WARNING THIS REVIEW INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 EPISODE 3 “GHOSTS” OF DC UNIVERSE’S TITANS

We now find ourselves three episodes into the second season of DC Universe’s Titans. Last week we saw our new group of Titan trainees including Gar played by Ryan Potter, Jason Todd played by Curren Walters and Rachel played by Teagan Croft. They are being lead by the former Robin Dick Grayson who is played by Brenton Thwaites. Meanwhile the pairs of Hawk and Dove played by Alan Richson and Minka Kelly and Donna Troy and Kory Anders played by Conor Leslie and Anna Diop are off on their own doing their own thing. Also after witnessing a mysterious girl on the news evading police, Grayson brings her into Titans Tower where by the end of the episode everyone learns that she is none other than Rose Wilson played by Chelsea Zhang, the daughter of Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke, played by Esai Morales. Speaking of Deathstroke he has put his plans in motion to take down the Titans, by first releasing the villain Dr. Light from prison who is played by Michael Mosley. After seperate attacks and to the former Titans, they are all now forced to come back together and face the new illuminating threat. It that weren’t enough, Kory has been kidnapped by what seems is a Tamaran solider.

This week’s episode is properly titled ‘Ghosts’ as it seems like all of hour heroes and heroes in training are dealing with figurative ghosts of their past. Our veteran Titans Grayson, Dawn, Hank and Donna are all sent into a panic as they learn that not only Dr. Light is back, but so is Deathstroke. It seems that whatever lead to the Titans going their separate ways in the past, Slade was the catalyst. Their fear is very prominent as the set of heroes besides Grayson think it would be a wise move to remove Rose from the Titans Tower. Meanwhile, the rookies are dealing with their own demons, one of them literally in Rachel, who almost kills Jason during training when her powers manifest themselves to protect her. Jason on the other hand is doing everything in his power to prove that he can hang with or be better than Grayson, which on multiple occasions does not end well. Also let’s not forget Kory finds herself in custody of a royal guard named Faddei played by Robbie Jones. He has been tasked to bring Kory home by her sister Blackfire. What complicates the matter more is that her and this guard have previously had a one night stand. Do we need to also mention Rose’s current relationship with her father Slade?

ALSO SEE: TITANS SEASON 2 EPISODE 2 ‘ROSE’ REVIEW: THE REAL BEGINNING OF SEASON 2

As we can see the Titans new and old have a lot of baggage that they are dealing with despite the looming pretense of Deathstroke. Speaking of which, this episode does a great job at setting up Slade Wilson as a worthy adversary for this season. We can see early on that he is not about being flashy, loud or theatrical. Slade has established himself here as a predator that is looking to split the herd and take the Titans out one by one starting with the weakest of the group. Only Gar, Kory and Rachel are not startled by the news of Deathstroke, while the rest of the group immediately understand how lethal their situation could be if they have to once again encounter this villain. Showcasing Slade in the shadows, pulling strings left and right as a master tactician I think is the best way to portray him in this series, giving us a chance to see other villains like Dr. Light to go up against the Titans as they work their way up to Deathstroke.

By the end of this episode we are totally invested in finding out what happened to the first Titans team that has everyone spooked. By their dialogue they make it seem like maybe a previous Titan could have been killed in a confrontation with Deathstroke. The group is ready to deal with Dr. Light but then split up as soon as that mission is over. One character who seems particularly perturbed by this dark past is Donna, claiming that the Titans Tower had ghosts and because of that she couldn’t stay there. Hank even commented to Grayson that he thought that he would have burned down Titans Tower after what they went through. What happened? I am sure that we will find out in the upcoming weeks.

I am not sure how to feel about Kory’s story line that began last episode and continued this week with Faddei attempting to take her back to Tamaran. On one side I am glad to finally see her getting a little more of a spotlight, which I thought the first season lacked compared to the other Titans. But I did think that her scenes with Faddei lacked a little depth. I would like to learn more about her origins not to mention also see Blackfire in a future episode.

Overall I thought it was a decent set up episode with a good amount of action, granted it was mostly in training but it was still fun to watch. Deathstroke has been established as the big bad and our heroes are going to have to put their fears aside to face whatever Slade has in store for them. I look forward to see how they incorporate upcoming characters like Aqualad and Superboy.

Episode three of season two of Titans on DC Universe ‘Ghosts’ was written by Tom Pabst and directed by Kevin Tancharoen. Executive producers for the series are Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti, Greg Walker, Sarah Schechter and John Fawcett.

What are your thoughts on this latest episode of Titans? Let us know in the comment section below!

DC Universe’s Titans releases a new episode every Friday exclusively on their streaming service along with the first season of Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing.

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