Warning: SPOILERS for Young Justice season 4, episode 13, "Kaerb Ym Traeh!"
The Young Justice season 4 mid-season finale brought the battle between Order and Chaos to a close while setting the stage for the conflicts to come in the series' second half in 2022. Chief among these is an escalation in the war between Earth and Apokolips. However, the Young Justice mid-season finale also continued to develop the slow-boiling subplots involving the apparent death of Superboy and Beast Boy's battles with addiction.
The third story arc of Young Justice season 4 (a.k.a. Young Justice: Phantoms) centered around the magician Zatanna and her three apprentices, Traci Thirteen, Khalid Nassour, and the former Shazam protégé Mary Bromfield. The young heroes found themselves trapped in a conflict that threatened to destroy the world, after the Lord of Chaos known as Child was sent to replace Klarion the Witch Boy, whom the other Lords of Chaos felt had grown lax in his duties. This proved to be a bad thing for Earth, as Child preferred senseless killing and violent destruction to the random mischief perpetrated by Klarion, threatening to rip the world asunder with pillars of fire.
The Young Justice season 4 mid-season finale found Zatanna convincing Nabu to enter into the conflict. Despite the Lord of Order behind the mystic Doctor Fate being reluctant to get involved (and even more reluctant to work with Klarion the Witch Boy) a temporary truce was negotiated and the world was saved. However, there are still many mysteries awaiting answers in the second half of Young Justice season 4 and many questions raised by the Young Justice mid-season finale. Here it all is explained.
Who Is The Mystery Mage?
Just after Nabu and Klarion forged their unlikely alliance and went off to face Child together, the North Pole location where they met was visited by two women, who traveled through a magical gateway shaped like a blue scarab. The white-haired woman is the Justice League member Ice, but even the most dedicated of Young Justice fans could be forgiven for not recognizing her, as she's only appeared on the show twice before in Young Justice season 3 and never had a speaking role, like many of the heroes in Young Justice's Justice League. The identity of the woman in the golden helmet proves even more difficult to pin down, but the shape of her gate and her helmet suggest that she is Isis, whose spirit Zatanna evoked in the Young Justice season 2 episode "Intervention" to cleanse Blue Beetle of the influence of the Reach. Presumably, Isis has been restored to life since then or found a host to inhabit in the same way that Nabu takes control of others through the Helmet of Fate. In either case, this new Isis pays tribute to the heroine created for the 1970's Shazam! television series.
What Is Vandal Savage's Endgame?
Despite being prepared to abandon Earth, Vandal Savage stepped up to plead for the Lords of Chaos and the Lords of Order to work together for the sake of saving the Earth in Young Justice season 4, episode 13, "Kaerb Ym Traeh!" There was little altruism in this act, however, and the Lords pointed out that the current imbalance was largely Savage's fault, thanks to his alliance with Darkseid having made Earth into a significant front in the eternal battle between Order and Chaos. Savage swayed the Lords, however, by noting that his alliance was Darkseid was fated to force a battle between Earth and Apokolips and that both Order and Chaos would cease to have any meaning should Darkseid win the war and discover the Young Justice version of the Anti-Life Equation.
The brief scene showcased the wit that makes Vandal Savage a fearsome foe and the chief villain of Young Justice in many respects. However, the revelation that he is fully aware of the folly of his plans for conquest raises the question of what his ultimate goals truly are. It's possible Savage truly is trying to build a better tomorrow and preserve the human race at any cost. However, it's equally likely that his bargain with Darkseid was born of desperation and intended to buy Savage more of the one thing he ironically doesn't lack as an immortal tyrant: time.
Is Superboy Still Alive?
Near the end of the Young Justice season 4 mid-season finale, Zatanna had a vision of Superboy calling for help, apparently trapped in a place full of blue crystals. Superboy had seemingly been killed earlier in the season, but some fans have theorized that his death was averted (or perhaps faked) by the Legion of Superheroes so that he could be taken forward in time without causing a paradox. Zatanna's vision would seem to disprove these theories, as Zatanna specifically says that she "saw Conner's spirit... his ghost... " and felt he wasn't at rest. However, the otherworldly background could also confirm another theory that Superboy became trapped in the Phantom Zone. This would also add another meaning to the Young Justice season 4 subtitle of Phantoms.
Will Beast Boy Get Help?
Beast Boy's growing depression and inability to cope with Superboy's death has been a continuing subplot running through the background of Young Justice: Phantoms. Earlier episodes showed Beast Boy (aka Garfield Logan) being unable to sleep and turning to over-the-counter opiates to cope with the problem, in a far more realistic take on the many anti-drug storylines featured in comics and cartoons centered around young superheroes. The storyline came to a head in the Young Justice season 4 mid-season finale, after Beast Boy's girlfriend, Perdita, discovered his drug use and begged him to seek help. The brief scene ended with Beast Boy insisting that he didn't need help and that he didn't care if Perdita left or stayed with him, leaving his fate heading into the second half of Young Justice: Phantoms unclear.
How Much Does Black Canary Know About The Future?
The closing credits of Young Justice season 4, episode 13, "Kaerb Ym Traeh!," showed Black Canary talking to the magic hero Zatara, who had just freed himself from the influence of Nabu. The two discussed the events of the episode and it was revealed that Black Canary (who is a counselor in her secret identity of Dinah Lance on Earth-16) had spent the last 10 years treating a number of children who had briefly become lost in time and space as a side-effect of the battle between Child and Klarion the Witch Boy. Black Canary said that these children "told me things, gave me foreknowledge, which I couldn't possibly share..." This begs the question of just how much Black Canary might know about future events, given that the children were shown traveling to other worlds, including Apokolips, and other times.
What Are Granny Goodness' Plans For Mary Bromfield?
The Young Justice season 4 mid-season finale closed with a post-credits scene, which seemed to confirm theories that the second half of Young Justice: Phantoms will be adapting the Countdown to Final Crisis storyline from the comics, in which Mary Marvel became a servant of Apokolips. The brief scene showed a dejected Mary Bromfield being comforted by a mysterious voice that encouraged her to say the name of Shazam and change back into her alter ego of Sergeant Marvel. The voice was that of Granny Goodness, who had not been seen since Young Justice season 3. This would seem to confirm that Granny Goodness intends to remake Mary into one of her Female Furies. However, this does nothing to explain what Granny Goodness' latest plan is and what other heroines she might seek to corrupt in the second half of Young Justice season 4.