DC Recap Round-Up 2, Week 10: Midseason Finales and a check up on TITANS!

16 Dec

Welcome back! As this is the last Recap Round-Up for 2018, let’s just throw out a scheduling reminder that while Legends of Tomorrow will be taking a break when we come back in January, we still got The Flash, Supergirl, and Black Lightning in the meantime to hold things down. For right now, we got the mid season ends of Black Lightning and Legends of Tomorrow to recap, as well as another check-in on Titans to see if its improved since its rocky start (short answer: surprisingly, yes). So let’s jump into it…

“The Book of Rebellion, Chapter Two: Gift of the Magi”

So we enter the midseason end of things as Jennifer is taking Khalil away to rest after that mess at his auntie’s place, only to find he’s been poisoned by those blades from Tobias’ assassin lady. While Jennifer is trying to find medical supplies to save Khalil, Jefferson and the rest of the Pierce family are trying to find Jennifer before that assassin does. As Jefferson, Anissa, and Gambi are out on the streets, Lynn is looking into Khalil’s family for clues to his whereabouts, with little to no success. When the assassin has located the teenage runaways, the tables are turned when Jennifer gets the drop on her, and uses her poison against her to find the antidote.

Khalil gets cured, and both him and Jennifer drive out of town (but I’m sure they won’t be gone long). The Pierces are left with little clues as to what happened to them, which is a rather jerk move to do to your family, Jennifer, is all I’m saying. Meantime, Tobias is busy recruiting some super smart tech genius into his fold, and we get some teleporting hitman being called in to pay a visit to Freeland. We got a lot to deal with when we come back next month.

Not the best time to hitch a ride on flying Jefferson, Gambi!

–So, good choice on the soundtrack this week with “You’re All I Need (To Get By)” from Mary J. Blige and Method Man.

–I really liked the whole “mind palace” thing Jennifer does his episode, reconciling the information at hand and figuring out how to use her powers like radar. That’s pretty inventive.

–We learn a bit about Khalil being actually the younger brother in that family (his older brother got killed working for The Hundred), and his father being an ex-con trying to do good for his past sins.

–Lynn is just on the verge of a breakdown, and that was before she decided to bring a shotgun she didn’t even need to that meeting with Khalil’s dad.

–Jefferson is still acting overboard over Jennifer running away. He almost goes flying in his dad clothes in the middle of the day! Good thing Gambi has to beat some sense into him.

–Another good thing Gambi does: gets Anissa a new superhero bike!

“Legends of To-Meow-Meow”

With Constantine destroying the timestream THIS TIME, our misfit duo of John and Charlie discover time travel has unforeseen consequences, and not just that Zari being turned into a cat. Instead of correcting the problem itself, the two decide to fix the problems that fracture the team, only to find one fix of the time dam, leads to another hole in it. Add to that John having mental damage caused by the paradox he created that is getting worse, eventually John has no choice but to restore time to what it was by making sure Desmond doesn’t leave him, even though it sends Desmond to hell. Charlie ends up being a thorn in this plan, mostly because she doesn’t want to lose her shapeshifting powers again.

But, both John and Charlie realize that if they don’t correct this paradox, the Legends themselves are just going to be reduced to violent magic killing jerks, or puppets (it makes sense). So the paradox is fixed, our team is returned to normal, and now John has got their help in taking down Neron, the demon lord responsible for taking Desmond. But Neron is not too far away to be found, as he’s an assistant to Nate’s dad, and looks like Desmond! Oh, what a cruel way to send us on a break until Spring!

Come back in April when special guest Puppet Dr. Stein tells us all about the wonders of transmogrification! Yay!

–Custodians of the Chronology. Sirens of Space-Time. Puppets of Tomorrow. The writers had to think up these deranged timeline possibilities. And that song. You know the one that is probably burrowed into your skull now?

–Am I sensing some crushing between Zari and Charlie? Maybe, maybe not…

–Is Mona still alive after the timeline got fixed, because when we left her in that timeline, she got slashed up pretty bad.

–We get to see the actress doing the voice of Gideon in the Sirens timeline stuff, even though I’m kind of confused how. On the other hand, I can’t explain why the wicked fairy godmother is dressed up like Captain Cold later on, but hey, sanity, am I right?

–Of course in one timeline Gary would die delivering a package only to fall into Mount Vesuvius.

–Mick and Ava make up over snickerdoodles. This might be the sanest thing to happen in this episode.

–The only reference to the current crossover Elseworlds comes as the team is told of messages from Arrow, Supergirl, and The Flash: “Sounds like the annual crossover.” “That’s gonna be a hard pass.”

–“What the Fraggle Rock is going on?”

–“Do you know where my tongue has been? PLACES!”

–“I mean I like Indigo Girls, but that is not a way of life!”

So, I believe I did mention the last time I dropped in on Titans for this column, that I think the show was gradually improving from its attempts to be “dark and edgy” in its first episode. And after watching a few more episodes since then, I’m convinced my assertion of the show improving was accurate. We get that weird cult thing with Raven coming to a thrilling resolution (or being put on the backbones for now), and Dick coming to terms with his connection to Batman. That comes through some nice episodes teaming him up with Jason Todd (the Robin for Batman now) and Donna Troy, as the rest of the team deals with who they are and what they do now.

And somehow, another great episode comes in between all of this, explaining the sordid dark backstory of Hawk and Dove, that seems out of place considering the cliffhanger in the previous episode teasing us with the dangerous intent behind who (or what) Kori is. I might have issues regarding the placement of these side stories that are unrelated to the main plot right now, but I can’t ignore that I’m finally starting to enjoy these characters. It’s becoming less edgy posturing, and more character driven, even though we get an F-bomb or two that remind us this is still “edgy”. I’m not sure how the end of the season will pan out, especially considering the eerie teaser for the final episodes of the season that just came out tease a deadly confrontation between Dick and his mentor. But, for a show that seemed like a hard pass for me, it’s now becoming a interesting watch. I’ll give you the low down on the last few episodes when they come out.

NEXT TIME: Well, while Legends of Tomorrow takes a break until April (!), come back here in January 2019 as we rejoin Supergirl, The Flash, and Black Lightning!