What The Hell Is Titans Season 4 Doing With Beast Boy?!

Titans season 4 delivered major changes for Gar "Beast Boy" Logan, with uncontrolled transformations and strange visions that require explanation.

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for TItans season 4.A major subplot of Titans season 4, which has Beast Boy coping with unexpected transformations and strange visions, requires some explanation. A storyline focused on Beast Boy, who is one of the most popular members of the Teen Titans in the comics, is long overdue. However, while Titans season 4 has done a great job in developing a mystery that has left Gar Logan dazed and disoriented, it has also confused those viewers who are unfamiliar with Beast Boy's full history from the modern Titans comics.

Titans' season 4 premiere took the Titans to Metropolis, where several members of the team allowed themselves to be studied by the scientists at STAR Labs. Beast Boy was gifted a special costume that could shift with his body, so he wouldn't have to undress to use his powers, but he had a strange vision the first time he tried to change into an animal while wearing the suit. When Gar came to his senses, he discovered that he had apparently changed into several animals and destroyed the lab. The visions continued afterward, with Gar hearing a woman's voice calling his name while training in the woods. Strangely enough, Gar's skin seemed to briefly turn green and grow fangs while he was hearing the voices, suggesting he was trying to transform, but something was stopping him from completing the process. These incidents raise several questions, but a look at the modern Titans comics may offer an explanation.

Related: Trigon Is Appearing In Titans Season 4, Right?

Many Teen Titans fans view Titans' take on Beast Boy as a failure, due to the character's drastically different appearance from the comics (where he had permanently green skin) and his inability to assume a variety of animal shapes. Indeed, it's almost become a running gag that Titans' CGI budget only allows Gar Logan to change into an animal once or twice a season and usually only into a tiger. This has left Beast Boy playing a supporting role to the rest of the team, usually being the one to guard the base while his teammates are dealing with their own drama. The opening scene of Titans season 4 addresses this somewhat, with Gar achieving a partial transformation and changing one of his arms into an octopus tentacle while bowling.

Unfortunately, the scene in which Gar trashed a STAR Labs facility off-camera almost seemed to be intentionally trolling those viewers who want Titans to do Beast Boy justice. While the mystery behind Beast Boy is well-plotted and gives Ryan Potter a long-overdue chance to work some pathos into his portrayal of Gar Logan, having his teammates tell him about how he changed into a gorilla, a velociraptor and an armadillo after the fact seems to be adding insult to injury. The scene effectively sets up the horror of Gar's plight, but this seems to be a side effect of the writers being budget conscious rather than an intentional pacing decision by the director.

The meaning of Beast Boy's vision, in which he woke up in a red-sand desert before a tree full of sculptures made from animal bones, seems to be tied to the Red. In the cosmology of DC Comics, The Red is an energy field connecting all animal life, comparable to The Green that connects all plants. As Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing gain their powers through The Green, various animal themed heroes, including Beast Boy, draw power from a connection to the Red. The tree seems to be taken from the New 52 Animal Man comic, where superhero Buddy Baker traveled into the heart of The Red by seeking out a similar tree. Journeys into The Red are usually accompanied by deserts and bone-themed imagery, suggesting that Gar Logan will undergo a similar spiritual journey.

It seems apparent that Beast Boy is about to undergo a major power upgrade, but there is some question as who is responsible for his visions and uncontrolled transformations. The premiere episode of Titans season 4 suggests that the transformation was somehow triggered by Gar's new super-suit, but that seems unlikely given Gar wasn't in his costume when he had a vision one episode later. The new villain Mother Mayhem seems to be a more likely suspect, as her powers allowed her to pacify Gar as he was trying to transform. It is also worth noting that one version of Mother Mayhem from the Rebirth era Titans comic, Mother Blood, had a connection to the Red which she used to control Beast Boy and turn him into her unwilling follower. It remains to be seen if something similar will happen in Titans season 4, but it seems likely, given the probable connection between Mother Mayhem and Trigon. She may seek to succeed where the cultists in Titans season 1 failed and wants Beast Boy under her thumb, given the emotional influence he has on Raven and how his bond with her turned the tide against the demon lord once before.

New episodes of Titans premiere Thursdays on HBO Max.

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