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"For Real" is the fourth episode of season five and the overall 56th episode of the Teen Titans series.

Synopsis[]

Control Freak is back, ready to finally finish off the Teen Titans. Just one problem... instead of facing the original Teen Titans, he faces Titans East, who have come to Jump City to protect it while the Titans are away fighting the Brotherhood of Evil. They easily defeat Control Freak who swears revenge against them. However, while protecting the city, Titans East have some trouble getting accepted by the public, but that's the least of their problems when Control Freak returns and challenges them to see if they are truly worthy of being Teen Titans.

Plot[]

At Titans Tower, Control Freak returns and announces himself through the living room TV. He goes on about how he is going to take revenge by challenging the Titans to "The Ultimate Titans Challenge", a skill contest designed specifically for them with an entire arsenal of specially-designed weaponry. However, with some delay, he finds out that he is talking to empty air: The Titans have long since left the Tower to organize a world-wide network against the Brotherhood of Evil. This does not deter Control Freak, however, and after searching the entire tower for the Titans, decides to hang around until they come back.

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First meetings warrant a good fright

Just at the same moment, the Titans East, requested by Cyborg to look after the city during their absence, arrive and make themselves at home. Control Freak is quick to announce his presence but is disappointed to find that the arrivals are not the "real Titans," but the Titans East. Likewise, the Titans East have never heard of Control Freak, either, since apparently the Titans do not consider him a serious threat. This is confirmed when Control Freak does not find himself on a list of the Titans' worst threats Cyborg sent them to keep in mind while protecting the city. To add insult to injury, the Puppet King, whom they only fought once, ranks #4 on such a long list (#1-3 being Plasmus, Overload, and Johnny Rancid). Not willing to give up easily, Control Freak decides to employ the arsenal he brought with him against the Titans East. Control Freak's weapons are indeed powerful (his remote powerful enough to put a translation curse on The Tornado Twins), but since the weapons were designed to counter the specific powers and equipment of the Teen Titans, they prove no match for the Titans East and he is easily defeated at the hands of Aqualad's hydrokinesis. Control Freak is eventually forced to zap himself away, feigning disinterest and leaving the Titans East standing in concern.

After the Titans East clean up the living room from the battle, Cyborg calls them up on the TV for a status report since he intercepted the Tower's reports of weapons fire. Bumblebee is reluctant to tell Cyborg that they could not handle a "second-rate bad guy" who did not even make it into the Titans' 'List of notorious villains' and decides to keep this under the hat for the moment. Aqualad declares that they need to get more info on Control Freak and the trouble alarm sounds.

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The hazards of a non-existent reputation

Swiftly, the Titans East get active in Jump City, with their first achievement being the easy capture of Andre Le Blanc who is robbing a bank. Just before the gang can head back to the tower and continue their search for Control Freak, other SOS's sound and they split up to respond to them. Their merits do not go unnoticed, (Aqualad saves a man from drowning at the beach by calling for dolphins to his aid, Mas y Menos save a freight train from plummeting off a cliff by switching it to a different track when its brakes fail, Bumblebee rescues construction workers from falling from the top of a skyscraper when their crane collapses, and Speedy gets a kid's cat out of a tree) but their lack of public renown in Jump City proves frustrating, as people either do not recognize them or (worse) mistake them for members of the original Teen Titans. In the meantime, Control Freak uses the Internet to study his new opponents, and by consulting his chatroom buddies, eventually redesigns the Ultimate Titans Challenge to test the skills of the Titans East. Later that night while the Titans East are enjoying dinner at the Pizza joint downtown, Control Freak reemerges and beams the Titans East to his headquarters where he lays down his master plan; he is going to challenge each of the Titans East to their own unique missions that involve saving the city from complete and utter destruction, which upon completion will prove their worth as protectors of the very city the "real" Titans are trusting them with doing so in their absence. And to boot, the whole event will be televised for the entire city to watch their victory or defeat.

  • Bumblebee must keep up with a subway train heading for the 1st street station on the other side of the city, as a bomb is mounted on the underside of the train which is timed to detonate upon arrival. To raise the stakes, Control Freak outfits her with an inhibitor collar that keeps her trapped at her actual bumblebee size.
  • Aqualad must race the flow of toxic waste across the local water reservoir and shut off the main valve in time before the city's water supply is contaminated with a giant vicious shark swimming in his way that Aqualad cannot order to stand down with his telepathy, as this beast is a mechanical shark that only listens to Control Freak's commands.
  • Más y Menos must deactivate a towering superbomb in the city center by nailing two switches standing on opposing ends of town from each other. But both switches have to be pushed at the same time to shut it down, and since the twins' power depends on contact with each other, they cannot synchronize the activation, much less hope to reach both ends on their own before its timer runs out.
  • Speedy must stop a barrage of ballistic missiles from destroying the Jump City Bay Bridge without his arrows.

With the challenge televised, the whole city watches at the edge of their seats as the Titans race against time. They even gain roots from the various citizens with the SOSes the Titans East responded to earlier that day. The situation appears grim at first, but with top-notch ingenuity and heroic perseverance, the Titans East manage to prevail. Aqualad reaches the main valve in time. But when the shark bites it off, he simply tricks the shark into jamming itself into the pipe outlet where the toxic waste is to emerge, sealing it off and saving the city's water supply with only seconds to spare. Bumblebee uses the electrified subway rails to enhance her stingers, shorting out the bomb's timer just in time for the train's arrival at 1st Street. Speedy launches himself at the missiles with the bridge cables and the help of a tow truck and he directs the missiles against each other one by one until the bay bridge is safe. With just ten seconds before detonation, Más y Menos use the superbomb as a base to whirl around in a vortex until they gain enough velocity to slingshot themselves to their respective ends of town, reaching the switches at exactly the same time and stopping the tower from detonating in the nick of time.

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The credit they deserve

For their daring rescue, the city's populace hails the Titans East as real heroes, and even Control Freak has gained a newfound admiration for them - so much in fact that he zaps himself right in front of them to express his fanatic devotion. However, this leaves him totally vulnerable to capture, and after Más y Menos appropriate his super remote (and deactivate the Spanish Language Converter it had on them), Bumblebee knocks him out and he is giftwrapped for the police. After he swears revenge, Cyborg, who has caught wind of recent events, checks up, but Bumblebee is ready to relieve him of his worries and their own insecurity. Cyborg informs her that the Titans will be away for quite a while to keep fighting The Brotherhood of Evil and Bumblebee reassures him that the city is in safe hands, with the Titans East more than willing to stick around to keep protecting Jump City.

Characters[]

Main characters[]

Supporting characters[]

Villains[]

Others[]

Trivia[]

  • Control Freak's prison number, 257-325, is the production number of "Fear Itself", his debut episode.
  • Some of Control Freaks "Chat Room Chums" make an appearance in previous episodes. For instance, the bearded blogger appears in "Episode 257-494", and the goth blogger has a cameo in "Car Trouble". In addition, the female blogger appears alongside passengers in the bus at the beginning of the movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo.
  • Punk Rocket makes a cameo in this episode as one of the prisoners watching the televised Titans Challenge in the same prison block as Andre Le Blanc.
  • When Cyborg calls The Titans East, the background of the Titans Communicator shows that he is in Russia, the main setting of the next episode.
  • Cyborg is the only one of the main Titans with a speaking role in this episode.
  • It is shown that the Titans East have their own T-Ship, which is blue.
  • It is revealed that Control Freak and even some civilians are aware of Robin and Starfire's feelings for each other.
  • Control Freak breaks the fourth wall when he says he is a recurring villain.
    • Of course, this may just be one of his mass-media jokes he has a habit of making, as a villain who makes a return after believing he was defeated for good the last time is technically called a "recurring villain."
  • This episode's title song is sung in Japanese.
  • This is the first episode in which Robin is not present (not counting Control Freak's fantasy).
  • While the idea of Control Freak not making the list of notorious villains being that he is second rate is strong, another likely reason is that the Titans truly believed they heard the last of him the last time they fought and Beast Boy defeated him.
    • However, by that logic, it would not make sense for The Puppet King to be on the list since he was obviously defeated for good the last time Raven and Starfire went toe-to-toe with him.
    • Stranger still, it's peculiar that Plasmus would rank #1 on that list instead of Slade since he is by far the Titans' most dangerous foe. Granted, he is no longer their most notorious villain anymore since he hasn't been seen or heard from since the grand finale of Season 4. It just shows to go that no villain is truly "gone for good," as Control Freak has proven with this episode.

Continuity[]

Cultural references[]

  • Control Freak's introduction to the Titans East is a reference to the famous Internet Star Wars Kid video; even the yellow cloth on the floor has been thought of. See one of its versions on YouTube here.

Gallery[]

Titans GO
Click here to view the gallery.

Transcript[]

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Click here to view the episode transcript.

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