The Titans season 2 premiere was a trippy opening episode thanks to Trigon - here are all the crazy dreams each member of the team experiences. Although not originally intended to end on a cliffhanger, Titans' first season concluded with Rachel's demonic father, Trigon, placing Dick Grayson into a dream-like world where he killed off Batman, embraced his inner darkness and was subsequently enslaved to Trigon's will.
Titans' season 2 opener ramped up the stakes considerably, as Trigon's influence extended to virtually every one of the protagonists attempting to stop him - a group that encompassed both the old Titans and Titans 2.0. Using these visions, Trigon was able to corrupt the collected heroes by offering them a choice to either accept or deny their darkness and every single one of them chose the former, thereby becoming mindless slaves and gaining some instant black eye makeup that the The Cure's Robert Smith would be proud of.
The mind-bending business begins as Rachel and Gar attempt to escape the house Trigon has turned into his own personal otherworldly domain. Running between rooms, the young duo watch on as the corridor before them begins to stretch Alice in Wonderland style, and black demon goop begins to appear on the walls. Creepily, the eyes in each of the house's photographs take on the Trigon-possessed look. These visions are slightly different from the others in the episode since Rachel and Gar are not inhabiting a dream world, Trigon is merely forcing them to see things that don't exist.
At this point, this real craziness begins and Anna Diop's Starfire is the first to fall victim. She enters the "house" and meets with Rachel and Gar, looking to help them escape. However, Rachel reminds Starfire that she was originally sent to Earth on an assassination mission, and since Trigon is now threatening the entire universe, she should complete that task and kill Rachel for good. After initially hesitating, Starfire slaps down Gar and toasts Rachel into an unrecognizable pile of ashes. Trigon is playing on Starfire's guilt to win her over to his team.
A similar tactic is used to enslave Donna Troy, better known as Wonder Girl. Trigon puts Donna in a memory of her worst day - the time her apartment block was set on fire and her father killed by the blaze. Not realizing she was inhabiting an illusion, Donna desperately tries to save her father, but fails. Upon walking out of her old home, Wonder Girl sees the man responsible for starting the fire and, despite pleas for mercy, throws him out of the window. This scene is inspired by Donna's comic book origins, in which Wonder Woman discovers an orphaned Donna after the apartment blaze and takes her back to Paradise Island.
Unlike the other heroes, Jason Todd needs very little encouragement to embrace his darkness. Trigon places Robin mk. 2 in exactly the same vision as Dick Grayson, immediately following the death of Batman. Seeing his mentor's corpse, Dick and Jason start brawling, with the original Robin dominating throughout. Eventually, Jason grabs Joe Chill's revolver (kept in the Batcave as a poignant reminder of Bruce's calling) and shoots Grayson in the head. Here, Trigon is exploiting Jason's desperation to prove himself and his natural anger.
As usual, Hawk and Dove come as a pair in their vision and Trigon takes a slightly different approach in turning them. Receiving a drugs delivery (from the demon himself, no less) Hawk convinces her partner that the gear is the perfect antidote to their troubles. As Dove appears to take an overdose, both characters are corrupted, presumably because both played a part in dream-Dove's death.
These dream sequences command a sizable chunk of the Titans season 2 premiere and, given that the season 1 finale followed a similar format, the episode takes on a slightly disjointed feel as a result. Viewers know these scenes aren't taking place in the real world, meaning the actual plot developments arrive fairly slowly.
Titans season 2 continues with "Rose" September 13th on DC Universe.