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"Divide and Conquer" is the very first episode of the series and season one. This episode is often referred to as episode 3 because it was the third episode to air on TV, and "Final Exam" was the first episode that aired on TV. However, this episode was the first to be produced.

Synopsis[]

After a battle with Cinderblock, Robin and Cyborg get into a fight causing Cyborg to leave the team. Meanwhile, Slade puts a plan in motion to put an end to the four other Teen Titans with the unstable Plasmus.

Plot[]

The Teen Titans are alerted to a prison break-in by the villain Cinderblock. The Titans arrive there quickly and begin fighting with Cinderblock, although they get beaten quickly. A maneuver by Robin and Cyborg called "The Sonic Boom" is intended to stop Cinderblock from escaping, but fails when they accidentally trip and tangle each other. As a result, Robin and Cyborg begin arguing with each other scaring the others including Raven. Cyborg, letting his jealousy and rage take over, decides to quit the team because he is tired of Robin always being leader and blaming others for his mistakes, then storms off. Meanwhile, while they are arguing, Cinderblock punches through the walls of the prison, freeing some of the prisoners eventually reaching a high security room. Cinderblock reaches in and grabs a stasis with a sleeping person in it before escaping into the night while the Titans rally the other prisoners back to jail.

The next day, the Titans are discussing what had just transpired that night. Beast Boy believes that Cyborg should not have gone complaining about it to Robin and even tries calling Cyborg, but nobody picks up. Robin does not care about this at first, although he gradually resents it as he is forced to do all of Cyborg's chores as well as having nobody to play video games with. Even Raven is saddened about Cyborg's departure (though she would not admit it). At Slade's hideout Cinderblock emerges with the stasis tank on his shoulders. Slade congratulates him on his work and then wakes up the sleeping man inside. The man gasps and tells Slade that he should not be awake and begs him to put him back to sleep. Slade remarks "I don't need you. I need PLASMUS!" Straight away, the man in the tank begins to transform, breaking the tank and emerging as a gigantic purple monster. Slade then orders Plasmus to consume more toxic sewage at a waste management plant.

The Teen Titans hear about Plasmus' activities and rush to the waste plant, only to witness Plasmus growing bigger with the more waste he eats. The Titans begin to attack him with all sorts of attacks, but they fail as Plasmus regenerates his body and retaliates by attacking them with sludge. During this time, the Titans receive a message about Cinderblock attacking another part of town. Robin insists that the rest of the Titans go while he holds off Plasmus. Starfire refuses and so do the rest of the team, knowing Robin cannot defeat Plasmus on his own. Raven, Beast Boy and Starfire begin attacking and manage to weaken and separate Plasmus into smaller creatures, although they get trapped and consumed in Plasmus' parts in the process. Robin falls onto a conveyor belt and fights with one of Plasmus' sludge crabs. He is about to drop into a huge barrel of acidic ooze when Cyborg suddenly appears and grabs his arm, repeating his phrase "I still got the Sonic if you still got the Boom". Together, they get up and attack Plasmus, who is already reduced to a small sludge monster due to the attacks of the other three Titans. Their Sonic Boom attack, consisting of Cyborg's Sonic Cannon and Robin's explosive disk, destroys Plasmus and returns him back to his human form: a man sleeping on the floor. Cyborg and Robin apologize for their earlier disagreements and agree to become friends again. Robin claims they failed in capturing Cinderblock, but Cyborg just laughs and points at the road, where Cinderblock is being tied up to a truck. He tells Robin he had already defeated Cinderblock and had wanted to show Robin as a peace offering. The episode ends with Robin suspecting someone is behind all these attacks and Cyborg assures that no matter who he is, he is no match for the Teen Titans.

Back in his lair, Slade smashes down his fist in anger, swearing that "next time, my plans will succeed. And the Titans will pay."

Characters[]

Icon Character Voice actor Remarks
Robin EpIcon Robin Scott Menville Debut
Cyborg EpIcon Cyborg Khary Payton Debut
Starfire EpIcon Starfire Hynden Walch Debut
Raven EpIcon Raven Tara Strong Debut
Beast Boy EpIcon Beast Boy Greg Cipes Debut
Slade EpIcon Slade Ron Perlman Debut
Wintergreen EpIcon Wintergreen None No lines (debut)
Cinderblock EpIcon Cinderblock None No lines (debut)
Plasmus EpIcon Plasmus Dee Bradley Baker Debut


Credits[]

Trivia[]

  • Most of the actions in the theme song (i.e. Raven showing up from the other side of the wall, Beast Boy looking somewhere and then turning into a pterodactyl, etc.) appear in this episode.
  • In this episode, Cyborg says that Robin is four feet tall, but he is actually more likely around 5ft.
  • In this episode, Beast Boy's voice is deeper.
  • Beast Boy is the first character to speak in production order of the series.
  • At a few points in the episode (namely her first appearance, when she telekinetically throws barrels at Plasmus and when she is flying away from Plasmus), Raven has tassels attached to her belt. This is interesting as she only has them on her early design concept art and they are completely absent in her final design and promo art.
  • This episode is used again in Teen Titans Go!, but in different transcript from the final episode of Season 3: "The Cape".
  • The appearance of the human form of Plasmus is based on David Slack.

Title[]

  • The title refers to Cyborg's leaving the Teen Titans and their later near defeat (specifically, when Robin is about to fall into the vat of implied acid). However, with Cyborg's return, Slade is no longer able to easily defeat the Titans and they are victorious in the end.

Continuity[]

  • This episode is the third episode aired and the first episode produced.
  • As the first episode in the series, this episode features the first appearance of the main Teen Titans, as well as Slade, Plasmus and Cinderblock.

Cultural references[]

  • The scene where Robin and Cyborg fight and Beast Boy cries is similar to The Powerpuff Girls episode, "Octi Evil" where Blossom and Buttercup fight, and Bubbles cries.
  • The infamous S4-12 crash sound effect from Thomas the Tank Engine is heard when Cyborg is thrown to the ground by Cinderblock.

Goofs[]

E338

Where is Raven?

  • During the beginning of the Teen Titans' appearance in the episode, Starfire's armband was missing on her right arm when she flew down.
  • In this episode, there are a few goof scenes when Cyborg's left ear is human instead of metal:
    • When the Titans are charging at Cinderblock in the beginning of the episode, Cyborg's left ear is human.
    • Cyborg's left ear is human again when he delivered a punch to Cinderblock.
    • As he and Robin were about to do the Sonicboom at Cinderblock before their legs get stuck and twisted, Cyborg's left ear turned human.
    • After that and when Cyborg fell onto the floor, his left ear turned human again.
    • When Cyborg is walking away from Robin saying "Jerk", his left ear is human again.
E346

Starfire, what happened to your armband? And Raven, you're not even looking at your own hand.

  • When Cyborg argues back with Robin saying "You got in my way!", his right hand is missing.
    • As Cyborg and Robin finally finish off Plasmus with the Sonicboom, Cyborg's left ear turned human.
  • While the Titans witness Plasmus getting out of the metal beams, Raven is missing.
  • As the Titans block the doors, Starfire's armband is gone.
    • In addition, Raven's hand turned black instead of her own skin.
E443

Starfire, you forgot about your armband... again.

  • When Starfire bursts out of Plasmus' slime trap, her armband on her right arm is gone.

Gallery[]

Titans GO
Click here to view the gallery.

Transcript[]

ForReal37
Click here to view the episode transcript.

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