Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Titans season 3, episode 10, "Troubled Water."
A continuity error involving Krypto the Superdog highlighted just how illogical a recent episode of Titans actually was. Despite its popularity, Titans has a reputation for confusing plotting, and season 3 episode 10 was no exception – featuring Nightwing and Scarecrow adopting two equally bizarre plans for victory. However, "Troubled Water" was problematic even by the rather loose standards of the show to date.
The central storyline of Titans season 3 found the team migrating from San Francisco to Gotham City, to help keep the peace in the wake of Batman killing the Joker and abandoning his city following the murder of the second Robin, Jason Todd (Curran Walters). It was quickly revealed, however, that Todd was alive (thanks to a dip in the Lazarus Pit) and that he had partnered with the Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser) and adopted a new identity, the Red Hood. Over the course of Titans season 3, this demonic duo tricked the Titans into helping Scarecrow escape from Arkham Asylum and breaking the near-unbreakable seals that prevented them from dumping Scarecrow's latest experimental formula (which made people fearless rather than frightened) into Gotham City's water supply.
As the Titans episode "Troubled Water" opened, the Titans and the GCPD were in full damage control mode, ready to do whatever it took to save the city from Scarecrow's latest scheme. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the criminal mastermind was still several steps ahead of them. With the Red Hood as his right hand, Scarecrow had been able to take control of the Five Families that ran organized crime in Gotham City, but the self-styled Master of Fear had designs to take control of everything else. However, despite this perilous setup, the episode ultimately fails to deliver thanks to its confusing and occasionally non-sensical narrative elements. Here's how a major continuity error highlights what is ultimately one of the show's most illogical chapters.
The Amazing Disappearing Superdog
The episode is full of inconsistencies and unusual plot points, but perhaps the greatest example of Titans erratic writing and direction lay in one of its most subtle and easily overlooked details; the sudden absence of Krypto the Superdog. The canine crime-fighter was clearly visible as the Titans arrived at GCPD Headquarters to turn themselves in, riding in the same vehicle as the rest of the team. However, when the team entered the building, Krypto was nowhere to be seen and he was not a part of the battle between the Titans and the police that followed.
It's possible that there was some missing scene, cut for time, showing Krypto being handed over to a GCPD Animal Control officer. Unfortunately, given the sloppy logic and attention to detail elsewhere in the episode, it seems far more likely the writers forgot Krypto the Superdog was supposed to be there in that scene. Although it might seem like an inconsequential detail, this error is actually crucial in underscoring some of the show's other major flaws.
The Problem With Scarecrow's Plan
One such confusing plot point is Scarecrow's plan to defeat the Titans. Early on in "Troubled Water," Scarecrow streamed a short film onto every television, phone and tablet in Gotham City, showing the world edited footage of the Titans fighting his foot-soldiers. The broadcast blamed the Titans for the poisoned water supply and claimed the Gotham City Police Department were protecting them. The propaganda piece concluded with an offer to pay $50,000 to whoever brought in Nightwing, dead or alive, and a promise that the city's true hero, Red Hood, would save the day.
Granting that the average Gothamite probably possessed a low opinion of the Gotham City Police Department, it still beggared belief that Scarecrow would be so confident in the power of paranoia. Yet so many people became agitated by the thought of the police working with a group of superpowered terrorists that the Titans, even with Nightwing staying off the grid, were unable to corral those citizens driven berserk by Scarecrow's anti-fear toxin without being confronted by angry mobs of ordinary citizens. This left the Titans powerless to protect the city.
For some reason, the Titans and the GCPD didn't see fit to counter Scarecrow's broadcast with a response of their own. It would be easy to see Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Savannah Welch) calling a press conference to explain that the broadcast was the work of the recently escaped Scarecrow and that people should not believe everything they hear online. While the history of Gotham City and Batman's enemies in the world of Titans has not been fully explored, it seems highly unlikely this was the first time that some supervillain threatened the town's water supply or made threats through a pirate broadcast. Given this apparently simple solution, Scarecrow's masterplan seems incredibly flawed.
The Problem With Nightwing's Response
Perhaps surprisingly, Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites) hit upon an even more unlikely plan to combat Scarecrow's propaganda campaign, which he explained to Barbara Gordon over dinner at a restaurant that was suspiciously still open despite the city being under martial law. Nightwing suggested that he and the rest of the Titans could turn themselves in to the police, make a big show of it in the press, and immediately leave to continue fighting Scarecrow after posting bail. This would, Nightwing insisted, restore the public's faith in the GCPD.
Allowing for the fact that Dick Grayson himself admitted that he was "running out of good ideas (and) resorting to bad ones," this seems like a particularly bad plan. It is unlikely that anyone who was conspiracy-minded enough to believe Scarecrow's fearful false-flag operation would be swayed by the Titans turning themselves in to the same corrupt police with whom they were allegedly colluding. There was also no way of guaranteeing the Titans would be allowed to post bail on whatever criminal charges might be leveled against someone for the attempted poisoning of millions of Gothamites. The question of whether or not superheroes could be booked under their alias and not have their secret identity revealed to the public was also ignored.
The Problem With Barbara Gordon's Arrest
Near the end of Titans season 3, episode 10, "Troubled Water," Commissioner Barbara Gordon was arrested by the GCPD. The charges against her went undescribed, but it seems likely they involved her shooting the crooked cop whom Red Hood had bribed into provoking a fight between the police and the Titans, as they surrendered. The problem is that Commissioner Gordon had given repeated orders for her officers to stand down, the crooked cop ignored two direct orders to drop his weapon while trying to shoot Nightwing in the back and Barbara made a clean, non-lethal shot that disabled the shooter without killing him. While it's understandable the GCPD would want to hold some sort of investigation into the incident, it seems unlikely they would go so far as to arrest their Commissioner under the circumstances.
The Problem With Donna Troy's Journey
The story of Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) took place independent of the rest of the action of the Titans episode "Troubled Water," with the Amazon heroine struggling to get into Gotham City to reunite with her teammates, having just escaped from the afterlife. With Gotham City seemingly sealed off from the outside world by military forces, Donna was forced to approach the city on foot and entered into an altercation with two soldiers that ended with her bending one soldier's gun after snatching it away from him at super-speed.
While the fight scene was impressive, it did raise the question of why Donna was leisurely walking into Gotham City instead of running into action and why she felt the need to confront the soldiers in the first place when she could easily have evaded them with her powers and training. The only answer is that the writers of Titans seemed to want to acknowledge that they made a mistake regarding how Donna died in Titans season 2, with Donna nonchalantly noting "Been there, done that," after one soldier attempted to taser her. On their own, many of these mistakes might go unnoticed. However, put all together with the context of a character who literally seems to vanish, these incidents underscore a major problem with Titans story so far.