slade managed to get Terra to betray the Titans, the temptations of power-controlling or whatever that Slade offers, and I think that's the big failing to this arc. It's still a very entertaining one, though, and Terra, well, she's definitely turned back on the side of the angels, if only on the virtue that Slade's completely betrayed her.
Beast Boy heads off on his own to save Terra while the rest of the team (who honestly don't really have that close of a bond to Terra anyway) fight Ternion, and finds Terra being tortured by Slade, and Terra begs Beast Boy to 'end' her because that's what he came for... and then we get Terra battling Beast Boy under Slade's control, while Beast Boy keeps telling Terra to fight back.
The ending, of course, ends up to be a bit obvious as Terra stops herself from killing Beast Boy at the last second and unleashes the full fury of the ground towards Slade. Honestly I really wished Beast Boy either snapped Terra out of it without Slade's torture and body-control coming into it and making it obvious, or Slade's manipulations being shown a bit more, or Terra's inner conflict shown more... but for a show aimed at ten-year-olds this is remarkably well-written.
Terra ends up awakening a freaking volcano, killing Slade -- we don't get to see anything graphic, but we did get to see his mask melt into the lava -- and then Terra stays behind to control the damage so the volcanic eruption doesn't destroy the entire city. We get a bit of a touching farewell between Terra and Beast Boy before the stress of her powers turns her into a stone statue. The stone statue is, obviously, a way for them to depict death without being graphic or obvious about it (it's still a cartoon after all) and a way to bring her back should they choose to... and the ending, with the Titans visiting Terra's 'grave' and vowing to bring her back someday, is touching.
I thought the show stumbled a bit at the end with the writing for both Terra and Slade, and the choice of events that they chose to show the Judas Contract... and it certainly deviated a large way from the original source material, with Terra being a sweet innocent girl corrupted by Slade instead of being a co-conspirator from the beginning who infiltrated the Teen Titans... and it's a change for the better, I think. I really wished that we got more buildup for Terra, and I say that a lot of times, I know. But hey, what's done is done, and this two-parter still stood up against the test of time. It doesn't feel as impressive or as satisfying a conclusion as it was when I watched this epic and tragic showdown as a kid, and them keeping Terra's death at the end, PG as it is, really helps to seal this tale. Yes, Terra does turn good at the end, and partly it's Beast Boy's motivation to stop her from giving up and letting Slade corrupt her fully, but sometimes it's too little too late. Yes, it was enough to help her stop Slade and allow Terra to kill Slade, but on the other hand it's too late for her, y'know, not to die.
Oh well. It's a great season finale, if nothing else. Bring on season three. I watched a lot less of season three, and I barely got any episodes of season four and five, so all of those will be mostly new material to me, I reckon.
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