What They Say:
The Fix
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sometimes events play out in a way that just leaves you waiting to see exactly how badly things will go. With Kaldur completely out of sorts because of what happened with Megan, Black Manta has brought in Psimon to deal with his son and to try and get him back in place. Of course, that will mean that he’s rooting through Kaldur’s mind and it’ll reveal the truth about what Kaldur is up to, as well as revealing Artemis’ position in things as the illusioned Tigress. Her mental state isn’t exactly the best either at this point considering what’s going on and being assigned to watch over Psimon as he gets ready to unveil her secret just adds nicely to the tension as it builds up.
Not that it takes long for everything to go wacky since Artemis attempts to drug Psimon and he ends up lashing out before it takes full effect. But it reveals Artemis’ true nature in a rather violent way and he sets the stakes in a new way here. While the drug would normally leave someone catatonic for weeks on end, his physiology is different and there’s no telling when he’ll actually wake up, which is when he’ll be able to reveal the truth about who she is. Amusingly, Artemis is able to get past it all and her intent to save Kaldur and her own skin is to convince Black Manta that their only recourse is to get Megan and “force” her to fix Kaldur. Unfortunately, she’s assigned Deathstroke as a partner to do this.
Deathstroke is always a favorite so seeing him get to have a bit of fun here as the two of them take out Lagoon Boy with ease and get Megan as well, though with Artemis filling her in telepathically. Megan’s had a hell of a season so far and this just makes it all the worse. With so many things going on, and the part of the team that has seemingly been killed or turned traitor, she’s lost a lot of sense of who is who and what level of trust she can have with those she called friends. Now in a situation where she’s forced to save Kaldur, something she’s not even sure she can do, is just one more huge strain on top of everything else. Her sense of confidence has been lost in a big way and the risks make her even more wary of attempting thigns she needs to do.
While there’s some fun little subplot stuff going on, including a really good dressing down of Nightwing by Connor, a good part of the show focuses on the mental expedition to fix Kaldur. Megan’s mindset is bad and Artemis is just doing all she can to help him, but his mind is an absolute mess. With so much at stake, even more so now that all three of them are at risk, the stakes feel pretty appropriate here. While we’ve had Artemis playing her Tigress role for a bit and involved in the show, the mental state of it has us seeing her in her “real” form and she’s doing her best to save him. It’s a welcome little trip, even if it feels abbreviated, since it also gives us Kaldur in his older form that we haven’t seen for a bit. In the end, it’s all about Artemis’ force of will to get things done and that’s just a whole lot of fun to see.
In Summary:
The show has a whole lot going on here but unlike some of the previous episodes, it really does focus heavily on what Artemis is up to with her mission across a few different angles. As much fun as it is, I do like the other bits that factor into it as well. Nightwing gets the right kind of dressing down, but you also have to expect someone like Connor to get it after all that they’ve been through over the years. Lagoon Boy acts about as expected. Megan’s role is primary here overall though as we see her coming to grips with what she’s done and capable of and that ties in to the Green Beetle as well, leading to some fun little dialogue as he learns her true origins a bit as well. The Green Beetle’s role is certainly curious and with what he’s doing with Blue Beetle, you can’t help but to feel distrustful of him. I’ve actually come to like Green a bit since he debuted in the previous episode and this makes me worry a bit that we’re going to lose him to the dark side…
Grade: B
