The last episode of Titans showed Sebastian making a fateful choice. Now, the story of Brother Blood develops further while the team is going through some changes and a lot of strain. The team tries to track down a lead to prevent what might well be the end of the world. Their trip leads them to one of those strange, creepy small towns. I’d say things aren’t what they seem in “Caul’s Folly,” but it’s exactly as weird as it first seems.

Sebastian goes through some changes and emerges what might be a new man, but it’s not a change for the better. The cult approves, and Mother Mayhem seems thrilled. Sebastian himself doesn’t seem as sure, but this can’t be the beginning of anything good. Then she tells him what they’re going to do next, and it’s absolutely not good. At all.

Through the miracle of time jump, the team wakes up six hours later after getting their collective ass kicked. There are a lot of questions about what happened, and Rachel is sure Gar, who isn’t with them and no one knows where he disappeared to, saved them, but isn’t sure how. There’s a lot of confusion about what happened, and a lot of blame to go around. The new and definitely not improved Superboy continues lashing out and being a dick, taking after the Luthor half of his genetic inheritance. There’s also some mourning for Jinx, who essentially died of overconfidence during the fight. I thought Lisa Ambalavanar did a great job with the role, and I’ll miss her on the show. Rachel at least has some version of her powers back now, and Superboy finds something.

The team begins studying their new find, and they have, among other things, a letter from a dead villain. It offers some insight into a little of what’s going on, and assigns some tasks from beyond the grave. It doesn’t do anything to ease the tensions between Connor and Dick, but I’m not sure what would at this point. Rachel and Tim have a talk about her changed powers and whatever’s going on with Connor. Dick has yet another mysterious contact, this one a linguistic expert, and he calls on her for help, with a dubious Kory in tow. The new contact seems to have a lot of knowledge about things she shouldn’t, although she does get a few surprises in the course of talking to Dick and Kory. They finally get a good lead and the team is off on what might be the last chance to stop Trigon from returning.

This is where, once again, the shared world problem rears its head. They are facing a potentially world ending event. At least some version of the Justice League exists in this world, and even with Superman off planet and Batman dead, there are other heroes out there. If nothing else, we know Wonder Woman and Roy Harper are out there, and so are Wonder Girl and Dove. There is no reason at all, aside from budget, not to call for backup.

While most of the team plots out what to do next, Superboy is off on his own treasure hunt. The booby traps he finds were definitely made for normal people, and he just strides through them, in one of the most anticlimactic adventure scenes ever. He finds his way to an unexpected meeting, and this ends up being a team up we definitely don’t need. I can’t imagine anything about the current peril getting better from this alliance.

In the Titans’ tour bus/mobile base, they follow their lead to the middle of nowhere and everyone is confused. Just to add to the chaos, Bernard from STAR Labs shows up and his car is definitely a lot less cool than the Titans’ bus. It turns out STAR has a tracker on the bus, and Bernard was worried about them. How Dick, trained by the world’s greatest detective and one of the most paranoid men of all time, didn’t figure this out or check for one, I have no idea. Eventually, after some awkward conversations, Tim and Bernard stay at the spot the GPS led them to, hoping to find something with the impressive array of gizmos Bernard brought, while the others drive off for what seems like no apparent reason.

The driving was a good, if mystifying, choice, and they end up finding signs for Caul’s Folly, a small town that isn’t on any map or GPS feature they can find. It immediately starts giving off the “small creepy town run by a cult” vibe. Just to emphasize the point, from Tim and Bernard’s point of view, the bus disappears as it drives down the road, rattling the two. Dick, Rachel, and Kory go into a diner, and get the same “everyone stops and stares” moment you usually get in a bar in these situations. They also manage to make the waitress nervous just by being there. Apparently having never seen a horror movie, the reduced team splits up, Rachel staying with the freaked out waitress to ask questions, while Dick and Kory go outside to meet another stereotype: the small town sheriff who somehow has time to write parking tickets for the newcomers. After some chatting, and Dick pulling the “Hey, I was a cop, too” gambit, they still get the ticket, and then Kory drives off to see if she can find a place to park that won’t cost them an arm and a leg.

While Kory finds out all roads lead essentially nowhere (sorry, Rome), Dick verbally spars with the sheriff about why they’re in town. He isn’t subtle. Rachel tries to find out more from the skittish server, and promptly gets kidnapped. The team is doing really well here. She gets an interesting take on things from the locals, and starts to worry about her friends. Outside the town, Tim and Bernard try and figure out where everyone went and talk about their relationship. In the comics, a little while back, it was announced that Tim Drake was bi, and Bernard is the name of the first man he dated. Not finding anything, they get two rooms at a local motel, and their resolution to keep things as “just colleagues” lasts about as long as a snowball in July.

The episode ends with a scene that makes no sense at all to me. Dick goes to meet with the Sheriff, keeping an afterhours appointment with him. Everything at the sheriff’s office feels wrong, and Dick sticks around anyway, prowling through things looking for a clue. Confronted by the sheriff and two deputies, Dick Grayson, Nightwing, one of the world’s best fighters, gets beaten in a fight by these small town clowns. That may be one of the most unbelievable things I’ve seen in this entire series, and it ends the episode. I really hope we find out next time that Dick was faking to find out what they want.

What I Liked: I’m glad Rachel has her powers back, or at least some version of them. I give them full points for being brave enough to show the Tim/Bernard plot, although I’m not sure if this Tim is bi or gay. Joshua Orpin is doing a great job with the complete change in Connor Kent/Superboy.

What I Didn’t: Most of this one. Why aren’t they calling for help? How in the world was Dick beaten by three small town deputies? Why, when they know something is wrong, do they split up? I’m mad they killed Jinx, and in such a stupid way.

The series has been hit or miss, and this one was a miss. I’m giving this a 2 out of 5. I hope the last few episodes get better.