"Jericho" – Titans S02E08 Review

And so with Titans we get another flashback/one-off episode. It's not a one-off in the same way "Conner" was this season, and how the episodes focusing on Hawk, Dove, the Doom Patrol, and Wonder Girl were last year. "Jericho" is a continuation of the story in "Aqualad".

"Jericho" gives us two well-choreographed fight scenes, and establishes Jericho (Chella Man) as a likable character. Likable enough, and talented enough as an actor, to give a heartwarming performance despite being limited to primarily playing a mute character. I'm not convinced by Dawn interpreting for him: when did she learn sign language? It seems odd Bruce didn't teach Dick that, or Dick didn't learn it. Isn't Bruce the guy who trains himself and his wards for anything and everything? And they use subtitles to convey Jericho's words when Dawn isn't present.

But combining Minka Kelly's voice with Man's performance works in the episode. It leads to some awkward shenanigans, but at the end of the day it works out. So, we have to take the good with the bad.

What is the good? "Jericho" is another flashback episode, set entirely in 2014 and without Rachel, Gar, Kory, and Rose. It takes place some unspecified time after "Aqualad", with the Titans having already becoming buddies with Jericho but not revealing they're Titans, and just hanging out with him on the beach. They're close enough friends that Dawn, and then Hank, and then Dick, all have second thoughts about using Jericho to find out more about Slade.

It's not clear how much Jericho tells them about his father, or how much he can know. For instance, he relates how the Army gave Slade his powers through drug experimentation, and how Wintergreen and Slade know each other. But how does Jericho know that? They keep saying Slade was barely around: did Adeline tells Jericho his Dad's origin story over the dinner table? Apparently not, as we'll find out later.

But we have to learn Slade has powers, and what they are, somehow. And how he got them, since Slade's power origin is tied to Jericho's. So like with the translation/subtitles, the reversion to flashbacks within the flashback is a bit awkward but it's needed to tell the story. I'm also not sure the timelines sync up: the creative team present it like Jericho was born before Slade got his powers, but later they say Jericho's power comes from the drug experiments on his father.

Eventually Dawn convinces Dick to tell Jericho the truth, and Dick does so. Jericho moves out of the house where he's staying with Adeline (Mayko Nguyen) and in with the Titans. But it's a short-lived move, as then Slade sets up a meeting with Jericho. Having first killed Jillian (Ann Magnuson), who I guess is an Amazon and was Deathstroke's original target back in "Aqualad". Which doesn't say much for Deathstroke's marksmanship, but oh well.

Also, Deathstroke lures Donna to the gallery, badly wounds her, and tells her to have the Titans stay away from Jericho. Other than to provide a cool fight scene (and Donna gets to actually do something for once), the attack on Donna doesn't do much. Robin doesn't take the entire Titans team to confront Deathstroke, so reducing their numbers by one doesn't give him a tactical advantage. It angers Robin enough he doesn't fight at his peak, but there's no indication Robin at his peak can defeat Deathstroke.

Robin goes to the church where Slade is meeting with Jericho. Slade tells Jericho the Titans are using him, and Robin arrives. Robin and Slade exchange barbs, and Jericho is a fairly passive observer in all of this. Slade talks like the Titans betrayed Jericho, and they kind of did. But they also came clean with him, while Slade has lied to Jericho and still is.

Deathstroke and Robin fight, and it's another well-choreographed scene. As I noted, Robin seems outclassed, and Jericho gets stunned early on by one of Deathstroke's grenades gone astray. When Deathstroke prepares to kill Robin with his sword, Jericho leaps in the way and gets killed instead.

In the aftermath, Donna, Hank, and Dawn shut down the Titans and leave Dick. I kinda figured Dick wouldn't kill Jericho directly or do something that led directly to Jerichos's death. The emphasis on the three Titans leaving Dick is a little odd: Donna seemed to be more the instigator of the whole "lie to Jericho" scheme, due to her wanting to avenge Garth's death. I can see why Slade blames Dick for Jericho's death, because he's twisted and all. But why the Titans all blame Dick, I don't know. It seems like Donna is the one to blame. But they don't walk out on her: they walk out on Dick.

We also find out Jericho had the ability to project his consciousness into a target, controlling their words and actions. And we get some decent humor as Jericho "possesses" Hank (Alan Ritchson) and has him dance and show off his abs. Sadly, we don't get Jericho's weird comic book costume. It also seems Jericho's real name is... Jericho. His power is different from the original character in the comics, but closer to his New 52/Rebirth incarnation.

We also get a scene of Adeline telling Slade to "deal" with the Titans after Jericho walks out on her to be with the Titans, and after he realizes Adeline has been lying to him about Slade. So... she didn't tell him about Slade's origins? But then how did he know it to tell the Titans? Adeline doesn't come across sympathetically here. But I've never found the character sympathetic in the comics, either. We never find out why she and Slade are together, other than some desultory kissing and hugging.

Overall, "Jericho" barely finishes connecting the dots. It does tell us why Deathstroke wants the Titans dead based on what happened in 2014. It doesn't tell us what he's been doing from 2014 to 2019. I'm all for "show, don't tell" in TV, but for an episode meant to explain the Big Bad's motivations, a little more exposition would be useful. We never find out from Deathstroke why he wants the Titans dead when he's the one who killed Jericho. The viewer is just supposed to assume he's a wigged-out villain who would rather blame someone else rather than himself.

I wouldn't mind someone pointing out to Slade he's the reason Jericho is dead: he brought his son to a rendezvous presumably knowing at least Robin would follow him. Slade wasn't satisfied with killing the Titans: he had to turn Jericho against them. And that led to Jericho's death. I also wonder why Slade waited five years to go after the Titans. Granted, they disbanded and just recently came back together, but Slade is supposed to be an expert tactician and hunter. He couldn't have found at least one of them in their civilian identities? He had Light send the self-destructing teen after Hank and Dawn as civilians, so he must have known their real identities. Again, this all seems to rely on trope shorthand. Deathstroke is the Big Bad, therefore he's contractually obliged to toy with his victims before killing them rather than just cap them in the head Scott Evil-style, or have Light's self-destructing victims go after them.

We do get an explanation for why the Titans broke up, even if it would have made more sense to show them each torn up about their part in Jericho's death and that's why they left, rather than essentially turning their backs on Dick like he was the sole reason. If you buy Jericho died because of the Titans, they all played a part, and Donna seemed to be the ringleader, not Dick.

So it comes down to the Titans versus Deathstroke for the last three episodes. Deathstroke makes a decent solo Big Bad, so the season has a good job of showing he can go up against multiple Titans. His "pranking" of them seems a little weak, and goes back to that "Big Bad has to toy with his victims first" trope. Instead of just killing them. He wants to torment Dawn because... she translated for Jericho and was the kindest to him? If Deathstroke wants her dead, just kill her.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?