Did Titans take a huge risk with its first season finale?

If you were looking for more Titans yesterday, you’ll have been disappointed to find out there wasn’t a new episode. With Titans wrapped for a season, it’s time to look at the potential risk taken with the first season finale.

Titans seems to be one of those shows people have either loved or hated. Personally, I loved it. As someone who hasn’t read many of the comics and was immediately intrigued from the trailer, the season was full of action, intensity, and danger. Now the first season has wrapped, it’s time to look back at the potential risk taken with the first season finale.

Just as a word of caution, there are spoilers in this post. If you haven’t watched the Titans Season 1 finale, you’ll want to check it out first or prepare to be spoiled!

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Let’s be honest; we all spent the episode wondering what was going on and when we’d get back to the house. With Rachel’s dad now on Earth, it was clear that his plan to destroy the Earth would soon happen. Who else expected Rachel to join her father as the big Season 1 cliffhanger?

Instead, we got an episode inside Robin’s head. Those flashes were his Sliding Door moments, where he could have chosen to walk away but he chose to follow a path of darkness. He’d finally given into it by killing Batman (and I love we never got to see Bruce Wayne’s face throughout the series). This felt like a penultimate episode instead of a finale, which made me start wondering whether the writers had taken a huge risk.

After all, the production team had no idea Titans Season 2 would happen at the time of writing and filming. And this story needs a second season. Thankfully, that second season has been granted but it came after the full season was filmed and had gone through post-production. So, what was with the big risk?

This was meant to be the penultimate episode

It turns out that the Titans production team was extremely smart. I tip my hat to them (well, I would if I was wearing a hat) because the decision after getting the second season renewal was perfect.

The Titans Season 1 finale was meant to be the penultimate episode of the season, according to Cinema Blend. Before the second season renewal, we were going to get one more episode. Presumably, it would wrap a lot of the storyline and was filmed just in case DC Universe didn’t renew for a second season. When the renewal came through, it was possible to cut out the last episode and only run an 11-episode season, bringing us that major cliffhanger ending.

I mean, who doesn’t want to see the second season? Who isn’t on the edges of their seats wonder what will happen next? Robin is dark, Rachel is breaking, Beast Boy is recovering from being brought back to life, and Starfire and Wonder Girl have been prevented from getting into the house.

There are so many questions for the future (and I’ll get to them next week when I have a chance to watch the finale and penultimate episode) again. Because of the way things were filmed and decisions made after the renewal, the show was able to end on an immense cliffhanger that reminds me of Eric Kripke’s and Sera Gamble’s level of brilliance. I’m excited to see the second season of Titans more than ever.

What did you think of Titans Season 1? What did you make of the cliffhanger? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Titans Season 1 is now available to stream in full on DC Universe. The second season will be out sometime in 2019.