Titans “Faux Hawk”

So, let’s talk Hawk.

Hawk spends most of this episode going down a dark path as a cage fighter, taking drugs and getting drunk, and trying to screw some groupies but “trying” is the key word here as he’s either too hurting or too sleeping to actually have sex.

Eventually, he goes back to the Titans because…well, just because they’re family and he doesn’t need some billionaire telling him so unlike all the female members of the team.

All this leads me to some conclusions.  I’ve harped on Brenton Thwaites’ Dick Grayson as, well, a rather bland guy.  There’s no real passion to Dick Grayson, and the show is, for whatever reason, entirely about him.  Sure, we get a token subplot involving Starfire’s powers disappearing, but those seem more like token gestures.  Instead, everything is all about Dick, even plots that should ideally be all about someone else, i.e. Rachel and Trigon.

I mean, a good chunk of this episode is about how Slade has been fighting Jericho for control of his own body, but the only real payoff there is Slade’s wife confirming for Dick that Jericho lives.  And then Dick goes off to get a new costume that I suppose Bruce paid for at some unknown point in the past, and then I wonder how many people know who Batman is in this universe.

Then again, Slade learns the Titans are reforming and calls Rose to get them, having warned Dick not to do that despite the fact Dick had nothing to do with all that.

So, what does all this have to do with Hank?  Well, simple:  Hawk is the Anti-Robin.

Robin is bland and dull, often emotionless?  Hawk has violent temper and expresses his feelings.

Dick has little to no on-screen charisma?  Actor Alan Rirchson has been doing superhero TV since he was Aquaman on Smallville and looks like the oldest member of the team (he isn’t as actress Minka Kelly is four years older than he is).  Point is, he has something there.

He even has a character arc that, while half-assed like everything else on Titans, at least it’s there and not just some guy moping around about being in Batman’s shadow.

So, while we get Deathstroke and Dick stuff, we see Hank at a low point and then decide not to be there anymore.

Oh well.

Oh, and Jason learns Rose was the spy, but rather than accept she’s trying to be a better person, makes it all about him and says everything sucks.  Plus, Mercy is making Gar eat people.  Next episode is the season finale, so there’s a lot to figure out if Titans is even capable of figuring things out.

We’ll have to wait and see.  Or not.