After last week’s cliffhanger, Titans decided to make us wait at least one more weak while giving us the backstories of vigilantes, Hawk and Dove. “Hank and Dawn” begins where we left both characters. Dawn is in a comma while Hank watches over her at a hospital.
(SPOILERS FOLLOWS)
In a bold move by the writers, we actually get an episode dedicated to backgrounds heroes introduced in the second episode before we get a main character such as Kory or Starfire. For me, I really appreciated getting to know both Hank and his brother Donny. Titans did a really good job of showing how much they both cared about one another. This episode also gave us a taste of Hank’s raw power and strength as well as Dawn’s grace and agility.
It was good to be see how Dawn and Hank met and was drawn together in loss, in them both coping differently with loss, but ultimately in them becoming a couple.
Titans doesn’t hide from the darker parts of humanity. We see the adult Hank and Dawn dealing with both being abused as children. Hank was sexually abused by one of his coaches, and Dawn was physically abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Moreover the show made the abusers central for why the vigilantes took to the streets. There was also a very dark scene between Dawn and Hank with his abuser. I can’t believe that scene was done without more consequences to follow for both of the vigilantes.
The only regular cast included at all in this episode was Rachel who is psychically reaching out to both Hank and then Dawn for help. We know that she helped Kory to remember more about her past, which has turned out we believe to kill the Raven, who Rachel will become. So even though both Grayson and Donna Troy are driving to protect Rachel, she reaches out these two to find a third ally – Jason Todd.
There is very little, if any overall progress to the story, it makes me believe DC was testing to see if this episode could be a backdoor pilot of Hawk and Dove. In checking out if these two would be able to hold their own on screen with no other heroes or maybe we are seeing what may be the Titans of season two. Let me know which one you think it will be or if you have your own theories.
