In the end, it turned out that Red X was in fact Robin himself, disguised as a thief in an effort to gain Slade’s trust in hopes of getting close enough to him to put an end to his terror for good. What ensued was the closest Robin had come to placing his teammates at risk, and he learned the important risk he took by trying to levy the burden on his own.

Now Red X has returned, so what is Robin up to this time? The team tracks Red X to a warehouse where they face off in an attempt to thwart a robbery. The villain proves formidable, but he isn’t as quick to exploit each Titan’s weaknesses the way he did when Robin was in the suit.

Red X escapes and the team is left to question exactly who is masquerading as the thief this time around. Hilariously, the team wonders whether or not Robin is a hologram or a robot. While Starfire chooses to poke Robin constantly to see if he is actually real, Beast Boy encourages Cyborg to perform a test of his own, involving a rubber glove.

Once the team is assured that Robin is not Red X, they must question who is, and what it is that this person is after. Robin explains that the suit he built is powered off of an extremely rare yet dangerously volatile source of power so dangerous that Robin would risk too much if he attempted to dismantle the core storage unit inside the suit. So instead he chose to lock it away for safekeeping.

Someone has stolen the suit and is now seeking out more energy to keep the suit powered. Robin, of course, feels responsible for this turn of events and decides to track down Red X his own way.

It’s ironic that the lesson learned in Masks is almost completely forgotten here. Robin initially sets out on his own to fix the errors of his ways, however he eventually includes the rest of the team in the search. Here, Robin starts by seeking out information from the person he originally purchased his supply of energy from, Professor Chang.

Robin discovers the next potential site that Red X will choose to strike, and the team rallies to put a stop to him and discover who is beneath the mask this time. But when Cyborg is attacked, Robin blames himself and this fuels his sense of regret even further.

When each member of the Titans is captured one by one, the viewer suspects Red X, but when it turns out to be a double cross by Professor Chang it should come as no surprise. When Red X decides to join forces with Robin to put a stop to Chang’s version of a weapon of mass destruction, it also comes as no surprise.

Although the episode takes the position of setting up a mystery surrounding the identity of Red X, it never fully follows through. We know that Robin locked away the suit for safe keeping, but who had the knowledge and the wherewithal to be able to break into the Titan Tower, crack Robin’s vault code, and remain undetected?

On top of all this, it had to be someone privy to Red X in the first place, but the other members of the group were always accounted for throughout the episode. The message present in X is that even thieves can find it within themselves to do the right thing and act as a hero. However, this never hits home completely because we are too busy wondering who is behind the mask.

In the end, this episode was largely a disappointment. For some reason Aqualad or Speedy seemed like a logical Red X, but this was never explored, and the motives of Red X were limited to the need to sustain the Red X suit, not some other ulterior motive.

Despite this disappointment, there were a couple of moments worth noting. One comes in the form of a lesson from Beast Boy as he tries to discover who is behind the mask of Red X. During this sequence he pulls out a blackboard with various references written on it; a few worth mentioning are Jason Todd, Dick Grayson and, unfortunately, Larry the Titan.

The other sequences worth mentioning are both film references. One comes from a scene in which Robin wields a large laser canon and blasts through a wall, very Kaneda-like from Akira. The other comes during a fight sequence in Chang’s lair: as Robin jumps in the air to perform a kick attack, a white dove flies across the screen in an obvious reference to John Woo’s action operas.

Although these sequences entertain, and the vibe of the show moves along well enough, it is not enough to counter the disappointment surrounding the lack of a Red X identity resolve. Hopefully this will somehow play in to the rest of Season Three, and we will find some resolve with the whole Red X debacle in subsequent episodes. We’ll see.

Until then, who is Red X?

Next Week: Starfire is set to marry? Blackfire returns to stir up trouble? Robin is racing to the chapel to stop the wedding ala The Graduate? Ok, maybe not the last one, but tune in next week for answers in Betrothed!

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Mario Anima