Young Justice season 3, episode 20 review: Quiet Conversations
Cyborg gets a starring role in this week’s episode of Young Justice: Outsiders, but the show also shed some light on real-life crime, as well.
Spoilers ahead.
The newest episode of Young Justice: Outsiders was released on the DC Universe streaming service on Tuesday. The episode is entitled “Quiet Conversation,s” and it had the heroes deal with some heavy issues, especially for what might be considered a silly, superhero cartoon. But this show has always been so much more.
Aquaman’s dilemma
In the previous episode, Batman reveals that the Outsiders last mission wasn’t real – it was all a set-up via his covert Bat-team. Batman and Lex Luthor share a line of dialogue in the episode: “But knowing and proving are two different things.” Interesting that the good guy and the bad guy have the same thought when it comes to how they interact with one another.
For Luthor, this is the way that he commits crimes. It is one thing to be a suspect, but another to be proven guilty of a crime.
With Batman, there is always this willingness to do what’s necessary, even when it might be outside the law or crossing some moral lines. Batman fooled the Outsiders into thinking this was an actual mission, but it really amounted to a shot at Lex, who would know this was all just a way for Batman to destroy his tech. But Luthor can do little about it because he can’t prove it.
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If Luthor figures out the Outsiders weren’t in on the hoax, he might be able to use that to his advantage. But for now, it simply looks like a bad play by Batman because the Outsiders are simply pawns in his game against Lex – which minimizes them as heroes in many respects.
For Aquaman/Kaldur, Batman’s ruse clearly does not sit well – even though Kaldur was in on the initial plan with Batman. When King Orin (the original Aquaman) speaks highly of the Outsiders’ previous mission, Kaldur is clearly troubled.
The Outsiders are not being included in the complete scope of the mission. It is pretty underhanded to outright lie to them, especially since Kaldur was once their Young Justice teammate. Even with Batman’s good intentions (to mess with Luthor), there could be unintended consequences, making the Outsiders further distance themselves from the Justice League.
Cyborg’s release
The Father Box starts to really attack Vic Stone/Cyborg in this episode. Every time Vic gets upset, the Father Box takes over more of Cyborg’s body – making him less human in the process.
Cyborg is finally healed when the chair of Metron (a New God that created Father Box tech) is able to purge the Father Box’s soul from Cyborg’s body. Going forward, it should be interesting to see whether or not Cyborg might have a bigger role with the team.
Since his introduction this season, Cyborg has had very little screen time. With his release from the Father Box, he may now be able to explore his role as a hero. Of course, Young Justice has such a deep roster of characters that screen time is always an issue.
Miss Martian’s rescue
One of the nicer subplots of this episode was Miss Martian helping Harper Row. Harper and her younger brother Colin are dealing with an alcoholic father, who likes to beat on them.
If anyone is in need of heroes (real heroes, not this fun comic book stuff), it’s children dealing with domestic violence. The episode even concludes with the website for the National Domestic Abuse Hotline: www.thehotline.org.
Beyond its high level of storytelling week after week, this small detail of using the show to deal with real-life issues is just another reason to like Young Justice. If just one person is helped by the inclusion of that hotline (coupled with the story of this episode), then the writers carved out their own form of justice.
Hopefully, it helps so many more.
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Check out new episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders every Tuesday on the DC Universe streaming service.