Just
like a teenager itself, the one thing the Teen Titans
animated series needs is a little stability. It may not
seem like it, but fans of the series have been waiting since
March to get so much as a new episode to sate their appetites.
To top
it all off, those craving resolve to the whole “Terra/Slade/Beast
Boy” scenario have had to hold their enthusiasm since
February. Last Saturday the waiting came to an end, and
although it was worth it, one still can’t help but
question Cartoon Network’s decision to put such a
huge gap between episodes within the same “season.”
This
is, however, a review column and not a soapbox, so let’s
get into what really matters here: "Betrayal."
Having
spent the majority of my time over the past few months reviewing
various past episodes I found "Betrayal" to be
a welcome change of pace. Overall we are greeted with a
fairly packed episode, which could have easily been developed
over the course of two episodes.
Beast Boy’s affinity towards Terra
has seemingly grown since we last saw the Teens in action.
His cooing only makes you feel bad for the little guy because
based on the title alone, you know things won’t be
good for long.
Surprisingly,
an episode such as this, which is sure to disappoint fans
rooting for Beast Boy and Terra, actually turns out to be
quite humorous in the process. The jokes are fast and furious,
and despite knowing that Slade has the Titans cornered and
doom is lingering overhead, the episode never loses its
sense of humor.
The action starts off from the get go, and
seeing the team take on a platoon of Slade’s henchman
in the opening sequence suggests that Terra could have been
a positive addition to the team. Well, had she not double-crossed
them and all.
Funny how that works.
Slade’s plan goes right into effect,
and he is poised to attack the Titans using Terra’s
recon feedback. Terra’s guilt slowly creeps in as
the team accepts her as one of their own, and surely Beast
Boy’s constant ogling doesn’t help the situation.
Seeing
Beast Boy ask Terra out, only to be dumped was, quite honestly,
heartbreaking. Okay, everyone take their shots now and get
them out of the way.
Every
guy has been there before, getting rejected without fully
understanding why, albeit not on such a “superheroic-opera”
level. The point is, the Titans series has always tried
to meld the real struggles teens face with those of a teenage
superhero, and it pays off here in spades.
The
comics were the groundwork for this juxtaposition, but it
feels as if it has fully gelled for the animated series
in "Betrayal." Part of this is due to two specific
sequences dealing with the Terra and Beast Boy situation.
The first is post-rejection. Beast Boy riffs
his way through the different ways he could have gone about
asking Terra out in a montage modeled after film outtakes.
The second comes during Beast Boy and Terra’s
date. Guilt laden over her betrayal of the Titans, Terra
attempts to salvage her relationship with Beast Boy by taking
him out on a date after all, to get him away from the tower
when Slade attacks.
Another montage ensues, this time mimicking
the photos a couple might take in a photo booth on their
first date. We see how closely these two parallel each other,
and just how perfect they could have been together had Slade
not interfered, or had Terra been strong enough to resist
him.
Of
course the ongoing storyline is that the rest of the Team
is awakened in the middle of the night to find two hundred
of Slade’s goons waiting to attack them in their sleep.
Against all odds, the team works together to protect the
tower while Beast Boy fights Slade one on one and discovers
the truth behind Terra’s awful secret.
The
thing that makes the episode so powerful, aside from the
humor and the action sequences, is the fact that Terra’s
betrayal not only affects the team on the macrocosmic level,
but it hits Beast Boy hard on the microcosmic level.
The
sense of loss is only equaled by the anger a viewer feels
towards Terra for her betrayal, and it places you right
on the fence. In short, we’ve finally seen Beast Boy
placed in the limelight of an episode that doesn’t
resort to playing him off as merely a one-note joke.
One can only hope that this trend continues
as we close out Season Two and start up Season Three.
Next
Week: Tune in next week as Robin faces
his number one fan in Misery 2: A Bird in the Hand or Fractured!
Sorry, too much Rocky and Bullwinkle.
