Warning! Spoilers ahead for Titans season 3, episode 7, “Home.”

In Titans season 3, episode 8, “Home,” Scarecrow reveals that he is planning to spike Gotham’s water supply with his fear toxin, a story that is being repeated in a DC adaptation for the third time. Titans season 3 has been drawing on several major Batman comics for its plotlines and character arcs, including “Death in the Family” and “Battle for the Cowl.” Now it seems that the show is taking influence from other adaptations of Scarecrow for his latest plan.

While Titans season 3 initially positioned Jason Todd’s Red Hood (Curran Walters) as the season’s primary antagonist, it was soon revealed that Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser) was the puppet master behind Jason and had orchestrated his resurrection. In episode 7, “51%,” Scarecrow’s plan to generate a huge number of inhalers filled with his fear toxin to be distributed to willing civilians was destroyed by the Titans. With Jason Todd breaking their partnership, episode 8 sees a broken Scarecrow looking for a desperate alternative to his plan as he plots to introduce his toxin directly into Gotham’s water supply.

Related: Titans: Why Scarecrow Could've Already Poisoned Dick & Barbara

This Titans plotline for Scarecrow might seem familiar as a version of it has been done twice before in comic adaptations across the last 30 years. Most recently, Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of the character launched the plot in Christopher Nolan’s 2005 Batman Begins. While Batman is able to subdue Scarecrow, Ra’s Al Ghul then plans to use a device to aerosolize the city’s water supply meaning that all of Gotham would be infected at once. Before that, the plotline appeared in Batman: The Animated Series in the 1992 episode “Dreams in Darkness.” The episode drew on the “Batman: The Last Arkham” comic storyline that had been released earlier that year and saw Batman locked in Arkham Asylum after he was exposed to Scarecrow’s toxin. Scarecrow, also supposedly locked in Arkham, snuck into a cavern below Arkham and tried to poison the city’s water supply from there.

Titans Batcave Easter Egg Scarecrow Mask

Titans season 3 has made many changes to Scarecrow’s presentation to make him fit 2021 and to more appropriately fit the role of a primary antagonist for the series (while he is a major player in Batman Begins, he ultimately plays second fiddle to Ra’s Al Ghul). At first, his drug habit is designed to make him seem less dangerous in Titans, a little cooky, and to acknowledge the changing attitude towards marijuana usage over recent years. However, he has been made into an even darker character gradually over the season, one who is feared by the heads of Gotham’s underworld and who apparently has little compunction about killing his own mother. Yet, the show has not forgotten the key elements that make Scarecrow the iconic Batman villain he is, and this call back to earlier plots reflects that.

The Scarecrow of Titans season 3 is more menacing, but in the wake of the failure of his initial plan, the character seems to have somewhat of a mental breakdown. This leaves his story feeling disjointed and suggests his new plot is formed out of desperation. However, it also foreshadows how Scarecrow will be defeated: exposure to his own toxin. With his fears already laid out by the show, this would be the natural way for the character to end as it has also reliably been the way that he has been defeated before, both in Batman Begins and in more than one episode of Batman: The Animated Series.

Next: Titans' New Bat Signal Supports Dick Grayson Becoming Batman Theory

Titans releases new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max.

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