'Titans' Season 2 Episode 10 grounds Nightwing's origins by turning him into a folk hero instead of an ancient alien legend
Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) has spent most of Season 2 getting slowly deconstructed bit by bit until he finally hit rock bottom and got himself sent to prison in Episode 9 'Atonement'.
However, 'Titans' Season 2 Episode 10 'Fallen' finally sets him on the path to redemption by reminding Dick that he will always be a hero, whether he likes it or not.
While in prison, Dick meets a trio of captured illegal immigrants from the fictional nation of Corto Maltese who are planning on escaping prison before they are deported back to their wartorn homeland.
One of these prisoners tells Dick a local legend from his village about a hero whose symbol is a bird and despite his hesitation, Dick ends up being inspired to help them escape, taking the first proper step towards becoming the hero he's meant to be.
In the comics, Dick chose the name Nightwing after Superman told him an old Kryptonian legend about a man who was cast out of his family and decided to war on crime as a hero called Nightwing. By taking up the name, he was paying tribute to both the Man of Steel and his mentor Batman.
By changing the origins of the Nightwing legend, 'Titans' avoids having to go into the story of ancient Kryptonian society, which would honestly just have been one more distraction in what's already a very cluttered story.
As an added bonus, the new origin is a lot more grounded in our time with the immigration narrative and the idea of Nightwing as a hero of the disenfranchised is definitely something we can all get behind.
The cast for 'Titans' Season 2 includes Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Anna Diop as Kory Anders / Starfire, Ryan Potter as Gar Logan / Beast Boy, Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth / Raven, Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk, Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger / Dove, Joshua Orpin as Conner Kent / Superboy, Drew Van Acker as Garth / Aqualad, Chelsea Zhang as Rose Wilson / Ravager, Chella Man as Jericho Wilson, and Esai Morales as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke.
'Titans' Season 2 Episode 11 'E.L._.O.' will arrive on the DC Universe on November 15.
