WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Titans Season 3, Episode 3, “Hank & Dove,” available now on HBO Max.
Season 3 of Titans certainly opens with a bang, as the first three episodes detail the ghastly descent of Jason Todd (Curran Walters) into darkness. He holds nothing but vindictiveness towards Nightwing’s (Brenton Thwaites) crew, and it unfortunately results in one of the heroes dying a fiery death. However, while Jason is the one who orchestrates this explosive debacle, it’s really Batman who’s to blame.
It all goes down in Titans Season 3, Episode 3, “Hank & Dove,” when Alan Ritchson’s Hank falls prey to Jason’s sinister scheming as the heroes gather at Wayne Manor to stop the bloodshed in a fractured Gotham City. Red Hood calls Hank and tricks him into meeting him alone, but it results in the teen knocking Hank out at a decommissioned Gotham gym and fitting an EKG bomb to his chest. The faster Hank’s heart beats, the quicker the countdown, leaving the heroes clueless about how to stop the dire fate that awaits.
It’s incredibly sadistic, even more so than the Joker, as Red Hood wants revenge on the Titans for not being the family he thought they’d be. The kicker is, Bruce Wayne is the one who oversaw the building of these bombs, which is revealed as Conner and Gar source NSA and Interpol files regarding the tech. Dick recommends they scour Wayne Enterprises, leaving everyone stunned that Bruce had the company building these bombs, which are pressure-activated and basically immovable.
Not even surgery can pull it out, causing Conner to speed-learn all he can from Bruce’s schematics and try to build a deactivator. The sad thing is, Jason shows no remorse for implanting the prototype in the hero he fought alongside, urging Dick to steal $50 million in gold from a Gotham bank to save Hawk. This leaves everyone wondering why Bruce even built such a torturous device. Not to mention, Jason may have stolen other unstoppable weapons from Bruce’s arsenal, which proves the company may even be more dangerous than Marvel’s Stark Industries. In short, Bruce didn’t just create a monster by emotionally scarring his ‘son,’ he’s also left his tools and toys open, giving the ex-Boy Wonder what he needed to become a one-man army and a virtual walking, talking weapon of mass destruction.
Sadly, when the former Robin goads Dawn into the heist and then into trying to shoot him later on, it turns out to be another ruse. He dupes Dove, with the gun he gives her being the trigger. As she presses it, Hank’s blown to bits as time runs out, scarring Conner, who had actually just finished the deactivator.
It leaves Nightwing holding a broken Dawn, while Kory comforts Gar, who looked up to Hank as a big brother. Conner’s left in the mansion’s bedroom amid the flames, with Krypto coming out covered in ash. It’s a tragic end for Hawk, who still believed Jason’s soul could be saved. Moreover, it shows Jason is truly lost and will go to any means necessary to make his former colleagues pay, while reminding the Titans that Bruce might have more deadly secrets than even Dick knows.
Watch the first three episodes of Titans Season 3 now on HBO Max. Episode 4 will release on Aug. 19.
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