In the latest episode of Titans, things went from bad to worse, for the heroes and villains both. It was a miserable installment, really, a cascade of negative developments and worrying turns, amounting to what might be the death of not just a major character but the show’s central figure. That’s unlikely, admittedly, but you never know. Before we make some educated guesses about Titans season 3, episode 12, let’s assess where we are:
- Crane took over Wayne Manor and the rest of the Batcave, gave himself a clean shave, and then had to confront his personal demons when he discovered that Bruce had considered him a pitiable coward. Part of his therapy was to carve up a pizza boy and his own face with a razor blade.
- Meanwhile, Crane’s bought-and-paid-for cops patrolled the neighborhoods that hadn’t succumbed to chaos in the wake of the water contamination, planning to assault and destroy the surviving businesses on Crane’s orders. Those businesses include Tim’s family’s restaurant.
- At Tim’s family’s restaurant, he and Donna use his secret lair to plan a counter-attack against the corrupt cops, taking back the neighborhoods.
- Gar and Rachel tracked down a Lazarus Pit, believing Jason’s resurrection to be the root of all this, but proximity to the pit sent Rachel’s powers haywire.
- Starfire met the child she has been seeing in her visions, got shot by a man who looks like Victor Zsasz, and then experienced another vision from her childhood which revealed that she wasn’t born with the powers of fire — they were stolen from Blackfire and given to her in order to maintain the ruse that she was next in line to the throne. When she awoke, she had new powers, which she seemed pretty happy with.
- Dick finally confronted Jason and bested him in a fight, but Gotham’s citizens, still turned against him by Scarecrow’s propaganda, shot him in the neck and stomped him out.
Titans season 3, episode 12 release date
The episode is scheduled to release exclusively on HBO Max on October 14, 2021, at 3am EST.
Where to watch online
As mentioned above, Titans airs exclusively on HBO Max. Provided you have a subscription and the add-on, the service can also be accessed through platforms such as Xfinity, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Spectrum, YouTubeTV, and DirecTV.
Predictions and potential spoilers
That’s a lot of developments crammed into a single episode, so there’s plenty to speculate about. Let’s do that:
- Crane wasn’t exactly stable, to begin with, but his actions in the latest episode probably represent him slipping more into outlandish, crazed villain territory, which might come at the expense of his calculating intelligence.
- Donna, with the help of Tim and his criminal cousin, will likely begin to fight back against the corrupt GCPD to free Gotham’s neighborhoods, which might well involve breaking Barbara Gordon out of custody.
- What did the Lazarus Pit do to Rachel’s powers? Hard to say. Her character arc is almost always learning to grapple with the depths of her abilities, so it stands to reason that she’ll have some tough decisions to make in the aftermath of this.
- What are the extent of Starfire’s new powers? Presumably, knowing what she knows about her own history now, she’ll try and reconcile with Blackfire, though whether or not her sister makes it easy for her remains to be seen.
- Is Dick dead? Almost certainly not, but he’s definitely not in a good way. Jason seemed visibly distressed by what happened to him, so his redemption arc is still in play, but with Dick shelved, who will lead the Titans? (Smart money’s on Donna.)
