Titans Season 3, Episode 13 Recap

Another season of Titans ends with the thirteenth episode of season 3, titled “Purple Rain,” and even though I have mixed feelings about the season overall, the finale does effectively wrap up most of its season storylines. I will do a season review and in that, I will go into more about what I liked and didn’t like about each of our main characters. For this episode in particular, however, as a season finale, it does do what good season finales are supposed to do in that it wraps up the season-long storyline while leaving some open for future seasons to explore. There are some things that I feel could’ve been done better which I will go over when they come up in my recap. Speaking of which let’s now take a look at the episode.

The episode begins with Crane and the corrupt GCPD officers preparing, while Crane learns that Red Hood is definitely working against them and decides that the officers should in fact go after Barbara. Vee is then warning the officers as she takes them to Barbara who is in Oracle after her escape in the last episode. Vee defeats the officers and reveals herself to be a member of A.R.G.U.S. while taking Barbara to safety. We learn that A.R.G.U.S. has been working within the city ever since they learned that Ra’s al Ghul had planted a Lazarus Pit in Gotham. Vee also reveals to Barbara that they believe that Crane used the Pit to revive Jason and that Rachel and Gar had just recently used it to revive Dick. One of the most interesting things is getting the name drop of Roy Harper, who is seemingly either in charge or very high up at A.R.G.U.S., but a bit more on him later though. This reveal is nice, as the character of Vee was fun to have, but really didn’t have much of her own stuff going on. She also does give off a sort of Amanda Waller vibe, so I’ll be interested to see what more happens with Vee.

We then pick up right where we last saw Donna and the Drake family as they are continuing to fight the corrupt GCPD officers. Tim impresses Donna and his family when he is able to successfully take down an officer without using weapons. Tim goes to help his family while Rachel and Gar show up to take down the rest of the officers. Rachel and Gar reunite with Donna, while Tim gets his family’s blessing for him to stay behind in Gotham to help the Titans.

At the site of Blackfire’s destroyed ship, Starfire confronts Conner about his actions, but Blackfire tries to calm her down and says that she doesn’t blame Conner. Blackfire says that while she isn’t happy, if the roles were reversed, she probably would’ve done the same. Starfire can’t believe what she is hearing, but before she leaves, she is contacted by Barbara.

Dick and Jason drive to find the Titans and help with defusing the bombs, but Dick doesn’t want Jason to be around because the Titans probably won’t have a good reaction to Jason trying to help. Dick cites that they should only want to fight “one war at a time.” Dick is contacted by Barbara who lets him know that she is gathering the Titans. Dick notices a spotlight with the Titans “T” in it, but once Barbara lets him know that she didn’t do that, the first bomb goes off enveloping part of the city in the green toxin. Crane walks around wearing a gas mask and celebrates the explosion. Barbara and Vee then inform Dick that according to the A.R.G.U.S. satellite, between 500 and 2000 are dead from the explosion and toxin.

Our current team of Titans, consisting of Dick, Donna, Starfire, Gar, Rachel, Conner, Blackfire, and Tim try to locate where all the possible bombs could be, but Dick soon realizes that that is most likely what Crane wants. Dick gives the Titans the new assignment of trying to figure out how to give the city, especially those who have already died, the Lazarus Pit. Conner seems to forgive Dick for what he did to him, citing that they have both made questionable decisions as of late. The Titans come up with a plan to create a storm that will cover Gotham in the Lazarus Pit. Meanwhile, Crane is hanging out in the Batcave and is singing, “If Only I Had a Brain,” from The Wizard of Oz. It is definitely a nice touch for the character to sing the song of the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz as Crane is the villain of the Scarecrow from Batman’s Rogues Gallery. However, I can’t help but think that the moment would be better if Crane would actually put on his Scarecrow mask, which we had seen briefly earlier in the season.

Dick, Gar, and Tim arrive at Wayne Manor in an effort to hack into the Wayne systems and disable the bombs remotely. Dick sends Gar inside, claiming to have someone already on the inside, which is quickly revealed to be Jason, who was “captured” by the corrupt GCPD officers. After playing a bit of a ruse where Jason claims to want to be taken back, Gar finally breaks inside causing the officers to be distracted by the alarm system, which allows Jason to seize the opportunity and fight the officers. After shutting off the alarm, Gar locates a device to get him into the security system and is saved by Jason from an incoming corrupt officer. Gar is the perfect Titan to see Jason at this moment, as he is the only one who seems to still want to see the best in Jason. Unfortunately, this points out a problem, with what exactly happened to Jason’s friend Molly? Where did she go? She and Gar’s meeting seems to have really gone nowhere in the grand scheme of things.

Dick decides to go inside the manor as well and hands Tim the walkie-talkie, telling him to tell Gar to cut the red wire. Tim and Gar have an amusing exchange where they are scared to cut the red wire as that is always the one in movies that you are not supposed to cut. This was probably Bruce’s idea all along as to wire the system needed the red wire to be cut. When they discover that a code is needed, they realize that “Selina Kyle” is the password, obviously a nod to Catwoman. Dick, now donned in his Nightwing costume, breaks in to battle more corrupt officers and meets up with Jason. Jason thanks Dick, but since Jason can never be a Titan again, decides this is the correct moment to leave. Dick thanks Jason for his help and then Dick and Tim head into the Batcave.

Rachel, Starfire, and Blackfire arrive at the Lazarus Pit, which Rachel claims absorbs the worst fears and nightmares of the people who go through it. Rachel uses her powers to suck the pit up, which causes her to remember the pain she went through in the first season of Titans. Starfire and Blackfire use their powers to contain the Lazarus Pit from Rachel into a ball and Blackfire lets go, leaving it to Starfire to carry it. When the women reach the surface, Starfire unleashes the Lazarus liquid into the sky and Conner arrives to use his freeze breath to cause a storm in the sky. When the lightning strikes all around the sky, Donna uses her lasso to help suck up the lightning, a parallel to Donna’s death last season. She even has a pretty badass line saying, “You know what they say about lightning,” a reference to the phrase, “Lighting never strikes the same place twice.” This is a nice way to wrap up Donna’s death storyline, especially with the character redeeming herself after her pretty embarrassing death last season.

Crane decides to detonate all the bombs at once and wishes that Bruce could see it, but Vee and Barbara were able to successfully get into the system and stop the bombs. Dick, Gar, and Tim arrive at the Batcave and confront Crane, to which Dick gives Tim the honor of knocking Crane out, Tim taking his revenge for what Crane did to both Tim’s family and the rest of Gotham.

The rest of the Titans successfully launched the Lazarus storm which gives off a purple cloud and purple rain that successfully revives all the deceased people in Gotham. Artie arrives with what he claims to be amazing news for Blackfire but first decides to take a selfie with Conner, Starfire, Blackfire, Rachel, and Donna.

We then see Bruce Wayne driving through the streets of Gotham, admiring the rebuilding of Gotham City. He returns to Wayne Manor and thanks Dick for saving Gotham, to which Dick says it’s only because he had the Titans and Barbara. Jason walks in and he and Bruce finally have a heart-to-heart where Bruce admits that both of them were too swayed by fear. Bruce also admits that he killed Joker for Jason, for which Jason thanks him. Bruce sits down as Jason walks away and Bruce says, “Goodbye son.” This scene was meant to be touching; however, I couldn’t help but be distracted by how weird the scene was, in large part due to how much it didn’t feel like a conversation Bruce would have. Also, it still feels like Bruce killing Joker really didn’t add anything to the story and feels like it just went nowhere and was used for shock value more than anything.

Back at Artie’s Lab, Conner and Artie show Blackfire that they are able to recreate her ship so that she can finally go back to Tamaran. Blackfire then grabs Conner’s hands as they have now made up. I believe that while it’s nice and appropriate to see the Superman side of Conner come out in order to fix the mess his Lex Luthor side created in the last episode, this feels extremely rushed and a storyline that deserved more than just a few scenes.

In the GCPD, Vee gives Donna an A.R.G.U.S. card, telling her to give her a call. At the same time, Dick and Barbara are meeting together to say goodbye because Dick has decided to return to San Francisco, while Barbara wants to stay in Gotham. It is also revealed that Jason has said that as the Red Hood, he is leaving the city. After finishing his goodbye with Barbara, Dick talks with Donna, who has decided that instead of going to San Francisco with the rest of the Titans, she wants to go to Paris and deliver the message that Hank gave her.

At the airport, Dick arrives with an RV, deciding that they are going on a road trip instead of taking a jet. Starfire and Blackfire say their goodbyes as Blackfire is about to return to Tamaran. Starfire says that she wants to return someday and especially will if Blackfire needs her. Blackfire also says farewell to Conner but informs him that Artie may find a way to help Conner breathe on Tamaran so that he can visit her. Donna tells Tim that he would’ve made a great Robin, when Tim stays behind with her to say his goodbyes to the team. However, Dick says that he was impressed with Tim and invites Tim to join the Titans. As the Titans are about to leave, Dick says that they have to make one more stop.

Dick arrives at Arkham Asylum to give one last confrontation to Crane, but Crane declares that it is only a temporary problem and that he will be able to break out of Arkham. In response, however, Dick brings Rachel in, who gives Crane all the fears that she had gotten when she had sucked out the Lazarus Pit. This was awesome to see from Rachel and definitely a highlight of the episode for me. I hope that they give Rachel more to do next season so that we could see more moments just like this one. Giving the Scarecrow the fears of all those who had gone through the pit is a good way to go out, if this is the last that we see of his character. I think it’s a total let down though that all we got was the scarred face and not Crane donning the actual Scarecrow mask.

So, what can we look forward to next season? I think it’s fair to say that Donna will be getting involved with A.R.G.U.S. next season, hopefully with the introduction of Roy Harper. Roy Harper may have been in the Arrowverse but seeing a new incarnation in this universe will be interesting to see. Hopefully, with new tricks up his sleeves and as much as I love Colton Haynes, it will be nice to see someone else take on the role, preferably someone with Native American heritage, as there are incarnations of the character who exhibit this heritage. Also, it would be nice to see Dawn at least one more time and to see her reaction to the news about Hank in the afterlife. We then have Jason who is still out there and is going to have to contend with what he has done and hopefully, we will see what the other Titans have to say about him. I can also see a storyline where Starfire and Conner have to go to Tamaran to help Blackfire, as this was something hinted at in the final moments of the season. Then we have San Francisco. I am assuming that the Titans will be returning to Titans Tower, so I am curious to see who the next big bad will be.

All in all, season 3 of Titans comes to a close, with what is a mostly satisfying, however, somewhat rushed ending. I am excited to see what season four has to offer and in particular who it has to offer.

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