Teen Titans S05E08 Review: Fastest Kid Alive

Teen Titans, Season 5, Episode 8: Lightspeed

Every superhero series generally likes to have an episode that has the POV from the villains of the show, and it's surprising that it took Teen Titans five seasons before doing one. Having Slade or Trigon be the POV character would be too dark and serious for Teen Titans, so they used the HIVE Five instead, including a fun fourth wall moment where they crash the opening credits and walk up the screen.

This is actually one of my favourite episodes of Teen Titans's fifth season, where it shows that, yes, they can introduce interesting conflict with older supporting characters like Jinx and introduce a honorary Titan that isn't just cool-and-heroic. Kid Flash is impulsive, flirty and scarily competent. Part of it is the awesome power of super-speed that allow him to beguile the six members of the HIVE Five (yes, they lampshade how the name makes no sense in-universe as well).

But the star of the episode is actually Jinx, a character that barely got much screentime. The main member of the HIVE trio throughout Teen Titans' run has always been Gizmo, who even appeared in several other episodes without Mammoth and Jinx tagging along. But here we see an aspect of Jinx we never saw before -- that she craves respect. And after four seasons of constantly being defeated and humiliated by the Titans despite being introduced as top of their class in HIVE Academy, well, they've grown to basically Team Rocket levels of being punching bags. Jinx sees the initiation into the Brotherhood of Evil as their big break for being taken seriously. And from Madame Rogue's interactions with Jinx this episode, it's fair to see why Jinx is so desperate for respect. Despite being equals with the Teen Titans in the earlier seasons, here the Brotherhood sees the Titans as this threat that requires a huge assembly of villains to take down, whereas the HIVE Five are just... well, those villain kids.

And honestly, considering the rankings of the HIVE Five, poor Jinx has her work cut out for her. Billy Numerous is dumb and Mammoth is even dumber, Gizmo is crazy and childish, and Kyd Wykkyd, despite looking cool with all his magic Batman thing, is silent and passive. Only See-More is competent in a way, and despite having like five lines throughout the entirety of the show, See-More is the only one that wants to lend Jinx assistance in her attempt to take down Kid Flash. The other more vocal members of the HIVE Five -- Gizmo, Billy and Mammoth -- are all like 'yeah, whatevs' regarding the Brotherhood.

Only Jinx and See-More (really, really wished See-More shows up more in the series with his weirdly gross eyeball balloon powers) end up taking the whole thing seriously enough to hunt down Kid Flash, and end up actually capturing him with a mixture of Jinx pretending to defect and an ambush... but Kid Flash himself breaks free and trashes the HIVE Five's base... right when Madame Rogue shows up to collect their prize. Jinx idolizes Madame Rogue a lot, but Rogue sees the HIVE Five only as incompetent little shits unable to even retain a superhero they captured.

The final leg of the episode has Jinx (and See-More) race against Madame Rogue to capture Kid Flash, and it's a fun bit where you aren't sure who you're rooting for. Jinx's plight of wanting to be recognized by her idol and her frustration at the world in general, and her own insecurities of whether being a supervillain is what she wants for her life, is very relatable... but on the other hand, Kid Flash is the good guy and you want him to escape, which would totally ruin Jinx's plans.

This ends with a pretty cool moment where Jinx actually manages to capture Kid Flash (who, by the way, managed to defeat Rogue), but Madame Rogue just knocks Jinx aside and insults her. Now idol or no idol, Jinx has enough respect and dignity (plus all the doubts that Kid Flash inserted within her) to free Kid Flash and blast the shit out of Madame Rogue with her hex blasts. It's a pretty cool moment for her, and this actually causes Rogue to respect her more than actually capturing Kid Flash.

The end of the episode features her still going back with her HIVE buddies, but she picks up the rose that Kid Flash leaves behind, leaving her ultimate decision still ambiguous. She ended up getting the respect she so craves from Madame Rogue... but is that what she really wants?

This is how you do guest star roles, really, developing Jinx from just a one-note evil-bitch villain into a far more interesting character that went through a fair bit of character development over the course of twenty minutes, while also giving newcomer Kid Flash and returning characters See-More and Madame Rogue a fair chance to show off their personalities as well. Compared to the rather generic Kole, Gnarrk, babysitting kids and Titans East, this episode just stands so much higher in terms of character writing... granted, I'd rather wished Jinx reached the 'maybe I can be a good hero' conclusion herself instead of having Kid Flash spell it out for her so many times, but I can live with it. Shame that a good chunk of the fandom can't look past the episode not starring any of the Teen Titans and ruining Cyborg-Jinx shipping.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Kid Flash, a.k.a. Wally West, is the sidekick of (of course) the Flash. After Barry Allen's death he would take over the mantle of the Flash and become the third bearer of the name. Wally is pretty notable in the comics as being one of the first five Teen Titans, and stars as the Flash in Justice League and as Kid Flash in Young Justice. Michael Rosenbaum, voice actor of Flash in Justice League, reprises his role as Kid Flash here.
• The Fearsome HIVE Five have replaced Private HIVE with Kyd Wykkyd and Billy Numerous since the events of 'Mother Mae-Eye'. While Billy has starred in an episode before, this is Kyd Wykkyd's first role in a non-cameo manner.