TV Review: Titans Season 2 Episode 5

Titans Season 2 Episode 5 “Deathstroke”

Director: Nick Gomez

Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Teagan Croft, Anna Diop, Ryan Potter, Curran Walters, Conor Leslie, Minka Kelly, Alan Ritchson, Chelsea Zhang, Esai Morales

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 43 minutes

Straight at the top of this, I will try and avoid spoilers. Try being the keyword in that sentence. This episode of Titans is in my eyes one of the best episodes we’ve seen. It’s got elements of everything that makes the show great. So again, there may be SPOILERS following this paragraph.

With the little detour into the team’s past and Aqualad mostly out of the way, “Deathstroke” takes us back to the present. Jason Todd has been kidnapped by Deathstroke and Dr. Light. The senior members of the team go out searching for him, while Rachel, Gar, and Rose are left at the tower. In the middle of it all, Starfire shows up at the tower, in time for the team to start unraveling further than they already have. Before the episode is over, Deathstroke offers an ultimatum, trading Rose Wilson, his daughter, for Todd, leaving them all with a tough decision.

 Again, this episode has pretty much everything that I love about this show. There’s tension between practically everyone on the team. There’s a badass hand to hand fight towards the end. We also get a tiny bit of world-building going on with Kory (Starfire) and her royal status on Tamaran. And Todd is a smartass who can back it up by kicking ass. There’s even a small moment between Hawk and Dove, who have one of the better relationships in the show.

Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly give the best performance in the episode, which isn’t too surprising. The two episodes in season 1 that focus on them are definitely among the best. Curran Walters is continually killing it as Todd, the character that you love because you just don’t like him. Besides the Titans, we see a whole lot more of Esai Morales as Deathstroke, which is cool. As far as how he looks, I think he nails it. Hearing him talk isn’t what I would imagine Deathstroke sounds like entirely. It’s not bad, but I think I need more time for it to grow on me.

Todd is currently a captive of Deathstroke, that happened in episode 3. And keeping it a bit light, by the end of the episode he’s in a pretty unique Todd situation. That famous thing that’s not being Red Hood. I think it’s too early to call it, and I don’t think something like that would happen this early in the season. But purely because it is Todd, I think it’s something that could definitely happen. Almost all the elements are there, and I don’t think we’ll be getting a spin-off Batman and Robin show where it could actually happen. As much as I would love that.

The show also has one of the better fight scenes in the whole series, with Dick Grayson fighting Deathstroke one on one. It’s something this show has always been good with. And credit where it’s due, Deathstroke has him on the ropes almost the entire fight, which I think is what would happen in the comics. There’s, of course, a couple of bad special effects, mostly with Rachel and her powers. They haven’t featured too much so far, but when they’re there, they’re noticeable. But even with the few things I don’t like about this episode, I absolutely loved it. It’s easily in my top three favorite episodes. It ends on a cliffhanger though, and I don’t think we’ll see any resolution since episode six has the title “Conner”.

Click here for more TV reviews