X

X
Episode Number	028
Broadcast Number	028
Season	03
Original Airdate	September 4, 2004
Production Code	257-482
Guest Characters	Red X and Professor Chang
Written by	David Slack
Directed by	Ben Jones
Chronology
Previous	"Deception"
Next	"Betrothed"

"X" is the second episode of season three and the overall 28th episode of the Teen Titans series.

Synopsis

Robin's past comes back to haunt him when the Titans are shocked to see the return of a villain they never thought they see again... Red X. It turns out that someone has stolen the suit and has now donned himself Robin's old villain identity and is out to gain himself a rare but dangerous chemical that powers the suit. Now Robin must face his past mistake if he and the team stand any chance to stop Red X, but Red X is not the only thing they need to worry about as soon something much worse will threaten the city.

Plot

As the Teen Titans attempt to stop a break-in of a warehouse, Robin narrates a muse on the true nature of Good and Evil. The story is being explained all the while the culprit weaves through the security systems and the Titans follow him until they have him cornered in the main storage facility. And to their shock, they discover that the culprit behind this break-in is none other than Red X.

Despite the Titans' best efforts, Red X's mastery over the battlesuit's weapons combined with his own combat prowess manages to best them. He steals the device he came for and though his power belt briefly malfunctions, he vanishes into the night with the aid of the belt's teleporter. After convincing the rest of the Titans that he had nothing to do with the mysterious return of a villain of his own creation, Robin explains the full backstory behind the manifestation of Red X:

As the leader of a team of exceptional champions tasked with protecting Jump City from crime and villainy, he is always expected to be able to see the fine line between him and the people he fights. But back then, the line was impossible to see. A madman was threatening the city, and Robin's plan to defeat him was to create the persona of a ruthless thief who could get closer to the madman than Robin as himself ever could. However, his plan failed because he did not trust his teammates with the plan, and he almost lost his life and his friends because of it. That mistake was the closest he ever came to crossing the line. Since then, the Robin locked away the suit hoping this mistake would never again see the light of day. Upon returning to the tower, Robin discovers that the Red X suit has indeed been stolen from the vault Robin locked it away in, and he makes it his mission to catch the crook responsible. The Titan's investigation as to who he is proves completely hopeless and Robin decides that it does not matter who the guy is, only that whoever's inside the suit is his responsibility due to every manifestation of what Red X is being his creation, and defeating him is the only way to rectify his mistake. Cyborg decides that the best way to find out who he is would be to find out what he is after, and Robin knows right away: Zynothium, a very dangerous and unstable radioactive substance which functions as the suit's power source (and the waning supply of said substance being the reason for Red X's brief malfunction during the warehouse fight). The device Red X stole from the warehouse is in fact a scanner that will locate any zynothium within a ten-mile radius. Cyborg downloads its chemical footprint for the Titan's communicators to scan for, but Robin says that he will not be needing it, as he is going to the same place he found the zynothium the first time.

Robin vs. Red X

Robin's hunt takes him to an abandoned observatory on top of the mountains overlooking Jump City, where he encounters Professor Chang, the criminal scientist who had helped him in procuring the zynothium in the first place. Robin forces him to reveal the most likely location where more zynothium is stored; With his supplier skipping town months ago, the only other possible lead would be a tech company on the city's south end rumored to have an impenetrable vault containing a lifetime supply of zynothium ore. While the Titans' search for Red X turns up fruitless, Robin informs the other Titans of where he plans to strike. But before Cyborg can get there, he is ambushed and incapacitated by an unknown assailant.

Arriving at the place, Robin confesses to Beast Boy that the one and only reason Robin did not destroy the Red X suit was because the zynothium power core is too dangerous to dispose of. It was supposed to stay locked away in the vault where its radioactivity could deteriorate on its own safely. When Raven and Starfire arrive to inform that Cyborg is missing, Robin comes to the conclusion that Red X attacked him, and takes blame for it. Starfire reasons with him that Robin's mistake of inventing Red X is in the past, and whatever whoever's inside the suit does with it is not his fault. At that moment, the Titans encounter Red X when he appears at the facility, but are again unable to defeat him or stop him from infiltrating the facility. When they get inside, Robin tells the Titans to split up and be careful so nobody else gets hurt. But one by one, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire are neutralized and captured by armed goons inside the facility. Robin comes to a huge metal door at the end of a curving corridor when he hears Starfire scream. When he turns around to go to her aid, Red X appears behind him and throws shurikens at the control console behind him, destroying it and opening the door. Robin gives chase and after leaping through a laser labyrinth tunnel, they come to the first security obstacle; a massive shaft-like pit shielded with a force field. Red X uses one his X-shaped constructs to momentarily carve a doorway in the shield while it slows Robin down for just a minute. When he gets through, the tunnel beneath it takes him to a room with black checkerboard-like floor tiles with the door to the zynothium vault right on the other side. Red X sneaks up behind him and nudges him onto the floor. Upon contact with it, The tiles illuminate, revealing themselves to be a targeting interface for the room's main defense system; an enormous zynothium-powered laser cannon rigged right above him via ceiling-mounted gantry assembly. While Robin swerves all over the floor dodging the laser blasts, Red X jumps right over while Robin occupies the laser's attention. When he reaches the other side, he locks the door on him and leaves him at the mercy of the cannon. Finally inside the zynothium storage vault, Red X procures a zynothium containment tube which will power the suit for quite a while, along with an entire containment case for six more tubes. Just as he is about to secure them and make his escape, Robin lasers the entire wall down with the cannon (which he disassembled and modified) and the warriors get on with their duel. For the moment while Robin has Red X cornered, he demands to know of his master plan, starting with why he stole the battlesuit. Red X reveals his true nature as a selfish thrill-seeker instead of the psychotic mastermind Robin initially took him for. Finally having enough, Red X threatens to trip the zynothium power core in his belt which will trigger an explosion that will bring the whole facility down on their heads if Robin does not let him escape. Robin tries to call his bluff since he doubts Red X wants to be disintegrated, but their fight is interrupted by men in HazMat suits. They neutralize both warriors and steal all the zynothium in the vault. One guy leaves a video comm device for Robin, revealing that these HazMats are henchmen sent by Professor Chang. He reveals to him that by breaking into the facility and disabling all the security systems, Red X and Robin enabled Chang to steal the Zynothium ore for himself to put his own master plan in motion; Destroy Jump City with the observatory's main telescope, which he has repurposed as an absolutely humongous disintegrator cannon powered by the zynothium. In order to ensure no interference from Robin, he had his men capture the other Titans, who are standing flash-frozen in stasis pods as hostages in the observatory.

Robin is not Red X, or is he?

Red X awakens just in time for Robin to imprison him in a cage rigged in the vault and explains that both of them are responsible for a lowlife maniac obtaining enough zynothium to destroy the whole city. Robin tries to convince Red X to help him correct their mistake by lecturing him about his selfish nature, but he refuses, claiming that "some guys don't like to play the hero". Robin leaves, promising to return with a prison transport, with Red X thinking about Robin's words of wisdom.

Red X and Robin fighting side by side.

Chang monologues to Starfire (who unfreezes her head with her eye lasers, but it still unable to escape) about the "breathtaking" nature of disintegration while he prepares the finishing touches to his disintegrator cannon. Despite Chang's cocky doubts and threats, Starfire holds out the hope that Robin will come to the rescue. The cannon's charge reaches full power and Chang prepares to take his revenge on the city. But just as he prepares to fire away, Robin interferes just in time with only the top portion of Titans Tower getting disintegrated by the beam. Robin beats all of Chang's henchmen easy, but ends up on the run from the cannon's blast beam and ultimately helplessly dangling from a broken catwalk before the gun's muzzle. Suddenly, Red X appears and disables the cannon's controls, saving Starfire from being disintegrated and Robin from falling to his death. Red X confesses to having a momentary change of heart at playing the hero and he helps Robin in bringing down Chang and his henchmen. When Chang bangs on the already damaged controls to the cannon in frustration, it goes haywire and the whole thing blows the rest of its zynothium charge, firing one sustained blast beam that slices the entire mountain peak in half. With his plan foiled, Robin knocks out Chang and Red X prepares to take what he came for. However, the rest of the Titans, who were freed from the stasis pods in the cannon's malfunction, stand in his way and prepare for battle. Red X takes a vial of Zynothium, planning to use it to power the suit for a good long time and for the sake of this standoff. But much to his surprise, Robin reveals that he has rendered the zynothium vial worthless by taking Red X's power belt during the malfunction as well. As the Titans have Red X cornered this time, he throws the vial of Zynothium at their feet, using the detonation as a smokescreen to cover his getaway off the cliff.

After the mission, Raven returns the zynothium to the tech company's vault, Cyborg carts Professor Chang and his goons off to prison, Starfire and Beast Boy search in vain for Red X (who managed to escape through the sewer), and Robin locks away the power belt in a safe. All the while, Robin once again narrates a dark muse about the clarity of the lines between good and evil, wondering whether or not he is to blame for one past mistake or if Red X coming to his aid makes him a hero. The episode ends with Robin lost in deep thought, coming to the conclusion that the answers never come easy, and the whole concept is much more complicated than previously thought. Robin kneels on the edge of the roof of Titans Tower, which has begun its early stages of reconstruction as the screen fades to black.

Characters

Main character

• Robin

Supporting characters

• Starfire
• Cyborg
• Beast Boy
• Raven

Villains

• Red X
• Professor Chang
• Slade (flashback)

Others

• Silkie (cameo)
• Blocker (flashback)
• Robot Commandos (flashback)

Trivia

Robin's mask glued onto his face.

• After their first fight with Red X, the Titans gather on top of the warehouse. Behind them, in bright lights, is the term "SOTO", presumably the company that uses the warehouse. It is also the name of Alex Soto who directed several episodes.
• Red X pulls on Robin's mask, which pulls the flesh and skin around his eyes along with it as if it was glued on, and lets it snap back into place. In the DC comics, Dick Grayson (at least as Nightwing) indeed uses spirit gum to keep the mask on his face.
• Towards the end of the episode, a significant amount of Starfire's hair is burned off from a blast from Chang's disintegrator cannon.
• The director of the episode Ben Jones did not know Red X's identity under the mask while working on it. He came on to the episode after the script was done.
  • He learned who Red X is since then, but he is sworn to secrecy, so he won't say.

Continuity

• Silkie makes the first of his plot-hole-inducing cameos by being launched into the air after Beast Boy and his board of theories are tossed by Raven. He is shown slinking away off-screen on the counter top and possibly very much in view of Starfire, who appears to look on in shock as Raven gives her own theory for who Red X is.
• The episode "Masks" is referenced, with the Titans believing Red X to still be Robin and that he is a hologram or robot.
• This episode is seen as having a major point, in Robin realizing it is sometimes hard to determine if a person is good or evil.
• This episode has the shortest title out of any other episode in the series, having only a single character.

Cultural references

• When Beast Boy presents his theory about the new Red X's identity:
  • One of the choices he presents is Jason Todd, one of the past Robins in the DC comics, one was Nightwing (future Robin) and one was Larry. Due to many similarities hinted at in the series, Todd is believed to be the most likely choice for the new Red X. See Red X's identity section for details.
  • One of Beast Boy's possible choices for Red X's alter ego is "part of a clone army". One of them includes Robin wearing a Star Wars clone trooper armor suit (sans helmet).
  • Another possible choice is a "long lost brother". In Batman Forever, Dick has an older brother named Mitch who was killed by Two-Face along with their parents. Amusingly, DC would later introduce Damian Wayne, Bruce's biological son, who Dick Grayson would make his Robin, two years later.
• The dove flying by during Robin and Red X's moment of teamwork refers to the likes of directors John Woo and Ridley Scott, who have used the dove imagery in their films.

Errors

• The Titans decide not to pursue Red X's identity any further, with Raven summing him up, as she put it, "anyone smart enough to find the suit and dumb enough to take it for a joyride". Likewise, Robin dismisses X's identity as irrelevant, citing that regardless of whose inside the suit, they're his responsibility. However, the Titans are ignoring several critical factors.
  • The thief somehow knew the layout of the Tower. They also knew how to get past the Tower's security systems.
  • The thief also had to have brought heavy equipment with them, as the vault door was ripped completely of the hinges.
  • The plot hole being, the Titans never seem to be worried about their security being compromised.

Gallery

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Transcript

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