Young Justice - "Insecurity"

It's Young Justice Monday!

Hey again everyone, Shrine Correspondent Andy Luckett here with a review of the 23rd Season One episode of Young Justice, entitled "Insecurity."

In Star City, a somehow-familiar silhouette web-slings its way through the metal canyons, coming to rest outside the apartment of reporter Bernell Jones. As Jones is putting his daughter Cissie to bed, he is grabbed by a web-line and dragged outside by the assassin Black Spider (whose intentions are not those of a friendly neighborhood arachnid). Apparently something Jones has published caused him to be in Black Spider's crosshairs, and he is dropped to the street, saved only by one of Green Arrow's cushiony foam arrows. Jones is safe, and GA and Artemis take the fight to Black Spider. BS takes out Green Arrow temporarily, and he asks Artemis to take the lead. She does, freezing Spider's web and wrapping him up in a net arrow. Green Arrow smiles and appreciates the irony.

Meanwhile, Sportsmaster breaks into Belle Reve Penitentiary to liberate a prisoner. He passes by the infirmary where Professor Ivo and new warden Hugo Strange are talking to the comatose T.O. Morrow. Sportsmaster and the prisoner make their way out of the Belle Reve front door hidden in a truck full of medical waste, and end up at a safe house miles away. His prisoner, as it turns out, is Professor Ivo. But wait, wasn't he talking to T.O. Morrow? Back at Belle Reve, it is revealed that the extra Ivo is a very sophisticated android, which operates with Hugo Strange's knowledge.

Back in Star City, Artemis is pumped about her victory over Black Spider, but calms down a bit before using a Zeta tube to beam out. Green Arrow is approached by his former sidekick Red Arrow, who had been watching from the shadows. Before they can discuss much, a call comes in about a robbery in progress. The pair decide to team up, "For old time's sake". After the pair stop the crime, Green Arrow informs Red Arrow that he will be inducted into the Justice League by the end of the year, but that it would set a good example if he would join Young Justice first.

Back at Artemis' Gotham City apartment, she discusses with her mother the excitement she felt in saving Bernell Jones' life earlier that night. Artemis' mother is proud she is taking the noble hero path, but makes a misstep by telling Artemis that Batman and Green Arrow first came to her about Artemis' vigilante activities before she joined Young Justice. Artemis doesn't like the idea that her mother begged the heroes to take Artemis as a way to keep her on the right path, and she storms out.

In New Orleans, Sportsmaster and Ivo meet with the motley crew of Klarion the Witch Boy, Monsieur Mallah and the Brain. At first, Klarion is displeased that Ivo isn't T.O. Morrow like he asked for, but he is quickly informed that Ivo can handle what he has planned. Ivo asks where the equipment he needs is, and is told that it will be delivered shortly.

Back in Gotham City, Artemis is out on a mopey patrol, upset that she was brought into the team as a "pity case" rather than because of her skills. But she soon realizes that even if she didn't join for the reasons she thought, she has since proved herself many times. She Zeta-ports to Mount Justice in Happy Harbor, only to walk right into a team meeting. It seems that Red Arrow has joined Young Justice after all. Her response is a sarcastic comment about the team "needing a real archer". Ignoring that, Green Arrow lays out the team's new mission. They are to track Sportsmaster, who was spotted in the New Orleans airport. GA wants Red Arrow, Aqualad and Kid Flash for the job, but Artemis volunteers herself. GA is unsure, since he knows her true connection to Sportsmaster, but he allows her to go as well.

In the bioship on the way to New Orleans, Wally (aka Kid Flash) tells Artemis that she is a real archer, and that she is a true part of the team. Artemis appreciates the sentiment. In a different part of the ship, Red Arrow tells Aqualad that he believes the prime suspect for the team's mole must be Artemis.

Back in Happy Harbor, Zatanna, Superboy and Miss Martian are pretty bored, and ask Red Tornado whether he has any stakeouts for them. He doesn't, so they wonder what Tornado does when off-duty. He has an apartment in the facility, but the trio wonder what he does with his time, being an android. Hmmm, I smell shenanigans a-brewin!

In New Orleans, the team is tracking Sportsmaster as he makes a supply run. Red Arrow takes the lead and recommends that Artemis stay in the bioship and out of sight. Aqualad follows Sportsmaster's boat from underwater, but eases back as he stops the boat. Meanwhile, Artemis follows in the ship but as she tries to keep up with Red Arrow, she is surprised by Cheshire, the assassin (and also her own sister). Cheshire taunts her as they fight about not revealing her true background to the team. Red Arrow surprises her with a net arrow, and she begins to flirt with him, mostly to mess with Artemis' head.

Meanwhile, the passing train delivers Sportsmaster's package, and he takes off in his boat. RA tells Artemis to plant a tracking device on the boat, but Artemis claims he's already out of range. Red Arrow asks her to move and makes the shot, planting the tracker on the boat. He hops on a jet ski and takes off after Sportsmaster, while Artemis and Kid Flash stay behind to take on Cheshire. Aqualad, who has been following the boat, is surprised to see bombs floating toward him, and gets away before they blow. Unfortunately, Sportsmaster also gets away, having found the tracking device and removed it.

Back on shore, Cheshire is gone. Artemis tells Wally that she planted a tracer on Cheshire, but after he leaves she shoots one onto the passing train, leading the others to believe that one is Cheshire's. Aqualad tells the group that Sportsmaster received an attache case. Artemis is scolded for leaving her post, but she responds by saying she wanted to warm RA about Cheshire's approach. Wally interjects that instead on placing blame, the team should continue after Cheshire. They do, except they follow the bogus tracer on the train.

Sportsmaster returns with Ivo's equipment, and Monsieur Mallah brings out the piece of echinoderm (aka Starro) that The Light procured a few episodes back. Each of the villains takes a turn hitting the piece with either magic or energy. Back in Happy Harbor, Superboy, MM, and Zatanna sneak into Tornado's apartment, but they come across a human body-shaped lump under a sheet, wondering what it is.

Artemis tracks Cheshire by herself (and tracking the real tracer, not the one on the train) to a warehouse on the New Orleans waterfront. Cheshire shows her that Red Arrow planted his own tracer on Artemis. She also shows Artemis video of Red Arrow about to be ambushed by Sportsmaster outside the warehouse. Artemis saves him from death by javelin, but he doesn't realize it, instead chiding her for not radioing a warning. The two archers take on the two villains while waiting for Aqualad and Kid Flash to make the scene:

Returning to Happy Harbor, the three bored heroes pull the sheet off the body to find another android shell, this one human-looking. Just then Tornado arrives, catching the trio going through his stuff. While he isn't mad, he asks if their presence indicates disrespect for him. Miss Martian says that they were curious.

Back in New Orleans, Kid Flash arrives and helps turn the tide against Cheshire and Sportsmaster, while Artemis uncovers Ivo and the others just finishing up with the echinoderm. Ivo boasts that what they have created could destroy everything, but Klarion simply casts a spell that teleports the villains away while turning their images to ice sculptures, leaving the heroes empty-handed. Back in Happy Harbor, Aqualad is displeased since the team was unable to discover the villain's main plan and they slipped away. Red Arrow attacks Artemis again, to which Kid Flash objects. Until RA reveals the bit about the fake tracer, which causes Wally to think that she used the bogus tracer to tackle the villains herself, which Artemis can't deny. Wally calls her selfish and insecure, and walks off. Aqualad tells Red Arrow to back off, but Arrow tells Artemis that "This isn't over".

Artemis goes back home, only to find Sportsmaster in her room. He tells her that since she has misled the team and lied about her heritage, the team will never trust her again. He also tells her that she will never be one of the heroes, and that she needs to switch sides:

Well, as you can tell by this review, a lot happened in this episode. I must say, doing a play-by-play format can be challenging, since so often the show skips back and forth from setting to setting in quick cuts. Hopefully my review gets the information across.

Anyway, this episode yielded few new revelations, although two of them are more confirmations of what we already knew. Artemis' mother admits to being Huntress before she was sent to prison (and paralyzed at some point apparently). Artemis refers to Sportsmaster as "Dad", which we knew as well, but this may be the first time it's explicitly stated. More interestingly, Artemis' mother was approached by Batman and Green Arrow not to recruit her, but more because they were curious/concerned about her motives, given her immediate family being either current or former villains. The fact that her mother begged them to keep her with the heroes sets up an interesting dynamic once all of these secrets come out to the team. Also interesting is the reveal that Red Arrow will be inducted into the Justice League soon. After last week's discussions on the Watchtower, I thought that RA would not be chosen, mainly because of his bad attitude. Speaking of which, it is getting a little annoying, so I hope the writers play it down a bit more in future episodes.

I'm afraid once again Aqualad was a bit player this time. He took a backseat to Red Arrow during the mission, tracking Sportsmaster's boat but not engaging him in combat. In fact, I don't think Aqualad fought at all this time. Oh well. At least he wasn't relegated to the "sleepover shenanigans" subplot like Zatanna and the others. Although it was cool to see that Red Tornado is building a "John Smith" alter ego body so that he can interact with humans.

Lastly, I'm very curious to see what The Light plans to create by experimenting on the echinoderm. We know that it's a piece of Starro that was frozen in Atlantis until Black Manta stole a piece which ended up in the hands of The Light. Since they are using magic and science on it, it reminds me a bit of what the Injustice League did with Poison Ivy's plants a few episodes back. Hopefully these story threads will be resolved somewhat by the end of Season One, as I know that the creators are planning a big storyline for Season Two.