"The Beast Within" is the ninth episode of season three and the overall 35th episode of the Teen Titans series.
Synopsis[]
After a battle with Adonis, Beast Boy has a dramatic change where he is rude, eats meat and has a major temper that could burst at any moment. This causes the Titans to worry but soon things become worse when Raven and Beast Boy go missing and find Raven in the jaws of a werewolf-like beast. The creature is soon revealed to be Beast Boy and the Titans believe he is the one who attacked Raven. Will the team be forced to send Beast Boy to prison or is there something else lurking in the shadows?

A new, but not improved Beast Boy.
Plot[]
Inside an animal testing laboratory, the Teen Titans fight Adonis. The battle-suited villain easily defeats four of the Titans, but enrages Beast Boy to the point where the latter literally cuts loose and attacks Adonis furiously. During their fight, they accidentally puncture a tank containing strange chemicals and get drenched by them. After Adonis is beaten, Beast Boy exits the lab in an extremely aggressive mood, telling the other Titans that he got sick of being pushed around, leaving the other Titans bewildered.
The next morning, Beast Boy begins to display very untypical behavior, even for him: He suddenly develops an appetite for meat, becomes downright rude, meaner, and both more aggressive and hostile, and under stress even turns into his animal forms more frequently. When he finally feels unjustly provoked by Raven, he attempts to fight her, but is stopped by the others, who are put off by his manners lately. Beast Boy walks away to his quarters, destroying his furniture while ranting, and suddenly transforms into a huge hulking monster. Raven, passing by his room, hears a strange sound, but as she attempts to see what is going on, a monster comes out and attacks her.

The Green Werebeast holding Raven in his teeth.
Upon hearing Raven's cry, Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg rally, but they find Beast Boy and Raven missing and Beast Boy's quarters devastated by claw marks. Following Raven's tracer, they find her in the sewers hanging unconscious and injured from the fangs of a big green werewolf monster. The creature proves to be a very tough opponent to fight, and only with the greatest effort do the Titans manage to subdue it - to find out to their immense surprise that the creature was none other than Beast Boy; dazed, confused, and unaware of where he is.
In the Tower's sickbay, Cyborg notices upon analysis that a strange genetic compound has mingled with Beast Boy's DNA. Cyborg explains that because of Beast Boy morphing abilities, his genetic code has always been unstable. He assumes that Beast Boy may be finally falling apart. Robin starts to interrogate Beast Boy about what happened, but he firmly states that he cannot remember. When Robin pushes Beast Boy too hard, the latter looses control and once again transforms into the werebeast, and immediately goes after Raven. The Titans drive him away and back into the city; Robin and Cyborg take up pursuit, while Starfire stays behind to guard Raven. Robin ends up shooting an exploding Birdarang at the werebeast, which causes it to cry out loudly. Some time later, Raven wakes up, but she testifies that Beast Boy had not attacked, but saved her.

Beast Boy feeling all grown up.
Robin and Cyborg follow Beast Boy back into the sewers - to encounter actually two werebeasts fighting each other. Initially, the other werebeast overwhelms Beast Boy, violently beating and throwing him about the sewers while taking no damage in return. After smashing him through the floor and into a lower level of the sewers, the other werebeast begins mercilessly beating the incapacitated Beast Boy until he appears to be unconscious. As the foe turns away, Beast Boy quickly recovers and brutally beats the beast in revenge, eventually knocking it out. Beast Boy then turns back into his true self, as does the opposing unconscious werebeast, who is revealed to be none other than ... “Adonis”, as Robin spits in disgust, who had broken into the tower to attack Beast Boy. Robin and Cyborg then meet in their location, and just then realize just how powerful their supposed "weakest" member of the Teen Titans was.

Raven and Beast Boy having a moment.
After the strange compound is identified as the cause and an antidote administered, Adonis was taken by the authorities. Later, Beast Boy sits on the Tower island's shore, where he is joined by Raven. Raven explains to Beast Boy what happened the night of the attack: Adonis had broken in to the Tower, with intention to attack him and soon attacked her as well. Beast Boy is also disturbed and disappointed of his recent behavior and apologizes to Raven for everything, but she assures him that it wasn't his own fault as he was not himself (thought it doesn't mean he's innocent). Beast Boy, however is also still shaken by the knowledge of what this new form is capable of, and is still fearful about this animalistic self lurking deep inside him. Raven gently reassures him that knowing when to let this bestial side out makes him all the more human and more of a man. Feeling more mature now, Beast Boy considers a change of name - perhaps “Beast Man”... however Raven simply smirks and tells him that they're having a moment, and to not ruin it.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Supporting Characters[]
Villains[]
Trivia[]
- The title is possibly a reference to the 1982 film The Beast Within.
- It is revealed that Starfire's favorite television program is "World of Fungus".
- Beast Boy eats meat and eggs for the first and only time in this episode.
- Beast Boy's natural hands, feet, and arms are seen for the first time due to the rips in his costume (not including the sight gags in "Forces of Nature" and "Transformation").
- The animals that Beast Boy turned into in this episode are a wolf, a bull, a baboon, a tiger, a Bigfoot/Sasquatch, a rhinoceros, an Ankylosaurus, a lion, a bear, and the Werebeast.
- Writer David Slack watched "An American Werewolf in London" for inspiration.
- This episode has similarities with Bubblevicious from The Powerpuff Girls, where Beast Boy and Bubbles had a notable change of personality after some commentaries from others characters, to where they both developed a rude and aggressive personality, to the point where they became prone to violence to solve their problems. Though that in the case of Beast Boy, his change of personality was a result of being exposed to the chemicals of the laboratory, while Bubbles had this change by her own initiative.
- Beast Boy's fighting style as the Werebeast seems to take inspiration from that of Blanka from Street Fighter. This is most noticeable when he beats up Adonis at the end of the episode.
Continuity[]
- This is the second time Beast Boy's toy cymbal monkey appeared in this episode from "Fear Itself", but it was later seen when Beast Boy threw it against the wall thus breaking it.
- Beast Boy still used his Werebeast form in "The End - Part 1".
Goofs[]
- When Robin grabs a piece of Raven's cloak off the gate, it is torn. However, afterwards, Raven's cloak is shown to be undamaged.
- Raven's position on the ground changes after Beast Boy (as the Werebeast) puts her on the floor. At first, she was on her front side, but when Starfire flies over to her, she is on her back.
- When Beast Boy and Adonis (as Werebeasts) are fighting in the sewers, Adonis bites Beast Boy's right arm, but in the following scene, he is shown biting his left arm instead.
Gallery[]
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Transcript[]
Click here to view the episode transcript.