It’s Titans time again, ya’ll! The third episode of season two is up on DC Universe today and is really jumping into the new storyline involving Slade Wilson (a.k.a. Deathstroke) and Doctor Light. It also manages to fix some of the personal problems between the team! (….As well as break some of them. Family life is hard, but we’re not here to judge, right?) Anyway, onwards and upwards with our Titans season 2, episode 3 recap – “Ghosts”

And if you missed last week, too, and need to catch up, feel free to read my recap right here!


Dick Grayson Bombs a Pep-talk

The episode starts off with a sprawling view of San Francisco before honing in on a scene where Jason is revealing to Dick, Gar, and Rachel that Rose is the daughter of Deathstroke. Dick says that has some experience with him from being in the previous s group, and Gar starts listing off the parade of military experience Slade has; including having been a part of a highly secret military operation to make soldiers more biologically enhanced. Even worse, out of the many test subject that underwent the procedure, Slade Wilson was the only one to survive it.

Dick takes over the computer once Gar starts digging further and immediately shuts the whole thing down. Before any of the others can say anything, a security alert comes over the com for the front door. Dick turns on the camera, showing Donna, Hank, and Dawn at the entrance. Rachel seems genuinely thrilled to see them.

Donna, Hank, and Dawn are obviously granted access to the Tower, and they each receive a warm welcome from Rachel, who then asks about the whereabouts of Kory.

“She’s sort of vanished…” replies Donna. “But she mentioned she wanted to see Florida, so I figured she made an “Irish exit” and took a quick little trip.”

Dick asks the rest of the team to kick rocks so that he can have a moment to speak with the new additions alone. Once everyone else clears the room, Dick debriefs with Donna, Hank, and Dove about what’s been happening with Doctor Light. Dawn informs Dick that Doctor Light was responsible for Ellis’ death, and Hank steps in the place the blame on Jason, whose TV antics (“Titans are back, bitches!”) seem to have put a target on their backs.

“Whatever the reason, Arthur Light is on a payback mission. He was trying to pick us off one by one, so chances are he’s after us all now,” says Dick. “We’ll work together and we’ll stay strong.”

Hank responds by telling him to cut the ra-ra speech for “the JV squad”, and he, Dawn, and Donna all agree that after Doctor Light is taken care of, they can’t stay in  Tower. Dick agrees and tells them that in the meantime they can stay in their old rooms; but before seeing them off properly, he mentions that there’s just “one more thing”…

You know, just one minor little detail.

Dick shows the trio the file on Rose Wilson; mentioning first-off that he found her on the run and that her combat skills were impressive. However, he says he noticed something different as well, and pulls up video surveillance footage of Deathstroke. Hank, Dove, and Donna all become visibly uncomfortable and remark that they all thought he was dead.

“Oh, he’s alive and well in San Francisco,” replies Dick.

Donna asks who the girl from the footage is and Dick reveals that it’s Rose Wilson — Deathstroke’s daughter — staying there at  Tower.

The three of them absolutely lose it and try to remind Dick that Deathstroke is the reason why  Tower was shuttered in the first place. Dick says he can’t throw her out, which just further prompts anger from the other heroes.

“You’re here for Doctor Light, so let’s take care of Doctor Light. The girl is my problem,” says Dick before promptly leaving the surveillance room.

Titans Season 2 Episode 3 recap
Titans — Ep. 201 — “Ghosts” — Photo Credit: Steve Wilkie / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WHOA IT’S TIME FOR THE TITLE SEQUENCE

The scenery shifts to Chicago, Illinois where Kory wakes with a start; cuffed on the floor of a hotel room and the Tamaranian man who kidnapped her watching old Looney Tunes. She sits up and tries to use her powers, only to be met with nothing. The cuffs have dampening abilities.

The show ends and the man gets up as Kory tells him to let her go. He serves Kory with a holographic summons from Tamaran; demanding that she come back to their home planet and wear the crown as ruler.

“If you don’t adhere to the request, there will be even more guys like me,” says the man. “Guys who aren’t as civilized as me.”

Kory demands that her cuffs be removed by royal demand and under obligation, he complies.

Being goth AF is a power now, apparently.

Back at  Tower, Dick goes to Rose and confronts her about who her father is. She says that there had been a family dispute over the fact that her father killed her brother and that the whole reason she was in San Francisco herself was because she knew he was here and was coming to “take care of him”. Well, unfortunately for her, it turns out that that’s just about the time that Dick picked her up off of the street. Dick then tells Rose about the old friends (Hank, Dove, and Donna) in the house before tossing her an eye-patch to cover her wound.

Back in the training room, Jason, Raven, and Gar face off in a three-way spar that gets a little more intense than I think any of them intended. Jason hits Raven full-force in the head with his rattan and makes a joke before Rachel — now on her knees on the floor — removes her blindfold as her powers begin to fume around her. Gar and Jason become aware of what’s happening as the cloud behind Rachel grows larger and her eyes glow red. Suddenly, Rachel lunges out and grabs Jason; flinging him into the air while using her telekinesis to aim a cluster of sparring knives at him. She seems to realize what’s happened and snaps out of it; sending both of them to the ground. Jason then confronts her by doing the very most Jason thing — telling her to stay away, and calling her “a freak”.

Dick enters the training room and asks if things are alright. Rachel seems to be holding her breath as Gar approaches Dick, but Jason surprises her by instead yelling at Dick about how unfair it is that he’s not included in making big plans for the team with the other veteran members. Dick assures him that he didn’t miss anything of importance, and turns to Gar to ask for his help. Jason readies himself to complain by saying “What about me?” but Dick brushes him off by telling him to continue his training.

As Gar leaves the room with Dick, Jason returns to get up in Rachel’s face and tell her that she needs to have her head examined by a priest.

Want your bad romance

We return to Chicago where Kory — no-longer handcuffed — is sitting by as her captor has dinner in the hotel room. He returns her cell phone to her and reminds her that she is a queen that requires protection. Kory doesn’t take too kindly to that sentiment though and removes herself to the hallway to make a phone call to Donna.

Donna answers with a quippy “So I guess ghosting is an intergalactic thing, too?” before they begin to catch up on everything that’s been going on. Donna lets Kory know that Doctor Light is on the loose from prison and that the reunion at s Tower is not exactly a happy one. Before hanging up, Kory asks about how Rachel is doing, and reminds Donna to look after her.

Kory comes back to the room and sets into her guardian about who sent him to capture her. He reveals that it isn’t her mother at all, as suspected, but her sister Blackfire.

“Of course. She’s the only person who would send the only Royal Guard who I’ve slept with,” she replies. (ooOOO!) He admits that he wasn’t ordered to come after her at all, but that he volunteered personally.

Bad Dads Club

Back at Titans Tower, Rose and Rachel finally get a chance to meet. The tension is almost palpable as Rachel explains how she saw what Rose is capable of while she was hunting Deathstroke. The two share a brief kinship over having terrible fathers who did things to hurt them, and declare themselves members of the Bad Dads Club.

Elsewhere in the Tower, Dick is with Gar planning a way to track where Doctor Light is. Once they get a plan in place, Dick asks Gar how Rachel is doing because she had a scared look on her face earlier in the sparring room. Trying to cover her tracks from the earlier attack, Gar explains that it’s just how her face looks when she trains and it’s nothing to be concerned about. Dick apparently finds that totally acceptable and leaves.

Titans Season 2 Episode 3 recap
Titans — Ep. 203 — “Ghosts” — Photo Credit: Steve Wilkie / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THEY FINALLY MADE THE EYE JOKE

We cut over to Doctor Light hanging out and drinking beer with Slade Wilson. After chugging a beer like an absolute tool, Light starts trying to discuss plans on how to take out the s with Slade.

“We put them in crisis,” Slade replies. “We’ll have to see how they operate. Who commands. Who follows. And then we cull the herd. Isolate the weak and the rest come to us.”

Doctor Light seems totally chuffed at this answer and rounds it out by saying how excited he is to “mind-fuck” them and make them suffer; claiming that the s took five years of his life by putting him in prison, and thus they have to pay.

Slade says that he’s glad that they both see eye-to-eye, which Light says must be easy considering he only has one.

Ra-ra-ah-ah-ah

Kory and her Royal Guard walk the streets of Chicago together as Kory explains that on Earth, Kings, Queens, and ordinary folks all walk together. She admits that she enjoys living on Earth because the decisions surrounding her life are left up to her; including her romantic partners. They flirt for a while and she tells him that to be her partner he has to prove himself. He decides that that means he should punch out the window of a jewelry store and steal her a massive, jewel-encrusted necklace. And they say romance is dead.

Dick, Dawn, Hank, and Donna get lit

The kitchen seems to be a very popular place for Titans talking in this episode because Donna finds herself talking to Dick about the state of the Titans while making tea. She confronts him about the way he’s been training the newer members; asking whether he’s told them the stories about what happened to the others. Dick — being Dick — stays delightfully stubborn when faced with the idea that he’s steering the team in a direction that will hurt them.

The conversation is interrupted as Gar enters the room to let Dick know that he’s found something while looking for Doctor Light. They return to the surveillance room just in time for Gar to show Dick what he’s found right before the power completely turns off in the entire s Tower..and then the entire city. The two guys deduce that it’s Doctor Light directing the power elsewhere so that he can power himself up — and then figure out that the local stadium is the most likely place that could be possible.

Titans Season 2 Episode 3 recap
Titans — Ep. 203 — “Ghost” — Photo Credit: Sven Frenzel / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dick, Dawn, Hank, and Donna plan to go to the stadium to take him out, only to be interrupted by a fully-costumed Jason who is practically begging to go with them to help. Dick shuts him down and tells him that it’s too dangerous this time before leaving with the rest of his team.

At the stadium, Doctor Light is beginning to suck up all of the power from what he’s brought to the stadium. Meanwhile, Dick, Hank, Dawn, and Donna ready themselves into position. Unfortunately, it’s not much of a surprise as Doctor Light exclaims how glad he is that all four of them could make it — and rushes to make an exit. As the team chases after Light, they find him in an alley behind the stadium…which just happens to be the perfect place for him to blow up lots of cars to get in their way. Hank gets injured, but Donna manages to chase after Light just fast enough to lasso a motorbike and pin him with it. Just as she and Dick begin to celebrate their victory, a massive flash off light appears and Light has completely vanished.

It’s “Everyone Fight Dick” Day!

The team comes back to Titans Tower carrying an injured Hank. As Donna runs to go to the infirmary, Hank decides to take a pop shop at Dick, telling him that he should have had him before leaving to get fixed up. Just to make matters worse, Jason strolls in and begins to poke fun at Dick for not having stopped Doctor Light. Things escalate and Jason tries to stand up to Dick, telling him that he gets to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and Dick is not going to be the one to stop him anymore. Jason throws the first punch, but Dick is just quick enough to get him on his back. He extends a hand to Jason to help him back up, but it’s quickly rebuffed as Jason storms out of the room.

Titans — Ep. 201 — “Ghosts” — Photo Credit: Steve Wilkie / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s apparently “everyone fight Dick” day though because later in the training room as Dick is working with the punching bag, Rose turns up looking for a sparring partner. They begin to fight — broken up with lots of quippy banter — and Dick seems to have met his match as the two of them are head-to-head. Ultimately though, Dick wins the match and leaves a frustrated Rose alone in the training room.

ROMA-ROMA-MA; GA-GA OH-LA-LA

Back in Chicago, Kory has driven with her guardian to the place where she parked her space ship, but is interrupted by a phone call from Rachel who is concerned about her. Kory tells her that she has to go home and that she’s sorry. Rachel, heartbroken, asks if she can go with Kory because her powers feel like they’re out of control.

“When I fought my father, I became something. Something different. That different thing wants me to be it all the time. So I spend all day and all night trying to hold it in; trying to keep it in. I’m so tired. I just want to be normal.”

Kory reassures her that she’s on her way, and hangs up the phone. Returning back to her guard, they access her spacecraft and she coaxes him in before shutting him inside — informing him that she’ll be back in a while.

Bad Idea Town, population: Jason Todd

In the surveillance room, Jason talks to Gar about the incident with Dick. Though Gar tries to defend Dick and explain that he just reacted and it didn’t mean anything, Jason doesn’t want to hear it — instead asking if there’s anything he can do to help Gar find Doctor Light. They hone in on an idea of Jason’s that he could be in the underground train station because it doesn’t read heat signatures…but after a few more clicks, they find a boat-load of radiation that matches Doctor Light. Gar’s first reaction is to go and tell Dick, but Jason rebuffs the idea in favor of getting surveillance up close themselves before telling Dick.

Titans — Ep. 203 — “Ghosts” — Photo Credit: Steve Wilkie / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Gar and —once again — fully-suited Jason make their way down into the train station tunnels; opting to split up to try and find Light. Luckily for Jason, he seems to have struck gold when he runs right into Doctor Light in the first tunnel he turns down.

Trying his best, Jason fights back again Doctor Light by himself; repeatedly getting knocked to the ground. But maybe you could say he had some good training over the years because Jason finally begins to land some moves. The fight continues with Jason finally finding his mojo…until Doctor Light begins laughing between bloody breaths at the sight of Deathstroke entering the tunnel.

Hearing Jason scream from somewhere in the station, Gar comes running to try and find him only to find nothing but a smear of fresh blood on the bottom of the tunnel.

FIN!

And that concludes season 2, episode 3 of Titans! Make sure to check back next week for a recap of episode 4!

1 COMMENT

  1. I want to like this show but I’m bummed at how little happens in each episode. Also, wear your costumes, guys.

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