REVIEW: Young Justice Season 4: Phantoms, Episode 4 “Involuntary”

Television Reviews

*SPOILERS*

“Involuntary” sees Bioship retired and Baby in her place. M’comm is spied on while he works on the weapons from Apokolips. M’gann apologizes to M’comm for leaving him behind and encourages him to reconcile with the family. Em’ree asks S’yraa how she can make things right with M’gann. Conner, Garfield, and M’gann decide to find out who was in the palace the day the king died. One of the suspects tells M’gann that an A’ashenn servant working that night was actually a Garrun in disguise. When confronted with this information, Prince J’emm realizes S’yraa is the killer. It was an accident, but she is taken into custody. Res E’dda uses this revelation to push his prejudiced beliefs, but the Prince pushes back, talking directly to the people. The same person who watched M’comm appears, alerting Conner and the mysterious people from the future. Conner, M’gann, J’emm, and Gar find bioweapons planted by M’comm to wipe out the Garunns. Conner destroys the weapon, but a kryptonite explosive is ignited, and he’s trapped in the volcanic rock.

Phantoms has been gorgeous to look at so far, but “Involuntary” is particularly littered with eye candy. The lighting and colors are stunning throughout, and the wedding canopy is breathtaking. The ending with Conner in the volcano is especially well animated, as is J’emm’s birthday celebration. It’s been distracting me ever since I heard or read somewhere that the Martians don’t speak verbally to save money on animating their mouths, but I find it funny more than bothersome. Technically speaking, the animation in Young Justice is outstanding.

The scene where Bioship finally flies away is really moving, which is a testament to Young Justice’s characters. I’ve never put much thought into Bioship, but she’s been there with the team through everything, and it rings true when Gar says she was as much a part of the family as anyone else. I love the way they convey emotion with the Martian ships. The colors and sounds say a lot with a little. M’gann’s apology is another highlight, handling a complex situation expertly. What M’Comm did on New Genesis (and what he’s doing now) is unforgivable, but I like that M’gann is able to step back and realize she’s made mistakes herself. Em’ree asking S’yraa for advice about her troubled relationship with M’gann is a good start to what I hope will be a similar journey for a character I don’t much care for so far. At the end, Em’ree embraces her sister and apologizes. I find it likely that M’gann will misunderstand this gesture, taking it to be all about what happened to Conner. I imagine a second conversation with a more specific apology may follow. There’s a subtle question of faith here, with atheist scientist Em’ree uncomfortable going to a priestess for help.

“Involuntary” finally reveals the identity of the King’s killer, and I admit I’m surprised. I hadn’t even considered that it could have been an accident, which I’m sure was the intent. After it became clear that Prince J’emm wasn’t the killer, I thought it might have been Res E’dda. He’s the one who keeps trying to use the tragedy to push his narrative, and we don’t know much about him. The King’s death ends up having nothing to do with the zeta tube destruction, making it difficult for Res to weaponize. I hope we learn more about this character soon because he just seems so cartoonishly evil right now. He comes out and directly says he wants to turn the Martian races against each other, but why? How is this advantageous to him, or anyone else, for that matter? He also dismisses everything Prince J’emm says despite the Prince hailing from the revered royal Blahdenns. This is really tragic for S’yraa, who I assume will spend life in prison.

This episode also clarifies what the Legion of Superheroes is trying to do, which has only been hinted at before. M’comm’s weapon being detonated is the event they came to stop. I wonder how M’comm’s stalker factors into this; is he from the future too? He’s the one who gets the Legion’s attention and alerts Conner to the imminent danger. I also wonder why he was watching M’comm and what exactly he did to the weapon before disappearing.

I have to say that I don’t like the ending of “Involuntary.” I was on board until Conner “died,” but I really don’t like this plot development. I find it difficult to imagine he’ll be dead come the finale of Phantoms. I don’t know how they intend to undo death by lava and kryptonite, but come on. He’s a founding member of the team, several of whom have already died, moved to the Justice League, or retired altogether.  I also don’t think they’d kill him off for real immediately following his wedding to M’gann, which has been four seasons in the making. This is part of my problem with this scene, the lack of believability. Even as M’gann is heard crying over the entirety of the episode’s end credits, I don’t buy it for a minute, which makes it hard to get emotionally invested. And if he really does turn out to be dead, that’s going to be a big turn-off for me. However, I liked it when Superman came in, and Gar thought it was Conner talking. It makes sense, and it shows that Garfield is in disbelief at losing yet another team member.

“Involuntary” is good, for the most part. I really don’t like this episode’s ending, and they need to work on fleshing out Res E’dda, the apparent villain of Phantoms. He doesn’t have enough of a presence to compensate for such boring characterization. However, the animation, voice acting, and music are excellent.