The final season of Titans continues their version of the Brother Blood saga. Things are definitely different than the classic story from Wolfman and Perez, but there are some interesting twists and turns along the way. Rachel keeps trying to calm and reassure Sebestian, while the team deals with a surprising danger from inside their own ranks, leading to the title “Inside Man.”

While Gar takes in the cityscape, now bathed in an ominous red moon, Rachel spends some more time with Sebastian. He relays a troubling dream and wonders if he’s truly out of options and choices, trapped in a life he really doesn’t know anything about or want any part of. Rachel does her best to be reassuring, sharing bits of her own life, which has followed a very similar path. Tim and Bernard watch over STAR from the security console, setting the very precise deadline of six hours for them to have to keep Sebastian safe in order for them to win. That really doesn’t sound too hard, but then again, you should never bring up something like that in the middle of the ongoing crisis. Off on his own, Superboy wanders the corridors, looking nervous, understandable enough after the magic-based attack he suffered through recently.

Back at the cult’s headquarters, Mother Mayhem has to deal with Raymond, a member who is having some doubts about the success of their mission. Surprisingly, she listens to him talk, avoiding the expected casual killing of anyone who dares to doubt, so that was a well done little bonus. This does motivate her to cast more spells, and she summons something that’s a loose end from a previous episode, and clearly going to cause problems for the heroes at STAR Labs.

Tim is clearly bored with monitor duty, and feeling left out of everything else going on. Bernard tries to make him see that it isn’t such a bad thing, but Tim’s not in a place to listen. He does finally see something odd on the monitors and charges off, ignoring Bernard’s wiser counsel to notify the others. Their chase leads to assorted geek themed jokes, and then they essentially prove the worth of the old saying about being careful what you wish for. A lab tech and a novice hero with a stick are not up to this particular challenge.

A somewhat humbled Tim reports back to the team about what they saw (a bit closer than they really wanted to). Since this smacks of magic, they solicit Jinx’s opinion, and get a mixture of a great pop culture joke, some useful suggestions, and a pragmatic viewpoint most of them could benefit from. Dick gives out assignments, leaving Tim chagrined and resigned. Beast Boy uses the new allocation of tasks to talk to Jinx about some of the odd visions he’s been having, and they have some amusing banter amid her advice. We already had plenty of hints about it, but we now see one of the team falling under the sway of Mother Mayhem’s magic. It’s a great choice on her part, and really bad for the good guys.

While a guardian gets distracted from their appointed task, after some jokes about Titans merchandising, Dick and Kory argue about a simpler way to keep the bad guys from winning. Points to the writers, it’s reminiscent of some discussions they had back in the early days of the New Teen Titans, when Dick’s heroic outlook from all his Batman training would clash with Kory’s more warrior-oriented viewpoint. As their debate goes on, Sebastian’s trusting nature makes it easy for the unwitting double agent to take advantage and manipulate him. This leads to a confrontation among the team and the double agent eventually being subdued. Jinx is certainly proving her worth, and that Dick made a good choice in recruiting her.

Since STAR isn’t as secure as they’d like, some of the team splits off to try and keep Sebastian away from Mother Mayhem and her minions. There’s a debate about where he’d be safe, and he finally listens to the Titan he’s come to trust the most. They get a hint that touches back on something they’ve dealt with a few times before, which also at least holds the promise of some good food. Beast Boy is a bit rattled by everything going on, and one of the more experienced heroes tries to talk him down. Honestly, with everything going on the last few episodes, I’d be shaken up too. They turn their attention to trying to snap their teammate out of the whammy that has been placed on them, but it’s not going well.

The away team reaches the place they hope is going to help them, and Sebastian expresses some understandable doubts, or at least confusion. Personally, I think there would definitely be worse places to wait out the imminent possible end of the world. The place changes from mundane to mystical as there’s a sudden shift in who is actually there, and the team makes contact with someone who can help them. Or at least they hope so. There’s some proof this was a good idea, as we see that Mother Mayhem has lost track of Sebastian, and one of the minions comes in with a report that isn’t great news for Team Trigon.

In their new refuge, the team gets a breakdown of what’s going on, and the danger they’re in. There’s very little good news in the exchange. Ever practical, one of them decides to at least make use of the primary purpose of where they’re hiding out. Mother Mayhem, not one to give up, invokes a higher authority to try and get some help. Every once in a while, a prayer gets answered, but that’s not always a good thing. At least not for everyone involved.

Back at STAR, the rest of the team labors to help their controlled friend. The one they’re trying to save isn’t exactly helping, and knows enough to bring up one of their more notable failures in recent history. Jinx offers more advice and clearly it gives someone an idea. It also namechecks John Constantine again, giving us hints at the wider universe we never get to see here. We know there’s a Justice League in some version or another, and we’ve seen at least one of the original Titans is in this world, just never making it on screen past a name on someone’s phone, sadly. There was so much potential and ideas to explore in this world, and I’m sorry they won’t get more of a chance to get to any of those places. The cult keeps working toward their goal, and Mother Mayhem shows what a truly twisted person she is.

The team at STAR moves ahead with their risky plan, and some of the potential drawbacks are spelled out. Dick clearly isn’t happy, but they don’t have a lot of options at this point. They start trying it, despite the reservations of their expert. There are some tense moments, and in one unexpected twist, Tim gets his moment to play hero. He even gets some validation from one of his idols and his potential love interest. At their temporary refuge, one of the Titans shows a rather strange preference for their food, which makes Sebastian shake his head. While some of the team has some entertaining exchanges, a different one gets some more detail on what’s going on and some advice they chose not to follow. Since that doesn’t please their guide, this hero gets dragged off into a weird vision that goes from fun to freaky really quickly. The secret hideout eventually fails, and things look bad for Sebastian.

For our wrap ups, we get a few small scenes. Tim gets a good scene with Bernard, and it’s an interesting progression of that subplot. I think they’ve shifted his orientation slightly for the story, but it’s not a big deal if so. Then later, there are updates on the condition of the Titan who had been corrupted and the one that tried to save him. That part seems to be going fairly well. But the final scene is Sebastian in his new location, and apparently being swayed already by the greeting he gets.

What I Liked: There are several echoes of various stories from the comics here, and I like the nods they give them. There were several entertaining bits of banter among the various characters. The way to cure their enslaved teammate was creative and was a good expanded use of someone’s powers that have been really limited so far. I also liked the references to both Constantine and the Doom Patrol. Jinx was surprisingly likable throughout the episode.

What I Didn’t: I don’t like the way they are changing Brother Blood’s story. He was such an incredibly menacing villain when he first appeared in New Teen Titans, and this just isn’t him. Mother Mayhem seems annoyingly infallible.

It was a decent episode. Not one of their best, bur certainly not one of their worst. I’ll give it a 3.5 out of 5.