Nevermore
Original Airdate – August 27, 2019 (Season Finale)
Things come full circle in the season finale.
Written by Jim Krieg and Jeremy Adams
Directed by Mel Zwyer
Mini-Review by Royal Rubble
Additional thoughts by Yojimbo
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Please note our regular reviewer, “GregX,” is currently on sabbatical.
Mini-Review: As the log-line says, things come full circle here. I admit it felt a bit too crowded of an episode at times and not nearly as big-scale as the Darkseid arc that preceded it, but I enjoyed it overall. It managed to tie up some of the plots that were featured throughout this season, in some pretty surprising ways. I didn’t expect Geo-Force to kill Bedlam, and his change of heart. With Brion king of Markovia, and kind of under the influence of the Light, all this should lead to some more interesting stories in the future.
On the other hand, I liked the way they handled Terra’s arc. I kind of had a feeling her and Beast Boy just weren’t destined to fall in love in this continuity, as opposed to other media. But I didn’t expect she would actually consider killing him. It was also kind of funny how some already knew about her working for Deathstroke. All thanks to Batman reading Slade’s expressions and realizing he was lying. It’s kind of a weird explanation, but whatever. I am glad they didn’t drag this out any longer, and they did come up with a different and satisfying conclusion to Terra’s story. Well, not too satisfying for her I guess given Brion’s new turnabout.
Black Lightning helping take down Luthor was pretty awesome. And it was also cool seeing Superboy stand up to him as well, and become a public hero. Luthor is out of the United Nations, at the very least, but he’s still part of the Light. I liked how Savage and Darkseid kind of patched things up, and enjoyed alongside them seeing Granny tortured. :p Baazovi joining the Light was a pretty surprising bit, as well as his telepathic abilities. It all makes it sound like Markovia will continue to be a central point in the future, but we’ll see how that plays out.
On the heroes side of things, it was cool seeing so many gathered in the same place. Some were off-screen, but there were a bunch of them mentioned as being present for the meeting. Black Lightning becoming the new leader of the League was a pretty surprising development, but it makes sense in hindsight. And I like how his character is getting some respect and also has sort of a happy ending after everything he’s gone through this season. The League also has a lot more members now, which is pretty cool but at the same time it will probably make the show even more crowded. I also liked the erversal of the season premiere, when Batman quit alongside some of the members, but now the split teams are all merging into the League once again.
The Legion of Super-Heroes tease at the end was nice. I presume that was Saturn Girl, going by her design anyway. But throw in a random theory that it might be Supergirl. :p
There’s probably a bunch of other stuff I am forgetting to mention at the moment, but all things considered, this was a pretty great way to end the season. As a whole, the season was good for the most part. I think I enjoyed it more than season 2, but it’s kind of on par with season 1 for me. At least as far as character development and interactions, and action scenes are concerned if that makes any sense. I still think season 1 had better stories, overall. But like I said, I did enjoy this quite a bit and am looking forward to the next season. I would have liked seeing more of characters who were barely in the season (but strangely enough, were prominent on promotional art), but I admit the new characters the show focused on did grow on me a bit as their stories progressed. We’ll see how many or which new character will be introduced next but I presume the main “young” characters from the beginning (i.e. Dick, Artemis, Conner, etc.) will still be an integral part of whatever happens next.
Additional observations by Yojimbo:
THE LIGHT
Their plan for Markovia was not only to take it over and discredit the Outsiders once and for all with a public murder of Beast Boy — yeesh — and use the debacle to start up the registration program with was part of Lex Luthor’s amended plan and surprise surprise it was intended to then usurp the Justice League with Infinity Inc. then continue to expand its ranks with metas loyal to the Light. A bit like Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers from Marvel.
I was wondering who would quote The Raven given the title of the episode, and it was amusing it was Jefferson and he essentially did it to troll Lex and Slade.
MARKOVIA
Funny they squeezed in one more obscure character reference when the camera man starts rolling, the reporter associated with him is Pete Danbury from the 2000s era of Action Comics.
So it turns out Terra could manipulate Baron Bedlam but she wasn’t strong enough to have any real affect on him. I was glad to see my guess was right and Artemis knew Terra was a mole all along and was trying to show her a different life she could have. Though I guess you could argue that was a bit of a ‘Batgod’ moment when Artemis revealed Batman read Slade’s micro-expressions. lol. Stand-up of her to turn herself in, stand trial, and try to make amends by joining the Outsiders.
As if the assassination plan wasn’t enough nor getting wailed on by Granny last week, they break Beast Boy’s arm. Guy can’t catch a break can he? Ooh, poor choice of words.
Anyone else chuckle that Vertigo got beat with a baton to the head?
But the main topic at hand. Geo-Force’s manipulation and subsequent turn was an unexpected twist. Forget Jace or Terra, the real threat was Geo-Force all along? And as terrible Bedlam was and the crimes he committed, what a horrific way to go. He deserved to rot in an isolation cell with a collar around his neck. Sure, they addressed the reality that Bedlam would just keep escaping over and over like the other villains in the show. But that’s all a hero can do and never cross that line unless you’re in a live action movie. :p Also a nice twist that Zvadi was a meta and now he’s a member of the Light. Basically, it was just emotion manipulation but with the right kind of politician, very deadly. Man, so like this whole time, Brion’s worst impulse was to be judge, jury, and executioner — and he somehow equates that to being a modern hero-king. I don’t know, I think fans will pick that apart for awhile.
UNITED NATIONS
Political intrigue for the second half, and it’s good stuff. Lex gets forced to resign thanks to Black Lightning and Cyborg outing him for still running Lexcorp and for Superboy making himself public and outing Lex for his role with Project Cadmus. I bet Garth was waiting a long time to call for a vote of no confidence. And Superman must have relished every moment seeing Lex getting skewered. I LOVE it that Troia may be the next Secretary General.
AFTERMATH
Naturally, the Light still gets a win. Markovia becomes a puppet kingdom annexed into their sphere of influence. Dr. Jace is reinstalled, likely to help expand Infinity Inc. with more metas — essentially giving Brion a private super army undoubtedly fated to clash with the Team and Outsiders next season at the earliest.
Apokolips and the Light are cool again. Granny is used as the scapegoat. Darkseid continues his search. Can’t wait to see who the recurring threat(s) will be next season aside from G. Gordon popping in with his show. I’d love to see what’s up with Gravyn or when others like Steppenwolf or Kanto will be showing up on Earth.
Ha ha, that was awesome. Black Lightning the new leader of the Justice League. It wasn’t as spelled out but looks like Nightwing resumes leadership of the Team. And everyone rejoins the League or the Team. And holy canoli, Blue Devil I expected to be a member — but Magog?! Presumably that’s David Reid who had a cameo in “Failsafe” back in season 1 during the mental simulation but we never met his real world counterpart yet. Wild. Got a chuckle out of Guy using “poozer” and still trolling Elongated Man. So the Team will be around 8 members, 9 if Orphan is added in as a member (still unknown if she ever was one) and the Outsiders are around 10 strong. The League is 32, 33 if Metamorpho is added as a member (also unknown if he ever was a member). Definitely happy to see everyone back in the fold. But a few things left unaddressed like Canary and Arrow or Robin and Wonder Girl.
The Taos scene. I like to interpret that as a hint we may see Windfall with the Outsiders or Team next season. It’s at least a step in that direction. But the 316 rescued meta-teens plus the ones already at Taos. I wonder how much of an influx we’ll see with new Team and/or Outsiders members next season from that pool of teens and how society will adjust to the metas that choose to return to their old lives.
A gripe I had with the final scenes was Cyborg stopping Ron from bullying Cisco seemed pretty random. I mean, in the initial scene, Victor did nothing to stop Ron and Sebastian from bullying Cisco and it’s meant to scream ‘Awww, look, he changed in more ways than one.’ Just, I odn’t know, it felt like a random thing to cap off.
And of course Connor and M’gann make up. Shrug. I suppose depending on the next time skip if there is one, we may not see Superboy and Miss Martian’s wedding…
THE PARTY
Crash the mode! A Legion ring?! Saturn Girl is the waitress?!
POST CREDITS
Lobo remembered. I’m at a lost for words but at least the occasional return to the finger in the end credits was leading to something — albeit it was all for a bout of some twisted humor.
But all in all, I thought it was a strong finale – way better than the previous two. And no heroes died!
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