‘Young Justice: Phantoms’ Episode 20 SPOILER Recap/Review ‘Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!’

This review contains SPOILERS for Young Justice: Phantoms, for the last review click here.

The title of this seasons Young Justice has had me curious since the first episode. Phantoms, who are they? What are they? Why are they? To be quite honest until the season restarted it was a tad bit confusing. We’ve been ta Mars, Atlantis, Supertown, Earth, and… The Phantom Zone. We know Connor Kent wasn’t killed. He was sent to the Phantom Zone by Megan’s brother Ma’ala’falek, who planted bombs in a cave on Mars. We all thought much like Wally and the others, he was dead. We found out after the midseason break was over he wasn’t dead. Now, for me at least, the Young Justice: Phantoms makes sense. I’m sure you all figured it out far before I did.

We are still in Supertown on this episode of Young Justice: Phantoms. Ma’ala’falek tricks Rocket into thinking he’s Orion, and he pulls some information about Metron off of her; What he did with the Rupture Cell from the last episode. Ma’ala’falek put a tracer on it that would lead them to where Metron stores things. They want the last Phantom projector from Krypton so they can free The House of Zod. It’s obviously apart of Darkseid’s elaborate plan. The trio led by Lor-Zod goes to the Morbius Dimension where Metron is located. He fends them off for a bit after tricking them and pulling out Kryptonite. They eventually get the  projector after Metron leaves to New Genesis for back up.

Read: ‘Halo’ Episodes 5 & 6 Spoiler Recap/Review

On New Genesis, the council is till going. Orion is confused when Rocket tries to make it seem like they’ve made amends because it wasn’t him she spoke to. The New Gods want Halo and Cyborg on New Genesis. Halo has part of the anti-life equation in her and Cyborg was created by a Motherbox. So, the New Gods feel like they should be under their protection and away from Darkseid. Rocket disagrees and so does Bear who comes to visit his Earth friends. Everybody pays their respects to Connor Kent, as they continue to bicker about the details of their arrangement.

Beast Boy goes to therapy with Black Canary. Which turns out to be a crazy interaction. Beast Boy is still grieving. He isn’t just grieving Connor and Wally. He’s grieving his mother as well, and every situation where he’s lost somebody. He doesn’t wanna do TV anymore, and he wants his team back, The Outsiders. He’s stopped taking the sleeping pills, and he’s trying to refocus. Also, he wants to apologize to Megan and his team. Beast Boy is going through a mental collapse, he’d been on the verge, but Connor was the ultimate catalyst.

In the Phantom Zone, Connor and General Zod are still getting around. He takes Connor and Phantom Girl to a type of encampment where the House of Zod is. Connor has no idea who they are. He doesn’t know the history of the his house (El) and the Zod House. They are indeed playing him. Zod shows him how to get around the Phantom Zone. He tells him that everything there requires pure and sheer will. The question is, what is the endgame here? They clearly know something is going on that will spring them free. Given where they are located though, how?

Darkseid’s plan isn’t obvious because of all his deals. Vandal Savage, Ma’ala’falek, Lor-Zod just to name a few. If I had to guess he wants to kill all the (good) Kryptonians and enslave the universe using the anti-life equation. Typical Darkseid, but that would likely cause a war between him and his ‘partners’. We will see how it all pans out soon enough. Darkseid and Vandal Savage are two of the greatest DC villains so how this goes will be interesting.

Vinton Heuck gives us a less intense but very important episode. He delivers with very minimal action, but showing the importance of the situation for the bad guys. It also kind of makes everything make sense. It’s the glue we needed to continue the season. We’ve bounced around different areas, but this was essential. Greg Wiseman’s teleplay is interesting. Beast Boy finally opens up, and as someone who deals with a mental health problem this was great to see. It isn’t good for Beast Boy but for people to see that therapy can actually open you up is cool.  I enjoyed Beast Boy and Canary’s dialogue. She opened him up and got him to say what’s been eating him alive for four seasons.

We shall continue this journey across the galaxy and wonder where the writers’ room takes us next. The conclusion of this season hopefully leads us to a fifth and final season. It’s been a long and interesting road. Young Justice is definitely one of the greatest superhero cartoons. Season three was faulty but other than that it’s been spot on. This one has been the most elaborate as far as planning and things go. DC fans truly have something they can continuously enjoy. – Rascal F. Kennedy 

Rating – 8/10

New episodes of Young Justice stream Thursdays on HBO Max