[7.4/10] I’ll confess, I’ve never read A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens isn’t really my speed. So I’m sure there’s deeper homages here that I’m missing. But I’ll say that Stephanie Lemelin does a really lovely reading of the passage of the credits, which really draws out why his words double as a beautiful epitaph for Conner Kent.
Still, the problem remains that I just don’t buy his death. I buy that Artemis believes it, and Kaldur and Dick showing up to break the news to her helps sell the gravity of it. But again, it’s hard to feel as invested and affected by Superboy’s passing when you’re convinced, like I am, that the show’s just going to pull the rug out from under us and reverse that death fairly soon anyway.
Still, I like it as a character motivator. There’s some sharp juxtaposition with Artemis firing on all cylinders in her personal professional, and extracurricular life before Conner dies, and her slipping just as much on all fronts after she has to deal with the prospect of losing another member of her makeshift family. Whatever the episode’s other strengths and flaws, Lemelin and the writers sell the impact on Tigress through all of this.
They also provide a solid thought experiment. What would you do if two supposed defectors showed up on your doorstep, each claiming that the other is a moe sent to undermine them. Who do you trust? Both? Neither? It’s especially tricky if you’re in an organization founded on principles that say people deserve a second chance. Onyx and Cassandra Savage both have plausible stories as to what’s going on with them and the League of Shadows. So while their fight scenes with the Shadows are fairly generic and forgettable, the practical dilemma that Tigress, Arrowette, Arsenal and others have to make about whom to believe gets the mental gears spinning.
That said, I don’t really understand how losing Conner leads Artemis to want to reach back out to Cheshire. I like Cheshire, so I don’t really care that the premise is a little thing. If you stretch, you can see the idea that Artemis losing a pseudo-brother makes her not want to lose a sister completely. But the emotional calculus of it feels a little off.
Likewise, the flashbacks to their childhood are fine, but mostly retread ground the show already covered in prior seasons. And it’s good to check in on Cheshire now, especially as she returns to her sensei and challenges the LEague of Shadows’ claims on ehr life. (With Talia al Ghul and Damian no less, which is kind of random and a trip.) But much of it plays more like setup than anything satisfying just yet.
On the whole, I like Artemis and Cheshire quite a bit, and I think their relationship is a rich one on the series, especially as the show continues to pick up on threads that have been dropped in prior years. The details and motivations don’t fully add up here, but Artemis processing her grief over Conner by reconnecting with his sister isn’t the worst excuse to return to this foundational part of the show and explore the unique position the two of them occupy emotionally and as family.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-08-13T06:35:22Z
[7.4/10] I’ll confess, I’ve never read A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens isn’t really my speed. So I’m sure there’s deeper homages here that I’m missing. But I’ll say that Stephanie Lemelin does a really lovely reading of the passage of the credits, which really draws out why his words double as a beautiful epitaph for Conner Kent.
Still, the problem remains that I just don’t buy his death. I buy that Artemis believes it, and Kaldur and Dick showing up to break the news to her helps sell the gravity of it. But again, it’s hard to feel as invested and affected by Superboy’s passing when you’re convinced, like I am, that the show’s just going to pull the rug out from under us and reverse that death fairly soon anyway.
Still, I like it as a character motivator. There’s some sharp juxtaposition with Artemis firing on all cylinders in her personal professional, and extracurricular life before Conner dies, and her slipping just as much on all fronts after she has to deal with the prospect of losing another member of her makeshift family. Whatever the episode’s other strengths and flaws, Lemelin and the writers sell the impact on Tigress through all of this.
They also provide a solid thought experiment. What would you do if two supposed defectors showed up on your doorstep, each claiming that the other is a moe sent to undermine them. Who do you trust? Both? Neither? It’s especially tricky if you’re in an organization founded on principles that say people deserve a second chance. Onyx and Cassandra Savage both have plausible stories as to what’s going on with them and the League of Shadows. So while their fight scenes with the Shadows are fairly generic and forgettable, the practical dilemma that Tigress, Arrowette, Arsenal and others have to make about whom to believe gets the mental gears spinning.
That said, I don’t really understand how losing Conner leads Artemis to want to reach back out to Cheshire. I like Cheshire, so I don’t really care that the premise is a little thing. If you stretch, you can see the idea that Artemis losing a pseudo-brother makes her not want to lose a sister completely. But the emotional calculus of it feels a little off.
Likewise, the flashbacks to their childhood are fine, but mostly retread ground the show already covered in prior seasons. And it’s good to check in on Cheshire now, especially as she returns to her sensei and challenges the LEague of Shadows’ claims on ehr life. (With Talia al Ghul and Damian no less, which is kind of random and a trip.) But much of it plays more like setup than anything satisfying just yet.
On the whole, I like Artemis and Cheshire quite a bit, and I think their relationship is a rich one on the series, especially as the show continues to pick up on threads that have been dropped in prior years. The details and motivations don’t fully add up here, but Artemis processing her grief over Conner by reconnecting with his sister isn’t the worst excuse to return to this foundational part of the show and explore the unique position the two of them occupy emotionally and as family.