Once Dick shows up, the good times are over since he wants to take her back into safe custody after her kidnapping. Though Rachel finally meets Garfield Logan, it's just a brief and sweet flirtation at an arcade. Then again the flashbacks have yet to explore the indoctrination into vigilantism. Dick was a difficult and troubled adolescent prone to rebelling, though Bruce doesn't appear to be the type to keep him on a tight leash. These flashback sequences offer a more artistic neonoir flair on top of the deeper character exploration. Dick is also repeatedly flashing back to his time as a lost orphan taken in by Bruce Wayne. Memory loss and memory recollection is recurring theme, as Kory continues to struggle with filling in the missing pieces of who she was and how she came to be on this search for Rachel. The two end up back at a convent where Rachel had previously stayed though she doesn't recall much about the place. First up is Rachel, whom she rescues from the clutches of the evil Nuclear Family. The branding’s so obvious you’d think there was a tie-in or Disney owned them, but no, it’s apparently just a KB Toys.In this latest episode of "Titans" Kory finally meets some other members of her eventual squad. And the Christmas in New York setting just keeps paying off, this episode seemingly doing a Lethal Weapon homage.Īlso-the Tracksuit Mafia’s headquarters is an old KB Toys. The cliffhanger’s wanting-another comparison to Marvel Netflix, it’s set up for an immediate, binge watch resolution-and makes the episode feel too short, especially since they very obviously tease a reveal villain for later on. He and Steinfeld’s mentor and protege relationship gets some nice development here, altogether avoiding the surrogate dad stuff, which is awesome.Ĭox is good Fra Fee’s solid as her sidekick (the only other polysyllabic Tracksuit).
They really should’ve done the MCU Dad thing with him from go. Some terrific acting from Steinfeld and very sturdy work from Renner. The Steinfeld analogs don’t get explored here, but Cox and Renner both having hearing loss is a plot point. Cox is a childhood martial arts star, Steinfeld’s a childhood martial arts star Cox has daddy issues, Steinfeld has daddy issues. Cox has been deaf since at least childhood, if not birth, and Renner’s now got hearing loss. They don’t, but it’s an effective prologue.Īnd there’s a bunch of juxtapositions between Cox and the heroes. Like they’re going to do a whole episode setting her up. With Cox’s origin story, the beginning really feels like a Marvel Netflix show. No dead bodies, but it’s the Batman Returns logic of “you blow someone up, they don’t survive.” Until all of a sudden, there’s real danger, except the bad guys are mostly boobs, so Steinfeld and Renner can kick ass.
Steinfeld has a funny interchange with one of them about his relationship troubles, and Cox doesn’t want the heroes killed, so there’s never any real danger. Like, for a while, all the stuff with the Tracksuit Mafia is non-lethal because they’re jackasses. She then trains in martial arts from a young age to be a crime lord to numbskulls when she grows up. Still, the opening with young Cox (played by Darnell Besaw) and McClarnon plays sympathetic and wonderful. It lessens the impact when we later find out McClarnon ran the Tracksuit Mafia and was an actual bad guy. We find out she had to go to public school instead of deaf school because dad Zahn McClarnon couldn’t afford it. Especially since the episode opens with Alaqua Cox’s villain origin story and feels like they will spend the whole episode on her. Not a great car chase, but focusing on Steinfeld’s archery-Renner finally lets her use some of his trick arrows, though he keeps the best one for himself-it’s really distinct for the show. The New York action sequence has Renner and Steinfeld doing a car chase with bows, arrows, and bridges. It’s pretty awesome and made me think Rhys Thomas really loved the comics.Įxcept Thomas didn’t direct this episode, it was Bert & Bertie, so I guess Bert & Bertie really grok the talking heads formula. Back and forth, back and forth, just like a Marvel Comics talking heads sequence. They’re staring almost directly into the camera in one-shot close-ups, and they just have a conversation. Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld are sitting and talking to each other. This episode has some real highlights, including a great New York action sequence, but the most impressive one has got to be the comic book talking heads sequence.