REVIEW: Young Justice – Season 4: Phantoms, Episode 14-16, “Nautical Twilight,” “Ebb Tide,” and “Emergency Dive”

Television Reviews

*SPOILERS*

“Nautical Twilight” opens with various heroes mourning Conner’s passing. As Kaldur struggles to accept the finality of this tragedy, Dick encourages him to take time to process the loss. Kaldur declines, saying he will be fine because he has to be. Orm plots in the background with someone named Danuuth. Arthur and Mera host a meeting with all the leaders of Atlantis. Meanwhile, Conner wakes up in the spirit realm, confused and frightened. Back in Atlantis, tensions run high between delegates, and a fight breaks out between King Shark and the delegate from Tritonis. Violet visits Gabrielle’s mother and asks for guidance in her exploration of Islam. Conner begins to question whether he’s actually still alive, as his powers seem to work and he has a heartbeat. As the Atlantian delegates debate issues like class and the loss of food sources, they’re attacked by Orm. 

“Ebb Tide” finds Clark having coffee in a diner when two strangers who know his identity ask for help. King Arthur struggles to balance the needs of the Atlantian city-states. Mera tells him that the mysterious individual who fought Orm off fulfilled an ancient prophecy of the true king. He tells her to find the stranger. Kaldur’s parents encourage him to slow down and stop overworking himself. The strangers from the future tell Superman about their failure to save Superboy and their own loss. Meanwhile, Conner sustains injuries from an attacking beast. The strangers ask Superman to be in Happy Harbor in exactly 10 years in an attempt to replace Superboy with him and save the future. Meanwhile, Atlantis is overrun with deadly red waters resulting from Child’s earlier actions. Even Orm helps Mera and Kaldur battle the source. Conner realizes that the mysterious creature is only attacking him because of his unbridled rage. The strange man who defeated Orm helps fight the red sea and reveals himself as Arion, son of Vandal Savage and founder of Atlantis. The strangers from the future knock on a mysterious door.

“Emergency Dive” sees Forager meeting Baby for the first time as M’gann continues to grieve for Conner. Forager tells her about Garfield’s situation and encourages her to visit him. Arthur and Mera confirm that their savior is indeed Arion, at least insofar as they can. Conner begins seeing visions of M’gann. Arthur charges Kaldur with finding Arion’s crowns. M’gann tries to convince Gar to get help. Arthur orders tests to be run on Orm’s helmet to find out if they’re really brothers. The Outsiders stage an intervention for Gar. He rejects the advice yet again. Arion refuses to engage with the Atlantian people as Arthur investigates Danuuth in search of information about Orm. It turns out this is a clone of the real Orm. 

Wow, what a way to bring the show off hiatus! Releasing an entire story arc in one go means there’s a lot to talk about. There’s a lot of good stuff I want to cover, but I have a small gripe I want to get over first. There’s a bit of clunky dialogue through this story arc, particularly in “Ebb Tide.” The Legion of Superheroes members telling Superman “She said yes” as a roundabout way of telling him Bioship helped them was awkward and forced. Likewise, it doesn’t work very well for Kaldur’s parents to verbally relay the problems of his childhood to him, at least not the way they word it. I understand that the audience needs this information, but there are more fluid, satisfying ways of conveying it than this. I also feel weird about the polygamous triad of L’agann and his wife and husband. At first, I was confused and thought Coral was cheating on her husband with L’agann. After all, he did temporarily steal M’gann from Superboy. I don’t really like or understand polyamory, so this is more of a personal thing. It just felt forced and pandering to me, whereas something like Kaldur’s relationship with Wyynde felt organic and earned by contrast. I’ll be interested to see how this is received by other fans, or if it’s even discussed at all. We barely know L’agann, and to my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve seen Coral or the other male partner. So I’m not even sure who these people are while the show is screaming, “Love is love!” No hate here; it’s just not for me. They’re minor characters who only really interact with the Atlantis storylines, so I doubt this will be a big thing either way. 

Now onto the good stuff. I love what they’re doing with Violet/Halo and Gabrielle Daou’s family here. Violet’s interest in Islam (the religion Gabrielle practiced before her death) continues the theme of faith established through characters like Khalid and Zatara earlier this season. Gabrielle’s mother’s explanations are unpretentious, and present faith as multifaceted and unique to the individual. They even discuss questions I’ve wondered about before, like the meaning and choice behind wearing the hijab. This was a minor subplot in the arc, but I enjoyed it. I love the exploration of different types of faith and how the characters interact with it. 

The theme of grief also extends through M’gann, Kaldur, and especially Garfield. M’gann put it plainly when she told Gar that he isn’t the only one hurting and grieving over Conner; am I wrong in finding Garfield a little selfish at the moment? For her part, M’gann is still trying to process her loss and struggling to accept that he’s gone. But unlike Gar and Kaldur, she’s facing the pain rather than pushing it down. Kaldur’s response is the most familiar to me; he tries to bury his head in work, hoping that the feelings of loss and grief will subside. It appears I may have been right about Conner; I doubt they would be showing him and the other Legion member if they were really gone for good. I can’t help wondering how the other characters, particularly Garfield and M’gann, will react when/if Conner emerges from whatever purgatory he’s trapped in. Since he’s at least able to feel pain and detect heat signatures, I doubt he’s exactly dead. I also like how he comforts himself with thoughts of M’gann, Clark, and Wally. I don’t have much to say about it, but it’s sweet. I also loved seeing the Young Justice version of Robot Man in Garfield’s intervention. Doom Patrol references aren’t unheard of in Young Justice, but this was great!

Overall, I enjoyed all three episodes. Some of the dialogue could have used polishing, but there were impressive visuals on display. I didn’t notice as many of the infamous animation cost-cutting tricks here. I’m just glad the show is back, and I look forward to more!