Titan Season 1 Episode 3 Recap
A broken Dove and an abducted Rachel lay in a familial hit squad’s wake as Titans continued through its first season. The power that lies beneath Rachel’s exterior remained a driving force for her pursuers, both good and evil. Dick and Kory are far from giving up the chase, but what constitutes Rachel’s safety, both from Dr. Adamson’s underlings and herself, is still a mystery. Perhaps those answers have a theological foundation. Even then, could such an origin constrain such a force?
Perfect Strangers
The series thankfully delivers a Kory-heavy episode this go around, beginning with her tailing the family and Rachel from Hawk and Dove’s apartment to a remote gas station. As Rachel tries to escape through a bathroom window, Kory blows a hole in the side of the building, frying the father in the process. Rachel leaves with the pyromancer. Kory informs Rachel of her history at St. Paul’s convent, showing her a picture of her mother and her as a baby with a collection of nuns. Kory asks Rachel if she knows anything of her identity. Rachel of course knows nothing of her and is unable to see anything when touching her. The two refer to their respective internal darkness and light within as they make their way to the convent.
After Kory cements her status as a “total badass” in Rachel’s eyes at a local diner, the two arrive at St. Paul’s. Sister Catherine welcomes Rachel with open arms and recognizes Kory from a visit one year prior. Catherine tells Rachel of her previous time at the convent. Her mother brought her there to hide her from her father, and still want to offer her protection. Kory senses danger within the confines of the building, but shifts her focus once she learns that her oddly marked key opens a storage locker at a local roller rink.
That Power
Dove is recovering in the hospital with Hawk by her side when Dick pays a visit. Dick has no answers for Hawk’s questions about the family, but vows to find them and Rachel. Recent events force Dick to reflect on his childhood following his parents’ death. A young, fragile Dick is taken in by Bruce Wayne, but quickly rejects the luxury of Wayne Manor, escaping through the window. He is quickly recovered by social services. Rather than being punished, a social worker explains to him that Bruce knows what he’s going through due to his own experience of loss.
Her explanation of Dick’s running away as a means of grasping power where there isn’t any resonates with him. He returns to Wayne Manor, but quickly steals a car, the same one he currently drives, and leads Gotham PD on a chase through the city streets. Dick returns to Wayne Manor after a tongue-lashing by his social worker to find a letter from Bruce alluding to the beginning of his training as Robin. It also marks the beginning Dick’s desire to find and kill his parents’ murderer in earnest.
In the present day, Dick learns of both Kory’s break-in at Rachel’s home and Amy’s death. He finds the gas station where Kory rescued Rachel earlier and steals security camera footage from the shop. The footage shows Kory leaving with Rachel and allows Dick to track them using their car’s license plate and some swanky WayneTech gadgets.
A Day at Scooter’s
All paths lead to the local roller rink, Scooter’s Roller Palace. Kory’s frog-branded key reveals a key to a storage room, much to her dismay. She returns to Rachel as she prepares to hit the arcade. Kory asks her about her father, but Rachel has no knowledge of him. She hits up the rink’s pinball machine, drawing the attention of Gar. The two complement one another on their hair colors in usual stammering teenage meet-cute fashion.
The fun is broken up when Dick arrives. He, Kory and Rachel have an altercation outside the building. Dick informs them that the police are looking for them, but Rachel abruptly steers the conversation to Dick’s intention to leave her behind. The heightened emotion releases her dark force again, blowing out multiple car windows. The three rush back to the convent as the patrons of Scooter’s, including Gar, file out. The green-haired lad watches them leave from the rink’s stoop, curious about his new friend.
Destroyer of Worlds
The family, sans father, reports their failure to Dr. Adamson. The good doctor threatens to kill them, stating that they were built better than this. The daughter asks about the importance of Rachel, prompting the doc to reveal that Rachel’s father is the bringer of doomsday. Rachel must be eliminated as only she can welcome him to their realm. The daughter expresses that she’d like to see a world stripped of its outward flesh and Adamson decides to give them another chance, supplying them with a new father.
Dick lets Rachel in slightly as the trio return to the convent. Rachel continues to point out her loneliness and Dick’s misleading actions, which Dick agrees with. She is alone. She always will be because the loss she feels will always be there. He knows because he feels it too. He implores that she must learn to channel and control that emotion if she ever wants to deal with it.
Kory uses the opportunity to steal Dick’s car and head to the newly discovered storage room, though Dick isn’t far behind. Kory finds a storage unit lined with pictures of Rachel, maps, newspaper clippings, an odd machine resembling a tanning bed exuding purple light and numerous manuscripts in a language Kory can speak, but doesn’t understand. She finds an audio log made by herself one year prior, revealing that she was pursuing a group of Russian smugglers that brought Rachel and her mother to the convent with new last names. Dick arrives and notices multiple depictions of ravens on the documents lining the wall. He questions Kory’s origins, which she dodges. Kory points out that mortality rates spiked on Rachel’s birthday, slowly beginning to realize that she is actually part of a world-ending prophecy. Rachel is the destroyer of worlds.
That persona rings true as the darkness within Rachel is unleashed full force back at the convent. After Sister Catherine drugged and locked away Rachel, the darkness within gets the better of her, causing an explosion. The blast allows Rachel to escape into the woods as Kory and Dick see smoke rising in the distance.
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