The Teen Titans have been around in various forms for many decades now. They’ve had multiple comic book series, cartoons, and guest appearances in other books. In all that time, they’ve had a variety of different stories, but the current series seems to have homed in on the horror styled ones, I guess because it gives them a chance for some cool visuals. One of the Titans’ biggest foes in the New Teen Titans run was Brother Blood, a powerful cult leader. One of Blood’s inner circle gives us the title for this episode as the team clashes with “Mother Mayhem.”

In true horror movie style, the episode starts off with a kid playing with her toys in a seemingly normal family scene. You just know that’s not going to last, and it doesn’t. Soon enough, horrific images and events overtake the family, and things don’t look good for any future domestic bliss.

After the opening credits, we return to last episode’s unexpected death of Lex Luthor. Since he was there, in a classic case of bad timing, Superboy is being held as a suspect, although we the audience know he didn’t do it. He lets himself be taken away and placed in a special cell where we see that someone involved in this production doesn’t quite grasp the difference between red sun radiation and green Kryptonite in the DC Universe. Tim Drake, the newest Titan, sees some news coverage of what’s going on and alerts the team.

In another example of how sloppy this series is with the whole secret identity thing, Kory and Dick, not Starfire and Nightwing, go visit Superboy in his cell. Connor relates what happened, and is clearly shaken. I have the impression that, despite the fact there have been costumed heroes in this world for some time and that the Justice League exists, most people are somehow unaware of magic, which is an odd choice. Superboy can hear the people talking about him, as apparently whatever weirdness is holding him prisoner lets his senses keep working. Finally, after being prodded about the end of the visit, Dick and Kory leave, promising to help.

Dick and Kory make some plans, discuss some of what they found in Luthor’s computers, and discuss magic in general. It’s interesting that Kory seems familiar with it. Is there magic on Tamaran? I don’t think that’s ever been explored, or not that I recall at any rate. Somewhere out in some random woods (something Metropolis isn’t noted for), Tim gets some training from Gar. Things go about as you’d expect until Gar suddenly starts getting random visions. This is new and not something I’ve seen with any incarnation of his character before.

Off on her own, Kory does some breaking and entering and finds a man named Nelson Blake. After some fairly pointed convincing, she gets him talking, and learns about the interesting run of luck with the board of LexCorp lately. Then, just in case we weren’t getting the point, something weird, magical, and definitely from the horror genre happens, leaving Kory with a lot of questions. Dick and Rachel, still without costumes, go do their own investigation, getting a feel for what happened where Lex died. Rachel has some visions and revelations and a new place for them to look.

Gar recovers from his weird experience, while Tim looks worried, until the two of them get summoned by Dick to meet up with everyone else. Then we take a detour into the sad life of a man named Sebastian. He seems to have a lonely life, sick mother, no friends, and is generally painted as an unhappy man. While Sebastian and his mother watch some tv together, the team assembles at the place Rachel saw and decides to go in, leaving a bemused Tim wondering about Rachel having visions and what else people haven’t told him. Clearly, the Titans Orientation package is lacking.

The house is, of course, the place from the opening scene, and even has creepy music playing in the background. The team pokes around, mostly relying on Rachel being able to sense something, which doesn’t seem like a great plan from a leader that’s supposed to be a master tactician. After finding a few things that seem like they should be from assorted horror movies, and a dead body, they find the girl from the opening, who is in some kind of trance or something. Rachel tells everyone to wait and reaches into the girl’s mind to help her. In an even more nightmarish version of the house, Rachel finds the girl and a bone-faced man who seems to be the big bad guy, at least at the moment. Eventually, after Rachel uses something that seems to be a rough approximation of her soul-self from the comics, Rachel wakes the girl up and all’s well that ends well, right? Well, the episode’s not over, so clearly not.

Kory missed the above adventure because she was visiting Conner in his cell with the bad mood lighting. Conner is surprised to hear Luthor had extensive files on Kory, and the two of them try and figure out what this means. Connor does some lamenting about what he keeps hearing people say about him, and then Kory gets a call to rejoin the others. After her offering some random violence that wouldn’t really accomplish anything, Conner convinces her to go. Meanwhile, Sebastian, who we spent earlier time with, makes a big pitch about a game he wants to design. He comes across as very idealistic and naïve, and the people he’s talking to are stereotypical callous corporate jerks. Obviously, it doesn’t go well.

 The team, in their big black tour bus that seems to be their temporary headquarters, follows up another lead and ends up in another creepy old abandoned building. At least it’s not a warehouse. Finally in costume (where no one can see them? I can’t follow the logic here), the team searches the place, finding a lot more occult flavored nastiness. They play cat and mouse with the mystery villain, and eventually defeat him. You can tell they’re collectively relieved to get out of there, and I don’t blame them a bit.

Sebastian, who seems to be in the midst of an origin story, gets some bad news from a woman who doesn’t seem to mind delivering it. While he deals with this life changing event, the girl the team rescued, Aria, is reunited with the surviving parts of her family. Dick talks to her, and here, finally, is the compassionate man who can relate to people’s losses the character has failed to be for most of the series. I guess better late than never? He gives her a gift as he shares some of his own history.

In some twist of logic I didn’t entirely follow, the stuff the Titans found manages to clear Conner’s name, and he is released. The team piles into the tour bus and everyone is eager to leave Metropolis behind. Dick reassures Conner that the public knows the truth about Lex’s death now, and Conner says he’s done with Metropolis. The rest of the team plays card games in the back, and things seem to be going great. But it’s far too early in the season for a happy ending, so we don’t get one.

Their road trip gets interrupted by weird lighting and a premonition from Rachel. They stop the bus, change to their costumes (someone really needs to get Tim one) and go outside to face… the woman we saw talking to Sebastian before. Showing an utter lack of teamwork, the Titans take turns getting their asses kicked by her. Eventually, the new powers Kory got last season tip the balance and the woman flees. Our mystery bad girl goes someplace that seems very cult-like, we hear some words that fans of the Teen Titans cartoon will recognize. While she does some stuff that seems bad without being really clear, Sebastian continues to have a bad day for our final scene.

What I Liked: It was nice seeing Dick actually showing compassion. I’m glad someone is at least trying to train Tim, even if that keeps getting interrupted. I do like they are showing him with his signature weapon form his early comic appearances.

What I Didn’t: They are really bad with the secret identities on this show. I’m not sold on Gar suddenly getting visions, or whatever is happening with him. Conner suddenly being freed didn’t make a lot of sense, but then, neither did his being arrested. His holding cell also didn’t work right. And I guess we’re just not going to worry about the characters that have disappeared, like Jason, Rose, Donna, and Dawn? Or Jericho for that matter?

I’m still hoping to see Roy or Wally before this is over, but I’m not really counting on it at this point. I’ll give this a 3 out of 5. I’ll catch up more on this series when I get a chance.