Warning: SPOILERS for the Titans episodes “Caul’s Folly” and “Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory” are ahead!
Joshua Orpin’s Conner Kent, a.k.a. Superboy, has been through a lot in Titans Season 4, starting with him meeting Lex Luthor, one of his genetic fathers, only to watch Titus Welliver’s version of the Superman adversary die an agonizing death not long after. But even with Lex gone, a series of events has led to Conner behaving more like him and even look like him, as evidenced by the shaved head. Now the show’s two-episode midseason premiere has seen Conner taking even more strange actions, which, as showrunner Greg Walker told CinemaBlend, will lead to the show going into “uncomfortable” territory with this character.
Ahead of “Caul’s Folly” and “Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory” premiering to HBO Max subscribers, I chatted with Greg Walker about the midseason premiere, which he directed, marking his first time he’s stepped behind the camera in this way for Titans. Given Superboy’s Luthor-ish behavior of late and taking actions that his teammates wouldn’t necessarily approve on, I brought up the character’s state of mind to Walker, and he had this to say:
Well, you know, there’s only a few actions the team wouldn’t agree with. I think everyone knows Conner needs to explore… since the very beginning, and we set up months ago, the struggle Conner has in terms of identity. Am I Superman’s son or am I Lex’s son? And that exploration of that struggle has to come full circle, meaning he has to go through the Lex side in order to understand, ‘Am I Lex or not?’, right? As writers, we didn’t want to pull the punches and have him shave his head for a week, then put on a leather jacket and act tough, and then go ‘Yeah, Lex is not for me.’ He needed to see in himself that he crossed a line, and I think some fans are going to be uncomfortable with that. Because he does cross a line, I think. I was uncomfortable with how far it went, but I think it was important for his character to see that in order to then pull back and understand that’s not who he is, and then go back to the Titans.
When we left off with Titans’ title heroes in the Season 4 midseason finale, their ally, Lisa Ambalavanar’s Jinx, has been killed by Mother Mayhem, and Sebastian Sanger had completed the ritual to become Brother Blood. However, the protagonists then mysteriously disappeared, although in Beast Boy’s case, we knew he'd specifically been taken to The Red. As for the others, they were returned safe and sound to their reality hours later at the beginning of “Caul’s Folly,” but it didn’t take Conner long to start doing his own thing again. After discovering a book left by Lex Luthor containing clues on what the Cult of Blood had planned for Trigon, he kept a letter penned by Lex for his eyes alone and left to parts unknown.
Superboy then didn’t resurface until the end of “Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory,” when he approached Sebastian Sanger at a restaurant and bought him a drink so that they could toast “the future” together. Sebastian left Mother Mayhem’s side after learning he couldn’t hurt Raven, his half-sister, without hurting himself. Additionally, he was left pondering that he’s simply a tool being used to bring back Trigon, their demonic father, and once that’s done, he’ll be a “nobody” again. But now Conner is hatching his own scheme that he wants to bring Sebastian into, and that’s exactly the sort of thing Lex Luthor would have done.
But as Greg Walker told me, it’s not like Conner emulating Lex Luthor is something permanent. After several seasons of channeling his inner Superman, Titans Season 4 was an opportunity to explore the other half of his heritage, but it was also important that this wasn’t just a quick personality change. As such, Conner will continuing walking down the path of Luthor until he crosses that line Walker mentioned, which some viewers may uncomfortable, but that’s the point.
Titans and Doom Patrol were both cancelled in January, but fortunately for the former show, Greg Walker told me that this “didn’t disrupt” what had been plotted for Season 4. The show’s remaining episodes will continue premiering Thursdays on HBO Max, and be sure to see what else is currently airing using our 2023 TV schedule.
