In Review: Titans – Nightwing

Synopsis: The Titans reassemble under Dick, who has now fully taken on the mantle of Nightwing, to fight Deathstroke and attempt to save Jericho.

Review: The season 2 finale brings about great change as the team moves forward as a family of heroes and learn that they are stronger together.

The Story

Wonder Girl, Dove, Starfire, and Raven set out to stop phase 2 of Cadmus’s plans for Superboy and Beast Boy, but as they make their way to the fairground they are stopped by Deathstroke who is setting out to make good on his threat to Dick Grayson, but thankfully Dick who is now adopting the new superhero persona or Nightwing is there to battle Deathstroke in a bid to get the consciousness of Jericho to leave Slade Wilson and transfer over to him. The battle goes on between Deathstroke and Nightwing for some time, but ultimately Deathstroke gets the better of the Nightwing. Thankfully Rose Wilson shows up in full costume and lends a much-needed hand in ultimately defeating her father and allowing the consciousness of her brother to transfer over to her.

This isn’t the end of their problems. Somehow the team, which is now headed up by Nightwing has to find a way to stop Cadmus and get Beast Boy and Superboy back to their normal selves, which is going to be a lot easier said than done.

The Acting

Brenton Thwaites and Iain Glen put in a solid performance as Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne. There’s a fantastic scene toward the end of the episode where Bruce tells Dick to resist the temptation to look inward whenever the shit hits the fan, but instead, look to his fellow team members and let them help inform his decisions as a leader.

Also putting in solid performances were Conor Leslie as Donna aka Wonder Girl and Teagan Croft as Raven. Leslie gets some great lines in this episode and I loved the brief exchange she shared with Superboy once the team has gotten him back from Cadmus’s influence. Croft for her part has a lot of great stuff in this episode. I loved how she worked to gradually gain back Beast Boys trust and was able to bring him back from the spell that Mercy Graves had put him under. Also, Crofts’s final scene with Dick Grayson give us hope that the death of a much loved character may not be permanent.

Overall

This was a really strong season finale, which not only satisfactorily closes out this season’s story arc, but it also sets a few things up for next season too.  I loved the final few moments of the episode where despite having lost someone really valuable to them. The Titans choose to move forward and be the team that comic readers have come to know and love.

If I have one criticism of this episode. It would be that the final duel between Nightwing and Deathstroke felt a tad bit rushed in that there was very little build-up to it in the actual episode itself. Thankfully the fight choreography made up for it.

I’m really looking forward to season three and do so with much more hope for this shows future.