TITANS Season 2, episode 7 recap – “Bruce Wayne”

Titans is back for a whole new episode on DC Universe! And with last week being all about the Very Good Boys Conner Kent and Krypto escaping from Cadmus Labs with the help of Dr. Eve Watson, it’s about time we get back to Titans Tower to see how the aftermath of the Deathstroke showdown is going. So let’s get going on your recap of Titans Season 2, Episode 7 – Bruce Wayne.

If your looking to catch up to this recap with some other recaps, you can find last week’s here!

We open on…well, mostly a lot of screaming. But that understandable because it’s coming from Jason, who has essentially been falling from a building for three episodes now. But as we all know from last week’s episode, Conner Kent swoops in like the Superboy he is — and so the scene jumps from Jason falling to him staring pensively out a window (presumably after some time has passed since his rescue).

Elsewhere in Titans Tower, Dick Grayson walks into the suiting-up room and stares at his empty costume chamber until Bruce Wayne enters. He tells Dick that usually the saying goes that “the suit makes the man,” but in his case the suit is more of a urn. (HA!) Bruce really sets into him about how Dick has a knack for slashing and burning things that don’t suit him (HAAA!), which is why it must have seemed like no big deal to have one less Robin in the world; or that maybe he’d do the noble but horribly stupid thing of trading his life for Jason’s. The fact of the matter is though, that Deathstroke doesn’t want Dick at all. He wants everyone but Dick. And that Dick’s job in the first place  was to take care of the kids and he failed at that, too. Dick looks suitably battered and like a sad puppy before Bruce Wayne — who is now clearly proven to be a hallucination —  disappears, and Dawn enters the room to check in on him and let him know that she tried to patch up Conner, but that there have been a few complications.

Oh hey there title sequence

In the medical bay of Titans Tower, Kory is waiting at Conner’s bedside as Dawn and Dick enter. Dawn explains that while he’s stable, what he was shot with left behind a toxin that’s complicating his recovery. Dick suggests that they take him to a hospital, but Dawn and Kory push back by telling that he has special powers and should stay in the Tower. They also tell him that he should call Bruce to see if he knows who the boy is. Like clockwork, the Bruce Wayne hallucination reappears in the doorway, laughing and impersonating how the phone call would go: with Bruce telling him that the only special power that sets him apart is the fact that he has Bruce Wayne’s phone number to call for help. Regardless, Dick promises that he’ll call Bruce to check with him, and leaves the room to go check on Jason.

In the training room, Jason is listening to Angry Boy Music and beating the tar out of a punching bag. Dick asks if he’s alright, but as usual, Jason is completely dismissive. Dick tells him that it might be good to take a break and take it easy after what he’s been through, but an exhausted Jason says that he’s never felt better. Bruce appears again to tell Dick that maybe the solution for every problem child should be to toss them off of a roof, but Dick ignores him and turns his attention to apologizing to Jason properly for what happened. Jason tells him to shut up and says that Dick should just tell him what they’re all thinking — that everything that happened was his fault because he went off on his own. Dick assures him that that’s not the case, but ultimately decides that right now it might be best to just leave Jason alone.

Dick joins the rest of the old Titans team in the kitchen where Hank immediately starts to passively question him about why he decided to “pull a Houdini” when they were trying to help with Deathstroke. Dick begs them not to talk about it, but admits that he messed up and made a tactical error. It’s not easy for Dick to keep talking about everything because Bruce is still following him around and pointing out his subconscious feelings about what happened and everything going on around him. Obviously feeling overloaded, Dick grabs his jacket and leaves; letting the team know that he’s going out.

Dr. Eve Watson: Secret Squirrel

Back in the medical bay, Kory is doing the awesome mom thing and taking care of a still-unconscious Conner. Not for long though, because he wakes suddenly and grabs Kory by her arm, holding her in place. He’s speaking in tongues and continuing to hold her down when she yells back in the same unknown language. Conner lets go of her and passes out again just as Dawn comes in. Kory tells her that she responded with “let go of my damn arm” in the same dead language he was speaking: Kryptonian. Kory remarks that him being Kryptonian only makes sense now because she was unable to pierce his skin to insert an I.V. And just as that information is sinking in, Conner begins softly repeating Eve’s name in his sleep.

The scene makes a jump back to Cadmus Labs where Eve has gone back. Mercy enters the observation rooms and tells Eve that while she’s missing “subject 13” (Conner), she presumes him dead, which fine considering it’s a write off. Eve is visibly shaken and begs Mercy to assemble a new team to bring him back so that she can work with him, but Mercy is firm in her decision of him being terminated, and informs Eve that she has been terminated as well. Eve hands over her badge to Mercy, and leaves the observation room.

On her way out of the facility, Eve plans the perfect heist as she turns a corner just in time to bump into another scientist. She apologizes and they all scramble to gather their things, but Eve has the golden opportunity to grab one of their entrance badges.

Oh wow Dick is completely losing it

We come back to Dick who is walking into a bar the houses a familiar face. The bartender remarks how he hasn’t seen him in years, and Dick asks if he can help get him some information. Benny says that he doesn’t do that anymore, but Dick presses for information on Slade Wilson anyway; prompting Benny to tell him that the last time he saw Slade was at the local gun range. Dick doesn’t buy that info though, and pushes Benny further — slamming his head into the bar and holding a gun to his head per the suggestion of a still-present Bruce. Benny finally fesses up and tells him that Slade was dating two sisters; one of them overdosed, but the other one — Maddy Matisse — runs The Scarlet Rose. Dick thanks Benny and begins to leave, but Bruce comments that he shouldn’t be bringing a gun. “Deathstroke is a gun guy,” replies Dick as he walks out the door.

Angsty metal definitely isn’t getting-down music, Jason.

Returning back to Titans Tower, Hank comes out after a shower and grabs a shirt that has been hiding a bottle of alcohol. Meanwhile, Jason is in his room playing more Angry Boy Music, and staring off into the middle distance of his window; the first person view of falling from the building flitting through the reflection of his eye.

There’s banging on the door, and when Jason answers it Rose sleepily asks him what he’s listening to and if she can come in. He flatly replies no, and she tells him that she recognizes the look of what her father can do to someone. Jason tries to close the door on her but she pushes her way inside, telling him that while everyone else thinks he’s a fuck-up, he’s the only person doing anything. Jason hand-waves away any notion of that being true, but Rose brings up the very real point that it would take an army of super-shrinks to crack all of the mental instability that exists within the Titans group.

They share a small laugh over everyone’s inability to talk about feelings (which was the alternate title of the show), and Rose says that Jason is the only person worth talking to in the team because she understands how he feels. They bond over their similarities and make foreshadowing sexy eyes at each other before Rose asks if she can be the one to play music for a while.

*Elton John’s “Rocketman” plays*

Eve is still inside Cadmus Labs where she has used the stolen I.D. badge to navigate through the testing facility. She finally reaches her destination and unlocks the cage that’s holding Krypto, asking him to please help her find Conner. Krypto whines and slinks out of the box where Eve struggles to undo the Kyrptonite collar around his neck. Fortunately, she’s a damn scientist and has Krpyto use his laser eyes so that she can reflect the beams toward the collar. They finally get it off and try to make their way out, but a group of guards have already begun to descend on them. BUT! What’s really handy when you’re trying to escape a group of armed guards? Oh, that’s right. A Super Dog that can fly! And fly he does — laughing himself and Eve out of the nearest window.

This should be a joke about a Dick being out in a burlesque club.

….so Dick is in a burlesque club. He’s a totally creep and watched the dancer on stage for some time before a scantily clad dancer approaches him and asks him to buy her a drink. Dick clearly doesn’t know how these things work and instead asks where Maddy Mattisse is. The dancer leads him to a table where a beautiful woman is sitting alone. Dick pulls up a chair, and first she calls him a creamsicle — which made me snort — and then informs him that he’s mistaken because the table is hers. He asks if they can share, but she says she’s not in the mood. Dick brings up Wintergreen and her sister and Maddy seems to warm up to the idea of cooperating with him.(And yes, there is definitely a segment where the apparition of Bruce is dancing on stage with the burlesque performers. But that’s honestly much better when watched. Please trust me.)

Total Drama Island: Titans Edition

There’s a whole lot happening back at the Tower because not only does Donna enter her room to find the same orange soda that Garth used to share with her, but Rose and Jason are still playing coy with one another. Rose starts up a new song on the record player and starts dancing, but Jason is busy staring out the window again. She snaps him out of it and offers to teach him how to dance. He tries to refuse but Rose tells him it’s just like fighting and pulls him into some slow, weirdly sensual dancing set to some R&B. That’s clearly enough to get things going because the two start making out, but Jason is till enough in his head that he asks to stop. She smiles and lets it go, returning to the box of vinyl to pick out another record. Before she can choose something new, though, she finds a record that has “Propety of Jericho” written on it in her brother’s handwriting.

She confronts Jason who didn’t even have a clue that she had a brother and explains that all of his vinyls are ones he’s borrow from Jason. Rose remains unconvinced and asks if she’s being played and used as bait. Jason is still completely clueless as to what’s going on, and Rose asks if they’ve been using her dead brother’s things and her to lure in Deathstroke. She knows that if Dick knew Jericho then that means that Jericho had been there and Dick had never told her about it. She storms out of Jason’s room, screaming that Jason, Dick, and the Titans can fuck off.

The fresh Don’t-give-a-f*** smell of Wintergreen

In the city, Dick is preparing to go to the hotel where Maddy Mattisse said Wintergreen was holed up. Bruce is back to following Dick around and making him question every decision that he’s made up to this point. That’s no match for our boy’s stubbornness though, and Dick makes sure that Subconscious Bruce knows that his full intention is to put Wintergreen in the ground.

Finally at the hotel, Dick breaks into Wintergreen’s room and kicks out the many topless women scattered around the place until he finds him in the bath. Demanding to know where Deathstroke is, to which Wintergreen responds flippantly, Dick throws down a glass and enters the bathroom with a gun; shooting at the tub as a threat. Wintergreen seems entirely unphased and says that he’s only the middle man, and got the job because he holds the line, but that Dick is welcome to kill him if he wants.

To punctuate how much he literally does no care, Wintergreen gets out of the tub and begins drying off while questioning Dick about everything that went down between him and Deathstroke five years ago. Dick gets more and more frustrated and start pointing the gun at him much more aggressively, but Bruce is begging him to go back to the Tower. Dick finally speaks up and tells Bruce to leave him alone, but when Wintergreen asks who he’s talking to, Dick pistol-whips him and knocks him out. While still planning what to do next with the help of Subconscious Bruce, Dick’s cell phone rings and a voice (Deathstroke) tells him a location that he needs to get to.

“I said “chives”, Dawn, not “friend who dies”. Jeez.”

Dawn and Hank are in the kitchen making dinner and Hank asks Dawn to get him some chives. She goes into the pantry to grab them and finds a photo of the friend that was killed by Doctor Light that she normally keeps in her dresser. While Dawn and Hank try to figure out who took it and brought it in the kitchen, Donna turns up and mentions that someone left her the bottle of orange soda as well. It’s a unanimous thought that someone is messing with them and trying to scare them, and they set out in trying to figure out who would play such cruel pranks.

In the medical bay, Kory is still working on Conner, whose Kryptonite bullet wound is still refusing to heal over. She talks to him even as he’s unconscious and tells him that she recognizes how strong he is because she’s strong too, but that trying to make him better is making her feel helpless.

Meanwhile, down at the entrance of the Tower, Krypto has lead Eve directly to where Conner is staying, and Eve is begging Gar over the intercom to let her in to see him. Kory shows up to see who Gar is talking to and tells him to let her in.

Eve and Krypto sit at Conners bedside with Eve showing lots of remorse for letting Luthor’s agents hurt him. Kory asks whether she can make him any better, but Eve says that the poisoning has gone too far. Kory doesn’t accept that answer though, and tells Eve that she has to make something work. Getting more and more emotional, Eve tells Kory that the only thing that would make him better is to power him with radiation as strong as the sun, and that that is not something they have time for at this juncture. That answer, however, Kory does accept, and she smiles broadly while asking Eve why she didn’t just say that sooner.

SUPER MOM!

Eve and Krypto stand outside the room and Kory holds a naked Conner up in her arms. Rachel is now in the room and Kory asks her if she’s ready to keep Kory and Conner contained. A massive black wave wraps itself around Kory and Conner as Kory powers herself up enough to light up the top of the Tower completely. Once Rachel removes her veil, Kory stands holding a fully awake, and very naked, Conner.

Once he’s back in bed, Eve lets Conner know that he won’t be fully functional until the radiation saturates his body more. Conner only tells her that he’s sorry because Eve had told him not to be a hero, but Eve admits that her advice was terrible and that the world is so much better with him in it. Conner follows up by asking — in the most earnest voice possible — what will happen to her. Ever encourages him to continue his sentence, and he calls her “mom” before she begins to tear up again. She lets him know that she’s getting as far away from LexCorp as possible, and kisses him on the head before leaving the room and allowing Krypto to jump up on the bed.

“Welp. This is as good a place as any to unpack all my baggage” -Dick

Dick has somehow acquired a motorbike and has arrived at the location that Deathstroke gave to him over the phone — a church. The apparition of Bruce is already waiting inside and asks Dick if this is really where he wants to be, but all Dick is wanting is to know where Deathstroke is. Bruce puts to Dick that Deathstorke is merely playing on his guilt in order to lure him away from the place — and people —  that he needs to be the closest to right now. Dick tells Bruce that he has no idea what he’s talking about, but Bruce knows everything about the blood on his hands, and that’s precisely why Dick decided to “bring him along”.

“You’re afraid of the dark and always have been,” says Bruce. “You’re afraid that if the others know your secret that they’ll leave you. And you’ll be alone again. And they may.”

Dick tries to convince Bruce that no one else needs to know because what’s the past is the past and it doesn’t need to come to light anymore, but Bruce refuses to leave him alone. Dick begs him to leave, and Bruce tells him that the only way to get rid of him is the way he’s always known that he had to: Tell the truth. Dick begins to cry and admits that telling the truth is too hard sometimes, and this time Bruce comforts him with a hand on his cheek.

Dick composes himself and approaches the altar at the head of the church where Deathstroke has left photos and evidence of Dick’s past. Overwhelmed with anger, Dick destroys the photos and runs out of the church.

Oh my god leave that poor Sad Boy alone you monsters!

Rachel enters her room after helping Kory to find black crosses litering the walls and windows of her room. She looks in the mirror filled with crosses and her eyes glow red, causing the mirror to shatter. But just a few doors away, Jason is also suffering as he stares out the window, which we can now see from his point of view as the fall he endured is pictures in the glass. He’s so busy following the fall that he doesn’t hear Rachel enter his room. She yells at him and asks why he insists on giving people reasons to hate him, and blames him for the black crosses all over her room. Jason snaps out of his trance and tells Rachel that he doesn’t know what she’s talking about; but before he can say anything else, Rachel snaps, her eyes go red again, and she lunges at him. Jason is able to dodge her, but it all gets to be too much and he grabs his jacket and leaves the room.

Rachel isn’t willing to let this go without a fight though, and storms after him through the living space, shouting that he’s not allowed to walk away from her. Dawn tries to intervene by asking what’s wrong, but when Rachel tells them about the crosses, the whole team gangs up and blames Jason for the intrusive and very personal oddities that have been popping up. Jason, with tears in his eyes, tells them that he’d rather be with Deathstroke again than with them because they always assume that everything is his fault.

Dick suddenly enters the Tower carrying a gun and shakily announces that Deathstroke is there in the Tower. Hank asks Dick why he has a gun while the rest of the team looks on in confusion, and Bruce hints to Dick that in the middle of all of this, it seems like someone is missing. Dick looks around, doesn’t see Jason, and bolts out of the room.

Oh. Oh Jason. 

On the roof of Titans Tower, Jason is standing on the edge. He tells Dick that no matter where he is he just keeps falling and it won’t stop.

“Bruce wasn’t the first one that tried to help me. I could make a list. Relatives, teachers, cops. Even you,” says Jason, staring into the distance. “Nobody has been up to the task, Dick. I have a poison in me. It spreads and can affect even the healthy people.”

Dick encourages him to step away from the ledge, but Jason refuses. Instead, he calmly walks towards Jason and sits a few feet away on the edge and tells him that they can just be up there together. Jason, still threatening to jump, tells Dick that everywhere he goes this happens and someone dies. He says that he is the reason why the team won’t work, and that he needs to remove the poison. But just as Jason is about to take his final step, Dick offers to tell him something that he’s never told anyone, and looks back to the approving face of Bruce who soon disappears. He tells Jason that he’s not the poison, and definitely not the reason people on the team keep getting hurt.

Finally, after years of keeping it to himself, Dick admits out loud that everything is happening because he is responsible for killing Deathstroke’s son.

FIN.