Summary
“Jinx” brings together a few plot elements while introducing a couple more in a workmanlike episode that is mostly notable in how it sets things up for later.
This recap of Titans season 4, episode 3, “Jinx”, contains spoilers.
“Jinx” is named after a new character that part of the episode is based around introducing, but as a title, it works on multiple levels. All of the Titans feel jinxed, in one way or another; nothing seems to go right for any of them. To recap after Titans season 4, episode 2: Rachel has lost her powers, Gar is hearing voices and seeing things, Conner has daddy issues (twice!), Dick can’t move without bumping into very complicated ex-flings, and Kori is… well, who even knows what’s going on with Kori at this point. She does get turned to stone in this episode, though, so that can’t help.
Titans season 4, episode 3 recap
Let’s start with Rachel. Newly blonde and missing her signature forehead gem, she does seem to have lost her powers. At the very least she has been unduly separated from her “soul self”, the part of her that acts as a conduit for the needs and traumas of those around her. Far from being a punishment, though, she actually kind of likes it. And why wouldn’t she? It must be draining being able to hear people’s bullshit all the time.
“Jinx” doesn’t address this very much. In fact, it actually makes Rachel a bystander in Gar’s subplot, which revolves around disembodied voices whispering that he’s a “skinwalker” — a Navajo legend that came up in a recent episode of Unsolved Mysteries — and the sky turning blood-red around him. When he takes Rachel by the hand, she can see it too, though it’s never explained how. Either way, they wander hand-in-hand through the woods and eventually come across that withered tree festooned with human bones, swaying in the breeze. At the very end of the episode, Gar interprets the whispers as saying, “When the blood moon is full the world will fall to evil,” which is an idea that crops up a few times.
One mustn’t forget about the blood. Mother Mayhem arranges for 40 gallons of the stuff to be stolen — with the help of blood spiders — from the Metropolis PD evidence warehouse and then finesses Sebastian into being arrested for murder. Impersonating the stuck-up game publisher who mocked his idea last week, she invites him to a follow-up meeting. When Sebastian arrives, the guy tells him to leave, but then he gets suddenly possessed and jams a pair of scissors in his eyes. Titans has always billed itself as an “adult” show, but this strikes me as perhaps the worst thing it has ever done, gore-wise. I kept expecting the camera to cut away, but no such luck. No such luck for Sebastian, either, who is arrested on suspicion of committing the crime.
Meanwhile, Dick takes Kori to Bludhaven to meet the titular Jinx, an old flame of his who is doing time for magic-assisted burglaries. She’s immediately able to escape by summoning a mini tornado — she’s an elemental sorceress in the source material — to whisk her away, but Dick assumes she’ll head straight for the art dealer who she was caught trying to rob in the first place. He’s right; she’s trying to steal a little box containing a tiny beating heart that supposedly belongs to a dark elf and commands a hefty finder’s fee. When Kori opens the box and looks inside, its magic turns her to stone.
Jinx claims only the spell’s caster can free Kori, so she takes Dick to a secret nightclub to meet the dark elf, but it’s really a distraction. The dark elf lady tries to have Dick killed, but he whoops all her security and kicks her upside the head. He figures out that Jinx was just using him, and she explains why — she has a “death mark” and is in debt to the tune of five million dollars. Dick agrees to pay it — presumably from Bruce’s bank account — if she helps the Titans with their magic problem, and she agrees. She also frees Kori, which it turns out she could do herself all along, but while Kori was entombed she had a little vision herself in which that whole blood moon thing was brought up again. Her destiny is connected to it, and to Dick too, apparently.
And finally, Tim is sent back to S.T.A.R. Labs so he can continue flirting with Bernard and training with the bo staff, but the murders and theft at the MPD pique Bernard’s curiosity, so he and Conner start looking into it while Tim trains. They uncover a connection between the victims of the blood cult — they all share a genetic mutation that traces back to an ancient Assyrian tribe. They also connect the symbol left on the blood canisters with one in Sebastian’s game, but when they go to speak with him they learn he has just been arrested for murder. How convenient!
The Titans — mainly Conner, to be honest — are able to bust through the walls of the MPD and snatch Sebastian right as Mother Mayhem is trying to trick him into reciting some magic words. He’s clearly integral to her plans in some way, but we don’t know how just yet. Nevertheless, Titans season 4, episode 3 ends with Sebastian leaving with the Titans, so maybe we’ll get some answers next week.
