'Titans' Season 2 Episode 2 'Rose' tests Dick's leadership as Doctor Light's return sets up Team reunion
Spoilers ahead for 'Titans' Season 2 Episode 2 'Rose'
After the last episode, the Titans went their separate ways but we all knew that wouldn't last forever. As expected, episode 2 sets up the Titans to reunite once again after an enemy from their past called Doctor Light (Michael Mosley) escapes from prison.
The second episode picks up three months after the events of episode 1. Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) is busy training Rachel Roth/Raven (Teagan Croft), Garfield Logan/Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) and Jason Todd/Robin II (Curran Walters) at the Titans Tower in San Francisco.
Dick is determined to help prepare his young wards for the battles he knows they will have to face in the future but it's not an easy task, especially with Jason's cocky attitude. The situation brings out a side of Dick we've never seen before.
He was always a good leader even in the first season but now he takes on the combined role of an older brother and a drill sergeant, manipulating and motivating his students in equal measure in order to get them to stick with the program. Jason clearly thinks he's better than his teammates because of his greater experience in the field and Dick plays on this overconfidence to convince Jason the other young Titans look up to him.
Rachel works hard to make Dick proud, mostly because she's afraid her failings may cause Dick to doubt his own abilities as a leader. However, it seems she may not yet have full control of her powers. We see the dark magic inside her begin to take over when she starts to doze off, though she is luckily woken up in time by Gar.
Gar is going through his own problems as he feels Dick is going too easy on him to make up for beating him close to death while under the control of Rachel's demon father Trigon (Seamus Dever). Though he does understand Dick wasn't in full control of his senses at the time, Gar reveals he still holds some resentment over the incident.
Their relatively peaceful existence is disturbed by the appearance of a young silver-haired, one-eyed woman (Chelsea Zhang) who effortlessly takes out a whole bunch of police officers, impressing even Jason with her skills. After she collapses from exhaustion on the street, Dick brings her to the Tower and tries to convince her to stay, though she refuses quite vehemently.
Desperate for guidance, Dick turns to his adoptive father Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) for advice and, motivated by the conversation, decides to offer his help to the young woman and let her decide whether to stay or leave. Eventually, she does begin to warm up to him and let her shields down a little, just in time for the other Titans to find out via the Batcomputer, she is Rose Wilson, the daughter of Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (Esai Morales).
While Dick and the kids are busy in San Francisco, Koriand'r (Anna Diop) and Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) are trying to track down a rogue metahuman named Shimmer, based on a tip from none other than Roy Harper, better known as Speedy, sidekick to the Green Arrow. Though he doesn't appear in the episode, the fact that he's mentioned makes it almost certain he will pop up again somewhere down the line.
The chemistry and banter between the two ladies are extremely fun and we can't wait to see more of it. Unfortunately, there might be a bit of a problem with that because Kory is seemingly kidnapped in the final scenes of the episode by a visitor from her homeworld, played by Robbie Jones.
Donna sees a woman who looks like Kory walking past without recognizing Donna, which suggests Kory may be under some kind of mind control or even replaced by her sister Komand'r/Blackfire.
Meanwhile, Hank Hall/Hawk (Alan Ritchson) and Dawn Granger/Dove (Minka Kelly) are living a peaceful retired life in Wyoming, their superhero days behind them. However, unbeknownst to Hank, Dawn has been secretly suiting up to fight criminals for a month.
When he finds out about this betrayal, Hank gives Dawn an ultimatum: End her heroics or he ends their relationship. Before Dawn can give him an answer, a suicide bomber sent by Doctor Light goes off and demolishes their house, leading Dawn to call Donna for help.
Light also manages to set off a bomb that almost takes out Dick and Rose. Now that the "invitations" have been delivered, we can look forward to seeing an epic showdown between Light and the Titans, both young and old, in next week's episode, 'Ghosts'.
Episode 3 of 'Titans' Season 2 will arrive on DC Universe September 20.