'Titans' Season 2 reveals Dick Grayson's dark and manipulative side, triggered by Deathstroke killing Aqualad
DC Universe's 'Titans' doesn't pull any punches with how it represents the beloved characters of the Teen Titans. While the show has always hinted at the dark side of Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), the second season has shed more light on it and, in the process, has given us some insight into what happened to turn the lovable young hero into the bitter warrior he is today.
Though he does strive to be his own person, Dick was raised and trained by Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) and Batman's manipulative tendencies have clearly rubbed off on him. In the second episode of the show's second season, we see Dick manipulating his younger adoptive brother Jason Todd/Robin (Curran Walters) by telling him the rest of the Titans look up to Jason, which could hardly be less true.
But even though he was lying, it was meant to help make Jason more responsible, so we could have forgiven him for his manipulations. Except, what that led to is Jason feeling underappreciated and running head-first into danger, getting himself captured by the formidable villain Deathstroke (Esai Morales).
The show's fourth episode revealed Deathstroke was actually more than a little responsible for Dick taking such a dark turn. It was Deathstroke's assassination of Dick's Titans teammate Garth/Aqualad (Drew Van Acker) that pushed the young hero over the edge.
The last scene of the episode revealed Dick manipulated Deathstroke's son Jericho (Chella Man) into trusting him as part of a revenge plan against the assassin. While we're yet to see the full scale of Dick's revenge plot, Deathstroke's son has been mentioned to be dead in the present day of the show so it's unlikely that things worked out for Jericho, even if the other Titans managed to make it out alive.
At least a few of Dick's fans are bound to be angered by the dark, morally gray actions he has taken on the show, seemingly without any hesitation whatsoever. But that said, it does add some depth and complexity to the character and it should be interesting to see where this darkness within takes him.
'Titans' Season 2 Episode 5 'Deathstroke' will be airing on DC Universe on October 4.