TV Review: Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 22

Young Justice Season 3 Episode 22 “Antisocial Pathologies”

Director: Christopher Berkeley

Starring: Troy Baker, Greg Cipes, Zehra Fazal, Bruce Greenwood, Grey Griffin, Jesse McCartney, Khary Payton, Alyson Stoner, Deborah Strang, Tara Strong, Fred Tatasciore, Greg Weisman

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 23 minutes

Since the beginning, secrets and lies have been central themes of Young Justice.  But no episode in the show’s history has so profoundly and effectively depicted the consequences of denying people the truth than “Antisocial Pathologies”.  It’s a riveting half-hour of television that marks several key shifts in the plot but its study of the emotional fallout of the several betrayals that come to light is what’s really engaging to watch.

“Antisocial Pathologies” could alternatively be titled “Black Lightning and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” With Dick Grayson still violently ill after his immersion in the X-Pit last episode, many of his closest friends and family have gathered at the Outsiders’ Hollywood base to watch over his recovery, including surrogate father Batman in his Bruce Wayne guise.  Once Dick’s condition stabilizes, Bruce, in an uncharacteristically sloppy move, consults in private with the present members of his anti-Light cabal (Kaldur, M’Gann, Barbara Gordon, and Tim Drake) to discuss the disastrous mission that led to Dick’s capture.  Seeing the five of them together is all it takes for Jefferson Pierce to put the pieces together and realize the existence of the covert alliance of team leaders, which he angrily announces to all present as he condemns Bruce, Kaldur and company for manipulating the rest of the superhero community.  It’s a bit of a stretch that Jeff could figure everything out just by seeing the five anti-Light members talking but ultimately the manner of the reveal hardly matters as much as the emotional responses he and the other characters have to it.  Jeff’s woes don’t stop there, unfortunately, as Dr. Jace takes the confused argument as an opportunity to instill control chips on Brion and Tara to kidnap them, as well as tricking Halo into coming along, meeting up with Ultra-Humanite and Gretchen Goode.

While fitting Halo with a different sort of control device Gretchen explains why the forces of Apokolips are so intent on possessing them (one of the great storytelling benefits of the Apokoliptan New Gods is that, with the exception of Darkseid himself, they’re all so gleeful in their evil that having them spout villain monologues is actually in-character).  Gretchen’s theory is that when the soul of the Mother Box that is Halo went into Gabrielle’s body it regained a connection to the Source that all Mother and Father Boxes have at their creation, but lose when Metron houses them in the actual computers.  Gretchen believes, and a test on an unwilling Jace seems to prove that that connection, when combined with X-Pit, is the key to employing the Anti-Life Equation, which she uses to enslave Jace.  Gretchen’s enjoying herself so much that she has Jace reveal her own dark truth, just to make Brion and Tara even more miserable.

It turns out Jace is actually exactly what the team initially suspected of her being: a mad scientist.  And a particularly crazy one at that.  She’s some kind of meta-human supremacist that believes that once she used the tar protocol on Tara and Brion they were reborn as separate superhuman beings, who she views as her “children” and was working for Humanite in exchange for having them given back to her.  She actually hates Halo, viewing the combination of the Mother Box’s soul with a human body as an abomination, unlike natural superhumans with activated meta-genes.

As is usually the case (especially in Young Justice) the people who most hate when a villain is getting too far ahead are other villains.  The Light is unnerved by Gretchen’s more ambitious moves of late and takes steps to keep her from getting everything she wants and to prevent their own spy within the heroes from being exposed.  In a meeting with Tara, during which he chastises her for going soft on her heroic targets, Deathstroke gives his young mole a device to protect her from Jace’s control chip.  When Jace takes her and Brion, Tara plays along long enough to hear what Jace and Gretchen were up to before freeing Brion and striking back.  Still, Gretchen gets away with Violet, and therefore the Anti-Life Equation, a fact alarming enough to frighten Vandal Savage.

Still, as dire as the situation is in terms of planetary safety by the end of the episode, what really makes “Antisocial Pathologies” stand out is the conflict between the heroes brought about by the discovery of the anti-Light and the emotional responses of the various characters.  As well written as Jeff has been all season, the reasoning as to why he’s had such a big role, other than his comic equivalent being more or less the quintessential Outsiders member, has been a little unclear.  The show isn’t called Middle-aged Justice, after all.  But once the truth comes out, his purpose in the story becomes clear.  Jeff is the most clear-cut victim in the whole situation.  Gar and the Outsiders are of course hurt and insulted, but as Barbara points out in her excellent confrontation with the former, they’re engaging in their own style of subterfuge by reporting to M’Gann and the League while telling the public that they’re completely independent, and therefore they lose some of their right to judge their peers (not all, but some).  Jeff, on the other hand, is an example of a superhero who, until recently, had no close ties (that we know of) with anyone in the anti-Light, and was made to work for them without his knowledge and against his wishes when Dick recruited him for a supposedly, one-off, off-the-books mission, that Jeff believed to be unaffiliated with any of the existing teams.  Khary Payton is consistently one of Young Justice’s MVPs but he takes his performance as Jeff to another level here, every line conveying the profound betrayal and anger the character feels.  By the time Brion and Tara return to drop the Jace bomb, Jeff is truly broken and it’s heartbreaking to watch.

Part of what makes the storyline so effective and well-done, however, is that as a viewer it’s hard to be mad at the actual anti-Light members themselves.  Part of that is simply because they’re likable and pretty much everyone watching this show is a DC Comics fan and likely feels a personal connection to one or all of them, but those aren’t the only reasons.  A big factor is that the move, as morally questionable as it is, really isn’t that surprising when you consider who these people are.  Bruce and Kaldur are soldiers.  Fighting the good fight is a fundamental part of who they are and, however guilty they feel (or don’t feel in Bruce’s case) for this specific questionable choice, they’re just going to do something similar again in a year or two if they believe it’s necessary to protect innocents. M’Gann has consistently shown that she doesn’t really get morality (or the humankind, at least) until after she’s experienced the consequences of acting immorally.  We don’t really know these versions of Barbara or Tim well enough to say whether this kind of tactic is or isn’t beneath them, but seeing as they work for Batman it stands to reason they realize that the world is made of shades of grey.  Wonder Woman may have a pretty strict moral code but she is also a warrior (and, to be fair the one major dissenting voice in the cabal).  Within the context of the show, there’s only one member of the shady group the viewer is really going to be disappointed in and that’s Dick Grayson.  The former Boy Wonder said way back in Season 1 that he didn’t want to turn out like Batman but his actions since have directly contradicted this idea.  The viewer and his colleagues forgave him for keeping Kaldur and Artemis’ undercover mission a secret because he expressed remorse for doing so and because he did so when in a very high-pressure position but it’s a lot harder to let him off the hook for another, grander deception.  When Dick tells Jeff that “The person you’re really mad at is me,” he’s speaking to the viewer as well.  And the worse part is, in light of the person he is and all the compelling relationships he has with the rest of the cast, we want to forgive him again anyway.  But, like Jeff, we don’t know that we can or should.

“Antisocial Pathologies” plays very much like a darker, spiritual sequel to “Quiet Conversations”.  Both are notable for their devotion to the impersonal dynamics between the cast, even while still making considerable contributions to the plot.  And like its predecessor “Antisocial Pathologies” ends with Tara Markov calling Slade.  But while in the earlier episode, inspired by the devotion and love her new family of heroes was currently showing one another, Tara lied to her “mentor”, here, disgusted by the lies and manipulations between that same family she rededicates herself to Slade and, by extension, the Light.  It’s a beautifully written twist that more so even than the emotional outbursts from Jefferson and others highlights why the heroes’ more extreme methods of late are so damaging.  Tara has been walking a tight rope of loyalty all season but ultimately the heroes only have themselves to blame for her true fall into darkness and it’s going to cost them gravely.

Wally West Watch:  Wally misses out on all the drama both literally and in memory.  But arguably more important is the fact that Artemis was absent as well.  This only makes it more likely that she’ll be the key in turning Tara back to good, especially since we now know Tara partially blames Brion for her original abduction.

Notes:

• Barbara and Bruce have an excellent scene together in which she forces him to realize that, whether they maintain that the anti-Light’s activities were righteous or not, Bruce filling their ranks almost entirely with his own proteges was massively egotistical and wrong.  The Young Justice writers have always done an excellent job of recognizing Bruce’s flaws without dragging him through the mud as lesser stories do.
•  Speaking of Bruce, it’s so rare to see him unmasked on Young Justice that it took me a second to recognize him at the beginning.  His character design also looks tanner than the last time we saw it.  I guess he’s been hitting the beach.  That’s something nice he’s got going for him at least.
•  Following up on Metron’s cryptic hint, it’s revealed at the end of this episode that Gretchen Goode and Granny Goodness are separate beings.  That’s weird and unexpected, to say the least.
•  It seems the writers were smart enough to remove the sexual element from Slade and Tara’s (still highly abusive) relationship.  Thank goodness.