Saturday, October 23, 2021

My Review of Titans 3x13: "Purple Rain"

 


Written by Richard Hatem And Greg Walker
Directed by Chad Lowe

Dick (to the Titans): "I've got a great idea. Let's get the hell out of Gotham."

That's probably not a bad idea, Dick, but wherever you lot go, trouble follows, so it wouldn't really matter if you remained in Gotham or whatever. Saying that though, this season did manage to get enough of the city and this Scarecrow plot has finally come to an end.

This episode was the gift that gave with Crane's downfall coming from some good old fashioned team work and Dick being savvy enough not to do what Crane was banking on him doing. That and a rather swift left hook from Tim certainly helped matters too. Tim might want to practice on his fighting skills though, but he'll get the chance to next season.

Seeing Dick, Jason, Gar and Tim work their way into Wayne Manor while Rachel, Kory, Kom, Donna and Conner work with the Lazarus Pit, magic, the elements and electricity while Barbara and Vee handled the hacking side of things. It's stiff like this that I want to see the show do more of. The purple rain effect itself actually looked pretty decent in the grand scheme of things. 

With Gotham on the verge and Crane rightfully suffering at Arkham, thanks to Rachel, the Titans leaving for San Francisco was the right thing to do. I don't know if that means they'll stay based there next season or if something brings them to either Metropolis or Star City, but either way, I do think it's right for them to leave Gotham. I'll miss Barbara though if this episode was the last time we'll see the character.

As for Jason, he redeemed himself bit just about. I genuinely thought he had some great scenes with both Dick and Bruce but unless the character is getting a spin-off (something which Curran Walters seems to hinting at), I get the feeling this won't be the last time we'll see him. Jason still has amends to make and one person on his list needs to be Dawn and needs to happen onscreen.

As for Donna and Blackfire, I'm sure we'll see both of them as well next season too, but it did seem like their paths were also away from the Titans. Donna found herself getting a job offer at ARGUS from Vee and Blackfire herself still has the possibility of getting back to Tamaran, thanks to Conner making amends for sabotaging her previous attempt. Conner messed up last week but he definitely did the right thing here.

- Vee mentioned a certain Roy Harper as being a member of ARGUS. The character was mentioned last season, so will he actually appear next season?
- I can't believe Gar didn't know who Selina Kyle was but Tim did. Tim knowing wasn't a surprise but Gar not knowing was.
- Given the title of the episode, I'm genuinely surprised the actual song itself didn't feature. 
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Purple Rain was a better ending to a season that started off well, dropped the ball for several episodes, then managed to regain it's footing. There seasons in and this show still has teething problems that I'm not sure it can or even wants to solve at this point. I hope next season some changes are made and enforced to keep the series on an even keel.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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