Terrors

"Terrors" is the eleventh episode of Young Justice and aired on September 23rd.

Logline
Batman assigns Superboy and Miss Martian to go undercover inside Belle Reve Penitentiary, a federal prison designed to house the world’s worst super-villains...

Synopsis


Cat Grant reports live from New Orleans, Lousisiana, on a battle between Superman and Martian Manhunter and the Terror Twins. The twins are beaten and fitted with power-inhibiting collars. Miss Martian and Superboy take on their appearance in order to get inside Belle Reve Penitentiary. (Superboy uses hair dye, and M'gann uses her shapeshifting powers.) The ease of capture of four ice villains on July 4 has raised alarms with the Justice League, especially since Mister Freeze and Icicle Jr. have employed legal angles to shift their incarceration to Belle Reve. No prison staff will know the two are not who they appear to be, as Batman believes the staff may be compromised.

Miss Martian and Superboy arrive at Belle Reve with Mister Freeze and Icicle Jr.. The institution proves to be brutal, since the warden, Amanda Waller is especially hostile to the prisoners. She wants to keep the record and reputation of the prison as inescapable intact. All the prisoners, including Superboy and Miss Martian in disguise, have collars on their neck which are designed to shut down dangerous metahuman powers such as super-strength and ice conjuring. The collars can also also administer electric shocks, which Waller brutally demonstrates. Since Miss Martian's collar was designed to suppress Tuppence Terror's super strength, her telepathy still works, and she uses it to communicate with Superboy.

Superboy is assigned to bunk with Icicle Jr.; they bond over their similar issues regarding their respective progenitors. Junior is attracted to Miss Martian in her shapeshifted mode as Tuppence. Unfortunately Superboy gets into a fight with several of Icicle Sr.'s cronies, including Professor Ojo, who recognizes him. In the nick of time, Miss Martian telepathically compels Ojo to forget it is Superboy.

Miss Martian communicates with Aqualad, who is surveilling the prison, and tells him the escape is nigh. Aqualad offers to break them out and call the Justice League, but Miss Martian argues that they need to determine the means of the escape first or else it will simply be delayed.

The Twins go to a mandatory rehabilitation behavior session with Hugo Strange. Miss Martian, trying to act as Tuppence, elaborates on Superboy "father's" issues. Superboy has an outburst exclaiming that Megan lives in a fantasy world, which hurts her.

Mister Freeze and Icicle Sr. stage a fight that gets Freeze sent to Waller; he manages to deactivate the collars, but Waller is able to initiate a lockdown. The ice villains are plotting a massive prison break for all the cons: they use their combined ice-powers to freeze the heavy lockdown barriers, making them brittle and easy for the super-strong inmates to break through in a matter of minutes. Superboy pretends to make allies with Icicle Jr. and comrades, but his true motive is to sabotage the breakout. Miss Martian has to stop Killer Frost from killing an officer. Miss Martian has time to tell Superboy her cover is probably blown, but they lose contact.

Superboy/Tommy and Icicle Jr. have been assigned to take down the wall to the women's side in order to free them. Superboy tricks Icicle Jr. by saying his father would want to see initiative; he tells him him the women's side collars are coming back on. Junior and Superboy fight to the warden's office to completely shut the collars down, when in reality Superboy reactivates every remaining collar and incapacitates most of the cons. Mister Freeze catches onto Junior and Superboy but the two beat him.

Superboy quickly busts the wall into the woman's wing to find Killer Frost gloating. As he sees Megan frozen, and apparently dead, he engages Frost in combat. He uses her muscled prison friend as a shield when Killer attempts to freeze him, then throws the frozen block knocking both out.

Icicle was surprised of his actions then quickly realizes his "sister's" apparent death. Superboy feels overwhelmed with sorrow at the idea of losing Megan. In the brink of his frustration, he tries to punch the ice, but Icicle Jr. stops him, as it would shatter her. Superboy start to lose hope; but the ice unexpectedly breaks apart and "Tuppence" is freed, unconscious but unharmed. Superboy grabs her and she awakens. As Megan explains that it's pretty cold from where she comes from, suggesting that she was able to survive because of it, she is cut short as Superboy pulls her into a deep kiss. Icicle, dumbstruck and disgusted exclaimed "Dude, it's your sister!" While kissing Superboy, Miss Martian reverts back to her true form and Icicle realizes their true identities. He realizes he has been conned and will probably be in big trouble with his father.

The prison break was handled and no one escaped except for the Riddler. Hugo Strange replaces Amanda as the new warden, and it turns out that he was in on the escape attempt, in spite of acting as a victim earlier. He and Icicle Sr. congratulate each other, as, even though only one con escaped, all the main objectives were reached, which will undoubtedly please... The Light.

Title
The title may refer to the fact that the Superboy and Miss Martian go undercover to Belle Reve Penitentiary as the Terror Twins. Also, there they encounter many dangerous criminals, so in a sense they must face many "terrors," all the while preserving their cover.

Credited

 * "Tommy", Professor Ojo (Nolan North)
 * "Tuppence" (Danica McKellar)
 * Aqualad, Wilcox, Brick (Khary Payton)

* Riddler (Dave Franco)
 * Batman (Bruce Greenwood)
 * Icicle Jr., Tommy Terror (Yuri Lowenthal)
 * Cat Grant (Masasa Moyo)
 * Hugo Strange (Adrian Pasdar)
 * Amanda Waller (Sheryl Lee Ralph)
 * Icicle Sr. James Remar)
 * Killer Frost (Sarah Shahi)
 * Mr. Freeze (Keith Szarabajka)

Non-speaking Roles
The following characters appear, but have no lines:
 * Martian Manhunter
 * Red Tornado
 * Superman
 * Devastation

Continuity

 * This episode explains the reason behind the coordinated attacks of Mister Freeze, Icicle Jr., Killer Frost and Captain Cold in "Independence Day".
 * Belle Reve Penitentiary houses many villains arrested in previous episodes:
 * Blockbuster from "Fireworks"
 * Brick from "Welcome to Happy Harbor"
 * Shimmer and Mammoth from "Drop-Zone"
 * Professor Ivo from "Schooled"
 * Professor Ojo and Hook from "Infiltrator"
 * Abra Kadabra from "Denial"
 * Professor Ojo recognizes Superboy from "Infiltrator". In fact, he's the only one who does.

Trivia

 * Miss Martian and Superboy share their first on-screen kiss.
 * This episode marks the first appearance of the Terror Twins in the show, after appearing in comic issue #0.
 * This marks the second time Kid Flash and Artemis were absent during an episode, and the third time Robin was absent during an episode.
 * "Belle Rêve" is French for "beautiful dream".
 * Brick makes a reference to the Joker.

Quotes

 * Superboy: Congratulations. That's more quality time than he's ever given me.


 * Superboy: Well, maybe Tommy refuses to live in Tuppence's stupid little fantasy world where every problem's solved in half-an-hour!


 * Icicle Jr: Dude, that's your sister!


 * Hugo Strange: The Light... should be... quite pleased.