Director: Christopher Berkely
Writer: Paul Giacoppo
Our story picks up a little more than a week later on December 31, 9:00 CAT (Central Africa Time) in the nation of Bwundasa. U.N. Secretary Lex Luthor is holding a global warming meeting with several ambassadors, including Troia of Themyscira and Garth of Atlantis. Suddenly, the ambassadors' photo op is attacked by a group of people in black suits, declaring themselves the Bwundan Independence Front, retaliating against Luthor's choice to legitimize their country's dictator. Luckily, the Outsiders and the Team (covertly) are both on the scene.
Kid Flash makes fun of the terrorists' acronym, calling them "bif" and using that as a sound effect as he punches out three of the masked figures. Eduardo teleports onto the scene with Wonder Girl, reminding her that his hero name is El Dorado, aka the Golden One. Kid Flash catches an arrow aimed at Garth, and snarkily waves it in the air, while trying to say something snappy. But the arrow was an explosive, and it blows up before Bart can finish his one-liner. The blast sends Bart flying toward a wall, causing Eduardo to cry out "Kid!" and teleport into position to catch him before he hits the wall. Bart assures him that although he's feeling a little moded, but he'll be fine thanks to his accelerated healing.
Suddenly, the Flash shows up and takes out the rest of the terrorists. He checks in on Bart, who angrily assures his grandfather that he'll be fine. Flash calls the Watchtower, saying the crisis is over, thanks to an assist from the Outsiders, which rankles Eduardo a bit. Beast Boy diplomatically says it doesn't matter who gets the credit, but Troia wonders what Flash was doing there since the Justice League is not allowed in Bwundasa. Luthor explains to the cameras that he called in the League with the approval of the nation's president and help arrived mere minutes later. He declares this as proof that his system works and the presence of the Outsiders was unnecessary. Luthor says because of the actions of these amateurs, a child was badly hurt. Bart loudly cries out that he'll be fine, but Luthor ignores him, putting the Flash on the spot to provide more positive PR for the cameras. Flash smiles and waves and gives a quick enthusiastic line about always being happy to help, then whispers to Luthor that he doesn't want to be part of this dog-and-pony show before taking off. But Luthor got exactly what he wanted.
As the Outsiders and Team fly back home in the Bio-Ship, Miss Martian reveals that she discovered at least one of the terrorists — a young woman named Lia — was under some sort of mind control. And M'gann has decided to bring Lia back with them. Beast Boy says he feels like that whole mission was a setup, which Lia confirms. And in case her word wasn't enough, we do see Luthor communicate with some of the other "terrorists," who were actually members of the League of Shadows. He is slightly disappointed the assassins weren't able to kill Garth or Troia, but he is pleasantly pleased with the opportunity to embarrass the Outsiders on live TV.
The ship arrives in Taos at 7:15 MST, where they drop off Lia at the Meta-Human Youth Center. Eduardo's dad, however, tells his son that watching him fight those terrorists on live TV gave him quite the fright, especially after Bart got hurt. Bart again insists that he's fine, but Eduardo Sr. points out that his son doesn't have Bart' hyper metabolism and he could easily have been hurt himself. He also says that the Outsiders didn't even need to be there since the League was called in. Eduardo Jr. tries to explain that Luthor set them up, but his dad isn't buying it. He reveals that he's talked to some of the other Outsiders' parents and they also share his worries. Eduardo Jr. angrily storms away from father, telling Halo to get them out of here. She opens up a boom tube, which all of our heroes walk through (above), except M'gann, who awkwardly stays behind with Eduardo Sr., unsure of what to say.
We cut to the next day, January 1 at 14:24 PST at the Outsiders' Hub in Hollywood. Everyone is just hanging out, playing air hockey, while Wonder Girl is hoping they can get some training in. Suddenly, her mom, Helena Sandsmark, arrives, accompanied by Eduardo Sr. and Jay Garrick. Eduardo Jr. accuses his dad of hacking into the Justice League's zeta tube system to teleport to Los Angeles. He readily admits this, saying the three parents have decided it's time to talk to the Outsiders.
Gar, meanwhile, picks up a social media alert of a girl in Dublin, Ireland, specifically calling for the Outsiders to stop some of Professor Ivo's old robot monkeys from terrorizing her family. Beast Boy tells everyone to get ready, but the three adults refuse to give their permission to Bart, Eduardo and Cassie. So Beast Boy heads out with just Blue Beetle and Static Shock, hoping the others can sort things out.
Cassie says she's been a member of the Team for two years, so she doesn't understand why her mom is upset with it now. Helena says Cassie going public has changed everything, putting her directly in their enemies' crosshairs. Jay reminds them of the Watchtower's holograms of deceased heroes, many of whom were just kids their age, including Wally West. As he continues to rant about how dangerous this life is, Bart gently interrupts him by confirming what we suspected last episode. Joan Garrick did die. And now Bart says that Jay is feeling lost and alone, but there are lots of meta-teens out there who are also feeling lost and alone. Cassie and Eduardo Jr. also offer similar sentiments, and just like that, the two parents and one guardian are on board.
At 20:03 EST that evening, Lex Luthor appears on G. Gordon Godfrey's show in New York to decry the Outsiders, despite their recent success in Ireland. He says he personally witnessed the "near death" of Kid Flash yesterday and says he knows that the parents and guardians of the Outsiders are against their children's activities. Luthor goes on to lay out plans for a hero registry system to rein in these immature teenagers.
But to Luthor's surprise, Godfrey calls up recent social media posts showing the parents giving their full support to the Outsiders, including a video with Jay, Barry and Bart saying, "We are all Outsiders!" And to add insult to injury, Jay even called out Luthor's registry plan as a fascist return to failed policies of the 1950s. After the show, Luthor calls out Godfrey for betraying him like that, but Godfrey says he was fighting a losing battle, and instead gives him new ideas on how to combat the Outsiders.
At the end of the episode, we learn that once again, the Outsiders were not on a real mission. The little girl in Dublin was actually M'gann in disguise, and her "dad" was actually Batman. The factory belonged to Luthor and the robot monkeys were salvaged by Robin from a previous mission. Wonder Woman is appalled by the ease and frequency of these heroes' dishonesty toward the Outsiders, but none of them seem to care.
This show secretly has terrible dialogue. Great plot. Good character development (when it's not weighed down by too many things going on). But the dialogue is often forced and unnatural, especially in the lengthy speeches that feel scripted and rehearsed. I mean, did Cassie, Bart and Eduardo practice that speech all morning? But the bigger issue was how quickly that problem was resolved. These parents had legitimate concerns — concerns that could not have been and should not have been put to rest so easily.
I did like the running gag of everybody blowing Bart's injuries out of proportion. But I was once again deeply annoyed by the ending. Another fake mission for our Outsiders?! How can Kaldur and M'gann keep doing this?! Why can't anybody learn any lessons on this show?
Next time, we'll take a quick look at The Flash #75.
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