Summary
Titans gets back into the swing of things with some intriguing developments, though also some lacklustre logic and character work.
This recap of Titans Season 4 Episode 7, “Caul’s Folly”, contains spoilers.
As ever with a moderately complex series that has been off the air for a while, readjusting back into Titans on HBO Max can be a little challenging. The last time we saw our heroes in Episode 6, they were battling a blood witch and the son she sired with an interdimensional demon in a cheap-looking secret lair. One of them died. Another one had a makeover.
“Caul’s Folly” gets the catch-up out of the way quickly enough. We see Sebastian being reborn as Brother Blood, but the lighting is a little off so he ends up looking like an Oompa Loompa. He and Mother Mayhem intend to bring back his father.
A title card informs us that six hours later the Titans wake up in the empty lair after their impromptu visit to the death realm. Gar is still missing but apparently alive, since Rachel, who is still the White Raven, would be able to sense it if he wasn’t. Jinx is still dead, though nobody seems especially concerned, and Conner is still bald and insufferable.
Titans Season 4 Episode 7 Recap
Speaking of Conner, he finds a LexCorp storage box under the floor of Mother Mayhem’s lair which contains a book and a letter addressed to him. The letter advises Conner to pass the book to “Richard” — took me a minute to realize it was referring to Dick — so he can figure out its contents; the rest of it is personal to Conner and he keeps it private.
Now, look. I know the others are keen to carry on treating Conner like one of the gang despite him being in his terrible twos phase, but since he’s physically and emotionally morphing into Lex Luthor, a pretty established supervillain, it’s a little silly that everyone just blithely accepts that Lex is leaving him personal letters, the contents of which he doesn’t bother to share with anyone else.
There are some red flags here, is all I’m saying.
Hence, when Dick and Kory go off to have the book translated by an expert in alien languages, Conner goes off to meet Mercy Graves, which we’ll get some payoff for at the end of the next episode.
What’s in Lex’s book?
There are lots of quite concerning diagrams and extraterrestrial calligraphy in Lex’s tome, but here’s the gist.
Trigon is going to eat the world after being summoned to it by some kind of magical horn which Mother Mayhem is searching for. Since only Trigon’s blood relatives can handle it, that’s why she needed Sebastian. According to prophecy — there’s always a prophecy, isn’t there? — Starfire will save the universe but will die in the process, which she’s quite concerned about, but Dick downplays it. After all, a linguist isn’t the same thing as a fortune teller.
Nevertheless, the book also contains coded directions to the location of the horn.
What is Caul’s Folly?
The titular Caul’s Folly is a mining town that doesn’t exist on any map but is right there when the Titans turn up in the RV after decoding Lex’s gobbledygook. As Dick, Kory, and Rachel drive down the road towards it, they wink out of existence, witnessed by Tim and Bernard in the car behind them.
The town is an old-timey slice of Americana, all quaint diners and church on Sundays. When the gang stops off for a milkshake, the local Sheriff, Carter, slaps a parking ticket on the RV and tells Kory she needs to move it out of town. When she tries to, the big sign bidding visitors to Caul’s Folly farewell never gets any closer. They’re stuck there.
What’s going on here?
While Kory is relocating the RV, Dick spends some time with the sheriff, and Rachel is temporarily kidnapped by a waitress at the diner named Megan and her father.
Piecing together all the exposition delivered in these threads, we come to understand that Caul’s Folly is a kind of interdimensional storage unit for the horn. The Sheriff is its keeper. Everyone knows what’s going on, more or less, but they’re trapped there, brainwashed into living mundane suburban middle-American lives.
The Sheriff thinks that Dick is Trigon’s prophecized child, and Dick will be in pretty mortal peril once he realizes he isn’t.
Titans Season 4 Episode 7 Ending Explained
“Caul’s Folly” ends with both a low-key personal note and a more dramatic turn.
The personal matter involves Tim and Bernard, who end up spending the night in a motel. They get separate but adjoining rooms, agonize over whether to unlock the door that separates them, and then finally meet in the middle for a romantic moment. Apparently, they don’t want to be just friends.
Meanwhile, Dick goes to see Sheriff Carter, not privy to the information that was relayed to Rachel by Megan, and gets jumped by him and a couple of his podunk goons. He’s tased and taken outside to the gathered townsfolk, who now include Mother Mayhem and Sebastian.
You can stream Titans Season 4 Episode 7, “Caul’s Folly”, exclusively on HBO Max.
