Spoilers for Episodes 8 and 9 ahead.

In the episode Jericho we finally find out why the Titans originally broke up, what Dick is blaming himself for, and why Dethstroke is after them. I’m underwhelmed. Dick blaming himself for the death of Jericho (Deathstroke’s son) makes sense. After Dethstroke killed Aqualad while gunning for Donna’s handler the Titans find out his identity as Slade Wilson and decide that they will find out all they can by going after his son. But after realizing that Jericho hasn’t had anything to do with Wilson for years after some assassins show up at Wilson’s home and try to kill Jericho and his mother and end up cutting Jericho’s throat causing him to become mute. Wilson’s wife wisely tells Wilson to go away and leave them alone after they barely manage to save Jericho’s life. The Titan’s decide that using Jericho to get to his father is a bad idea and as Dick is going to break off the relationship they had formed he witnesses Jericho using his powers to control someone. They offer Jericho a spot on the team which he accepts and Jericho moves to Titan’s tower against his mother’s wishes. Jericho ends up meeting with his father and when Robin (Dick Grayson) shows up to confront Wilson (after Wilson beat Donna nearly to death) Jericho steps in and prevents Wilson from killing Robin and is stabbed by Wilson instead. Robin tells the team that Jericho was dead when he arrived and that Wilson beat him when they fought.

The episode Atonement is about Dick revealing to the team that he lied and telling them the truth. Now, I get Dick blaming himself, it’s what he does. I get Hank and Dawn’s attitude since they wanted to cut Jericho loose. But Donna getting upset about Dick lying is somewhat ridiculous, she was the team member pushing to continue lying to and using Jericho instead of telling him the truth after they were ready to accept him to the team. And not one single “hero” pointed out that Jericho knew the risk when he stepped in front of the blade to stop Wilson instead of using his power against him. Not one person has taken Jericho’s choice into account, nor have they taken into account the fact that with Wilson’s enhanced reflexes him taking the time to turn his back on Robin then spin around stabbing at him with a sword with his Son less than 5 feet away and fully capable of running over to check on Robin after Wilson beat him down until he couldn’t move, IS STUPID. Ultimately Jericho is dead because Wilson wanted to make Robin suffer before he killed him, Jericho’s death is a result of his choices and Wilson’s choices, yes the Titans have some responsibility for getting Jericho involved to begin with but to discount his own choices is simply foolish.

I have a problem with all of this because it boils down to somewhat lazy writing on the part of the show runners. The fact that Raven is the only one to say to one of the original team members “You were there too” is odd. And the fact that she only told Donna this when they were alone instead of telling the other members of the team the same thing when they were all together is foolish as it really doesn't accomplish anything. Why did Starfire not bring this up? She was standing in the room and could have said something, she should have said something. The other members should be upset with Dick about lying but someone should have pointed out that the final responsibility for Jericho’s death lies with Wilson and Jericho, not Dick. That they all made the decisions that lead to Jericho being in that church facing his father. That Wilson admitted to beating Donna up to cause Robin to come to the meeting with Jericho shows that he was responsible for Jericho being put in danger.

I was expecting to see robin deflect a thrown dagger and it hitting and killing Jericho, thus making a case that it was his fault. But no, Wilson had beaten Robin and could have issued the same warning he gave Donna (who didn’t tell the rest of the team btw) about leaving Jericho alone and letting him return to his mother. But he made the choice to embarrass Dick by turning his back and taking the time to draw his sword. Wilson killed his son, not the Titans. It’s odd that Jericho’s mother doesn’t look at Wilson and at least blame him some for this. But no, she blames the Titans and only the Titans (since she appears to be living with Wilson again). Not one bit of this plot adds up in any meaningful way, I don’t believe the actions of the Titans up to this point and I don’t feel like Dick did anything to blame himself for with the exception of bringing Jericho in to start with (which was a decision of the team, not just him).

I’m hoping that the writers step-up and start tying things together in the next few episodes or this will turn out to be a pretty busted series.