My Review of Titans 3x02: "Red Hood"

 

Written by Tom Pabst

Directed by Carol Banker

Red Hood (to Nightwing): "I got a new name now. You'll be hearing it a lot around here. Red Hood."

Well, the show didn't waste time in introducing this character now, did they? One episode in and Red Hood ain't messing around when it comes to the criminal underworld of Gotham and of course with the Titans themselves.

Red Hood made himself now when he took out the number twos of the Gotham criminal underworld and got the number ones to fall in line. He then targeted terrified parents in order to get them to commit crimes while also giving the Titans a run around for good measure.

Fortunately this did lead to the Titans continuing to work well together as Hank and Dawn also rejoined the team, attempted to put their differences to one side but it was Nightwing who made the discovery of who Red Hood actually was and even he seemed surprised with how far Jason had fallen. The question now is how far will the show take Jason as Red Hood and can he be redeemed?

Villain wise, at least Jason is proactive, so the show feels as organised as the Deathstroke plot from the previous year rather than the messy Trigon story of the first season. I'm not entirely sure of Curran Walters acting as he doesn't really sound menacing as Red Hood even if the character was effective throughout the episode.

Of course Red Hood wasn't the only Bat related villain of the piece. Dick wasn't best pleased when Barbara told him that the GCPD were availing of Jonathan Crane's (Vincent Kartheiser) services from Arkham. This role does give the former Scarecrow a Hannibal Lecter style role and his scene did play well enough with Dick. Though I'll be surprised if he remains in Arkham for the whole of the season.

As for Barbara this episode, I have to admit she was almost too antagonistic with Dick this week. I get her reluctance to have the Titans around Gotham following Batman's exit but the whole complicated ex-lovers bit with Dick will wear thin if they're constantly sniping at each other. As it did with Hank and Dawn during their scenes this week.

- Kory almost scorched both Gar and Conner and kept seeing that vision of being captured. Blackfire's doing or something else?

- One of the crime lords in this episode also appeared on Superman And Lois as a therapist to the latter. 

- Still no sign of Rachel or Donna yet this season. When we will see them on Themyscira?

- Chronology: From where the opening episode left off. 

Red Hood feels like a promising start to this particular arc. There were some nice nods to the comic and even the animated movie throughout this one and it's nice that the team feels like a proper team. Maybe this season really is in good hands. 

Rating: 7 out of 10