REVIEW: Young Justice Season 4: Phantoms – Episodes 8 and 9, “I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings” and “Odnu!”

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Television Reviews

*SPOILERS*

“I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings” begins in the fallout of “The Lady, or The Tigress?” as Artemis and her crew get swarmed by Lady Shiva’s followers. Cassandra/Orphan finally frees herself, taking out the lights, and a big fight ensues. When the lights come back on, Lady Shiva demands that Tigress leave her Orphan, Jade, and Onyx, but Shade whisks them away. Lady Shiva follows and inadvertently slashes through her only backup, left to question why The Shade would betray her. He declares his debt to Jade repaid and disappears before Shiva can have her vengeance. She and Orphan get into it, and the latter stabs her mother straight through the gut, but over comms, Barbara convinces her to stop and go home with Artemis. Artemis gets Jade to agree to a phone call with Will and Lian, as well as coming home to see them. But Jade is startled when Lian pulls out a homemade Cheshire mask and darts away. Artemis, Orphan, and Onyx follow her all the way to Infinity Island, where she again confronts Sensei. He and Ra’s al Ghul offer the former Shadows a place for rehabilitation. With Tigress’ reluctant blessing, the women accept. “Odnu!” opens with a striking narration detailing the creation of the Lords of Chaos and Order. We then find Zatanna training her pupils on the use of magic. The exercise is interrupted when a Lord of Chaos crashes to the Earth, alerting Zatanna, Klarion, and others across the globe of her arrival. The action is interspersed with flashbacks to Vandal Savage’s past and encounter with Klarion. After battling Zatanna, Klarion faces the other Lord of Chaos, who now goes by the name “Child.”  

Before I get too deep into it, I want to talk about an action sequence early on in “I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings.” It’s really spectacular when Orphan knocks out the power at the Santa Prisca facility. The visuals of this fight scene pop right off the screen, utilizing light and color in a truly unique way. It almost reminds me of the battle in Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s Book 1 finale, “The Siege of The North Part 2,” after the moon has been extinguished. That scene similarly cast the background in greyscale, scarcely and strategically using color for emphasis. The fight choreography in this sequence is impressive, but it’s the way the animators toy with the palette that really makes it stand out in an already stunning series. 

For that matter, pretty much everything on Santa Prisca is excellent. Artemis cleverly using Cassandra Savage and Lady Shiva’s boisterous natures against them was obvious but effective. The Shade helping Artemis and her people really shocked me, and I wonder why he owed Cheshire a favor. The fight(s) between Orphan and Lady Shiva are simply spectacular in terms of both visual and Lady Shiva’s dialogue. My only issue is that I think Orphan should have actually killed her mother. Wouldn’t that have been wild? I think that would have been a more exciting direction to take the story, and it’s not like there’s any reason to feel sorry for Lady Shiva. I know almost every show is opposed to vengeance, but if anyone deserves it, it’s Orphan. 

Contrary to what Barbara and Artemis preach, I don’t think getting revenge and ridding the world of a monster like Shiva would make Orphan as bad as she is. It’s not like Orphan kills random people or enjoys doing so. I’ve never understood this line of thinking, and I guess I never will. It would be one thing if Orphan simply didn’t want to do the act because of her own morals, but Artemis and Oracle consistently guilt-tripping her out of doing so isn’t the same thing. I find Orphan’s expression telling near the end of “I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings” when Onyx talks about her grandfather’s pacifist nature. Orphan seems to lean more towards the “mistaken” beliefs Onyx formerly held, that words alone can’t create change. 

I also enjoy the scenes with the Kents and specifically how Clark explains to his young son what happened to Conner. I still don’t accept that he’s dead, and I won’t unless there has been no evidence to the contrary by the end of this season. Jade and Onyx’s decision to accept the help of Ra’s al Ghul and Sensei surprised me, and especially in how the episode implies this to be a good choice. Even Artemis supports their choice. Are Ra’s and Sensei redeemed now? Were they never really villains but neutral parties who serve whatever cause suits their needs at the moment? I’m definitely not complaining, but I’m intrigued for sure. I never noticed before that Ra’s is voiced by Oded Fehr, who played Ardeth Bay in 1999’s The Mummy. He’s good in this role, and this was a pleasant surprise. Sensei is voiced by Keone Young, whose voice you may recognize from Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Visions, Samurai Jack, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, the DuckTales! reboot, and more. He has also appeared in video games and numerous live-action films and series, but none that I’m familiar with. 

“Odnu!” is even better. The pre-credits narration about the Lords is unsettling, and the visuals are great, as usual. I’ve always enjoyed Young Justice‘s exploration of its magic-wielding characters, but the resurfacing of The Light is even more exciting, especially Vandal Savage. He was seen in a still in “I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings” as he spoke with Cassandra, but “Odnu!” is his triumphant return to the foreground. I miss the late Miguel Ferrer as his voice actor, but David Kaye is a pretty good replacement. Savage actually doesn’t have any dialogue in the present timeline in “Odnu!” until the end. Aside from this final line, he only speaks the narration of the flashbacks. This is very effective, letting his facial expressions and body language speak for him. His quizzical look when Klarion rushes out of the Light meeting is a great example of this. 

The flashbacks are great. I’ve mentioned a few times that Phantoms relies on flashbacks a lot, but when they’re adding to the story rather than retreading old material, I don’t mind. Despite being a villain who hasn’t had a ton of screentime, Vandal Savage is one of my favorite characters in Young Justice. These flashbacks dig into some of the things that make him so interesting. He’s brutal and self-interested but knows an opportunity when he sees one. Once he realizes what Klarion is and what his value could be, he strikes a bargain with him instead of seeking revenge. Klarion just murdered Vandal’s people, and despite his initial rage, he sees profit in the situation. I’m not saying it’s right or relatable, but it’s fascinating. I also like that in coming to the compromise, he tells Klarion to give him a thousand years. He already knows what he’s capable of and how to do it. 

I admire the brutality on display in “Odnu!” and how it shows just how far the villains are willing to go. Klarion wipes out an entire village out of boredom. Child (who I hope gets a different name) butchers a security guard just to know what a human body looks like from the inside. And we don’t even know what Vandal plans to offer Klarion for his end of their deal. There’s also the sequence where Klarion kills Vandal in different ways every day until he becomes curious about his regenerative abilities. If Young Justice was still on Cartoon Network, scenes like these would never have made it past the editing room. 

I find it really dumb that after they both ask, “What did you do?” Zatanna and Klarion still fight each other. This should have clued both of them in that the other wasn’t responsible for the shift in magical energy. Even though they’re enemies, isn’t finding and confronting the source of the beacon more important than their petty squabbles? I would think even the childish Klarion would be capable of deducing as much. I’m curious to see how Klarion’s encounter with Child will go. Despite being the protagonists in “Odnu!” Zatanna and her students are undoubtedly the least exciting aspect of it. I expect this will get better with time since she doesn’t have much to do here, and this is the first time we’ve met the kids. This episode also furthers Garfield’s storyline, showing that his trauma and depression have pushed him to need sleep meds. 

“I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings” is a great episode of Young Justice, and “Odnu!” is even better. The former features incredible animation and brilliant fight scenes with terrific dialogue. “Odnu!” would be perfect if Zatanna and her students felt more essential to the story. I expect the students especially to get better throughout the season.