1x16 Failsafe

[7.4/10] “It was all a dream” is such a cheap cop out ending. The truth is that as soon as major characters started disintegrating, you knew the episode had its fingers crossed somehow. Batman and Superman dying? Maybe. Probably not, but you can buy that as a plausible thing the show might do to let the young heroes inherit the responsibility to protect the planet without standing in the big leaguers’ shadows. Wolf dying? Probably disqualifying, because you always save the pets, but maybe. Maybe it’s a smaller loss to give this invasion stakes. But Artemis dying? With so much unfinished business on the show? Come on.

Still, I thought the answer would be the one that Kid Flash identified -- it wasn’t a disintegration ray but rather a transporter beam, and the young heroes would free their grown counterparts at some point. I didn’t expect to have the whole thing washed away as a Martian Manhunter-fueled training exercise.

It’s a shame because ninety percent of the episode is pretty damn good. There is an alien invasion. Whoever these invaders are, their technology is powerful enough that it can neutralize or sidelines Earth’s greatest heroes. Every time the Young Justice team makes a little headway, the aliens strike back, forcing more and more desperate measures.

Despite the sense that this was going to be a big game of take-backsies somehow, “Failsafe” does a great job of making these events feel truly desperate. Wally’s anger at the loss of Artemis is telling. Aqualad’s sacrifice is noble. Robin’s determination in the face of certain doom is inspiring. The news anchor’s sense of being gobsmacked by all the devastation hits home for people who’ve lived through terrifying world events. The atmosphere here is commendably foreboding and unnerving, and the writers deserve credit for that.

That's why it’s so frustrating that the whole thing is one big cheat. The episode gives the proceedings a little juice as a simulation gone wrong. Even if it wasn’t real, M’gaan’s emotional reaction created some stakes in hindsight given the cheesy danger that dying in the simulation puts you in a coma in the real world. Martian Manhunter diving into the simulation himself and developing amnesia from her strength, and highlighting her as the most powerful mental force yet, has a little juice.

Int otal though it’s a way of erasing and undermining everything we’d seen to that point. The best you can say is that the good guys didn’t know it was a simulation, so we can treat their reactions and responses as real. There’s still merit in those sacrifices and desire to rescue those lost. The resourcefulness and refusal to give up even in the face of overwhelming odds and an unmatchable force speaks to the young heroes’ credit. The twist just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Overall, if you lop off the last few minutes of this one, and simply treat it as an Elseworlds episode or something, you’d have one hell of an episode. As it is, the fake out in the finish knocks this one down several pegs.