Episode review: The One Where Beast Boy Hulks Out

 Here's a bit of trivia, the plot of this episode made up the very first YouTube video posted by Dakari-King-Mykan, the Teen Titans' equivalent to Chris Chan.

We all have our kinks. Mine is transformations, though if you read my editorials on the She-Hulk subculture you'd know that. I bring it up because transformation is a focal point to this episode. Much like the one where Robin trips balls, this is another episode I'd consider good then, but disappointing now.

I had gone into this episode a bit in my discussion of the show in general, but I feel a solitary discussion is in order.

The Plot

After a fight at a chemical plant, Beast Boy takes on a radical personality shift. Already I see a red flag. He and the enemy in this, Adonis, crashed into a mysterious substance and the personality shift happened thereafter. In the back of my head, I knew something would be up. A better way to go about this was to not have the mutation become chemical. Perhaps due to constant anger, Beast Boy would slowly devolve, shown through more primitive habits he develops.

But no, we have a mysterious substance, and an expectancy that something will be amiss.

So, Beast Boy becomes an asshole, and gradually more irritable, culminating in a confrontation between him and Raven, then leading to a temper tantrum, and yes, it is a tantrum he throws, an ace in the hole for a hulkout, which happens. I like the idea, in principle, but here it feels very cliched.

But on Adonis, if the show had the shipping bug, Adonis would've worked better as a rival, with Beast Boy attempting to one up him by mimicking his behavior, only to wind up devolving because of it and lose sight of what he was. I had claimed they should've made Beast Boy's mutation permanent and have him merge his old personality with his new body, both works.

We then get into what'll make up the stark remainder of the episode. The Titans assume Beast Boy attacked Raven and consider him a threat, leading to a so-so confrontation. After that, it becomes clear that there's another beast on the loose, and it's Adonis.

At that point it dawned on me, they wussed out by keeping the situation domestic. This could've been a solid framework for a story where Beast Boy is framed for destroying the town by a rival but then another thing dawned on me, the writers of this show simply don't have the mental capacity for longterm drama, and damn does it show with these episodes.

Conclusion

The episode is both rife with missed opportunities, and rather barren. Around the point of the first transformation, it's one mere, bare basic, plot point stretched for the remainder of the runtime. We do never see Adonis again, at least in a major role, and another bit of disappointment, they missed an opportunity to discuss what it really means to be a man, not to be some beefed up douche but willing to be good to others and stick up to bullies.

You can't stray from an expected premise unless you can make it good, and they didn't. To sum up, this episode is the equivalent to the werewolf transformations in the Twilight film series, bare basic and so lifeless you'd forget about it as quick as it happens.

Other Teen Titans episodes are negligible by my standards, so we're reaching the end here. Given that I discussed the last episode of the show proper... I feel like going to the source.