Young Justice-Tonight!

[Samurai8472]

Small pieces to the larger plan.

The ice storms could be a test to separate the Justice League/Young Justice

This is the second plan. The first was the giant plants and the light using the injustice gang as decoys

 

[Christopher]

The ice storms could be a test to separate the Justice League/Young Justice

Yes, they could be, but normally we would've been given a hint that that was the case. As it stands, without any onscreen evidence to that effect, it counts as a weakness in the episode.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Leaving too many obvious clues is the very definition of dumbing things down, not that I'm of one opinion on the matter or the other.

 

[Thestral]

Oh Megan, Megan, Megan... your problems definitely don't get solved in 22 minutes, that's for sure. The big reveal wasn't a huge shock to those that've been paying attention and know background information, but it's nice to see it confirmed and by an old "friend" too. And her reaction to it, the breaking down and lashing out was what you'd expect from an image-obsessed young woman who's willing to go to extreme lengths to keep her true identity revealed, just with the addition of super-strength and, err... eye-laser? MM is just a huge ball of psychological problems with her self-loathing isn't she? Did she actually kill Psimon to keep her secret, since that's the impression I got? I look forward to seeing what Queen Bee's blackmailing is going to have her do - I think this is confirmation that Megan has never been the mole, which narrows it down to 2 candidates, 1 of whom is far too obvious. Assuming that Sportsmaster wasn't lying of course and Queen Bee decided "Hey that was a good lie maybe we should do that."

The opening scene was certainly not what I expected but definitely a good one considering what the episode's about, and it was pretty funny that Ollie just laughed when he saw the truth about "Black Canary" on the recording - guess he understands the "hot for teacher" thing eh? Considering Megan's whole identity is put-on I guess she wouldn't see too much more difference in playacting for Connor (nice touch that that's the "Hello, Megan" boyfriend by the way since MM suggested the name in the first place) since, after all, it's still her he's kissing. Humans do it too, after all, going along with fantasies, just normally not to such a strong degree.

I totally missed at first who exactly the little boy they were protecting (and who's now enthralled... permanently or is it a temporary thing? Probably temporary...) is, it wasn't until Robin called him "Gar" that I put his whole name together - Garfield Logan. His mother working with animals might should have been a clue though. Weisman planting a seed for the longer-term?

Spoiler: Speculation for Gar Logan

I'll bet if he does become Beast Boy the blood transfusion will explain how it happened - green skin, shapeshifting abilities? Sound familiar?

Overall another really good episode - deepens the mythology and gives us some excellent character work as well.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I thought it was a pretty good episode and I liked that the scale was a little smaller and that they went for a different type of story. Interesting when she showed the gang her "true form".

So what is creepier, Megan making out with Connor as Dinah or Batman watching them?




EDIT: per Christoper, changed Diana to Dinah

 

[Christopher]

^You mean Dinah. Diana is Wonder Woman.

I love it that they actually put together an entire '90s-sitcom title sequence complete with a full set of credits. "Created by Greg Vietti and Brandon Weisman" -- heh.

Although it was a bit of a tonal clash having that extended gag in the middle of a mostly quite dark episode. And while the subplot with Gar and the transfusion is obviously setup for future events, it didn't really seem to fit well into this story. Well, I guess it kinda did, since it established a bond between M'gann and Gar so that Queen Bee taking him hostage would have more impact. Still, it felt too much like they were interrupting this story so they could foreshadow a future one.

I loved the bit they slipped under the radar:

Wally: "Queen Bee can enthrall most men."
Batman: "And some women."

I look forward to the impending boycott of Young Justice toys by the American Family Association.

But I wouldn't have thought Gar was old enough to be subject to that kind of "enthralling."

And I can't believe they're using "Queen Bee" as her real name here. The comics character's real name is Zazzala, apparently. That would've worked here, since it has a vaguely Middle Eastern sound.

Interesting voice work Marina Sirtis did for Bee, anyway. It was a deeper voice than I'm used to hearing from her. She's making use of the new potentials her voice provides as she grows older.

 

[Disruptor]

Where's this middle eastern country with the African savannah wild life reserve?

What's the big deal, M'Gan's natural form is hawt. What with the sharp teeth and webbed arm pits...

So where was Artemis?

I don't recall the Queen Bee character except from an old Who's Who comic, I thought she could control anyone, regardless of gender...but that was a comic from 25 years ago.

And yeah, Batman totally got off watching that video.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

And I can't believe they're using "Queen Bee" as her real name here. The comics character's real name is Zazzala, apparently. That would've worked here, since it has a vaguely Middle Eastern sound.

Yeah, it sounds Quraqi.

 

[Thestral]

In fairness to Batman, it was a training session which is probably recorded by default, with Connor and M'Gann not even thinking about it. It would make sense that Batman would review sparring/training sessions.

I loved the bit they slipped under the radar:

Wally: "Queen Bee can enthrall most men."
Batman: "And some women."

I look forward to the impending boycott of Young Justice toys by the American Family Association.

But I wouldn't have thought Gar was old enough to be subject to that kind of "enthralling."

Although, he looked about 10 didn't he? Certainly old enough for hormones to start working.

So where was Artemis?

Hanging out with Zatanna?

 

[sojourner]

So, what was with Wally making the comments about Batman and Bruce? Did I forget something from an earlier episode where he found out who Batman is?

 

[Thestral]

Well, if he knows Robin's ID (I think it's been mentioned that he does but keeps it secret), it wouldn't be too hard to work out.

 

[Christopher]

So, what was with Wally making the comments about Batman and Bruce? Did I forget something from an earlier episode where he found out who Batman is?

If not an episode, maybe something in the canonical YJ tie-in comic.

Although I wasn't sure whether it indicated that Wally suspected Bruce was Batman or if he was just starting to noticing a pattern about Bruce and got his thoughts quashed by Robin because he was getting too close.

 

[sojourner]

I forget, is this Tim Drake or Dick Grayson?

 

[Christopher]

I forget, is this Tim Drake or Dick Grayson?

It's Dick. This is set in a universe where the hero community hasn't been around that long, so Dick is still Robin, Wally and Zatanna are still teenagers, etc.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The cast list of Hello Megan was fun: Rita Farr, Jonathan Lord, Sandra Stanyon and Paul Sloane all of whom are actors in the DC Universe. Farr being Elasti-Girl from the Doom Patrol. Lord and Stanyon are from the Silverblade series and Sloane once played Two Face in a movie.

 

[sojourner]

^Cool, I was wondering if the actors were anagrams or something.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I really enjoyed this episode a lot.

 

[JD]

And I can't believe they're using "Queen Bee" as her real name here. The comics character's real name is Zazzala, apparently. That would've worked here, since it has a vaguely Middle Eastern sound.

Actually, there are a couple different unrelated groups of characters using the name Queen Bee, the alien Zazzala and her sister Tazzala, and two different Queens of Bialya. (I was curious about the character after seeing the episode and found this on Wikipedia.)
As for the episode, I thought this was a pretty good one. I'm definitely curious to see where they're headed with the M'gann storyline, and I enjoyed getting more stuff from Mirina Sirtis.

 

[Silvercrest]

Where's this middle eastern country with the African savannah wild life reserve?

Well, Bialya was originally supposed to be a stand-in for Libya... although placing it next door to Qurac kind of shoots that down.

The cast list of Hello Megan was fun: Rita Farr, Jonathan Lord, Sandra Stanyon and Paul Sloane all of whom are actors in the DC Universe. Farr being Elasti-Girl from the Doom Patrol. Lord and Stanyon are from the Silverblade series and Sloane once played Two Face in a movie.

I caught Rita Farr and I thought Jonathan Lord sounded familiar-- but only that's because I saw a few print ads for Silverblade when it came out.

I caught the reference to the Logan Preserve, but I didn't put it together with Gar until she said his name. After that I easily predicted Megan's blood transfusion and what's going to happen to him. Actually that's what I expected to see when she opened the door-- Gar with green skin. It really threw me when Queen Bee was there instead.

I find it really elegant storytelling to create Beast Boy by linking him to an existing shapechanger with green skin. Sure beats injecting him with mongoose blood or whatever it was in the original story.

 

[Icemizer]

Now where can I get me a Shazamwich? Over all a good episode but was the whole White Martian thing explained in earlier YJ stories or are they leading up to something?