Titans season 3, episode 4 review: Blackfire

“Either I find out what’s down that hatch or I keep sleep-walking and punching you in the face.” Spoilers for Titans season 3, episode 4 follow.

Red Hood has put out a hit out on Scarecrow in apparent retaliation for him helping the Titans, forcing Dick to protect him from being Jason’s latest victim without the Titans’ help.

While this is happening, Kory’s mental state continues to deteriorate, causing her to hurt Garfield.

Here’s how things went in the fourth episode of Titans season 3 “Blackfire”.

Protecting fear

One of the most interesting characters to appear in the first three episodes of Titans season 3 was Scarecrow. There was a serious Silence of the Lambs vibe that the show was going for with the character and, for the most part, it worked incredibly well. This is a very different Scarecrow than versions that we’ve seen previously, but it absolutely works well here.

That continues in this episode as Nightwing has to protect Jonathan Crane after a hit is put out on him, but there’s obviously more going on than just a simple hit. As we learn through a couple of fantastic interactions between Dick and Crane in this episode, Scarecrow and Jason are a team of sorts and, as such, Scarecrow knows everything about Batman and his two Robins. It’s not explained that well how and why Scarecrow has anything to do with Jason as Red Hood, but it creates an interesting way forward for the season.

The final fight between Nightwing and Red Hood in this episode is also one of the best fights that the show has had so far. It’s very fast, but easy to follow with some really great choreography. And, even though it’s dark, the directing and fight teams still managed to make the confrontation stand out by using Nightwing’s batons and Red Hood’s guns which boast their respective colors. It was a really clever way to keep the lighting feeling relatively natural for a forest at night, while also ensuring that the audience weren’t completely lost.

Mind breaking

Well, after some benign sleep-walking moments over the course of the first three installments, Kory seems like she’s finally broken as she attacks Garfield, searing his arm. As it turns out though, these episodes the she’s been having aren’t simply because of a declining mental state, but rather a telepathic connection to her sister, Blackfire.

The journey to Blackfire though is filled with pain though. Well, pain for Beast Boy that is, who is rightfully fed up with getting attacked by Kory. Regardless though, he helps her because that’s just who he is; if he sees someone who needs help, he’ll do it, which goes doubly for his friends. It’s a good thing that he does though because without his help, there was probably no way that Starfire would have been able to find Blackfire, who was being held prisoner in a government facility.

So, how is the first non-holographic interaction between Starfire and her sister? It’s fine. Nothing especially great, but also nothing egregiously poor either. It’s just passable. Anna Diop is still one of the best parts of the show so she elevates the relatively mediocre material that she’s given, but other than that, this first meeting between the two is nothing special. However, it also feels heavily like set-up for the second half of the season which will more than likely feature Blackfire as a villain.

Dealing with failure

After the tragedy that befell the Titans at the end of the last episode, the start of this episode felt like it was teeing up for a slow, mournful episode of the team coping with Hank’s death. However, that definitely didn’t end up being the case. We get really two scenes at the beginning of the episode and some lip service at how Dick and Gar are holding up in the face of the loss, but that’s about it. It seems like it was meant to parallel Bruce’s lack of mourning with the death of Jason, but it doesn’t work all that well.

However, despite not focusing on this mourning period as much as it probably should, the first two scenes in this episode are excellent. Conner’s breakdown over not being able to save Hank, confronting what he thinks are his own inadequacies, and one of his first real failures – it’s very powerful. Combine that with Dawn coming in and attempting to absolve Conner of his guilt, and quickly followed up with Dick and Dawn’s tearful goodbyes to one another, it hits hard.

Titans continues on its stronger path this season, despite the missteps it had in where it put this episode’s focus.

What did you think of Titans season 3, episode 4? Let us know in the comments below!