"Final Exam" is the third episode of the series and season one, although it tends to get mixed up with "Divide and Conquer" because this episode was actually the first episode to air on TV, even though "Divide and Conquer" was the first episode to be produced.
The episode focuses on the Teen Titans as the centric characters of the episode.
Synopsis[]
Slade hires the H.I.V.E. Five to fight with the titans. They win the battle and also manage to take over the Titan Tower.
Plot[]
The episode opens up with a showcase for the super-villain training academy known as H.I.V.E. Academy presenting three of its finest graduates for their first mission:
- "Gizmo: The boy genius whose intellect can conquer any problem with an inventive solution"
- "Jinx: The enchanting sorceress whose powerful hexes mean bad luck for her enemies"
- "Mammoth: The genetically enhanced giant whose unstoppable strength speaks for itself"
When the showcase is over, the H.I.V.E. Headmistress talks business with one of the organization's clients – the mysterious mercenary known only as "Mr. Slade". Slade is impressed with their abilities but remains unconvinced since robots and obstacle courses only prove so much. So, he decides that for their final exam, they need to fulfill one simple task if her agents are going to serve him – destroy the Teen Titans.
Slade assigns the H.I.V.E. of their final task
At Titans Tower, the teenage superheroes engage in their everyday lives. While the living room is a cluttered mess, Cyborg and Beast Boy argue about the location of the TV remote. Robin and Starfire are having a discussion about lightspeed travel when they walk in to find the boys bickering while the curmudgeon Raven grimaces perpetually, especially after being disturbed from her book by all the yelling. Starfire decides to mend the dispute by sharing junk food and heads to the kitchen to see what she can find while Robin tries to resolve the conflict himself. Starfire opens the fridge to discover all the food (in fact, over half the inside of the fridge itself) is covered in moldy blue fuzz that actually somehow comes to life. When it awakens and growls at Starfire, she blasts her starbolt cannon at the fridge out of fright and splatters the "monster" to the ends of the living room. Now covered in moldy blue fuzz dripping from the ceiling, Robin decides their best bet at this point would be to just go into town for pizza.
While at the pizza parlor, they are completely conflicted as to what they should order since their different tastes pose a bit of problem. Beast Boy's ability to transform into animals is also a curse since it makes him a vegetarian, thereby categorically forbidding pepperoni and other meat, much to Cyborg's dismay. Starfire, on the other hand, suggests unusual toppings such as pickles, bananas, and mint frosting. Unaware to the Titans, the three students of the H.I.V.E Academy have set up a stage for their trap. Jinx starts by hexing a bus to start and sending on a collision course with a baby carriage in the middle of a crosswalk, which the Titans spring into action to stop. Once Cyborg and Raven stop the bus, Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy are blindsided by the exploding teddy bear which was in the carriage and Mammoth apparently squashes Cyborg and Raven with the bus. The three of them believe to have claimed easy victory in their mission, only for the Titans to get back up and proceed with a proper battle. Set upon by the H.I.V.E, the battle is fairly one-sided; Cyborg is knocked out early as he has a rocket attached to his back and is sent flying by Gizmo and Starfire rushes after him, taking them both out. Robin, Raven and Beast Boy put up a spirited yet futile fight as they are well defeated by Gizmo and Jinx. With Robin the only Titan standing, challenges the three of them to a standoff and lets them have the first strike. The H.I.V.E. combines their attacks and finishes the battle with a catastrophic earthshattering power strike that cracks the ground beneath him and Robin falls into a sewer and presumed missing.
The Titans' first encounter with the H.I.V.E
Raven and an injured Beast Boy manage to escape back to the tower. Cyborg and Starfire return, but are dismayed, Starfire especially, to hear of the defeat and Robin's disappearance. Raven and Beast Boy have searched the whole city and all they were able to find was Robin's utility belt. However, they continue to have hope that he will eventually return, as he does have a way of turning up when needed the most. Just then, they hear a knock at the door and immediately assume it is him. However, the door is blown down, revealing it to be the H.I.V.E., who have arrived to finish their mission in destroying the Teen Titans. The H.I.V.E. invades the Titans Tower and decides to take control of their headquarters. The Titans split up to take on a different opponent; Beast Boy fights Jinx, Cyborg deals with Gizmo, and Starfire and Raven hold off Mammoth. The Titans seem to have decent odds this time around. However, once again the fight is quick and decisive in the H.I.V.E's favor and the Titans are kicked out of the tower into the bay. Cyborg even loses his right arm to Gizmo. The H.I.V.E. takes victory once and for all when Jinx uses her magic to conjure a tsunami that finishes them off.
The Titans expelled out of their own tower
When the Titans make it back to the mainland, they can do nothing except squabble with each other about how they were no match for three teenage supervillains and question if the Teen Titans are finished. Just then Robin finally appears and declares that the Teen Titans are not finished as long as he can help it, and comes up with a plan to take back the Tower.
Claiming it as their new home, the H.I.V.E. immediately begins renovating the Tower, transforming it into from a letter "T" to an "H". Gizmo has Cyborg's right arm mounted on the wall above the door in the living room as a trophy, Jinx moves into Raven's room and tries on her cloak and Robin's utility belt, while Mammoth gorges himself on the strange blue food that he finds in the refrigerator. While the H.I.V.E. are not looking, Cyborg activates the electronic linkup to his arm to be used as a spy drone. The arm removes itself from the wall and sneaks past the H.I.V.E. until it arrives at one of the computer consoles. There, it plugs itself in to the Titans mainframe whereupon it makes the Tower’s security systems go haywire as a distraction and the Titans are able to drag the H.I.V.E. out of the Ops room one by one to the roof. Robin takes back his utility belt and declares that the battle is not over, but rather just getting started. The Titans engage in a final battle with the young supervillains and the Titans manage to keep the H.I.V.E. on the ropes. For instance, just when Gizmo attempts to pull the same hacking trick on Cyborg again, Robin defeats him by doing the same thing with an EMP disc that shorts out his tech pack. Beast Boy manages to outsmart Jinx by tricking her into blasting wayward hexes all around her inside one of the newly constructed towers, which makes the whole thing collapse around her ears. The rest of the Titans use their combined efforts to take down Mammoth and the rest of the H.I.V.E along with him. When Gizmo attempts to call Slade, Robin grabs him by the neck and interrogates him, demanding to know who Slade is.
Later, back at his hidden subterranean lair, the Headmistress expresses her deepest condolences to Slade for the warriors' failure, which is not tolerated at the H.I.V.E. Academy and promises the strictest of discipline when they are retrieved from the police. However, all evidence to the contrary, Slade explains that the agents performed quite well. The truth is, he never expected them to succeed, but rather, to serve as messengers. And according to the recordings of the battle, he can gladly say that the message has indeed been delivered.
The "message" was received, setting the rivalry between Robin and Slade
By the time the Titans finish the repairs to the Tower, Beast Boy suffers the most traumatic revelation as he discovers that all of his compact disks have been categorized alphabetically while Raven is irritated that the H.I.V.E. went into her bedroom, citing that "No one should ever go into my room". Starfire is surprised to see all the rotten food in the fridge has been disposed of and Cyborg expresses irritation that he still cannot find the TV remote even after the whole place gets cleaned up before Robin points to it on the coffee table. Now that everything is back in order, Cyborg admits that the five of them should be preparing for missions and investigating the identity of Slade. Robin agrees that they will in due time, but for now, he just wants to enjoy being part of the team, and ends the episode by turning the TV on.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Villains[]
Others[]
Credits[]
- Written by:
- Directed by:
- Starring:
- Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
- Scott Menville as Robin
- Khary Payton as Cyborg
- Tara Strong as Raven
- Hynden Walch as Starfire
- Also featuring:
- Ron Perlman as Slade
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Mammoth (First appearance)
- Lauren Tom as Jinx (First appearance) and Gizmo (First appearance)
- Andrea Romano as H.I.V.E. Headmistress (First appearance)
Trivia[]
- "Final Exam" was the first episode to air on television, and is frequently thought of as being the first Teen Titans episode. However, "Divide and Conquer" was the first episode to be produced, and therefore, is the first episode in the series.
- The H.I.V.E. Headmistress was the first character to speak in the series (not counting the narrator of this episode) in airing order.
- The H.I.V.E are unusually skilled in this episode in that they manage to defeat the Titans twice, subsequently even with new aid the H.I.V.E are usually soundly defeated (however it could also be that the Titans improved by a huge margin and doubled their efforts to get stronger, or at least figured out better strategies to defeat the H.I.V.E.).
- During the scene where the Titans retake their home (the Titans Tower) from the three H.I.V.E. Five members (Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth), the shot of Starfire firing starbolts at Jinx and other fighting footage is/are the same footage(s) used during the Theme Song. The scenes of the Teen Titans fighting in this episode (also used in the Teen Titans Theme Song) also occurred in certain scenes of "Divide and Conquer".
Title[]
- The title refers to Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth's final task being to destroy the Titans.
Continuity[]
- This episode features the first appearance of H.I.V.E. Five members: Jinx, Mammoth and Gizmo.
- This episode also features the first and only speaking appearance of the H.I.V.E. Headmistress, who appears briefly in some subsequent episodes.
- This was the first episode to air in 2003.
- In terms of chronology it is likely this episode takes place shortly after "Go!", and fairly early in the Titan’s career. This is evidenced by the fact that the Titans are shown to have clearly not honed their skills yet, nor truly learned to work as a team, leading to them being defeated by the H.I.V.E. Five.
Cultural references[]
- When Starfire and Cyborg return, Cyborg says that he was halfway to Gotham City before Star caught him. Gotham is the homeplace of Batman and where Robin used to operate alongside Batman.
- When Starfire and Cyborg return and find Robin missing, the scene closely resembles a scene in Lord of the Rings where Aragorn is missing.
- The way Cyborg's right arm walks is very similar to Thing from the Addams Family.
Goofs[]
- In the scene before Robin comes back, where the others were about to give up, Cyborg's right missing limb is still connected to his arm, despite it being in the Tower where Gizmo hung it up on the wall on the next scene.
- The closed captions misspell H.I.V.E. as H.A.E.Y.P.
Gallery[]
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Transcript[]
Click here to view the episode transcript.