This was a really confusing episode, like the beginning of this season. There was huge characters development between this five years gap that separate season one from season two. How Aqualad become the enemy? What happened between him and rest of the team? This season started with some a lot of questions and by the time it ends, I hope to have all this questions answered. I ain't feeling what made season one so good in this first three episodes of the season two. I hope the quality improves as the show continues. Overal, a very meh episode. I didn't liked.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-05-14T19:45:01Z
[7.2/10] So Aqualad is a bad guy now? What the hell? It’s not so implausible that Kaldur could turn to the dark side in five years' time. But the big problem with it is the same one there is with so many of the massive changes during this time jump -- we didn’t get to see it. There’s gradual progression of mistrust once Kaldur finds out that Aquaman lied to him about his parentage. There’s no building sense of anger that would lead him to seek revenge and change loyalties after his beloved Tula dies on a mission with the Young Justice team. We just hear it secondhand, in a moment when the characters conveniently decide to stop fighting and start dropping exposition. That is deeply unsatisfying.
I’m biased. Aqualad was one of my favorite characters in the first season of Young Justice. His sense of honor and empathy made him a stand-out. It’s not implausible to me whatsoever that in half a decade, those qualities could be corrupted, that he could find himself questioning what he believed in. But the series doesn’t show us that. It just drops us in the endpoint and expects us to roll with the kindest and most decent character in the series being evil now. The turn is meant to be jarring, and it is, but it doesn’t feel earned.
To the same end, while the action in this episode is solid, there’s not much in the way of story or character here. Sure, we get some cryptic hints that the Kroloteans aren’t the ultimate baddies here, but are rather working against a mysterious “Competitor”. And we get some answers about what happened with the six leaguers during the mysterious sixteen hours, where they ran roughshod over a certain sector of space and put Earth on the extraterrestrials’ radar. It honestly makes you a little sympathetic to the Kroloteans before they start talking about Earth being profitable. If a bunch of aliens showed up on our doorstep, starting wreaking havoc and threatening people, we might take action as well. It at least complicates the international/intergalactic relations angle of this whole thing.
But there’s no real protagonist or focus character for this episode. There’s not so much a story as there is one big set piece. We get a few extra noteworthy moments, like M’gaan once again “interrogating” a Krolotean in a way that seems disturbing, or the confrontation between Superboy and Nightwing on the one hand, and Aqualad on the other. Wonder Girl fangirling over her mentor is a nice touch. Plus I love the choice to have Superman still try to save the Kroloteans from Aqualad’s bomb despite the antagonistic posture between them. It’s very true to his character. But those kinds of meaningful character moments are few and far between.
Frankly, I’m more intrigued by the prospect of the next episode, where the DCAU leaguers (minus Flash, who’s still conspicuously absent along with Wally) are poised to be put on trial. But this mostly plays like a dose of solid but largely hollow fireworks, and hints for more interesting things to come, coupled with some character assassination for Kaldur.
I want to keep an open mind. Time jumps are bold. Changing characters in dramatic ways is bolder. Young Justice earned a lot of goodwill after its first season. But more and more of the character choices and story directions we’ve seen through this opening trio of episodes has given me pause.