Young Justice: Outsiders, Season 3, Episode 21: Unknown Factors
After the previous episode being a bit more... oddly-paced, this one jumps headlong into the Apokolips storyline... although, again, we get another seemingly unconnected B-plot attached to it. I at least care a lot more for Mal and Karen than I do Harper, although not having seen them do anything at all throughout the entirety of season three does make it a bit hard to be super-invested in them, and I wouldn't blame some of the more casual viewers for completely forgetting that they existed. And, again, their storyline is one that felt pretty detached and standalone. There's nothing wrong to have one of these, of course, but honestly, with so many characters in the Team that we're sidelining, it does really feel like we're just bouncing all over the place and the pacing's honestly not the best that it could've been.
Let's talk about the Karen/Mal storyline first, because it's essentially just this huge argument about "should we genetically change our children's DNA to give them metahuman powers?" And both Karen and Mal sort of talk about it in jest, at least until Karen goes into labour, and their child ends up having a hole in her little baby heart, and, once more, the massive blizzard everywhere means that there's a massive problem of getting a heart surgeon there in time. Of course, since this is a superhero show, Bumblebee just simply shrinks down and goes through a Fantastic Voyage style surgery.
And... well, it's completely believable for Karen, right after giving birth and having to go through some superhero stunts just to rescue her newborn girl, to start having thoughts about maybe giving her daughter the absolute best chance she has at surviving the world. It's easy to go "we accept our children no matter what happens", but in a world where superheroes and supervillains with metahuman powers are everywhere, and with Karen having the scientific know-how on how to manipulate genes to activate latent meta-genes... in the mental state that Karen Beecher is in, it's easy to see why she was tempted to do some genetic manipulation. The kicker, of course, is that we don't really see just what happens at the end, with Karen's choice being kept deliberately ambiguous on whether what's "best for [their] daughter" involves giving her powers or not. It's definitely an interesting way to end this little story arc, although, again, with this storyline not having any real bearing throughout the rest of the season, it ends up being yet another storyline that they set up to not really do much with. At least it's a pretty solid story, though.
On the more action-packed side of things, Nightwing and Black Lightning try and infiltrate Gretchen Goode's mansion to try to investigate their suspicions that Gretchen Goode = Granny Goodness. Which is honestly pretty damn obvious to the audience, Metron's yes-but-no answer notwithstanding. Things end up being way too easy as they enter the mansion. Lightning and Oracle do comment on this, and, well, to the surprise of absolutely no one, they end up literally falling into a trap as Granny Goodness's minion, a robotic being called the Overlord, teleports them away. This leads to Oracle calling for backup, and thanks to all the other members of the Anti-Light council being busy or otherwise dispatched, only Kaldur'ahm is available. And he ends up bringing Wyynde, who insists he come along.
Also, while the first half of the episode is going on, we also get to check in with the other members of the Outsiders. Other than more Brion/Violet romance drama, we get a bunch of neat little world-building stuff, with the Outsiders facing off against Condiment King off-screen, apparently other superhero teams like Infinity Incorporated being founded thanks to being inspired by the Outsiders, more Helga trying to convince Brion to go back to Markovia, and some neat Cyborg/Beast Boy bonding.
I do love just how quick Kaldur just ends up ringing the doorbell to greet Gretchen in her own mansion, and we get a pretty tense bit as Gretchen ends up agreeing to show Kaldur and Wyynde to where she's kept Nightwing and Black Lightning -- in a torture dimension called the X-Pit where, of course, Granny uses to 'discipline naughty children'. Ultimately, though, despite Granny's obvious tricks to get the Atlanteans to step out into the X-Pit, their magical runes allow them to recover Nightwing and Black Lightning safely. And Granny Goodness seemed pretty game at letting the heroes leave... but not with the Mother Box. Not willing to leave behind a sentient being, Granny ends up activating the mind-control she's done on Nightwing and Black Lightning, and we get a fight scene, and it's pretty neatly-animated. Kaldur'ahm is always badass!
The Overlord also activates some lasers that injure the Mother Box, which alerts walking plot devices Halo and Cyborg, who show up, help to beat up Granny Goodness, and Halo uses her "old god chanting" to cure the brainwashing. There's the neat little subversion that the robotic figure of the Overlord, which is kinda implied to be some sort of giant figure nestled in Gretchen's mansion, is actually a teeny-tiny pocket-sized robot hidden in a small carrying case, but ultimately it is kind of a standard action sequence.
Everyone manages to return, but Nightwing seems to suffer some side-effects, while Helga ends up texting her mentor... revealed to be the only member of season three's Light roster to not have had a proper spotlight, Ultra-Humanite. Ultra-Humanite plans to get "Helga's kids" out, so they're making a move... while Granny Goodness contacts Darkseid, telling him that she's "found the Anti-Life Equation", heavily implied to be something regarding either Cyborg or Halo.
Ultimately, a pretty solid episode. I think we're finally in an interstitial period between set-up episodes and filler episodes, and finally actually going on through with the Apokolips and Gretchen Goode plotline. A lot of really interesting stuff and ways that the series could go! I really do wish that the side-plots are integrated better to the main plots of the episodes, though, as much as I adore giving the side-cast something to do. Pacing and plot juggling is definitely Young Justice's third season's biggest weakness, and I wonder if that's because they know they're popular enough to afford a fourth season, so they can leave some huge plotlines for the next season, and thus not everything is as well-paced or well-plotted as before? Regardless, though,the Outsiders, Granny, the Anti-Light, Helga/Brion/Tara/Violet, Darkseid and the Light are all plotlines that will potentially clash in the next couple of episodes. With six more episodes to go before the season is over, this is definitely a decent buildup.
Roll Call:
- Heroes: Nightwing, Black Lightning, Oracle, Aquaman II, Wynnde, Guardian II, Bumblebee, Bio-Ship, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Geo-Force, Forager, Halo
- Villains: Granny Goodness, Overlord, Ultra-Humanite, Darkseid
- Civilians/Others: Catherine Grant, Calvin Durham, Sha'lain'a, Dolphin, Dr. Silas Stone, Terra, Dr. Helga Jace, Dr. Evelyn Fox, Rhea Duncan
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Granny mentions the Anti-Life Equation, which in most media has been the mysterious equation that Darkseid is after, a mathematical equation that will allow Darkseid dominance over the minds of any sentient being in the world.
- Overlord and the X-Pit all show up in exactly a single issue, Mister Miracle #2, where the Overlord was Granny Goodness's minion that attempted to trap Mr. Miracle. Like this episode, Granny continually contacts Overlord only through a screen, and it's not revealed until the end of the episode that Overlord is actually tiny and held within a box by Granny.
- He briefly showed up as an Easter Egg in one of the social media pieces before, but here we get a more blatant shout-out to the Condiment King, a.k.a. Mitchell Mayo, a Batman enemy created specifically for a gag in Batman: The Animated Series as a supervillain who fights with guns that shoot out, well, condiments.
- Karen briefly name-drops a "Ryan", who brought the Bumblebee suit from the Atom labs, very likely referencing Ryan Choi, the fourth person to bear the mantle of Atom.
- Geo-Force mentions the Infinity, Inc. who in the comics was originally a superhero team comprised of the successors and children of the Justice Society of America, and operated on-and-off over the years. In the 52 storyline, Lex Luthor, seeking to clear his name from his crimes, published a therapy called "Everyman Project", a chance for any person in the world to obtain superpowers through a simple medical surgery. He ended up founding his own team of superheroes called the Infinity Inc, which actually answers strictly to him. Time will tell which version of Infinity Inc this one is based on.
- In the same token, Bumblebee developing a way to apparently cause the metagene to manifest in any baby in the world is an adaptation of Luthor's Everyman Project.
- Dr. Evelyn Fox is a minor Adam Strange supporting character, who was accidentally teleported to Rann through a Zeta Beam, and ended up helping to deliver Adam Strange's child Aleea.
- The Atlantean city of Shayeris is name-dropped by Kaldur.
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