Teen Titans, Season 4, Episode 3: Birthmark
Man, what an awesome, awesome episode. After the relatively mediocre Robin-learns-kung-fu episode and the irritating Control Freak episode that opened the season, we finally get an episode that absolutely blows the two of those out of the water with the sheer quality. And it's not just that serious = good, but man, when Teen Titans want to tell a good, serious story, they definitely can manage one. From the mystery about just why Raven is so antsy and counting the hours down, to the hilarious 'takedown' of Dr. Light, to Slade rising out of the grave as a demon-zombie, to the surprise birthday party that immediately got ruined by Raven going all emo, to the creepiness of our first hints of Trigon when Raven's room turns into a hellscape, to the absolutely amazing confrontation with Slade that just has so many callbacks to the first two seasons...
And then Slade just absolutely whoops the asses of the other four Titans, showing an absolutely spine-chilling 'crack your broken bones into place' animation, before hounding down Raven like a persistent predator and speaking all sorts of creepy shit into her. The voice acting for Slade is just unnaturally smooth and creepy while all sorts of creepy demonic tattoos burst into life on Raven's skin and tear away her clothes, while Trigon's voice cryptically tell Raven that she will be the agent of this world's destruction and stuff like that. The ending has Raven be all happy (as much as she can be), deigning to have a party with her friends... while the demonic tattoos persist on her hands, while Slade reports to the unseen master.
It is stunning, and it's a small hint of what's to come. A great buildup for the Trigon arc, it back fan-favourite villain Slade... only now he's practically indestructible, with new hellfire abilities and is serving a new, dark master... of course, longtime DC geeks would know just who this mysterious demonic figure in Raven's dreams are, and just why her birthday is a dangerous day. There's definitely a great element of horror mixed into all this, and when all the other jokey characters get taken out by Slade -- Raven herself has never been the most humorous and mostly relegates herself to sarcastic jabs -- it's full on creepy serious mode for those several seconds when Slade just creeps up to Raven and delivers a message. Whatever destiny that her father wants for Raven, it will be done. Slade is obsessed on one person again, only unlike when he's being obsessed around with Robin (trying to make an apprentice) or Terra (trying to destroy the Titans from the inside) he's very gladly inflicting sadistic mental torture on Raven simply because it coincides with his orders from his new master.
Man, I remembered watching this episode not knowing that Slade will return, and it's a definite delight. The focus on Raven for this season is absolutely welcome as well. She's easily the most mysterious of the bunch, and we've had lots of hints about just what truly drives her, why someone with such... creepy and obviously-evil powers is fighting on the side of good. She works great as the focus of the episode, moreso than Cyborg has in the last season... mostly because, well, Cyborg isn't all that interesting, and they didn't really focus on the important parts. We could've had a pretty cool 'humanity versus machine' inner turmoil character arc throughout season three (which would actually reflect the Cyberion/Technis arc in the comics, plus make sense considering the Fixit foreshadowing) but instead we get the mediocre Brother Blood story.
Anyway back to Raven. She's very interesting, and this episode definitely brings up the mystery surrounding her straight to the forefront. Robin get to be the one that really wants to understand her and attempts to do so the most, being the Titan to get the most dialogue that Raven bounces the most dialogue off of. It makes sense. In addition to being the mature one of the team, Robin is also the only one with a dark history -- his tenure with Slade in season one -- and who knows the importance of keeping secrets sometimes, even from friends. He's the most chill-headed one of the bunch, and it's going to begin a Robin/Raven friendship thing that is actually quite well done, if a bit too subtle compared to all the other relationship hints in this show. Robin isn't pushy, he doesn't demand answers, but he trusts Raven, and just helps out. The mind-meld that the two of them had when Slade returned in Robin's mind probably helped Robin be more understanding as well.
And bringing back Slade? Teen Titans didn't have the best track record with villains, with most of the recurring ones being awesomely-hilarious-but-ineffective (Mumbo, Killer Moth, Mad Mod), irritating (Control Freak, Gizmo on a bad day) or simply devoid of personality (Cinderblock, Plasmus, Johnny Rancid). Slade's just balls-on awesome, though.
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