The amount of DC content we’ve gotten in the first season of TITANS has been pretty impressive. We’ve been introduced to the Doom Patrol, Jason Todd, and Hawk and Dove at various different times this season. Episode #8 continues this trend as we’re introduced to Donna Troy, better known to comic book fans as Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman’s own orphan turned sidekick.
Troy is brought in as a calming influence and moral compass for Dick Grayson. After the events of “Asylum”, Dick decides he can no longer be Robin and needs advice on moving on. Enter Troy, who after a life of being a sidekick to Wonder Woman had moved on to become a photographer and live a normal life. Dick seeks her out to try and find out how she left that life behind. Their relationship is big sister-little brother, as shown in a flashback to when they were kids. It’s a stark difference from what we’ve seen from Dick’s interaction with adult females, but a welcome one. Troy understands where he is in life and tries to get him to see he needs to accept all parts of himself, including being Robin, or some version of him. She also plays a big part in unraveling one of the mysteries surrounding Kory’s connection to Rachel.
While Dick is off finding himself, the rest of the Team Titans is headed to a house that Rachel’s mom said she used to go to with her family. Kory predictably says she will make sure they get there where Rachel can be safe, but she is still dealing with a part of her memory that was unlocked at the Asylum and is unstable. Kory has been the one character whose layers have been peeled back really slowly, but things get kicked up here for her. She is not well, and she doesn’t know why.
I have been really impressed with Teagan Croft’s portrayal of Rachel/Raven. She’s a complex character, and for such a young actress she is really good at showing both her strength and vulnerability. She has a couple of really nice moments with her mother where you can see both her happiness in having her in her life and her apprehension in totally believing it. There also seems to be more there with the mother than meets the eye, which I think Rachel senses. She also wants to ask her mother more questions about who she is but she also knows she might not be ready to hear the answers.
Gar has been the one character who has brought levity to this very serious group, but he is having a hard time dealing with his killing of the doctor at the asylum and how the rest of the group sees him, most notably Rachel. Kory is the voice of reason for him here. It’s an odd dynamic that Kory can tell him not to worry about what he did and to embrace that side of his personality yet she can’t totally do it herself.
It all leads to a final scene that is not to be missed. Rachel’s newfound ability to heal leads her to telling Kory maybe she can help heal her mind and make her remember who she is. Unbeknownst to them, Donna Troy sees the glyphs found in Kory’s storage unit in photos on Dick’s phone and tells him she can help decipher what they say. Both these things combine to give us a cliffhanger ending that raises the stakes for Team Titans going forward. – Eric Holzmann