REVIEW: ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’ Season 3, Episode 22 – “Antisocial Pathologies”

Previously on Young Justice: Outsiders, Aquaman, Kaldur’ahm (Khary Payton), with the help of Oracle (Alyson Stoner) and Wyynde (Robbie Daymond), rescued Dick Grayson (Jesse McCartney) and Black Lighting, aka Jefferson Pierce, from the clutches of Granny Goodness (Deborah Strang). At the end of that episode, Granny contacted Darkseid (Michael-Leon Wooley) informing him she had the anti-life equation.

Now, in “Antisocial Pathologies,” the team must deal with the fact that Granny Goodness and the Light knows how much the Outsiders and Justice League members, current and former, are cooperating with each other. Additionally, the team faces new threats as loyalties shift.

Since being rescued by her brother and other members of the team, Tara Markov (Tara Strong) has been reporting the team’s actions and its newer members to Deathstroke (Fred Tatasciore). Specifically she reports on Victor Stone (Zeno Robinson), Halo, and Violet (Zehra Fazal). Deathstroke attempts to remind her that these people do not care about her and the moment she steps out of line they will cage her or strap an inhibitor collar on her. Tara’s PTSD has been briefly seen, mostly while training with Artemis (Stephanie Lemelin), but this scene is the first time she faces one of her abusers.

While Tara is facing her demons, Dick is fighting for his life after being held in a painful prison, utilizing Apokoliptic technology, by Granny Goodness. “Antisocial Pathologies” features Dick bedridden with Barbara, Tim (Cameron Bowen), Alfred, and Bruce (Bruce Greenwood) by his side; marking one the first time of the season the entire Batfamily has been together. After leaving the Justice League, Bruce and Tim were MIA for a majority of the season.

The last time Jefferson Pierce saw Batman, he was leaving the Justice League and asked Jeffery to join his operation. After declining, Jefferson found himself working with Dick Grayson. However, as tension rise while Dick is ill, Jefferson realizes just how involved with Batman he has been the entire time. And as Jeff spills the entirety of Batman’s plan, Tara listens. But before she can truly comprehend what is happening, Dr. Helga Jace (Grey Griffin) kidnaps her, Brion (Troy Baker), and Violet, bringing them to Granny Goodness, while the rest of the team bickers with each other none the wise.

“Antisocial Pathologies” gives Barbara Gordon a big role. As Oracle, Babs is coordinating operations and easily defends her actions against Garfield Logan (Greg Cipes). The scene with the team brings back some of the best moments of Young Justice’s second season, following Artemis’ faked death. Additionally, Barbara isn’t afraid to call Bruce out on his planned and how yet again, not communicating has led to turmoil and fighting that will compromise his overall mission. Barbara’s role in season two was minuscule so seeing her now, and as Oracle, is inspiring. In a show doing its best to represent many types of people, having a disabled character – and one that is so well developed and written – is extremely important.

The reveal of Darkseid at the end of the previous episode was a thrilling cliffhanger that had a lot of fans excited about the remainder of the season. While I am just as thrilled to see exactly how Darkseid will play into the remainder of the season and the Light, I am more excited to see the inter-personal relationships within the team being explored. The Batfamily is and has been since the beginning of the series, my favorite part of Young Justice. And “Antisocial Pathologies” offers more Batfamily moments than I could have hoped.

The return of the Batfamily, seeing more of Dick Grayson, and Oracle’s role in the episode have made it one of my favorites of the season. Overall, “Antisocial Pathologies” is a fantastic episode that begins tying up many of the loose ends the season has been left with thus far while also spending time with characters fan already know and love.

Young Justice: Outsiders is streaming now on The DC Universe with new episodes dropping every Tuesday.