The midseason finale of Young Justice: Outsiders rescues a favorite character

The mid-season finale of Young Justice: Outsiders adds a long-awaited hero to the team and at long last has Geo-Force reunited with his missing sister. But while things finally seem to be going their way, is this actually a victory for the good guys?

[Ed. Note: This article contains spoilers for episodes 10 through 13 of Young Justice: Outsiders]

Thanks to the revelation that Granny Goode’s Goode Googles are no good and intel picked up from Santa Prisca that reveals Tara Markov is now with someone named Granny, the team sets a plan in motion to rescue the missing princess. These are two vital pieces of intel: the Goode Googles revealed locations where Meta-Human teens were being led and thanks to the Granny link, Tara’s location is finally revealed. While the League sets off to bust the trafficking centers, Nightwing, Superboy, Tigress and Black Lightning bring along Geo-Force and Forager to an underground Meta-Human fight club and auction.

Tara — or Terra as she’s now known — is fighting against another Meta-Teen. With her own geo-force powers activated, she can manipulate the earth. She is defeated, but a losing Meta-Teen still fetches a high price at auction.

Warner Bros. Animation/DC Universe

The team rescues the princess pretty easily by placing a high bid for her at auction. Immediately, they take her back to the safety of the Mother Ship and she and her brother Brion are reunited.

Not everyone in the Outsiders team is present, however. Halo — very recently revealed to be the spirit of the Mother Box inhabiting a human body — and Dr. Jace are left back in Happy Harbor to keep newly-made cyborg Victor Stone company. But the Father Box, the piece of Apokolptic tech inhabiting Victor’s cyborg parts, senses weakness in Halo and turns on her. The two face off.

Warner Bros. Animation/DC Universe

Nightwing leads the rest of the adults back into the fray; they have to rescue the missing teenagers after all. Geo-Force and his sister reunite, with Geo-Force removing Terra’s mind-control device and Terra expressing regret for crimes she was forced to commit while under the Light’s influence. The two don’t want to sit around and wait, so they jump to help Nightwing and the rest, eventually rescuing all the Meta-Teens.

They all return back to Happy Harbor, where Halo reveals she cured Victor of Father Box’s influence. Nightwing says that the League was able to deal the Meta-Human traffickers a huge blow. Tara forgives Dr. Jace for activating her meta-gene. Geo-Force calls Halo his girlfriend. Nightwing contemplates officially adding the teens to the team. Happy endings all around!

Warner Bros. Animation/DC Universe

Except —

In the final moments of this midseason finale, Terra wakes up early in the morning while everyone else is asleep and sends a text message to Slade: I’m in.

Two words, but they reveal that even without mind control, Tara is now sided with the Light. The seeming victory for the Justice League and Nightwing’s team is only part of the villains’ grand master plan.

This twist isn’t unprecedented. DC’s Terra is usually the bad guy and her past animated appearances kept in line with that. Her other popular iteration in Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans saw her led astray by Slade. Though she eventually sacrificed herself to save the city, she spent the latter half of season 2 as a villain. Terra was a huge fan favorite, but it looks like she’s set to follow the same villainous path in Young Justice — though just how she factors into the Light’s grand plan has yet to be revealed.

Young Justice: Outsiders returns in June on DC Universe.