Titans S01E03 Review: Terror of Trigon

Titans, Season 1, Episode 3: Origins

Definitely a bit of a step-down from the previous two episodes, and I really do think that a good chunk of what made the show not work quite as well for me is their portrayal of Starfire as an amnesiac woman. It seems unnecessary to have her have this long, intertwined past with investigating the organization behind Raven's origin and all this demonic hullabaloo. Having her actress basically be stuck in a pretty confused look basically through nearly the entire episode is also not a particularly good way to make her interesting as a character. Honestly, I really don't see why this is preferable to giving us a more traditional "Starfire is an alien trying to understand Earthlings" culture shock story. I'll be holding a bit of criticism until we actually do get to see what they do with Starfire eventually, but a huge chunk of this episode is bogged down by the huge focus on her amnesia. There's also the bit where Kory straight-up murders a bunch of cops at the beginning of the episode, but I'll reserve judgment for that since comics!Starfire do tend to get a bit brutal at times. We'll see if this is a good substitute for her traditional alien culture shock portrayal and discuss that if/when we get there.

Still, for an episode that's basically just Dick, Kory and Rachel talking to each other and doing a bit of investigating, this is a pretty solid episode nonetheless. The plotline is pretty simple -- Kory and Rachel go on a bit of a ride after escaping the Nuclear Family, both women trying to understand their mysterious past no one can tell them about. Dick catches up with them, tells them that they're both wanted by law (Rachel as a suspect in her mother's death and Kory killed cops when investigating Rachel's house). We get a lot of great arguments between Rachel and Dick, with Rachel really hating Dick's intention of abandoning her before all shit went to hell last episode.

They eventually run to St. Paul's Cathedral, where Rachel's mom had adopted her and where she was raised when she was really young. Rachel refuses to go with Dick, and Kory steals Dick's car on a bit of an investigation as she follows the trail of keys (which is borders on the line of being appropriately comic-book-y silly and being just flat-out dumb silly) to find this whole conspiracy string web which includes runes of ravens, an alien language that Kory can read but not comprehend*, and a weird sci-fi tanning bed thing.

*Something that utterly doesn't make sense if Kory actually does have amnesia, but, again, I'll reserve judgment until the revelation happens later in the series.

And while Kory and Dick try to discuss this and Rachel's backstory, the nuns in St. Paul's lock Rachel inside a room for the good of the world, causing Rachel to basically go crazy. Dick's speech about not trusting anyone but yourself is a neat catalyst, too, and I'm a big fan of how the show doesn't actually ram that into our head by repeating Dick's words. Rachel's inner demon basically takes this chance to basically break Rachel and cause her to flip out, blowing up the chapel and unleashing a murder of ravens into the sky as she runs away.

The B-plots of this episode are... are pretty interesting, too. We get a brief check-in with Dawn (who survives!) and Hank, who's taking care of Dawn in the hospital. Gar/Beast Boy shows up and introduces himself to Rachel in the cafe while she's playing pinball, but again quickly gets left behind by the other three Titans. Poor Gar. We get a brief little check-in of Dick being informed about the death of his partner.

The Nuclear Family's Dad gets murdered by Starfire, and the rest of them report back to a man called Dr. Adamson, who delivers this long monologue about how necessary it is to capture Rachel, and combined with the nuns' dialogue and what Dick and Kory gather from past-Kory's investigation, we basically realize that Rachel's dad needs Rachel's "permission" to come into this world, which anyone but the most genre-blind of people will realize is a demonic-possession story.

Perhaps one of the most interesting B-plots, however, are the flashbacks to Dick's childhood. Adopted by the unseen and unheard Bruce Wayne, Dick's first instinct is to steal a car from Bruce and just drive away on a joyride, intent on finding and killing whoever killed his parents in his own personal quest for vengeance. It's Dick looking for answers, and Bruce recognizes this, which leads to the whole "Robin" thing. I do find it both ridiculous and also appropriate that Batman is apparently so distant that he communicates with Dick through letters left at the dinner table, even though he's just lurking in the next room. I get that they probably can't actually show Batman a lot (like how Supergirl danced around having Superman appear in its first season) but Dick reading a letter while a shadowed Bruce Wayne watches from the other room is just hilarious.

That flashback scene really plays into the Dick/Rachel conversation later on, though, where Dick tells Rachel about trusting and leaning on people, admitting that while he was doing his whole "revenge against those who killed my parents" and "all alone in the world" bend, he ended up leaning on Bruce almost wholeheartedly, thinking that the pain will go away... but that didn't happen, and Dick tells Rachel what he learnt from his time as Robin, which is that the pain will never go away, and they just have to learn to trust in himself and channel that loss and pain into something productive.

It's a mindset that worked and allowed Dick to move away from Batman's shadow, at the cost of being a fair bit more brutal and bloodthirsty than before... but it's also a mindset that ended up causing Rachel to give in to her inner demon and become Raven. Ultimately, it's this little interaction between the two flawed people that really sold this episode for me. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Without spoiling too much about it, suffice to say that a quasi-religious organization devoted to preventing Raven's dad from coming to Earth, as well as Raven's dad needing Raven to act as a gateway to enter the world, is an amalgamation of Raven's original backstory, her retooled storyline in the 2000's era comics, and the New 52 reboot. 
• While it's traditionally Jason Todd that's the carjacker Robin, Dick stealing Bruce's car for a joyride shortly after being adopted is likely a homage to Batman Forever.