Sunday, August 29, 2021

My Review of Titans 3x05: "Lazarus"

 


Written by Bryan Edward Hill
Directed by Boris Mojsovski

Red Hood: "You still trying to save me?"
Molly: "Always."

It's that time in the show where we were get an episode that largely does little to advance the main plot because it's mostly a flashback. On the other hand, this one also filled in some gaps between the surprise partnership of Jason Todd and Jonathan Crane.

The events of the previous season and isolation from the Titans truly had a negative impact on Jason. He had nightmares of failing as well as cryptic visits from Donna Troy (why, Donna? I don't remember her being really close to Jason). Worse than that it appeared that Jason's time as Robin were coming to an end long before his fateful encounter with the Joker.

Bruce managed to get Jason to attend therapy sessions with Leslie Thompkins (Krista Bridges), which actually seemed to be going well until Bruce took Jason to Crime Alley and told him he didn't want him to be Robin. Jason of course didn't react to this news at all well, leading to the team up that Bruce should've seen coming.

Having Jason open betray everyone in order to get Crane onside definitely worked a treat. Crane even arranged for Cyrus to dump Jason into the Lazarus Pit underneath Arkham and helped Jason become the Red Hood. Both Red Hood and Scarecrow have the goal of sending Gotham into terror and with Crane out of Arkham, it looks like that's where the season will take things.

Of course, while we've seen Jason cause the death of Hank this season, this episode did potentially hint that he might not be an entire lost cause. In flashbacks, Jason wanted to help his friend, Molly (Eve Harlow) find a missing kid and upon becoming Red Hood, he succeeded where Jason couldn't in regards to helping Molly.

If Molly can tap into some humanity left in Jason, it could go either way for that character. I could see Crane taking her out of the equation to maintain control over Jason or the latter actually being saved by her more than his former mentor or teammates. Either way, there does seem to be a tiny bit of hope left for Jason.

- Jason, Crane and Donna were the only regulars in this episode. Rose also got a brief mention, so I guess the snow hasn't forgotten the character.
- I'm no prude but this pot smoking version of Scarecrow comes across as too try hard in parts. I'm also curious to see which Gotham related character will materialise next on the show.
- If Scarecrow can move around in Arkham easy enough to go check on Jason, post revival, why not just escape of his own accord? It's Arkham after all.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off but also weeks before the events of the first episode.

Lazarus certainly filled in all the needed gaps and as a flashback episode was one of the strongest we've had in the series. I thought Curran Walters did pretty well leading the episode to his credit and the smaller cast this week also helped  keep things focused.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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