The Melting Man and Jason Todd returned to the back seat this week as the reunited Titans continue their offensive against the mysterious Organization. Dr. Adamson remained a shower-bound prisoner of the quartet, but, like always, there is so much more behind its public face. Adamson remains simply a threshold to the wider reach of his compatriots. The scope of that purvey was revealed, unearthing new allies, enemies and existential crises. Such things tend to happen when one ventures into the belly of the beast.
Well Laid Plans
Rachel is allowed to speak to Dr. Adamson alone despite initial resistance from Dick. A handcuffed Adamson offers Rachel reassurance, telling her she isn’t a monster. His wish is the same as the organization: to reunite Rachel with her father so that she might save and heal the world. He props up his words by slicing his own throat with a broken thermometer so Rachel can heal him. She does so out of shock. Dick and Kory get their own chance to interrogate the good doctor, getting him to reveal that Rachel’s birth mother, Angela, is still alive. Her attempts to hide Rachel away from her father landed her in the Organization’s secret asylum, held under lock and key.
The news spurs Rachel into action, immediately wanting to hit the asylum and find her mother. Dick warns that it could be a trap and both Gar and Kory agree that any assault on the facility should be postponed. An infuriated Rachel storms off, but Gar isn’t far behind. Despite having a new makeshift family of oddballs around her, Rachel still feels alone. Angela means too much to her to delay any longer. Gar ultimately decides to go with her, leaving Kory and Dick behind. The latter are concocting a plan for infiltrating the heavily-guarded facility when they discover Rachel and Gar’s absence. The two are met in the asylum’s tunnel system by a welcoming party of guards, Organization doctors and Gar held at gunpoint. Dick and Kory have no choice but to surrender.
Dick v. Dick
It turns out that the asylum is also where Dr. Adamson brainwashed the Nuclear Family. Dick is given the same hallucinogenic treatment, forcing him to face his deepest, darkest fears. Thos fears manifest as a battle between Robin and young Dick. Robin takes out a pair of orderlies and escapes his cell only to meet his younger self in the hallway. A stiff blow sends Robin flying back to Wayne Manor. He finds the letter given to him by Bruce when he first arrived in his youth before young Dick throws him into the Bat Cave. Young Dick continues pounding Robin with his staff, accusing present Dick of ruining what Robin was supposed to be. Robin was supposed to be the answer but Dick turned him into a monster. The internal battle rages on as a silent Dick remains strapped to his chair.
Reunion
Rachel awakens to find herself in Dr. Adamson’s office with the good doctor in the room. Her surprise at his presence gives way to curiosity about her mother. Adamson refuses to let her see Angela, shifting the conversation toward getting Rachel to recruit her friends into the Organization. He shows Rachel the various tortures the rest of the Titans are enduring as a bargaining chip. The move backfires as Rachel’s darkness comes out. Adamson wants her to call to her father, but Rachel chooses a different path. She “takes back” Adamson’s healed neck wound, causing his throat to be re-slashed. She discovers the location of Angela, finds her and sets out to rescue her friends.
First is Gar. Released from his cage, he saves Rachel from an Organization doctor by attacking him in his tiger form. Gar’s first time biting someone leaves the doctor dead and blood running down his chin. He recovers and the trio shake Dick out of his catatonic state before saving Kory from bodily experimentation. Dick did promise Rachel that he’d never leave here, after all.
Leave Nothing Behind
The Titans and Angela make their escape through the underground tunnel, but multiple guards block their exit. Dick takes them on, single-handedly clearing the path. The facility’s head doctor, who oversaw Dick’s torture, sees the carnage and bolts in the opposite direction. Dick remembers the gas lines surrounding them and calls on Kory to provide the spark needed to bring the facility down. It all has to end. The rest of the Titans leave Kory to send the asylum up in flames. Kory strolls out of the front door to find Dick tossing his Robin suit into the fire. Everything did truly need to end here, but Dick’s next evolution remains a mystery as the crew stands reunited, along with Angela, once again.
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