Dick Grayson is now Nightwing. Superboy hasn't changed that much physically. Neither has Miss M, but Martians age a lot slower than humans, so no surprise there. The three of them were invited to join the League but opted not to. They seem to work close to them, though, and Dick, M'gann and Conner still seem to be close to Zatanna and Rocket (who are currently Leaguers themselves), at least. No mention or sight of Kaldur, Wally or Artemis. This concerns me as the premise for the game is "One will rise, one will fall, one will die." But I love all three of them! D':

Tim Drake's the new Robin, Cassie Sandmark is Wonder Girl and Jaime Reyes is Blue Beetle; La'gaan, Karen, Barbara and Garfield are now Lagoon Boy, Bumblebee, Batgirl and Beast Boy, respectively. Mal was supposed to be Herald in the comics, but here he only acts as the teams' main operator, with Nightwing calling the shots, assembling the main active teams and overseeing the newbies' training.

And of course, what a lot of the fans are currently raging about- M'gann is dating La'gaan now. We have no idea what happened to her and Conner, he doesn't seem very happy seeing her kissing her new boyfriend, Garfield seems to feel bad for Conner over this, and of course, we have absolutely no idea what happened between them whatsoever. And I am... not disappointed, which is very weird considering how whiny and arrogant La'gaan came off as in his scenes. I still prefer the original SuperMartian pair and while I don't hate it, I don't think I'll ever like the new LagoonMartian ship. But I guess what catches my interest is to know how the most loving and intimate couple on the show broke up. I mean, what happened to the show's stellar Romeo and Juliet? That's what I want to find out. And I guess, deep down inside, I still have the feeling that they won't stay broken up for too long.

This is just me guessing, but Superboy always seemed like the Hulk's son more than Superman's son. That kid had rage issues, like hardcore. And I think Meg only felt bad for him and sorta gave in to his loneliness bit. Mind you, Superboy was the one who pushed the relationship by kissing her first... Then again, Meg kinda hinted towards such a thing when she has cooking and her and superboy had that little moment. So, to see that Meg would want to go for someone who doesn't rage like a hardcore gamer(haha that was funny to me), doesn't surprise me. Buuuuut, I'm just guessing is all. Interesting stuff so far.

It's also revealed that Superboy left her rather than the other way around. His explanation of it to Alanna kind of made it sound like he did it because he grew convinced that his inability age physically was a problem even if she's a shapeshifter, but the episode's ending implies that the actual reason might have been something she did that convinced him that they shouldn't be together.

We don't know what it is, but there was a hint; he seemed upset and uncomfortable with her after she left a Krolotean in the same state in which she had left Psimon at the end of "Image" (episode 21 of season 1). And when he tried to confront her about it, she vehemently dismissed it by revealing that she's discovered what happened during the 16 hours. Like the Justice League voting thing from "Agendas" (episode 22 of season 1), though, the episode ended without us knowing the big news yet.

And like in the comics, Marie Logan was killed. In this continuity, Queen Bee did something that led to her drowning while trapped inside a car or something like that. They don't explain it in detail either, though; they just show Gar freezing up, instinctively changing into his original full human self (except green) and crying once reminded of the tragedy.

The dragon is none other than Kaldur'ahm. Yup. The mature, levelheaded, reasonable ex-leader of the Justice League's covert team is now working as Black Manta's #1. His reasons appear to be that during the 5-year gap, Tula became Aquagirl and was killed during a mission that presumably Nightwing sent her off on, and the other being that Aquaman knew that Black Manta was Kaldur's biological father and purposely kept it a secret from him.

To be honest, I hope these aren't the only reasons, or that there's at least more to it than just that, because Kaldur never struck me as the sort of guy who would go rogue over the standard (and somewhat overused) "ah, my beloved was killed because of my own fellow heroes/the father I never knew is evil!" thing. And while at some level I'm kind of heartbroken to see him evil, at the same time I am totally thrilled for it. If any of the main characters had to go bad, it's exciting they chose Aqualad. I mean, to some extent, he was often portrayed as the greatly incorruptible voice of reason amongst the others, and after the events from "Failsafe," Dick stopped longing for leadership. In fact, "Image" suggested he might have been hiding from that whole leader thing behind Kaldur, so yeah.

Which brings me to another point- was Aquagirl the reason Dick told Tim not to die? I mean, I doubt anyone else would defect if Tim died, but I'm sure it would still bring trouble of some kind, trouble that could be on the same level of bad. Just something to think about.

M'gann seems to have taken to telepathic lobotomizing as a habit. I'm surprised Batman and Manhunter didn't react to her when she did it again right underneath their noses, but it's very obvious that Conner's disturbed and unhappy over it. Can't blame him, really. Also, I LOLed when Lagoon Boy enters the Bioship and is initially shocked to find two Kroloteans operating it only for it to turn out to be the Martians.

Also, Vandal Savage officially made Black Manta a member of the Light to replace the apparently dead Ocean Master. I wonder if this is in some manner related to Kaldur's dilemma. Exciting things are happening~

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Aqualad!!! Nuuuuuuuuu xD Haha, awesome little twist. I was wondering where he went. I figured he was off protecting some underwater blah blah or something.*shrugs* Anyways, the time skip is kinda giving me a 'meh' feel on things. For one, I liked how the first season of YJ kinda introduced the main team, where here we have some new players and we're just to suppose to nod our head and accept them. It kinda makes me feel like their characters are kinda secondary, like Zatana was.*shrugs*

Moving onward, I'm also hoping Aqualad decided to switch sides over something more pressing than that. I think Nightwing is heavily involved, more so than just sending his lover off to so suicide mission. It seems like Nightwing can actually be placed at this event, since Aquaman stated that Nightwing was the one that did the informing of Aqualad's betrayal. Hmmm, we'll just have to see I guess.

About Meg. I'm also a bit confused as to why her uncle didn't say anything to her about obtaining information in that manner. I'm pretty sure he himself can do the same thing, but I thought the point was to not go about it that way. Unless, she really is expanding her powers further than he can... Hmmm... I'm seeing her as a up and coming foe instead of friend.

I'm a bit 'meh' about Nightwing's comment to Robin. Maybe he was talking about Tula's death... However, I wouldn't think Nightwing would only direct only to Robin if that was case. I think something else happened, which is someone else did die on Nightwing's watch, this could mean something more for future episodes. I don't know, just trying to make sense of it all. xD

OK, let's start off with the simple things that were just merely mentioned or shown here:

• Superboy, Miss Martian, Bumblebee and Mal's old High School teacher, Lucas Carr, seems to be affiliated to the Team now as he appears inside the Cave, homeschooling Beast Boy.
  
• It seems Superboy met Ted Kord, the original Blue Beetle, at some point during the time skip. However, we won't be seeing him since the Light killed him during the skip. Apparently, it was Ted's death what caused for the Scarab to attach itself to Jaime's spine, or something to that avail.
  
• Wally, Artemis and Clone Roy are in fact still alive. I expected this but was still a bit nervous as Tula wasn't in the list of characters that were involved in the "One will rise, one will fall and one will die" premise, and yet it seems she fits the third outcome. Red Arrow wasn't on the list either, but some ongoing paranoia amongst some of his fans was making me a bit anxious.
  
• Wally and Artemis have been together since they kissed on New Year's and their relationship is currently strong. Really nice news, IMO. ^.^
  
• Sportsmaster is still an agent for the Light and he's teamed up with their new mysterious partner in this episode (the dude that planted the bomb in the previous episode). Still no idea who this "Competitor" is, though we do get a little clue.

Now for the kickers:

• Clone Roy has gone off the deep end. He's sleep-deprived, malnourished, untrained and impoverished. He refuses to accept help from Green Arrow, Black Canary or Nightwing since the Justice League has declared that the Real Roy is dead and have given up their search for him. Clone Roy though is insanely obsessed with finding the original Speedy; the guy's thoroughly consumed, I tells ya. Quite the sad sight.
  
• Back in season 1, Superboy pointed out that Jim Harper/Guardian resembled Roy, and in the season finale, we saw him frozen still while the Light raided Cadmus. Yeah, you guessed it: Guardian was yet another clone, presumably of Speedy too seeing as he explained having searched for the Real Roy and he refers to Red Arrow as "brother" in this episode. He also gave up superheroism to establish his own identity as Jim Harper.
  
• We remember that in the first episode of this season the Kroloteans freaked over the sight of Blue Beetle, and in the previous episode, one of them referred to Blue as a "Competitor Warrior" while Vandal referred to the Light's new partner as "the Kroloteans' Competitor." Well, we still haven't seen his face and we still don't know who he is, but he seems to have a sonic arm cannon just like Blue's... except exponentially more powerful.
  
• Wally has retired (we don't know if temporarily or permanently) from heroics. It's implied that Artemis has as well since they live together and there's a scene where Wally says to her, "...and my Vietnamese Lit paper is still due for tomorrow. I don't suppose I can copy off yours?" In the comics, Wally West had temporarily retired from crimefighting to attend college, so yeah. We'll see what comes off out of this, I guess.
  
• We learn here that some time during the 5-year gap, Jade actually tried to quit crime and married Clone Roy. However, his obsession with finding the real Speedy led to him detaching himself from everyone else, so she left and returned to her Cheshire antics. According to her, however, she's still legally his wife.
  
• So, remember how in the old Teen Titans comics Speedy and Cheshire had an affair that resulted in the birth of Lian Nguyen-Harper? Guess who Jade introduces Clone Roy to in this episode~
  
• And finally, the episode ends with Jade telling Clone Roy that she's cashed in every resource she has to give him one last chance to find the Real Roy. Whatever the outcome, though, Red Arrow HAS to shape up afterwards, for Lian's sake.