The Titans, “Hank & Dawn”, Review!

This episode starts off a video recording of two men, one dressed up in red helmet and superhero gear, Hawk.  The camera man is his brother, Dove (Elliot Knight).  Hawk gets his helmet tangled in a clothesline and takes it off even though his brother reminds him the doctor said he needs it.  Hawk points out the suspect, Dwayne Wainwright (Bas Reitsma), who was downloading pictures of a ten year old.  Dove kicks Dwayne and Hawk wants his turn.  He slams Dwayne into a tree and punches him.  Hawk loves being a superhero.  The current Hawk, Hank Hall, uncaps a bottle of whisky.  Dawn Granger is unconscious in her hospital bed with a breathing tube.  He hears the battle with the Nuclear Family echo in his memory.  He leaves her room and walks the hospital halls, then lockpicks his way into a staff room to take a bottle of pills. Asleep in a chair, he thinks back to a football game,  he is a young kid (Tait Blum) knocking down players and outrunning them all to score a goal.  Watching the game is another kid, Donnie (Hayden Marine), who cheers on Hank.  After the game, he is in his school clothes in the locker, and Donnie is talking to Coach Vincent (Trevor Hayes).  The coach brings up that their mother works and that they have two different dads.  This is a private school without supervision.  

THE TITANS -- “Hank & Dawn” -- Christos Kalohordis/©2018 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Hank uses some colorful language to emphasize they have to go.  The coach says he will bring up that they both used profanity.  Coach Vincent says his scholarship will be revoked and they will be sent back to the slums.  Hank offers to go to the weight room, sends off Donnie, and the coach closes the door to the room.  The older Don in a Superman t-shirt watches football with his brother playing on a college team.  Knight played Merlin in Once Upon a Time. Don is surprised that Hank takes a bad hit.  Hank, in his Kesel Lions jacket, is at a party. Donnie is there and fears he may have gotten a concussion.  Hank sounds like the party boy, loud mouth jock who may be injured and lose his ride.  He starts to get woozy and collapses.  Later, the doctor asks him about his migraines.  She diagnoses his condition as post-concussion syndrome.  The doctor prescribes him some pills for the pain and rest.  Hank is eager to get back to playing.  Donnie is busy writing when Hank barges into the library angry that he called the athletic director.  They scream at each other and one student tries to calm Hank down and he is knocked out.  His friends continue the fight and Donnie is their equal, the brothers are a deadly team.  I know what happens to Dove and why there is a new Dove.   

The dean is angry at both of them especially Donnie who is a good student taking martial arts.  He has had enough of the school taking from his brother and wants both of them expelled.  Later, they walk the streets, and enter an apartment.  Hank goes to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom in the mirror is Rachel calling out his name.  He closes the cabinet and begins collecting beer bottles.  Hank explains to his brother that he is the bad kid and unleashes his bad side out on the field.  Donnie says it’s his fault because of the locker room.  Hank says that nothing happened.  Donnie suggests another outlet for his violence.  He shows Hank on his computer the sexual predators in their neighborhood.  Donnie says the system failed their mother who became sick and died.  This is an interesting take on “realistic” street level heroes.  Hank wonders about a name for the duo.  Donnie picks up a yearbook with the Elmwood Hawks.  Rachel pleads from the computer screen.  We get Hank asleep in the chair next to Dawn’s bed.  This shifts to Dawn and her memories.  The silhouettes of ballet dancers on stage.  Dawn is the lead ballerina.  Her mother cheers from the audience.  They have tea afterwards where her mother says she is returning to London.  Dawn is angry that she is going back to an abusive relationship.  Her sister, Holly, escaped him.  Donnie and Hank finds their heroism has made the front page of the Washington Sentinel.  Hank runs into Dawn walking with her mother.  A nice meet cute, but it is all too brief.  

THE TITANS -- “Hank & Dawn” -- Christos Kalohordis/©2018 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A van veers out of control and crashes into the newsstand, Hank calls out for his brother!  Later, Dawn joins a grief group, and she declines to speak.  The counselor asks Hank if he wants to speak, but he also passes.  Dawn enters a bar to see Hank drinking.  She says her mother died that day, Hank is dismissive, and admits his younger brother died.  The next meeting Hank is missing from his chair.  Dawn talks about the unfairness of the accident.  Hank sees her after she leaves.  They talk over drinks and tea.  There is a sense of normalcy with these two trying to heal.  It really seems like a variation of Nite Owl and Silk Spectre in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen.  She stays over night and uncovers the mask from a closet.  They watch the video of their first night, Dawn smiles, while Hank is sad.  Hank tells Dawn about Coach Vincent and admits that Hawk and Dove didn’t confront him.  Later, Dawn walks into the bathroom and finds Hank’s pills.  She sees the yearbook and also photo of the coach.  The interesting part is Dove taking revenge.  

Hank wakes up, Dawn is missing, and then sees Coach Vincent on her computer.  Dawn pulls up to a house and Coach Vincent answers the door.  She wants him to admit what he did to Hank and turn himself in.  Dawn barges into the house.  Coach Vincent pulls a gun on her.  She knocks the gun out of his hand and he beats her to the floor.  Dawn takes broken glass and shoves it into his leg.  Coach Vincent reaches for his gun and his hand is crushed by a shoe.  Hank lifts him up and punches him repeatedly.  Dawn sees that he has pictures of kids on his computer.  He wants her to leave, but she refuses and closes the door.  They undress and kiss.  In the morning, Dawn says they can’t be together, she is about to leave when Rachel calls out.  Dawn sees her and this wakens her in her hospital bed.  She shakes Hank awake and tells him to find Jason Todd for Rachel.  Dawn collapses in his arms.  This episode mostly focuses on the Hawk and Dove story with the minor appearance of Rachel to keep the Titans story going.  The similarity to Watchmen is not striking in originality, but the drinking, Hank’s concussion headaches, and that they both go to a counseling group is novel.   

Four Wing Dings out of Five!  

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