My Review of Titans 4x09: "Dude, Where's My Gar?"

 

Written by Geoff Johns And Ryan Potter

Directed by Eric Dean Seaton

Gar: "I need to get to my family."

Stargirl: "I know how important family is."

Gar: "I get the sense that you do."

After two good but diverting episodes set in Caul's Folly, it was time to catch up with what was going on with Gar Logan and it seems that he had his own shit to deal with while his friends were up to their necks in Sebastian's ascension.

The first half of the season had been hinting about Gar's connection to the Red and here he learned that Freedom Beast (Nyambi Nyambi) had been looking for him for a long time. Gar's destined to be the Avatar of the Red, whether he likes it or not and Freedom Beast felt that Gar could only do this heavy task alone.

In a series of trips to the past we saw a younger and scared Gar coming into his connection to the Red and being susceptible to the pain and suffering of animals around him. This included one specific gorilla infected with anthrax being experimented on by Dr Myers and presenting Gar with a moral dilemma as freeing the gorilla would mean infecting the public.

However Freedom Beast found a way to deal with that particular dilemma while also pointing out to Gar that Niles Caulder was responsible for the death of his parents. After everything we saw with Niles on Doom Patrol, this particular reveal didn't exactly shock me. Speaking of the Doom Patrol, I've been missing them and this episode ended somewhere familiar.

With Gar being able to tap into the Red, this episode gave us a surprisingly fun little Multiverse adventure. Not only did Gar get to see himself in animation form but we also briefly saw the likes of The Flash (Grant Gustin), Shazam (Zachary Levi), Swamp Thing and Grant Morrison in a very fun cameo that should make any comic book fan smile.

On top of that, there was a lovely but brief interaction between Gar and Stargirl (Brec Bassinger) before the episode ended with Gar at the Doom Patrol manor and Cyborg (Joivan Wade) attending to him. It looks like Gar's reunion with the Titans will have to wait until next week and fingers crossed, we get some more Multiverse hijinks before then. 

- There was also some voiceovers of Kaley Cuoco's Harley Quinn and Cesar Romero's Joker from Batman 66. 

- The episode had a mid credit scene with Cyborg smiling and eating in front of the camera. Jinx hinted at a possible return for the finale and Rachel was the only other regular to physically appear in this episode.

- Nice tribute to Grant Morrison at the end, describing them as the true Master of the Multiverse.

- From where the events of the mid season finale left off from Gar's perspective.

Dude, Where My Gar? gave Ryan Potter the much needed and focus he deserved and he absolutely delivered here. Gar was at his best here, the flashbacks were great, the Multiverse nods were nicely done and I cannot wait to see what the next episode will bring.

Rating: 9 out of 10