Teen Titans, Season 5, Episode 3: Trust
The first in the many episodes to focus on the 'Titan Hunt', the fifth season tries to not follow the steps that the fourth season did, which was to alternate super-serious-demons-are-coming episode with insane Tofu Aliens Invading ones.
This is also the first of many episodes to just feature only one or two of the core Titans (this episode features almost exclusively Robin, with Starfire having around a minute of screentime early on) and have a different guest star superhero, trying to ape the way that Justice League Unlimited operates. And honestly I'm fine with it! If anything, it kind of highlights the more global and high-stakes tone that the fifth season had. That's not the problem with this episode. Really, the biggest problem was the stupidity that Robin and Hot Spot had throughout this episode.
The episode starts off quite promising, showing Wildebeest, one of the guest Titans from one of the best season two episodes, be hunted down, knocked out and his communicator destroyed. We then cut away to Hot Spot, who's awesome and being a superhero -- Hot Spot does give the showmakers ample opportunities to deliver some insane-looking fire action.
But between Madame Rogue trying to trick Hot Spot by pretending to be Robin, the real Robin shows up, the two Robins fight, Rogue is actually impersonating Hot Spot, et cetera, et cetera. The shapeshifting bit ends up being quite confusing, and honestly both Robin and Hot Spot made some really stupid calls. Rogue being obviously Rogue when she tells Hot Spot to power down like two dozen times ends up being a dead giveaway too, and Hot Spot being so reckless and brash causes the dude to feel like a bit of a moron. The resulting ending, with Hot Spot apparently buried under a building and Wildebeest apparently left for dead (we know they're not, but still) and Madame Rogue winning and obtaining the T-communicator, ends as a depressing ending to a pretty confusing and bland episode.
Overall, while Madame Rogue had some pretty menacing and threatening appearances with her paranoia-inducing powers,the attempt to keep the audience guessing which of the superheroes is actually Madame Rogue ends up kind of falling short, leading to a muddled mess where both Robin and Hot Spot come off as incompetent.
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