Young Justice: Outsiders S03E22 Review: Shattered Justice

Young Justice: Outsiders, Season 3, Episode 22: Antisocial Pathologies

Another interesting episode, and we get a whole load of story plotlines finally come to a payoff. The Light meeting at the beginning of the episode is pretty neat, as Granny Goodness and Ultra-Humanite argue about the 'jurisdiction' of the young heroes they have essentially called dibs on. Ultra-Humanite essentially has dibs on Halo, because securing and learning all about her has been his operation from day one, what with Dr. Helga Jace being manipulated by him and all... but Granny Goodness also wants her. And there's the Markovs to talk about as well. And this, I feel, is Young Justice at what I feel is its best. I'm not the biggest fan of the genuinely slow-paced buildup to some of the events we're exploring here. Violet and Brion's romantic spat, seemingly just having a token "Helga Jace talks to Violet" scene every episode, and how they handled Violet's soul-searching and confusion... it's inconsistent, with some good and some bad, and some scenes just genuinely feeling repetitive. But the fact that there are so many factions in play, and even among the good guys and bad guys there are figures running around doing their own thing... it's pretty great.

And one of these factions is Deathstroke. While he's certainly more likely to be loyal to the Light compared to Granny Goodness, we're still wondering if Deathstroke going off to meet Tara at the beginning of the episode was something the Light sent him out to do, or if it's just Deathstroke's own whim. Slade's not particularly pleased that Tara's not been giving the full story in her reports, and Slade ends up basically playing a passive-aggressive mentor of sorts. He berates her for being soft and having a quasi-failure, before telling her that all this is for her own good, so she could be 'strengthened', and hands her something for a contingency plan. I do want to take this chance to say that I really do like how they've dealt with Tara so far, really selling that she's a conflicted person who's drawn between two worlds. I think that was made the Teen Titans cartoon of the Terra arc so much more beloved compared to the original Judas Contract storyline. "Judas Contract" was exciting because of all the betrayals involved for sure, but ultimately, we knew that Terra was a vile bitch through and through, and she's just being a double agent to fuck over our heroes. In both Teen Titans and Young Justice, we're genuinely never sure where Terra's allegiances are at after she meets Deathstroke. In Titans, the friendship we saw before Terra got 'corrupted' was genuine, and it's a race on whether our heroes can bring out the inner hero before she got corrupted by a bad influence. In Young Justice, the reversal of making Terra actually a sleeper agent from the get-go... who ends up being 'corrupted' by the superheroes' good influence, is such an interesting and fun reversal of how the character tends to be portrayed.

Do love the fact that Deathstroke's relationship is a lot less creepy, too, and he ends up feeling more like a 'darker' Batman-style mentor, teaching her how to survive in this cruel world and congratulating her for essentially 'cheating' during training and using her superpowers against him -- the world isn't fair, after all.

And, well, speaking of long-running storylines, the Anti-Light plot comes sort of crashing down. Nightwing is suffering very severe effects from Granny's X-Pit, and apparently he had far, far worse effects compared to Black Lightning because he isn't a metahuman. We get some very welcome cameos from the Bat-family, and the episode does a really, really great job at showing how much poor Dick is suffering from his wounds.

And after Dick gets stabilized, Batman goes from as concerned of a parent as he's capable of showing into basically aloof leader mode as he basically gets the other members of the Anti-Light -- Oracle, Robin, M'gann and Kaldur -- into a separate room to discuss things. And we get Jefferson's mind putting things together. All the separate teams, all the break-ups from the League, and as he rambles about Batman's Secret Society of Super-heroes, he realizes just how deep the rabbit hole of the conspiracy goes. It's not just the Bat-family working together to save Dick with a Bat-Drone in the previous episode. From things like recruiting Black Lightning into Nightwing's season 3 team to keep him in the loop, or giving the Outsiders a win when Kaldur'ahm lost from the Reach, or the engineered MONQI bit with Matches Malone... Khary Payton's increasingly angry voice is genuinely perfect for this, and he goes even more indignant as he brings in how they're perverting even the young Outsiders' mission.

This argumentation as the heroes fall apart is something that Tara observes, by the way, tying in to how Deathstroke keeps telling her that these self-righteous types will inevitably betray each other with their deception. And... well, this is when Helga Jace puts her own plan into motion with a bunch of mind-control chips, mind-controlling the Markovian siblings, and getting them and Violet to enter a car so Violet can get cured.

Meanwhile, of course, in the Hub, the arguments go worse. We don't listen to everything they yell at each other, but I do really like Jefferson's increasingly angry rants, while in the background, Superboy and M'gann get a telepathic argument. And it really brings up the different times that the Team nearly self-destructed thanks to their subterfuge and lies... particularly faking Artemis's death in season two and hiding the fact that Kaldur'ahm is a double agent from the rest of the Team. I do like how they pointed out that a huge part of the Anti-Light are proteges that once followed Batman's rules unquestioningly in the past, while Wonder Woman, who isn't as beholden to Bruce, is in space and has a more hands-off approach to things. "The mission comes first" isn't going to cut it for Jefferson, who argues that they're losing their selves in the process.

Beast Boy also gets his own time to argue with Oracle, and honestly, even the admission that some of the missions were merely 'partial' assistance doesn't sting any less. I did love the hilarious brick joke with Condiment King, though. That's fun. We also get a genuinely touching scene between Bruce and Barbara on top of the Hub. It's at this point where I really did wish that instead of well-written-but-ultimately-standalone storylines like the Bumblebee or Harper Row bits, we've gotten a bit more of characters like Black Lightning, Oracle or even Batman, y'know? Because this short scene is genuinely well done, with Barbara and Bruce arguing about whether their fellow superheroes even need the protection they shove on them.

Of course, while all of these arguments are going on, Helga brings Violet and the Markovs to a laboratory. And Violet ends up realizing too late that it's a trap, because Ultra-Humanite, Granny and Overlord show up, and Violet is restrained. Granny ends up giving one of those bad guy speeches, showing off the X-Pit to Helga. And when Granny pushes Violet out into the X-Pit, she ends up being protected by its influences, and Granny gives a long speech about how Violet's unique nature -- a Mother Box's machine soul inside an organic body -- is key for the Anti-Life Equation. It's kind of a bit of technobabble, honestly, and one that I sort of shrug at, but at least we've got some foreshadowing about this during the Metron episode.

Thanks to the X-Pit and Granny channeling Violet's powers, Helga ends up babbling all about her own secrets, and, well, reveals that her whole 'den mother' and 'supportive girlfriend' bit was all an act, and that all of the suspicious activities she's been doing hasn't been noble at all. She's kind of fucked-up, really, and she reveals that throughout all of this, she's been single-mindedly intent on protecting Brion and Tara Markov, because she views them as her 'children'... not out of some maternal instinct, but because she created them with the metahuman tar, and manipulated Brion into getting turned into Geo-Force in order to get her first 'child' back. She also rants about how Violet/Halo has been a 'false daughter'. She was the one responsible for killing Gabrielle Daou when she tested negative for the meta-gene, but when Gabrielle returned as Halo, she thought that she's another 'daughter'. And she's been playing a supportive ally throughout all this while, seducing Jefferson Pierce, in order to stay close to her children. And when she got Violet's hair tested, she finds out that Violet's not a real meta-human but an abomination, which is why she is so willing to get rid of her, and to also wedge a rift between Violet and her 'son' Brion. Hell, even the whole bit about Violet dying is a lie, in order to get Violet to accept the fake treatment from Ultra-Humanite.

It's some really heavy stuff, and I do appreciate that we got a whole episode to slowly build this up. All the while, it's also a demonstration of what Granny Goodness and Apokolips in general are trying to do with the Anti-Life Equation, since it takes away free will. Thus satisfied, Granny sort of mocks Ultra-Humanite (who's just standing there listening to all the exposition), telling them that she's going to bring Halo to Darkseid while the Light can keep their inferior mind-control chips.

And, well, this is when Tara, who also has been standing there listening to the exposition, acts. Having given the antidote to the chip by Deathstroke earlier, she breaks Brion free, and attacks the villains -- but Ultra-Humanite and Granny respectively teleport away with their own devices to return to their own evil organizations. Just like the Reach and the Light in the second season, it seems that the alliance between the aliens and the Earth-based supervillains have one hell of a rift wedge between them. And the episode sort of ends on the hero part with Tara and Brion returning just as Jeff is preparing to leave, and, man, you got to feel sorry for Jeff, who was singing Helga's praises before he's about to leave, and, well, betrayed by everyone, Jefferson leaves. Meanwhile, Terra seems to have gone fully back in support of Deathstroke, disillusioned with the heroes lying and backstabbing each other.

And as the episode closes, we get a couple of interesting scenes. Granny Goodness is out of the Light's meeting, and while we don't see what transpired in the conversation between Darkseid and Vandal Savage earlier in this episode, the Light has been smart enough, as always, to have contingency plans when dealing with treacherous allies. Deathstroke and Ultra-Humanite both have been playing their own game, with Deathstroke giving Terra the antidote chip, while Ultra-Humanite was trying to figure out what Darkseid and Apokolips' plans are. It seems that, at least this time around, the Light's been outplayed, what with the whole "Key to the Anti-Life Equation" deal. I kinda wished we've gotten a bit more out of Ultra-Humanite throughout the episode, though, whether during the meetings or during his conversations with Granny. He's just kind of robotic that it took me a while (exactly until the point that Vandal Savage crushes the tablet, really) that Ultra-Humanite's tone was meant to be indignant and accusatory.

Oh, and there's a brief little hint of the Infinity Inc. organization being a competitor for the Outsiders as far as being the hip-and-cool superhero team, and while they were a name-drop in the previous episode, we get to see them briefly here. I have suspicions on who they're allied with, but that draws more from my knowledge of the comics more than anything. Oh, and apparently, Gretchen Goode and Granny Goodness are like identical twins or clones or whatever? Honestly, that felt like a redundant little plot twist that really didn't need to happen.

Overall, though, a very fantastic episode. It's admittedly a bit too exposition-heavy, with both the Anti-Life Equation, the Light's machinations and Helga's plan and motivations all being thrown towards us, but it's definitely an episode we really did need after the past couple of episodes sort of meandering around a little. Some of the longest-running plot threads in season three finally come to a head, and as far as the Helga Jace storyline goes, seemingly more or less concluded. The Terra storyline is genuinely interesting, Black Lightning is also pretty interesting, and the politics among the villains is also something that really makes me pretty intrigued. A lot of great moments in this episode. Season 3 of Young Justice isn't quite as huge of a home-run as the first two seasons are thanks to the sheer amount of characters and plotlines that pull the show in multiple ways, but I'm definitely a huge fan of how at least the main storylines are being told.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Robin II, Oracle, Nightwing, Batman, Black Lightning, Aquaman II, Miss Martian, Superboy, Trajectory, Two other members of Infinity Inc, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Halo, Forager, Geo-Force, Zatanna (flashback), Red Tornado (flashback), Wynnde (flashback)
• Villains: Gretchen Goode, Ultra-Humanite, Klarion, Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, Vandal Savage, Deathstroke, Dr. Helga Jace, Darkseid, Overlord, Baron Bedlam (flashback), Granny Goodness
• Civilians/Others: Alfred Pennyworth, Terra, Courtney Whitmore

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The main 'face' of Young Justice's Infinity Inc is Trajectory, a.k.a. Eliza Harmon, a superheroine with super-speed in the comics, and part of the "Everyman Project" sponsored by LexCorp. She also showed up as an antagonist in the live-action The Flash TV show. In the comics, she was a wildcard who refused to listen to Luthor's orders, causing Luthor to cut her superpowers out and causing her death. 
• The two other superheroes in Infinity Incorporated go unnamed, and, as far as I can tell, uncredited. They all wear basically matching Power Ranger outfits, too, so I can't tell who they're supposed to be from their outfits. Some websites identify them as Brainstorm and Fury, two members of the original Infinity Inc, but I can't find any specific confirmation from the show creators.
• Black Lightning briefly yells out about Batman's "Secret Society of Superheroes". The Secret Society is actually a team name associated with the super-villains, representing... well, basically what is adapted into the Light in Young Justice. 
• The mind-control chips used by Helga Jace are noted to be identical to the Starro-based mind control chips used to take over the Justice League in the climax of season 1.