TV Review: Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 21

Young Justice Season 3 Episode 21 “Unknown Factors”

Director: Vinton Heuck

Starring: Troy Baker, Greg Cipes, Robbie Daymond, Zehra Fazal, Grey Griffin, Jesse McCartney, Masasa Moyo, Khary Payton, Kevin Michael Richardson, Zeno Robinson, Alyson Stoner, Deborah Strang

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 23 minutes

Young Justice finally brings Nightwing back for a more substantial role this week, even if for plot reasons the character still doesn’t have quite the presence or impact he usually does and deserves.  Dick and Jeff are on another off-the-books mission staking out Gretchen Goode/Granny Goodness but when they get captured (due to Dick being a little too ambitious) Barbara has no choice but to send Kaldur in for a rescue, during which multiple revelations are made and many of the heroes’ secrets come close to being exposed.

Kaldur’s boyfriend, Wyynde, who, as it turns out has his own sorcery and combat training, comes along as backup, though things still ultimately go poorly despite Dick and Jeff being retrieved safely.  Wyynde isn’t particularly interesting himself yet, and as always I’m apprehensive about another character being added to the spotlight but I do very much appreciate how this season has given active roles to non-superhero supporting characters. Rather than risk getting caught unawares while sneaking around like Dick and Jeff were, Kaldur takes the direct approach with Granny, knocking on her front door and demanding she release his friends.  It’s not one of Kaldur’s better plans, although I suppose when dealing with a New God he might not have had any alternative.  The fact that Granny (sort of) obliges the request highlights how the heroes and villains are in a kind of stalemate, waging their usual covert wars but neither able to make a big play against the other because of their negative standings with the public.  Still, Granny is only so forgiving, and when Kaldur and Wyynde try to leave not just with their friends but also with Dreamer’s borrowed Mother Box she orders Dick and Jeff, who she was in the process of brainwashing, to attack their rescuers.  Thankfully, Vic and Halo both detect the Mother Box’s distress and they arrive to help along with Brion and Gar.  When a Bat-tech drone Barbara is piloting briefly lends a hand during the fight to escape, Jeff notices and is clearly suspicious of who knew of an operation he believed only he and Dick were involved in.  The anti-Light came dangerously close to being exposed this week and I imagine that means its existence is genuinely going to become known quite soon.  That’s also not the only development in the war of information between the good and bad guys as the cavalry’s arrival gives Granny a vital piece of intel that becomes one of the episode’s two major reveals.

The first bombshell, though, is the long-awaited truth about Doctor Jace.  After the not-so-good doctor’s attempts to prevent Brion and Halo from forgiving one another go south she texts her mentor, who, as it turns out is… Ultra-Humanite.  While the reveal of Humanite doesn’t really itself hold much dramatic weight given up until now she’s been a mostly-to-entirely silent antagonist, it is nice to know that the show isn’t chickening out in terms of having Jace in bed with the villains.  I still think Jace will have sympathetic motives, but I’m hoping she will be firmly on the dark side (no pun intended).  The even bigger surprise comes in the series’ first post-credits scene, in which Granny informs Darkseid himself that she’s found the Anti-Life Equation, with the implication being that it is or is inside Halo, given how fascinated Granny was with them.  This was a stunning reveal that sets up the end of the season to have a really thrilling and unpredictable plot that looks to successfully keep the ever-expanding intergalactic conflict rooted firmly in intimate, personal storytelling until the end.

Now that we’ve addressed the great of “Unknown Factors”, there’s also the not so great to touch on.  Or more accurately the just kind of weird.  This week’s main subplot revolves around the birth of Karen and Mal’s baby, and while it brings with it some very interesting ethical questions, starting this story thread and asking the viewer to care about it when so much else is going on is a random, not particularly effective choice.  We haven’t seen Mal all season and Karen’s involvement has been limited to a brief cameo way back in “Home Fires”, so suddenly making them the center of so much attention feels especially random.  It doesn’t help that they were never that important or compelling characters even when they were in the spotlight (their relationship drama was easily the worst part of Season 2 other than Lagoon Boy, and less meme-able). Still, as I said the sequence does allow for an addition to the season’s study of the ethical issues relating to meta-humans.  Karen is initially firmly against Mal’s idea of using her meta-gene research to alter their kids’ genetics to help them compete in an increasingly meta-filled world, or at least to protect them from diseases.  But when the baby is born with a heart problem, Karen not only shrinks down to fix the ailment from the inside, she clearly reconsiders the suggestions, tempted by the idea of making sure that her child never has to worry about something similar happening again, and more to the point so she as a mother doesn’t have to.  It’s left ambiguous whether or not Karen actually did or didn’t enhance the kid in some way, but this is a case where the question is much more important than the answer.  Again, it’s a really interesting idea with huge real-world significance but with everything else going on, it just doesn’t seem like the right time to bring it up, and rooting the issue in the story of two of the show’s thinnest characters doesn’t help.  If this was just a bit of world-building to set up a story thread for Season 4 that’s fine but with only five episodes left I can’t imagine Outsiders itself has space for a debate about the ethics of human enhancement and genetic alteration.

“Unknown Factors” doesn’t have a lot in the way of character or thematic development.  It’s a very plot-focused episode, but a very good one that complicates various threads in ways that inspire confidence that everything just might come together in a cohesive (and if this episode’s tone is anything to go by, devastating) manner.  The villains of Young Justice (or a faction of them at least) are closer than ever to achieving complete victory, and while it’s bad news for the heroes, it makes for captivating television.  That shocking after-credits scene is one of many ways “Unknown Factors” signals that we’ve entered the home stretch of this season’s epic, complex narrative.  Buckle up, because the remaining episodes of Outsiders are sure to make for a crazy ride.

Wally West Watch: Nothing.

Notes:

• Their relationship has never been that compelling (especially by Young Justice standards) but Brion and Halo’s reconciliation was sweet.
• It was nice just to see him back in an episode’s featured cast, but Dick really needs to get a more significant role going forward.
• The last few episodes have shown massive improvement over the first installments back from the mid-season break but the fight scenes are still supremely dull.  Sure, Kaldur and company versus brainwashed Dick and Jeff didn’t need to be an all-time great brawl for the show but now that all-out war seems to be around the corner we need more battles on the level of the covert team vs Lobo or Batman and company vs. the League of Shadows.
• Since we are in the home stretch here are my theories about how some of the season’s stories will wrap up: Jace is motivated by the loss of her child (or children).  Her betrayal will initially look like the final nail in the coffin for the heroes but Tara will come clean (or will be revealed to have done so already offscreen) to Dick, Brion, or (preferably) Artemis and that will throw enough of a monkey wrench into the Light’s plans to let the teams survive, but probably not come out with a win.  Halo will sacrifice themselves to save everyone at some point but Darkseid will still ultimately unleash the Anti-Life Equation (possibly thanks to some help from a brainwashed Beast Boy), leaving only a smaller group of heroes to fight back in Season 4, possibly teaming up with Cassandra and or Vandal Savage.  Wally West will return at the very end but his revival will come with a catch, possibly tied to the New God known as the Black Racer.

Click here for more TV reviews