'Young Justice: Outsiders' episode 23 kicks off 'the Age of Darkseid' and reveals the full power of the Anti-Life Equation
Spoilers ahead for 'Young Justice: Outsiders' episode 23 ‘Terminus’
Things have been going steadily downhill for the heroes of ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’ all season. Schisms, lies and betrayals have divided the Team among themselves and weakened them in a way their enemies never could.
Now in episode 23, titled ‘Terminus’, our young heroes have finally been brought face-to-face with an enemy they cannot hope to defeat -- the Anti-Life Equation itself. In the last episode of ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’, Halo/Violet (Zehra Fazal) was revealed to be the living embodiment of the Anti-Life Equation, a weapon that allows whoever commands it to take control of the minds of other beings.
Granny Goodness (Deborah Strang), the loyal lieutenant of Darkseid, the despot of Apokolips, managed to brainwash Halo and take her away to serve Darkseid's cause. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Team is currently more splintered than ever before as the truth behind Batman and Nightwing’s manipulation of Earth’s heroes has finally come to light.
Everybody is at each other's throats and Black Lightning (Khary Payton), in particular, is reeling from the trauma of all the betrayal he has faced. Nightwing (Jesse McCartney) really ought to have known that his mentor’s and his obsession with control and secrecy would eventually blow up in his face.
During the second season, ‘Young Justice: Invasion’, his secrets almost cost the life of his best friend Kaldur’ahm (formerly known as Aqualad and currently goes by Aquaman) when Miss Martian aka M'gann M'orzz (Danica McKellar) fried his brain using her psychic abilities, something her boyfriend Superboy is still quite angry about.
Back to Halo, the young human-Mother Box hybrid is firmly under the control of Granny Goodness in ‘Terminus’, easily taking out the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps. Meanwhile, Granny is busy spreading hatred towards meta-humans on Earth, which is slowly infuriating Beast Boy (Greg Cipes) to the point where he may no longer have his head in the game.
On the bright side, Granny also double-crossed the Light in the last episode and Vandal Savage (Miguel Ferrer) takes his revenge by providing the Team with Halo’s coordinates. Unfortunately, when they do get there, the heroes find they are woefully out of their depth.
After having been tortured by Granny, Nightwing isn’t exactly back to 100%. He begins hallucinating and thinks he is fighting alongside the original team, with his deceased former partner Wally West aka Kid Flash (Jason Spisak) by his side.
Thanks to the psychic link between the heroes, everyone else witnesses the depth of Nightwing’s grief as well and it helps them find the motivation to fight harder than ever. Just when it seems the heroes may yet turn the tide in their favor, Granny reveals her master plan -- to use Halo’s Anti-Life abilities to turn every meta-human in the universe into a weapon for Darkseid.
What’s worse, she's already placed the Justice League under the control of the Equation. With no options left, Kaldur asks M’gann to use her powers and fry the minds of the Justice League, taking them out and saving the universe, though at a cost.
Even though M’gann briefly manages to free the League from Granny’s control, it turns out our heroes had vastly underestimated Halo’s power as she easily regains control over the League and quickly overwhelms the other heroes.
By the end of the episode, Granny has gained control over the minds of the Justice League, the Young Justice team, and the Outsiders. There is pretty much no one left with the power to take her on and the Anti-Life has made victory all but certain for the forces of Apokolips. With her new army by her side, Granny declares, “The age of Darkseid begins.”
The 24th episode of 'Young Justice: Outsiders', titled 'Into the Breach', will air August 27, exclusively on DC Universe.