Titans Season 3 Just Took A Shocking Turn
Contains spoilers for "Titans," Season 3, Episode 1: "Barbara Gordon," Episode 2: "Red Hood," and Episode 3 "Hank & Dove"
HBO Max's "Titans" has finally returned after a two-year gap, and the team has even more villains to contend with this time around. Season 3 finds Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) leading a smaller version of the team on the West Coast before a tragic event brings everyone back to Gotham City. The Joker kills Jason Todd (Curran Walters) by beating him to death with a crowbar. The show has never shied away from violence, and it revels in being a mature version of the DC Universe. Whether it works or not is entirely up to the audience — but it's clearly proving to be popular otherwise Season 3 probably wouldn't exist.
It even pushes Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) over the edge as Batman breaks his one rule during the Season 3 premiere, setting the tone for what's to come. Anyone familiar with Jason Todd and the Red Hood character will probably guess that the anti-hero comes back to life with a vengeance. His return is still a complete mystery in "Titans" — and the characters rule out using Ra's Al Ghul's Lazarus Pit to resurrect him. Therefore, the writers are obviously making a detour from the source material.
When Jason does come back in his impressive Red Hood persona, he starts waging a war against the Titans in an effort to bring them down. Things take a shocking turn when one of the heroes is killed in a brutal way.
Red Hood blows up a Titan
Jason Todd really goes off the deep end in Episode 3, "Hank & Dove." Sure, the second Robin is always shown as a stubborn hothead, but he's descended into pure supervillainy in Season 3. Although his plan to dismantle the Titans is grand and complicated, it weirdly comes off with an immature playfulness, whereas Red Hood in the comics is much more of a threat when he first comes back to Gotham City. Regardless, this version of the character is still a big threat to the team because he knows all of their weak points and how to get inside their heads — which is why he takes aim at Hawk/Hank (Alan Ritchson).
Jason tearfully calls the feathery crusader to lure him to an isolated location, playing on Hank's tendency to help vulnerable teenagers in need. Unfortunately for Hank, Red Hood sticks a bomb in his chest with barbed wires inside his pectoral muscles, which would trigger the explosive in case the team tries to surgically remove the device. The bomb's timer is based on Hank's heartbeat, giving him around four hours until it goes off. Jason's really unleashing his mean streak, isn't he? The only justification he's given (so far) is they didn't treat him as an equal. Sure, Jason, sure.
Unfortunately, even though Superboy (Joshua Orpin) manages to build a device capable of disabling the bomb, he's seconds too late — bursting into the room just as the explosion is triggered. The hero can only look on in horror as Hank is incinerated by the bomb. It's quite a horrific moment, and it's only made worse when Dove breaks down in Nightwing's arms when she realizes what's happened.
Wayne Enterprises
There's also a small detail that many fans have overlooked in the episode. When Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) and Superboy find the schematics for the bomb, it's revealed the "Surgical EKG Detonation Implant" is the only prototype of its kind and it was engineered by Wayne Enterprises. That's right: Bruce Wayne's own company is in the bomb-making business. It's not like this can be explained away easily either, because the barbed wires attached to the bomb are designed specifically to cause devastating damage and trauma. Again, "Titans" has never shied away from being an adult show, but this is a surprising move from Wayne Industries.
Of course, it isn't the first time audiences have seen the company develop weapons for the military — Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy used plenty of experimental weaponry that had been created by Wayne Enterprises. It just seems surprising that Bruce would allow a savage device like this to be patented under his company. Then again, this is the same Caped Crusader who caves in the Joker's skull at the end of the Season 3 premiere.
Regardless of the ethics surrounding the bomb, it's obvious that "Titans" Season 3 isn't playing around. R.I.P. Hawk.