Written by Richard Hatem & Jeffrey David Thomas
Directed by Carol Banker
Jason (to Dick): "You want to know the difference between us? I know who I am. I kick ass with Batman and I fucking love it. Who the fuck are you? Fuck you!"
Breaking away from the main series and keeping Rachel, Kory and Gar's screen time more limited this week, the focus instead fell onto Dick being confronted with his replacement Robin, Jason Todd (Curran Walters) and to say, it was a sobering experience would be underselling it.
I've been looking forward to see Jason Todd and this episode did not disappoint. We know that Jason is volatile and reckless in the comics, something which will lead into his eventual death and resurrection as Red Hood (though this show is not guaranteed to go there as such) and I loved that this episode fully went with that depiction as well.
For the most part, Jason seemed eager to meet Dick and compare notes while at the same passive aggressively mentioning that Batman seemed a bit more indulgent of his antics compared to what Batman probably was when Dick was the Robin of the day. The fact that Dick learned Bruce didn't wait long to replace him clearly stung along with the reveal of a tracking device planted inside him as well.
The tracking device bit threw me off. For me that felt extremely wrong for Bruce/Batman to do and I refuse to believe for a second that someone with Jason's personality would be cool about it either. In fact, shouldn't he have been more furious with Bruce a tracking device inside him than Dick to a certain extent?
Of course whatever friendly rapport that could've been formed with Dick and Jason in this episode really didn't last long. Dick's past became a bigger focus this week when Tony Zucco's son, Nicholas (Tony Mac) waged a murderous campaign against Dick by killing some former Haly's Circus members in revenge for the former Robin allowing his father to die at the hands of Maroni's gang.
Nicholas was a decent enough villain and there was the fact that former strong man Clayton was used as bait to smoke Dick out for a decent confrontation as well, which Jason then wrecked when he decided to beat up some cops to externalise his own anger issues. I liked that Clayton survived, and the Dick/Jason confrontation was effectively done as well. If anything, I do think Jason making himself known to Dick might help the latter properly move on with things in the second half of the season.
- Adamson spent most of the episode unconscious before telling Kory that he won't talk to anyone other than Rachel. Kory also seemed to have a little costume change in this one.
- Nice look of the Batmobile and Batcave in this episode along with the mentions of the Maroni crime family, Two Face and the Haly's Circus flashbacks.
- I noticed the show played around with the title sequence this week to add Jason into the mix. I wonder will they do that when Donna Troy shows up.
- Chronology: Flashbacks were in 2002 and the present day seems to be 2017.
Jason Todd had some of the more violence and swearing that hampered the first two episodes but wasn't nearly as jarring here as it was back then. A strong rapport between Brenton Thwaites and Curran Walters along with an engaging guest baddie and various Bat related allusions certainly elevated the episode as well.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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