- Title: Titans – Trigon
- wiki: link
In a dick move, Titans returns for its Second Season with a premiere which feels very much like it should have been the First Season’s finale. Almost entirely dealing with themes from the previous season, “Trigon” begins with Trigon (Seamus Dever) brainwashing the rest of his daughter’s friends just as he did to in the previous season’s finale to Robin (Brenton Thwaites), proving that a full episode didn’t need to be devoted the the alternate reality mind games he pushed Dick through in “Dick Grayson” (as Trigon manages to brainwash nearly the entire group, who are then able to break his control, all in less than half that time).
Ignoring the timing of the episode’s release, and the somewhat underwhelming CGI of Trigon finally taking demonic form, the episode brings and end to the plotline involving Rachel‘s (Teagan Croft) family with the young hero banishing her father back to whence he came (although how exactly she does this isn’t all that clear). Not to nitpick, but the CGI effect of Trigon’s effect on the world (turning it dark gray) suddenly not being present in a later scene (why did the grass grow back behind him?) prior to Raven standing up to him is also perplexing (did the CGI budget run out?).
The remainder of the episode is set-up for the new season including Dick deciding to take his new friends to San Francisco and reform the Titans, the tease of an old Titan enemy (Esai Morales) being rejuvenated by their return and returning to do battle, and the first real appearance of Batman (Iain Glen) which allows Dick to unpack what he has come to understand over the course of the season and move forward with a clean slate. Glen is an interesting choice for Bruce Wayne, coming off more than slightly too old for the role (it’s hard to imagine him in the Bat-suit jumping around rooftops) but still bringing his Game of Thrones credentials to the show helping to sell him as a weary warrior. Succeeding where last season’s finale failed, “Trigon” brings a close to the first chapter of the series while teasing what is to come.