REVIEW: ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’ Season 3, Episode 18 – Early Warning

Previously on Young Justice: Outsiders, Garfield (Greg Cipes) and the younger members of the Young Justice team banded together in hopes to fight Granny Goodness (Deborah Strang) and Lex Luther (Mark Rolston) by turning the public against them. Throughout the season, the Justice League’s reputation has been ripped to shreds and because of this, legislation has made it near impossible for heroes to stop a crisis before or as it happens. Garfield’s plan to use social media in their favor helped them avoid arrest last episode when the Reach attacked.

Now, in “Early Warning,” the team is receiving the attention they wanted as pop culture sites – think E! News – beginning covering the heroes while the hashtag #WeAreAllOutsiders has been trending nonstop. While the team is now based out of the west coast, thanks to Garfield’s swank penthouse in Hollywood, Violet (Zehra Fazal) Tera and Forager, though now going by Fred, are still attending school at Happy Harbor. On the way to their last day before winter break, Violet is stopped by Dr. Helga Jace, the self-appointed den mother of the new headquarters, and informed because they are the living energy of a mother box within Gabrielle’s corpse, they are dying and their cells are not healing as they should.

Recently, Violet has been through a lot since she is slowly regaining some of Gabrielle’s memories, including the knowledge that Gabrielle killed Brion’s (Troy Baker) parents. At the suggestion of Dr. Helga Jace, Gabrielle decides to wait in hopes they are able to find a solution or cure. And while Violet is dealing with their own issues, Garfield’s team, now with the help of Zatanna (Lacey Chabert), work to take down Klarion the Witch Boy (Thom Adcox-Hernandez) in Cuba where he is using magic to activate the meta-gene in the kidnapped teens.

Klarion is one of my absolute favorite villains from the Young Justice series so seeing him in this episode was an absolute delight. His attack on the team, utilizing a grotesque monster made up for teenagers with meta-human abilities was downright disturbing but fit well with Klarion and the things he has done in previous seasons. However, it doesn’t fit with this season, at least not since the return of the show.

I touched on it a bit in my review of the last episode but since its return, Young Justice: Outsiders has a serious tonal dissonance with this episode, “Early Warning,” being no different. The narrative and many of the themes of the show, such as human trafficking, body modification, and so forth, are dark and at times, very adult but it is hard to take that seriously when the dialogue of the season is so campy. Young Justice has always had heavier themes, even in season one, but the dialogue never felt this campy or forced.

Additionally, while I was delighted to see Zatanna back in “Early Warning,” I still can’t help but miss the original team. Nightwing has not been prominently featured in an episode for quite a few weeks now. And so far within season three, neither Kaldur’ahm (Khary Payton) nor M’gann M’orzz (Danica McKellar) had a major story arc. Part of this is because of the time jump between each season but another reason is simply that Young Justice is dedicated to cramming in as many characters as they can into this season, whether or not they have been properly developed. This was a major issue in season two and it is disheartening to see it is just getting worse.

Outside of that, and trying not to get into spoilers, there are some concerning stereotypes being played into with Violet’s character. Since she is obviously upset at the news she may be dying and is overcome with guilt from learning Gabrielle killed Brion’s parents, Violet skips out on training with Artemis to hang out with Harper Row. The two drink and then kiss. While LGBTQ+ representation is extremely important, it has been handled very poorly in regards to Violet’s character.

Previously, they came out as non-binary because they are ultimately a mother box and does not feel like traditional human genders represent them. Now, despite dating Brion we see them and Harper, who is also in a relationship with a cis male, making out, despite the fact both of them are in relationships. This leans into the harmful stereotype that gay people are more promiscuous.

I have had a lot of issues with Violet’s character from the start. They are inhabiting the body of a Muslim Middle Eastern girl but the character themselves is not Muslim. So, it is complicated to say this is a real representation., as I said previously, nothing about Violet is Middle Eastern, outside of their appearance.

Overall, “Early Warning” is more of the same. Disappointing dialogue and lazy representation from a show that had all the potential in the world to tell another incredible narrative featuring characters fans know and love.

Young Justice: Outsiders’ latest episode, “Early Warning,”  is streaming now on The DC Universe with its next episode dropping July 23, 2019.