Satisfaction

"Satisfaction" is the eighth episode of the second season of Young Justice, and the 34th of the overall series. It aired on September 29, 2012.

Logline
Roy Harper seeks vengeance against the man who ruined his life.

Synopsis
Oliver Queen and clone Roy Harper bring the convalescing Roy Harper up to speed with Roy's being replaced, the formation of the Team, and the alien invasion of Earth. Roy Harper demands to know the details of what happened to him; all he could remember was his investigation of a LexCorp shell company that was suspected of supplying weapons to North Rhelasia. He was captured by LexCorp goons, and the last thing he remembered before waking up in Tibet was feeling embarrassed of his capture.

Both Arrows explain that the abduction happened eight years ago, courtesy of Lex Luthor and the Light. They were also responsible for amputating his right arm, presumably to get sufficient DNA material to perfect their human cloning process. The culmination of the process was Red Arrow, who was force-grown to Roy's biological age, and fed with all his memories, skill, and more.

Ollie recounts how he found Red Arrow after three months of intense detective work, belatedly realizing that he had been spoon-fed by the Light into discovering the other Roy Harper. In his exultation, he didn't realize that the boy wasn't the original Roy Harper. The startled original then realizes Red Arrow had been living his life for eight years, though Green Arrow reassures him that Red Arrow had spent five of those years searching tirelessly for the original.

Roy Harper excuses Red Arrow from any wrongdoing, but is incensed at his mentor giving up on him. Calling Ollie useless, Roy orders him out of the room. He then requests that Red Arrow leave as well, as he needs time to process this information. Both men leave, leaving Roy alone.

In the chapel, Red Arrow finds a despondent Green Arrow despairing in a pew. Green Arrow feels that being mentored by Green Arrow was a curse, judging by what happened to Speedy, Red Arrow, and Artemis. Red Arrow comforts his mentor, saying that wasn't true, and that the real Roy Harper needs him despite the hateful words he said. Oliver and Red Arrow walk back into Roy's room to apologize, but find an empty hospital bed with the window opened.

Mal Duncan explains to Nightwing and Superboy that Aquaman has set all of Atlantis to look for Lagoon Boy, however he expresses doubt over the fact that there is a lot of water on the planet for them to search. Mal states that he hopes they find Aqualad, and that he wants him dead because of his perceived murder of Artemis. Nightwing vanishes and Superboy asks where everyone is. Mal explains that the girls are "hitting the shower", and everyone else is in the grotto.

In the grotto, Tim, Garfield, Jaime, and Bart pay a quiet homage to Artemis at her holographic statue. Bart begins eating a bag of freeze-dried Chicken Whizees. Jaime drags him aside and confronts him, as Bart stole the snack from his locker. He defends himself by stating that in his time it would be considered scavenger rights, then asks about the four holographic statues in the grotto, one each for Ted Kord, Tula, Artemis, and Jason Todd, thinking that they should have large and prevalent statues, since they had all died as heroes in the line of duty. Jaime explains that Captain Atom told him that the League did not want a shrine to its fallen, but Jaime suspects that they simply do not want to advertise their own mortality. He also says that many people assume he is Ted Kord himself, and do not know of Ted's death. Bart reassures him, but Jaime is upset that he does not have his own hero mentor. Bart invites him to hang out, and to replace the bag of snack food he took, to which Jaime agrees.

Wally West and Paula Crock visit Artemis's tombstone at Gotham Cemetery. The still-mourning Paula laments that this was the hardest thing she ever faced, and would have died of grief if it weren't for Wally's support. Wally can only guiltily look away. Unnoticed by the two, Jade Nguyen (with Lian in tow) and Crusher Crock have also come to pay their last respects. Although they had their differences, Jade genuinely loved Artemis and regretted not protecting her from their father. She vows to take revenge on Aqualad.

Crusher has come to an entirely different opinion—he felt slighted that the son of Black Manta killed the daughter of Sportsmaster without asking for permission first. He worries that Artemis' death would permanently tarnish his professional reputation, and vows a reckoning with Black Manta, one of his employers.

Roy, still in his hospital gown, makes his way to one of Green Arrow's equipment caches in Star City. The security system recognizes him as Red Arrow, which makes him comment wryly that the new Roy chose a very original name. The cache is bristling with weapons and ordnance of all kinds. Espying a spare Speedy costume, Roy begins to change his clothes—with great difficulty.

Ollie and Roy track Speedy to the location, with Green Arrow reasoning that this was the only place he maintained since eight years ago. When Red Arrow's retina is scanned by the system however, it threatens with a lockdown because he was already inside. Green Arrow overrides, and they find original Roy in a Speedy costume about to use the Zeta-tube.

Speedy apologizes and teleports away, but leaves a grenade and his feather cap behind. After his departure, the grenade blows up the Zeta-Beam, preventing the others from following. However, Red Arrow successfully traces where Speedy has gone. The sidekick has gone to Metropolis, and Green Arrow realizes it was to take his vengeance on Lex Luthor.

In his office, Lex Luthor is hard at work doing paperwork, which he claims is to enable an alien invasion. One last paper informs him Speedy has left his hospital bed. Speedy, meanwhile, is standing on an adjacent rooftop with an RPG launcher, which he fires into Luthor's office. It explodes, creating a fireball out of his office.

Wendy sits down with Conner to wish him happy birthday, and asks for his age. Conner says his true age—6—before correcting it to his legal age, 22. Wendy comments that his appearance never changes, both biologically and with the S-Shield T-shirts he still wears. Mal stopped that when he turned eighteen. She reminds him of Megan's surprise parties for him, and he tells her he never liked them. She disagrees, surmising he only pretended not to like them, because he knew Megan enjoyed throwing them. She asks him if he is going to have a party, but he tells Wendy that she is the only one who remembered.

Zatanna and Megan discuss Superboy's birthday, with Megan expressing regret that she is not throwing a party, but Zatanna reassures her. They arrive at Raquel's bridal shower, also attended by Dinah, Cassie, Karen and Barbara. Megan gives Raquel a gift, which she and Artemis had shopped for together. Raquel worries that they are having a celebration so shortly after Artemis's death, but Megan and Zatanna reassure her that it's what she would have wanted. They have a toast for Artemis, and another for Raquel.

Captain Cold is sitting on a building opposite a bank and beside Raquel's bridal shower, planning a heist.

Lex Luthor enters a safe behind his desk, having survived the RPG explosion. He takes out an unmarked briefcase. Otis radios him and checks that he is all right, and Luthor sends him to kill Speedy, but his team finds only the launcher and a pair of binoculars. Luthor enters a car park, only for Speedy to blow up his car. Mercy attacks Speedy.

An armored truck parks in front of the bank opposite Captain Cold, which he then encases in ice, as well as Raquel's bridal shower, the bank, and the road. He is about to break into the truck and steal the money, when he hears Zatanna utter a backwards spell that changes the heroes into their costumes. Rocket then frees them from the ice with a force bubble. They attack Cold, and he screams.

A large battle ensues between Speedy and Mercy, which finishes when he blows off her arm with a length of detonation cord, and is preparing to do the same to Luthor. Luthor points out he is surrounded by armed guards, and asks him if his revenge is worth his life. Instead, Luthor offers him the unmarked case he had earlier retrieved from the safe. Speedy expresses doubts that it might be booby trapped, but opens it anyway.

On the street in front of LexCorp, Green Arrow and Red Arrow think they're too late, but Speedy comes out of the smoking entrance of the car park. He reassures them that he did not kill Luthor. Red Arrow asks what is in the case he is carrying, and he reveals that it contains a robotic arm, which he claims is better than the version Mercy was equipped with. He rebuffs Green Arrow's offer of help, and rejects the name Speedy. He will take a new name: Arsenal.

Title
The theme of "satisfaction" was explored primarily in three individuals seeking vengeance during the episode. Cheshire wanted to satisfy her desire to avenge Artemis by taking down Aqualad. Sportsmaster wanted to satisfy his desire to maintain his reputation by confronting Black Manta. And Speedy thought he wanted revenge, but, goaded by Lex Luthor, was actually more satisfied with gaining enough power to prevent himself from being vulnerable again.

Cast and characters
! colspan="3"| Uncredited ! colspan="3"| Non-speaking roles
 * Lacey Chabert
 * colspan="2"| Zatanna Zatara
 * Nick Chinlund
 * colspan="2"| Crusher Crock
 * rowspan="2"| Crispin Freeman
 * Speedy
 * colspan="2"| Red Arrow
 * rowspan="2"| Kelly Hu
 * colspan="2"| Paula Crock
 * colspan="2"| Jade Nguyen
 * Kittie
 * colspan="2"| Raquel Ervin
 * Eric Lopez
 * colspan="2"| Jaime Reyes
 * Jason Marsden
 * colspan="2"| Bart Allen
 * Danica McKellar
 * colspan="2"| Megan Morse
 * rowspan="2"| Masasa Moyo
 * colspan="2"| Karen Beecher
 * colspan="2"| Wendy Harris
 * Nolan North
 * colspan="2"| Conner Kent
 * rowspan="2"| Kevin Michael Richardson
 * colspan="2"| Mal Duncan
 * colspan="1"| Otis
 * Mark Rolston
 * colspan="2"| Lex Luthor
 * rowspan="2"| Alan Tudyk
 * colspan="2"| Oliver Queen
 * colspan="1"| Captain Cold
 * colspan="2"| Karen Beecher
 * colspan="2"| Wendy Harris
 * Nolan North
 * colspan="2"| Conner Kent
 * rowspan="2"| Kevin Michael Richardson
 * colspan="2"| Mal Duncan
 * colspan="1"| Otis
 * Mark Rolston
 * colspan="2"| Lex Luthor
 * rowspan="2"| Alan Tudyk
 * colspan="2"| Oliver Queen
 * colspan="1"| Captain Cold
 * Mark Rolston
 * colspan="2"| Lex Luthor
 * rowspan="2"| Alan Tudyk
 * colspan="2"| Oliver Queen
 * colspan="1"| Captain Cold
 * colspan="2"| Oliver Queen
 * colspan="1"| Captain Cold
 * colspan="1"| Captain Cold
 * colspan="2"| Mercy
 * colspan="2"| Mercy
 * colspan="3" | Aqualad (photo)
 * colspan="3" | Aquaman (photo)
 * colspan="3" | Artemis (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Barbara Gordon
 * colspan="3" | Cassie Sandsmark
 * colspan="3" | Dinah Lance
 * colspan="3" | Garfield Logan
 * colspan="2" | Jason Todd (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Lagoon Boy (photo)
 * colspan="3" | Lian Nguyen-Harper
 * colspan="3" | Nightwing
 * colspan="2" | Ted Kord (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Tim Drake
 * colspan="3" | Tula (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Wally West
 * colspan="2" | Jason Todd (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Lagoon Boy (photo)
 * colspan="3" | Lian Nguyen-Harper
 * colspan="3" | Nightwing
 * colspan="2" | Ted Kord (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Tim Drake
 * colspan="3" | Tula (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Wally West
 * colspan="2" | Ted Kord (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Tim Drake
 * colspan="3" | Tula (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Wally West
 * colspan="3" | Tim Drake
 * colspan="3" | Tula (hologram)
 * colspan="3" | Wally West
 * colspan="3" | Wally West
 * colspan="3" | Wally West

Continuity

 * Red Arrow tells Roy they try not to call themselves "sidekick". This alludes to Red Arrow's recurring disdain for the term, which was established in "Independence Day".
 * This episode takes place one day after "Depths" ended, and continues several of the events of that episode, such as Artemis's "death" and Lagoon Boy's capture.
 * Red Arrow mentions finding Speedy in Tibet, which was shown in "Bloodlines". His stay in Royal Memorial Hospital was mentioned in "Depths".
 * Wendy Harris mentions Mal Duncan's habit of wearing Superman t-shirts; it was his standard wardrobe in season one.

Trivia

 * A gravestone in front of Artemis's reads "Nollan Obena, 1929-1993". Nollan Obena is a background designer on Young Justice.
 * Speedy scoffs at the lack of originality of Red Arrow's alias. The pointing out of incoherent superheroes' aliases has been a running gag since the first episode, "Independence Day", where Speedy's alias, no less, was called out by a bystander for making no sense for a sidekick of Green Arrow's.
 * When Rocket blasted away Captain Cold's ice, the seven heroines were positioned similarly to the heroes in the introduction of the Justice League animated series.
 * Lex Luthor says "Vengeance is a sucker's game", very similar to a line uttered by ("Revenge, as they say, is a sucker's game") in the episode "" of, also produced by Greg Weisman.

Goofs

 * When Megan and Zatanna arrive at Raquel's bridal shower they do not have drinks, but moments later each has a drink in front of them.
 * After Speedy detonates the wire around Mercy's cybernetic arm, she is shown hurtling backward at an oblique angle into the side of a parked sedan. But in the next shot, she impacts the center of the car's windshield.
 * In the end credits, Jade Nguyen's last name is misspelled as "Ngyuen".

Cultural references

 * A bridal shower is a gift-giving party held for a bride-to-be in anticipation of her wedding. The tradition is most common in the North America, and Australia via cultural osmosis.
 * The book Conner is reading outside Ivy Town is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It was also used in "Homefront".

Unanswered questions

 * When did Jason Todd join the Team and how did he die?
 * Who is Raquel going to marry?