‘Titans’ Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Jericho’ Review: Casualty of War

The discovery of an old record brings Titans back for another trip down memory lane. After the team almost falls apart by itself, an admission of guilt saves them all. This time around, we go back to 2014, sometime after the death of a colleague and friend. The idea of using a son’s love for his father to get to his father is a cruel thing to do. However, desperation brings people, even heroes, to commit such actions.

On Friday’s episode of Titans, Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), Donna Troy/Wonder Girl (Conor Leslie), Hank Hall/Hawk (Alan Ritchson), and Dawn Granger/Dove (Minka Kelly) befriend Slade Wilson/Deathstroke’s son (Esai Morales), Jericho (Chella Mann). Eventually, the team becomes fond of the boy and decides to take care of him. However, the lines between justice and revenge blur as the Titans and Deathstroke unleash hell on each other.

Not Just Garth

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Donna’s reluctance to face Deathstroke does not stem from him murdering Garth (Drew Van Acker). Since he did not kill the original target, Jillian (Ann Magnuson), he had to try again. Donna soon finds her Themysciran guardian, along with her security detail murdered. Facing Deathstroke face-to-face proved to be traumatic and painful for Donna as Deathstroke swiftly took her down. If he were not out to send them a warning, Donna likely receives the fate of her Themysciran sisters. She barely makes it out of the gallery alive, requiring help from Hank and Dawn as Dick went off to finish Deathstroke. At the time, none of them acted with the best tactical decisions nor the proper mindset before the battle.

Stuck in Between

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The episode mainly focused on Jericho’s identity and how he ties up the entire story of the Titans v Deathstroke. Initially, the Titans use him as a source of information, befriending him to learn more about Deathstroke. However, they eventually like the kid, and as soon as Dick discovers his powers, he takes him in to train him. Also, the kid wanted to know the truth about his father, something that his mother, Adeline (Mayko Nguyen), kept from him.

Jericho grew up believing that his father is a hero. He knows about Slade’s military background as he grew up while Slade was still in service. Their relationship soon sours after Slade leaves the military. Along with Wintergreen (Demore Barnes), Slade ventures into what Jericho knew as insurance selling. Soon, Jericho loses the ability to speak when masked assassins invaded their home to threaten Slade. At that point, Jericho never saw Slade again and never finds a way to do so, until he met Dick and the Titans.

Absentee Father

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Presumably, one can infer from the episode that Slade’s line of work kept him from raising his family correctly. At a point, Jericho wished not to talk to Slade, who missed his birthday. Still, the father and son have a connection despite the nature of Slade’s career. We rarely see a side of Slade where he is a father, and this episode generously provides us snippets of that part of his life. Slade is no sociopath, as proven by the sequence where he drove Jericho to school, and Jericho reveals his powers. In this context, Slade is neither good nor bad; he merely lives life on his terms.

Slade was lucky that Adeline maintained Slade’s untarnished image. Jericho believed that Slade is a hero despite how their family fell apart. To an extent, one can say that Slade has a misunderstood character, although that is not exactly true. Slade does have the choice to give up his assassin career to try to raise his family, but he did not. When he did retire, he decided to live as a hermit and maintain a gunshop on some faraway mountain, and his son was already dead, with his blood on Slade’s hands.

Dark Side (Continued)

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Much like his season 1 character, Dick embraces his dark side in the episode. He practically lives in it, makes his decisions off of it. Here, he does not seem to have a problem with using Jericho to get information. Dick has nothing in mind besides revenge on Deathstroke. The problem is that everyone else in the team is hell-bent on doing the same thing. Tactically, they merely aimed to kill Deathstroke, not necessarily to have the hand of justice has its way on Deathstroke’s fate.

Now, however, one can map out how Dick will tell the story of Jericho’s heroism and Slade’s ruthlessness. Jericho only died because he stood in Slade way, much like Garth. Also, because of what happened, Slade now has a deep-seated hatred for the Titans, especially towards Dick. Even Dick must admit to how badly he handled the team (who seems to appear in the show rarely) if he wishes to keep them out of the same mistakes that led to the first batch’s disbandment. The only real advantage that Slade has against them is that he uses his skill and intellect extensively, keeping a step ahead of the Titans all the time.

‘Titans’ Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Jericho’ Final Verdict

Titans increasingly rely on flashbacks to explain major plot points. Each of these flashback episodes stands well on their own. However, one can say that these flashbacks easily could be a separate season on themselves, since the majority of season 2 is made up of them. The main plot of the season takes much time to develop, comparably similar to the liking of the act of slow cooking a sweet stew to the right blend.

Titans continues Friday, November 1st, with ‘Atonement’ on the DC Streaming Service.