‘Titans’ Season 4, Episode 8 Review

With only a couple of episodes left in the series, it’s strange that Titans seems to be going off on a tangent with Beast Boy (Ryan Potter). After being absent from the first two episodes of this half-season, this episode was all about him. It didn’t address the larger threats the Titans are facing, though. Instead, it was all about Beast Boy’s characterization. Which is fine, but it’s just a strange thing to focus on when the season should be gearing up towards a big climax. The result: an hour that was largely boring as it focused on something that hadn’t been really discussed up until now. And even the fan service cameos at the end made it feel more like a bit of randomness rather than a story with purpose.

When Beast Boy vanished earlier in the season, he actually entered the Red. He was then pulled out of it by someone wanting to help him become more connected with the lifeforce from which he gains his powers. He has Gar succumb to an illusion to teach him that the person who saved his life was also responsible for killing his parents. He then tried to use this as a way to separate Beast Boy from the Titans. It didn’t work. Gar reentered the Red and then traveled the Multiverse in a scene that had several cameos from other DC properties. The episode ended when Beast Boy returned unconscious to the Doom Patrol mansion.

If there was a point to the episode then it was hard to decipher. At the end, Gar largely rejected the man who was trying to teach him. It could have been a way for him to access the Multiverse, but it only resulted in a few unnecessary cameos. It’s almost as if the powers that be don’t truly understand what fan service means. It needs to be something meaningful and with purpose. These were just clips that were thrown out there just for the sake of it. The Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” already handled that fairly well. This is just a show that’s now limping towards its end.

Titans streams Thursdays on HBO Max.