TV Review: ‘Titans’ Season 4, Episode 8

It’s pretty unclear at this point what is going on in Titans. This is the final season and it doesn’t seem as if the show is giving fans the big send off that they were hoping for. In fact, it’s certainly plausible that the production team didn’t even know this would be the show’s final season when they wrote it out. Everything about these past two episodes felt like the story is just going through the motions. Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) wasn’t even in either of them, and the rest of the group was stuck in a pocket dimension. It seems as if the only purpose for this two-part premiere was to fill space and move closer to the climax. The bad guy pretty much got what he needed with ease, and only one character, Tim (Jay Lycurgo), had any sort of characterization.

Picking up where the previous episode left off, Dick (Brenton Thwaites) and Kory (Anna Diop) wake up in a strange house. Later on they learn that their brains were given an injection that would cause them to lose their identities and become two totally different people stuck in the town. The only people who could help them were a deaf father and daughter immune to the brainwashing. On the outside, Tim teamed up with the deaf father’s son, who believed they were still alive. Eventually, Dick and Raven (Teagan Croft) managed to escape the pocket dimension and reunite with the others.

Previous seasons of Titans had suspense and fast-paced drama. This one does not. The last season got pretty outlandish, but at least things happened. The first part of this season held some promise, but this premiere did not follow up well. The villain might be teaming up with Connor, which could develop into an interesting storyline. However, it’s not there yet. There are still several episodes left before the finale, so there is definitely time to turn things around and heighten the tension before the climax. But if these two episodes are any indication, it seems as if the show is ending with good reason.

Titans streams Thursdays on HBO Max.