GUIDES – EPISODE REVIEWS – “TALE OF TWO SISTERS”
Tale of Two Sisters
Original Airdate – November 4, 2021
Artemis Crock’s life is interrupted by devastating news – just as multiple Shadows fall across her path.
Written by Brian Hohlfeld
Directed by Vinton Heuck
Review by Yojimbo
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Please note our regular reviewer, “GregX,” is currently on sabbatical.
Review:
Written by Yojimbo, edited by James Harvey
Artemis Crock has finally moved on with her life and is at the top of her game: teaching literature at a university, dating, and leading the Team. Unfortunately, all that comes crashing down when she learns about the death of Connor Kent. I did like how it wasn’t all dour, and that it spurred her on to make one more push to help the “one person beyond help,” Jade.
Jade, however, seeks death rather than life and heads to Infinity Island to confront the man who put a contract on her life for betraying the League of Shadows, Sensei. Things get more complicated when Tigress has to deal with two defectors from the League and sticking to her ideology and giving both the benefit of the doubt.
In a brilliant but perhaps not coincidental move, the next story arc centers on Tigress. And Tigress happens to be someone who can empathize with Miss Martian’s plight on Mars, mainly losing the love of her life and being part of a dysfunctional family. Also as someone who has gone through the trauma and gained some sense of closure last season, Artemis is the perfect audience surrogate to process the apparent and untimely death of Connor.
Artemis has decided it’s time to try and redeem Jade and make the family truly whole. Figures at the same time, Jade would be barreling towards a certain death. As the title of the episode implies, a “Tale of Two Sisters” and the next couple episodes looks to test the limits of both Artemis and Jade, one in the light and one in the darkness. Though instead of a city, it appears it is a family that stands to go through a resurrection or renewal of sorts.
The episode succinctly revisits the childhood flashback seen in season one’s “Homefront” and expands on it, finally showing us what was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Jade stood up to Crusher Crock on Artemis’s behalf only to be beat up. Jade internalizes Crusher’s words and from that point, lives by the credo of only looking out for herself. However, in the present, man. Cheshire has been shown as a fairly dangers opponent but Sensei easily defeats her. Then to put more salt in the wound, Talia al Ghul calls her out for abandoning Lian even!
Before she takes off, Sensei leaves an open invitation for her to return when she’s ready to live. Guess we’ll be seeing what Jade chooses: Infinity Island, Star City, continuing to leave where the wind takes her, or… killed off.
The episodes also treats us to a bit of an Arrow Family focus starting with Arrowette and Arsenal getting the drop of defector #1, Onyx. For one, it’s a sight for sore eyes for Arrowette to finally get more development. Also, it was wicked cool to see she’s using that optical User Interface introduced last season, that’s really similar to Spyral’s Hypnos 2.0 spy tech in the comics, to select her trick arrows. And of course, Roy with his arsenal of weapons and wise cracks.
The banter between Will and Roy Harper was really on point and entertaining. Roy making fun of another mole arc only to get elbowed by Will! The banter and callbacks were the one shining light of humor in an otherwise serious and dreary point in time for the heroes. It was also a pleasant bonus to have Terra, Spoiler, and Orphan along, too. Spoiler and Orphan could also easily use more spotlight and development as well.
Then we have the literal embodiment of game theory with Onyx and Cassandra both claiming to be defectors from the League of Shadows come seeking sanctuary from the Team. And while the Team has become the poster child for reforming Shadows and an ambush by the League does little to sway opinion, everyone but Tigress and Arrowette automatically finds it fishy. Onyx claims Cassandra is playing a role in a plot hatched with Lady Shiva to implant herself on the Team as a mole. Cassandra claims Onyx was sent by the League to sabotage her efforts to break free from her father, something Tigress and Spoiler are all too familiar with.
However, Terra knows Onyx lacked the killer drive to be totally ruthless and Cassandra is a diehard loyalist of her father. We’ve seen the latter in “Evolution” last season but we also saw what she saw, Vandal Savage killing her sister Olympia over her senility. So should the audience believe Cassandra because of that more than believing this new character? Or are they both liars and this is all a big smoke screen so the League or the Light can pull off an operation in Star City undetected? I’m sure Orphan’s idea is to just chop both their heads off…
After the events of “Involuntary,” suffice to say it is no surprise that the new arc begins on a downer but still leaves viewers intrigued with a lot of burning questions: Can Jade Ngyuen be redeemed? Can Onyx or Cassandra be trusted? Will Artemis be forced to break the rules? Why does Will put the cup of orange juice in the same place every morning?
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