Titans “Hank & Dove” Review

Season 3 Episode 3 – Please be aware that these reviews do contain spoilers so continue at your own risk.

What I Liked?

1. The episode begins with a character swap from the actual comic story, instead of Bruce digging up Jason’s grave, in the episode, it is actually Dick that is digging it up, he opens up and the question that I’m assuming has been lingering on his mind since the reveal is that Jason’s casket is empty and that Jason’s body isn’t there, Dick tells the Titans that Bruce even saw the body, Kory asks a question that if someone is bringing the dead back alive, maybe they can bring Donna back to life, but her question is pretty much ignored.

2. My next point is literally proving how determined, how more intelligent Jason is over the Titans and Dick, as he rings Hank, crying that he’s made a mistake and that he doesn’t know what is happening, Hank plays right into Jason’s trap as he tells Jason to tell him where he is, Jason makes Hank go to the observatory and destroy his phone and then go to Gotham City Gym in which he made Hank get naked and swim a length in the pool to prove he’s not wired when he does this, Red Hood appears begins to choke Hank and knocks him out when the Titans are searching the Batcave computers for Hank’s location, Hank stumbles in with a bomb implanted into his chest, with a timer of his breaths and how many he has left, any attempts to remove it will set it off. Jason has crossed the line and went deep into being a psychotic criminal.

3. This next point is simple like, many people might skip over it, but this episode truly brought in the Lex Luthor side of Conor, while he’s a great Superboy, we truly haven’t seen his Lex DNA side come out until now when he knows exactly what is in the bomb, it’s just a small detail but I really liked it.

4. Dawn, even after seeing Hank do the exact same thing, falls victim to Jason’s torture games as he completely ruined her mind when he forced her hand into “shooting” Red Hood, but in fact, it was a trigger for Hank’s bomb which sets it off, this scene was dark, brutal, and very emotional, the pain each character shown was fantastic, you felt that. Gar gets a shock as he loses a friend, Dawn hits the trigger so she loses a lover, a best friend, Dick loses a longtime friend, Starfire comforts Gar in the Batcave, and we get to see Conor create a device that would have released the bomb, he speedruns from the Batcave to the bedroom where Hank is but gets there when the explosion is happening and it surrounds him, and Krypto had stayed with Hank until the very end and Krypto walks out of the smoked room. I was absolutely shocked.

What I Disliked?

My only truly dislike was that Dawn was pretty much, not forcing Dick but more planting the decision in his mind of actually doing the plan Jason wants them to do which is to hijack a gold delivery truck carrying 15 million worth of gold, which Dawn does on her own and well, you read the consequence for it.

Favorite Moment

Dick arrives at the place where the person who took Jason’s body lives, as soon as he parks his car, the body falls onto the windscreen when Dick is driving to meet Jason, he rings Hank and they have a conversation, Hank tells him that he’s scared, he also tells Dick that he needs to not let Jason destroy the family they built, Jason meets Dove and forces her to pull a trigger to shoot him to make him drop the detonator but Nightwing arrives just in time, Hank begins to sing a song with tears in his eyes when Dove pulls the trigger and we get to see Hank from a POV from outside the bedroom, a huge explosion happens, killing Hank in an instant.

Standout Character

I was going to give this does to Red Hood but I feel like I have to give it to Hank, he tried to go after Jason alone which ultimately got him killed, Hank and Dawn had just made up, and now he’s gone.

The Verdict

I feel as though this has been the most powerful, the most emotional, the most suspenseful, and the most heartbreaking episode to date. This episode had it all, a great story, emotional scenes, and an ultimate goodbye. This episode proved Jason’s mind games and plans are far beyond that of Dicks. Jason single-handedly mentally tortured the Titans.

Rating: 9.5/10

Photo: Hawk and Dove, Titans.