Now that Netflix has uploaded season 2 of Young Justice it’s the best time to rewatch the series, especially as doing so might mean Netflix picking the show up for a third season. (Though if you live in the UK like me you have to watch it through Amazon Prime and just share around posts about it). This Re(af)Watch series is not quite a review, more of an opinion piece about each episode as I rewatch them. Covering all 46 episodes of the show, and hopefully any beyond that. Continuing on with episode 7, Denial.
Episode synopsis: Kent Nelson, the old former Dr Fate, has been kidnapped. The Team goes to check up on him at the Tower of Fate and has to fight off Klarion, Lord of Chaos, before he gets the Helmet of Fate. Kent dies protecting Wally and he has to put on the Helmet, risking being possessed by it forever. They win and agree to look for a more suitable host for the Helmet. Oh and Wally doesn’t believe in magic, which nearly gets them all killed as he pretends to be a believer to impress M’gann.
This was a good Wally episode and a nice look at the magic side of the DC universe. Plus it started a little spitfire relationship seed, one that we’ll see grow over the course of the season. I suppose this was a more low-key episode, with more of a focus on Wally as a character than some of the other previous episodes that had a character focus. Maybe It’s a feature of Wally, since his other focus episode, Coldhearted, also felt this way. Though the acquisition of the Helmet of Fate is something that will pay off down the line, even if it is just sitting on a shelf right now, like Chekhov’s gun.
This is Wally at his most dickishness. When his attempts to impress M’gann nearly get them killed it’s a testament to his bullheaded stubbornness and how he wasn’t taking any of the mission seriously, despite begging to go on it. His denial over magic is understandable, he thinks the universe has rational scientific explanations so he puts ‘magic’ inside a box he can understand rather than accepting it for what it is. But he was still acting like a dick and there’s a difference between holding differing opinions and being a morally superior dick about them. This episode was the kick in the teeth he needed in that department.
With the way Wally acted it seemed like someone brought him to a magic show when he was little and then told him it was all fake. Someone broke his childhood a little too early. When he can run faster than the speed of sound because of science, when aliens come to earth who can shoot lasers from their eyes and others who can change their shape and density, then his mind is routed in science being the only reason why crazy things happen. The episode even gives us another reason for Wally’s denial, the Flash villain Abra Kadabra, someone from the future who uses advanced technology to try and fool people into thinking it’s magic. With villains like that it’s easy to see why he’d think all other magic uses are like that. People putting on a show and trying to impress others with tricks that imitate magic. After all his best friend uses tricks to intimidate criminals in much the same way. It’s easy enough to think the other magic users are just magicians who use the fake magic tricks to fight crime.
Even though he is scientifically inclined he still was putting his opinion before any actual scientific testing on the matter. Being he’s a kid he’s not getting a lot of magical objects to test them in laboratory conditions, but he’s still stating magic doesn’t exist and that science is the be and end all of things. Despite there being plenty of magical villains and heroes he’s stuck in the mindset of “it’s impossible therefore it can’t be real” rather than “it’s impossible, therefore we need to re-evaluate things and study it more.” The ending was a little confusing to some, because it looked like Wally was still in denial. However he’d clearly accepted the supernatural, he was just being stubborn about admitting it. He certainly didn’t want to admit it to Artemis, who’d gloat over his ass. The denial at the end worked in two ways, his denial that he’d changed, and the other in his eternal pointless pursuit of M’gann rather than his own “spitfire” like Kent suggested.
On the other side of things is Artemis, who seems to be prodding Wally this time around whereas last episode it was him doing it to her. Their banter has properly started and we get some small things to show that despite her being the newbie she’s definitely at his level. Like giving out the technobable explanation for the Tower of Fate, as another prod at Wally so he’d stick his foot in his mouth again. But we see it’s the real explanation of Abra Kadabra’s “illusion” as the villains observe the Team. So she definitely knows her stuff. The episode also started the hints that they’d get together, even giving the fans their ‘Ship name, Spitfire. It was well done not because it was romantic or anything like that, but Kent’s advice was so endearing, “get yourself your own spitfire. One that won’t let you get away with anything.” For someone like Wally that’s great advice. Which, Wally being Wally, he doesn’t take it.
Abra Kadabra wasn’t our badass redone villain for the episode, he was more of a second fiddle, even though he did manage to be a threat to Superboy, Aqualad, Artemis, and Miss Martian, so he wasn’t a slouch in that department either. The star villain was the reintroduction of Klarion, the Witch Boy, now reimagined as a Lord of Chaos on the same level as Dr Fate, who is a Lord of Order. He’s very chaotic, seeming to be led on by his whims than anything else. Though he obviously has goals and such, he just seems to enjoy indulging his whims a bit too much. That’s where his familiar comes in, Teekl, as she seems to communicate to him and keep him on track, and remind him of what he’s meant to be doing. He’s going to be a big part in one of my favorite episodes that we’ll get to down the line.
No coda for The Light this episode. No “just as planned” 7 episodes in and I’m still waiting for one of those. Maybe next time.
The fun little things this episode include more shirtless Superboy, him actually learning some moves from Black Canary, M’gann and Artemis trying to push the other into dating anyone other than Superboy, Kent Nelson just being awesome, and Dr Fate leaving Abra Kadabra in only his underwear.
Wally’s souvenir: The Helmet of Fate. One of the most powerful magical artefacts, just sitting on a shelf right now.
Quote of the episode:
“Still don’t believe? Seriously kid how’d you get so bullheaded in 15 short years?” Kent Nelson.
Quote that takes on a new meaning after watching the series:
“You know who’d make the cutest couple? You and Wally. You’re so full of passion and he’s so full of…” Megan.
“It.” Artemis.
