Ten episodes into the series (and one away from the series finale), we finally get a decent episode out of DC Universe’s Titans. Not a great episode, mind you, but a decent one. It’s not great in part because they try to cram too much stuff in, but that’s getting ahead of myself (spoilers abound, for what it’s worth).
We begin where we left off in the last episode, with Kory trying to kill Rachel. She is stopped by Donna when she and Dick get there in the nick of time. This snaps Kory out of her murderous rampage, and she runs off followed by Dick and Donna. They follow Kory to a… spaceship! Bet you didn’t see that coming (unless it’s the case in canon? and obviously it’s not like aliens are unknown in the DC Universe). In the spaceship, they find that Kory has been sent from another planet to stop Rachel from bringing her father from his prison back into the world.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (they’ve got those in Ohio, right? I grew up in Montana so I can’t really picture a ‘ranch’ anywhere East of western Nebraska, but heck anything’s possible these days), Gar gets sick and Rachel can’t heal him. Rachel’s mom suggests that only Rachel’s dad can help, so Rachel opens up a mirror and brings her dad back into the world. Oh, and we also learn that her dad’s name is “Trigon,” and he tried to destroy the world (and Kory’s world?) in the past, but was chucked into prison. And we learn that Rachel’s mom has been in on the whole thing all along. Once Trigon has been released, Kory and Donna tell us that only Rachel can defeat him and that only by going through a year’s worth of brutal trials that no one has ever survived. Trigon heals Gar, and then says that is isn’t going to destroy the world until Rachel has had her heart broken. Apparently the only thing powerful enough to inspire the devil is teenage angst… If all of that seems choppy, scattered, and mildly interesting, then I have successfully summarized the episode.
So if we’ve been suffering from a dearth of plot so far in favor of emoting, this episode tries to make up for it (don’t worry, there’s still plenty of emoting to go around). And I know, I know, it’s a new show and it’s still trying to find its feet. But it’s not like this is DC’s first TV show, and they certainly have experience with good pacing and plot lines.
Because so much of this episode is action and exposition, there’s not a whole lot here that is interesting theologically. Of course you’ve got the whole plot idea that Thanos Poor Man’s Darkseid Trigon is coming to destroy the world, and that he’s tried it in the past only to be temporarily imprisoned. And I suppose there’s something to be said for Kory’s finding this information in an “old book”, instead of in all the fancy new technology in her spaceship (though she also finds it in all the fancy new technology in her spaceship). I’m not going to step into Christian theologies of eschatology and the return/nature of the “destroyer.” That’s a minefield that it’s not worth getting caught in. Just leave it to say that Jesus is coming back and he’s going to win, regardless of what the enemy does between now and then: “one little Word shall fell him.”
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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