Titans Season 1: 3 Ups & 3 Downs From 'Hawk And Dove'
1. Half Of The Main Cast Was Absent
As compelling as Hawk and Dove were, it was a little early to focus primarily on episodic-guests as it risked portraying them as two of the show's primary foursome. This certainly wasn't helped by the fact that half of the series' regulars weren't even featured in the episode.
In the series premiere, Anna Diop did an impressive job as Starfire, even if the narrative was a little perplexing. We still don't know why she was suffering from amnesia, why she was being attacked or why she was even in Austria. As she apparently figured some of that out by the episode's conclusion (we haven't yet), she's likely on her way to Detroit, so her absence this week technically makes sense.
However, Beast Boy didn't receive any kind of spotlight last week as we merely saw him stealing video games and parading around the woods naked. He had absolutely no ties to the story, but it seemed like the bizarre cliffhanger suggested that we would see more of him this week. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way.
It's risky for any show to do an episode without its regular characters early on, but the fact that Titans only has four and produced an episode without half of them just doesn't seem wise. It risks making us care more about Hawk and Dove who, we assume, won't feature as much as the main characters.