TV Review: Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 23

Young Justice Season 3 Episode 23 “Terminus”

Director: Mel Zwyer

Starring: Troy Baker, Zehra Fazal, David Kaye, Stephanie Lemelin, Jesse McCartney, Danica McKellar, Nolan North, Khary Payton, Jason Spisak, Deborah Strang, Tara Strong

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 23 minutes

If you’ve been hoping to see what the DC equivalent to Avengers: Infinity War‘s epic cliffhanger is, this Young Justice is for you.  The surviving members of the show’s original six-man team (with Brion, Tara, and Forager along as well) launch a desperate attack on Granny Goodness’ Orphanage (which they located thanks to intelligence provided by Vandal Savage), hoping to free Halo from her clutches.  But, although the Team’s covert strike works marginally better than the Justice League space team’s, Granny’s advantage is too great and she easily ensnares them, unleashing the Anti-Life Equation on all the present heroes.  Yes, by episode’s end many of the show’s main characters, along with powerful allies such as Superman himself, are just more servants of Darkseid, and the visual of Halo’s purple energy expanding into space beyond the Orphanage makes it clear that the dark lord plans on adding many more slaves to his roster.  It’s an effectively disturbing sequence that easily raises the stakes for this season’s finale far beyond any point in the show’s history, as the concept of free will is itself now in danger.

Now, I doubt the Anti-Life wave is really powerful enough to affect Earth (or at least not all of it) yet, since, you know, there’s still three episodes left in the season and another entire season of the show after it, and I don’t think anyone wants to watch 29 episodes of Darkseid ruling the universe unimpeded.  And this is Young Justice, so even with such a large group of heroes affected, there are even more who weren’t.  Among others and until proven otherwise the Outsiders, Batman, the rest of the Bat-family minus Dick, the other heroes like Green Arrow who left the League, Earth-bound Leaguers like Flash and Zatanna, and independent heroes like Black Lightning and Jay Garrick are all still standing.  Among these the Outsiders, along with probably Black Lightning and Batman’s group seem likely to the play the biggest roles in undoing the calamity, given how important they’ve all been to the narrative lately.  That’s not particularly exciting given the Outsiders will likely get the biggest part of all, and none of them are on particularly interesting journeys right now.  As effective as this episode is, I’d be more optimistic for the rest of the season if it had taken another page out of the Infinity War playbook and left the original cast to be the last hope.

And that’s because the main reason “Terminus” itself works so well is that it returns to a focus on the core six.  And no, my writing six is not a mistake.  During the battle against a horde of parademons a still ill Dick Grayson falls into a fever dream and imagines a version of the fight with himself and his friends appearing as their Season 1 selves, complete with a totally hallucinatory Wally West.  Conner, Kaldur, Artemis, and M’Gann share in the experience because the latter had already linked them all telepathically, allowing the rest of the Team to see the extent to which Dick is still in pain.  It’s a delightful scene, one of the few understandable instances of the season’s use of still-image montages (though that device still needs to be retired), and despite spending most of a season playing Forager, Jason Spisak revives his version of Wally effortlessly.  In addition, this already lovely sequence leads into the arguably better one of Dick’s friends, especially Artemis, offering him the comfort and support he needs.  This group, along with one or two absent others like Will Harper are the soul of Young Justice, and the show would do well to stop shuffling them out of the spotlight so often.

Which is not to say they all get along quite as well as they once did.  As expected, the tension brought about by the discovery of the anti-Light still exists.  Other than a few, not especially effective silent vignettes featuring a mopey Black Lightning, the emotional fallout this week lands squarely on M’Gann and Conner.  As Conner reminds his fiancé, while the extreme methods used by Batman’s alliance were a shock to most of their colleagues and friends, these two have been here before.  M’Gann tries to make the excuse that working with the anti-Light is different than the telepathic attacks she employed last season but it’s just that, an excuse, and a fairly weak one at that, something Conner is quick to assert.  Conner’s been the group and show’s moral center since at least the beginning of Season 2 and it’s nice to see that hasn’t changed with the passage of time and I can’t help but wonder if even more will come out of the Boy of Steel’s strict adherence to his heroic code.  It certainly seems possible that his and M’Gann’s engagement is going to be tested more going forward but I’m also thinking he might take on more of a leadership role given how the superhero community’s latest moral conundrum has shaken things up.  Still, while her fiancé is probably always going to be the more plainly likable member of the couple, “Terminus” argues that M’Gann and her cohorts have a point about desperate measures being needed, effectively contrasting with the more plain condemnation of their actions offered by “Antisocial Pathologies”.  As the Team races towards the confrontation with an Anti-Life-enslaved League contingent, Kaldur knows that they would not be able to defeat all their friends and Granny’s forces at once, so he calls on M’Gann to make her toughest call yet: temporarily frying the brains of everyone inside until the equation is neutralized.  It’s a chilling prospect, and one Conner is predictably horrified by, but eventually, even he doesn’t protest, given how dire the circumstances are.  The plan, of course, is ultimately worthless as the Equation quickly overwhelms M’Gann but regardless it’s nice to see the show continuing to complicate and expand its study of when ends justify means.

As with any point in a story when a big surprise is unveiled, “Terminus”‘s reputation won’t really be solidified until the season reaches its conclusion.  As of now, it’s a solid episode that does a great job building tension, but it’s not as polished as its most recent predecessors have been.  If next week’s three-part finale provides a satisfying resolution to the cliffhanger it’ll look even better, but if those episodes drop the ball “Terminus” will retroactively become weaker.

Wally West Watch:  Ironically enough the dream sequence makes me think it’s less likely that Wally is going to return, at least this season.  If everyone’s favorite red-headed speedster was set for a comeback soon I don’t think the writers would still be trying to study the emotional effects of his absence to this extent.

Notes:

•  Seeing how Vandal Savage and the Light try to neutralize the Equation is probably what I’m most looking forward to heading into the finale.
• The silent sequences prove more than anything that the show is trying to focus on too many characters.  This one was especially awkward as Khary Payton already had lines this episode, so it was clear the silence was likely just an excuse not to use Static’s voice actor.
•  Keeping the debate about the brain-blast tactic limited to Conner, Kaldur, and M”Gann made sense given their history with such things from Season 2 but I still would’ve liked to hear Dick and Artemis weigh in on any of the ethical dilemmas the heroes are currently facing.

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