Are you a Garfield Logan fan? Been missing your Beast Boy fix this season? You’ll love ‘Nightmare Monkeys’, because this episode finally gives us a glimpse into Garfield’s life as an actor in addition to fleshing out what happened to him over the past seven years. Not only that, but Young Justice decided to pay a homage to Teen Titans Go with a cartoonish exaggeration of their own. In case you missed something, let’s discuss:
- That’s Showbiz: I don’t know about you, but I would love to watch an episode of Garfield’s show. It’s so cheesy and wonderful, just like ‘Hello Megan!’ Gretchen Goode marvels over Garfield’s work while expressing how proud Marie would be for his following in her footsteps. Judging by Garfield’s reaction, he doesn’t seem to think so.
- Another Freak: The Happy Harbor gang gather at M’gann and Conner’s house to discuss Victor’s arrival and hear what exactly happened during Forager and Violet’s first day of school. Forager recounts how Violet opened up a boom tube, as if she were a motherbox, and everyone freaks out. Through a series of flashbacks, the gang finally connects the dots and realizes that Violet is the reincarnated spirit of the motherbox that was killed in Markovia, explaining her various powers, strange quirks and lack of memories.
- Danger Alert: Garfield relaxes in Perdita’s hotel room as she gets ready to go out on a date with him. He discovers a pair of Goode Goggles that was given to Perdita as a gift and slips them on to kill some time. No sooner does he start playing Space Trek does a little needle poke a tiny hole in his head. The goggles flash red, and thus my anxiety spikes.
- Battle of the Geneses: Victor expresses that he wants to return to his normal life, and I honestly feel bad for him. He didn’t ask for any of this, and yet he is the one who has to face the repercussions. The moment Victor brings up the fatherbox, Sphere starts to get confrontational. In an instant, Victor is taken over again by the fatherbox and starts attacking Sphere. Conner stands between both of them, absorbing the attacks until Halo goes Indigo and heals Victor once more. Dick instructs her that from now on, she is to stick close to Victor, something Brion isn’t too happy about. Jefferson suggests returning Victor to his father, but Victor adamantly refuses. Thus, it is up to Conner and M’gann to house yet another stray.
- Doom Patrol, Go!: Garfield’s game is interrupted by the Goggles’ mind control technology, commanding him to go to Encino. However, before he is able to do anything, the goggles short-circuit and he falls into a mind-coma. Here’s where things start to get twisty. He envisions that he’s still in his spaceship from Space Trek, only his team consists of a bunch of familiar faces: the ghosts of Tula, Ted Kord, Jason Todd… and Wally West! The clamulons begin to attack, and one by one, everyone is killed off save for Wally and Garfield. In case this wasn’t enough to make you cry, we also get to see Wally’s death and Artemis’ reaction from ‘Endgame’. Garfield coils in pain after watching, but is then distracted by his monkey from Quarac. He chases after him, only to enter a different channel in which he transforms into Beast Boy from ‘Teen Titans Go!’. The Doom Patrol greets him, and you may recognize all the voices of the original Teen Titans! In a strange sequence, it is revealed that Rita and her husband adopted Garfield after Marie died, but then died as well. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, and probably did a bit of both. After Rita died, a comically sad segment shows that M’gann took Garfield in, but Rita’s husband (Steve Dayton) claimed parental rights and took Garfield away from her. He then exploited his metagene powers and put him on television to make money off him. Garfield just can’t seem to catch a break, now can he?
- A Call For Help: Unable to do anything else, Perdita calls 911 in addition to M’gann and Conner. I’ll admit, the image of Conner literally carrying out the EMTs made me laugh. M’gann goes into Garfield’s mind to try and bring him out of the coma. Garfield has finally managed to escape the cartoonish world of the ‘Doom Patrol’, but instead finds himself in ‘Hello, Megan!’. After Queen Bee shows up, he’s forced to rewatch his mother’s car ‘accident’ and collapses in grief. Garfield’s monkey, with the comical voice of Wally, brings him out of it and tells him to snap out of it. After a bit of back and forth, he realizes that this is all in his head and then meets M’gann who embraces him. He comes to the realization that while acting brought him closer to his mother, it also kept away the pain of all the people he’d lost in his life. He’s done chasing that dream, and announces that he’s finally ready to stop and face reality.
- Kiss and Make Up: Garfield comes out of his coma, much to the relief of Conner, M’gann and Perdita. He reveals the true motives behind the goggles, as well as the person behind it all: Gretchen Goode. With trouble put to the wayside for now, him and Perdita are free to share a sweet kiss. M’gann and Conner join in, and off in Happy Harbor, so do Brion and Violet. New couple alert!
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