Young Justice: Outsiders - 4 Ups & 2 Downs From Episodes 7-9

1. Finally Some Answers

This week's second episode, 'Triptych', was fragmented into three short acts, each one following a particular team of heroes. It opened with Nightwing recalling the progress of his mission with Artemis, Conner and the Outsiders as they tracked down Cheshire, Livewire and Shade. Following that, in a seemingly separate situation, M'Gann and Kaldur spoke with Wonder Woman about the progress of their mission with The Flash and Captain Marvel as they attempted to stop Sportsmaster from freeing Shade and Brick. Finally, Robin spoke with Batman about his mission with Spoiler, Arrowette and Orphan as they tried to free Clayface and an unknown metahuman from the Mad Hatter's mind control.

However, this three-part adventure was a cleverly executed way of revealing that these three stories were, in fact, three fractions of a single mission. In a jaw-dropping twist, it was revealed that Nightwing, Robin, M'Gann, Kaldur and Oracle were independently working with Justice Leaguer Wonder Woman and ex-Leaguer Batman.

As shocking as it was, it effectively answered so many of our questions. We now know why Batman quit the League in the first place, why Robin came with him and, most of all, why Nightwing refused to reveal Oracle's presence to Artemis, Conner and Jefferson. It all leads back to this newly-formed team. They are the covert ops within an already covert team, the secret organization within a public faction and, perhaps most importantly, the direct antithesis of The Light.