"Death and Rebirth" is the 26th episode and final episode of the fourth season of Young Justice, and the 99th of the overall series. It debuted on June 9, 2022 on HBO Max.
In the middle of Planet Circle, Superboy holds an unconscious, Kryptonite-poisoned Superman, ready to kill him on Dru-Zod's order. Superboy remembers recent events: Nightwing dead; the Emerald Empress shooting down the Bio-Ship; and the resulting crash site with the crew, including Miss Martian, dead. Dru-Zod continues his address to the world, espousing his theory that Jor-El sent Kal-El to Earth so that he might become a god among men, and that he would do what Kal-El failed to do by bringing Earth, or New Krypton, to galactic supremacy. He then orders Superboy to execute Superman.
North Pole September 14, 01:41UTC Five minutes earlier
Nightwing emerges from the Fortress of Solitude and is distraught to see the crashed Bio-Ship and her crew dead. Miss Martian soon reveals the truth, however, lifting a psychic illusion to show that the crew are alive and mostly on their feet. The pair quickly embrace, and M'gann notices Dick is hurt. Dick explains that he deliberately cut his head and slowed his heartbeat so he could play dead, and tells M'gann about his team's attempt to rescue Conner from the Phantom Zone. M'gann then explains that she and her group has been looking for Conner too. When the Emerald Empress attacked them, Saturn Girl was able to get off a psychic warning, so that Superman and Orion could step forward and take the brunt of the blast. M'gann and Saturn Girl then created the psychic illusion of the deaths of everyone except Superman, who stood up to sell the illusion. M'gann finishes by saying the Zods went to Metropolis, and Dick notes that Kaldur, Tigress and Zatanna just radioed him from there. M'gann asks about Rocket and Dick tells her she didn't make it, to M'gann's dismay. Green Lantern Forager, Orion and Black Lightning were left unconscious by the crash, with J'emm J'axx tending to them. Bio-Ship reverts to her resting form to heal, spitting out the damaged Cosmic Treadmill. There seems to be no mode of transport available to them, until Baby arrives, drawn by her mother's psychic scream of pain.
Back at Planet Circle, General Zod repeats his order, but his use of the word "family" to invoke his loyalty backfires. Superboy remembers when Superman first accepted him aboard the Watchtower; when Clark introduced him to his parents and hoped that Conner would consider them his parents too; and when he held Jonny Kent for the first time. Superboy cannot kill his family, prompting Lor-Zod to demand his death as well as Superman's. General Zod prepares to use the Kryptonite on them, but Kid Flash snatches it out of his hand. Lor goes after him, but is rammed by the school bus, which flies and is invisible thanks to Zatanna.
Baby flies to Metropolis carrying Miss Martian, Nightwing, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl. M'gann thanks Baby for her help and assures her that her mother will be okay. Nightwing is determined to stop the Zods before the sun rises and they reach full power. He urges M'gann to put her concerns about abusing her powers aside and not to hold back.
At Planet Circle, the police begin evacuating bystanders as the battle rages. The Eye of Ekron destroys the school bus. Zod realizes that the heroes were not as dead as thought, and has Ma'alefa'ak and the Mother-Thrall open a boom tube to the Phantom Zone to release his army. Faora Hu-Ul and Non emerge from the tube. Faora immediately feels the injuries she sustained from the Devourer, but Zod assures her she will heal quickly under the yellow sun. Faora reports that the rest of the army is being gathered and will arrive within the hour. They are then interrupted when an exploding bolt knocks them down, as Zatanna conjures a ring of fire around Ma'alefa'ak, and a hard-water eel grabs the Mother-Thrall and pulls it into the sewers, closing the boom tube. Lor spots Tigress after she fires a bolt which Dru-Zod catches, but Kid Flash saves her from the car he throws at her. Ma'alefa'ak is able to sense Zatanna and brain blasts her, extinguishing the fire, as Kid Flash attempts to grab the Eye but is shocked when he touches it. Tigress is grabbed from behind by Non. Kaldur goes after Dru-Zod, but is knocked aside by Superboy, still loyal to Zod even though he defied his order to kill his brother.
In the sewers, the Motherbox is able to restore Danny Chase to consciousness, but his relief is short lived, as Ma'alefa'ak invades his mind once more. Back on the surface, Zatanna attempts to burn the Eye, but her magic is no match for it. As Superboy and Zod are about to kill Kaldur and Superman, Baby blasts them, and Nightwing arrives to help Tigress take on Non. Phantom Girl and Chameleon Boy are tasked with keeping Ma'alefa'ak busy, and the two shape-shifters fight as Ma'alefa'aks.
When Kaldur again takes on Dru-Zod, Superboy tries to intervene again. M'gann enters his mind, and despite his protests that he is a weapon who could hurt her, insists she knows he is no threat, and restores his full memories, showing him the significant moments in their relationship. Finally, Superboy is himself again.
Meanwhile, Zatanna calls for help, knowing the Emerald Empress is out of her league. M'gann gets Ursa's attention by throwing a motorcycle at her, while Zatanna casts a healing spell on Superman. Lor finally succeeds in taking down Baby, throwing her into the Chicken Whizee shop. Dru-Zod gains the upper hand against Kaldur, throwing him at Zatanna and taking both out. But both Dru and Lor-Zod are confronted by Superman and Superboy. In gratitude for saving him in the Zone, Conner offers Dru one last chance to stand down, but he refuses, and the Zods and Els begin to fight.
The Emerald Empress entraps Miss Martian in a ring of fire, then rips her heart out of her chest, only for the real M'gann to approach her from behind, dismissing the illusion before brain blasting her, causing her to fall unconscious, lose her power as the Emerald Empress, and the Eye to fall to the ground.
In Danny's mind, he suffers under Ma'alefa'ak's attacks, but Saturn Girl comes to his aid. As Phantom Girl distracts Ma'alefa'ak in the real world by phase shifting him into the ground, Saturn Girl encourages Danny, and he literally kicks Ma'alefa'ak out of his head.
The Els are coming off worse in their battle, but Superman notes they aren't in sync with each other, and teams with Conner for "the combo", throwing Superboy into Lor and Dru. Lor soon regains the upper hand over Superboy, until M'gann grabs him and brain blasts him. Danny emerges from the sewer, and opens a vertical boom tube to the Phantom Zone. Tigress and Nightwing execute the West Maneuver on Non, knocking him into the tube. Faora leaps at them, but is trapped in a force bubble. Rocket has arrived in a Time-Sphere, though holds off on explaining how she got there, and dumps Faora into the boom tube. Danny then blasts Ma'alefa'ak into the tube. As he falls, M'gann enters his mind and reminds him he was glad Conner "died".
Meanwhile, Superman and Superboy team up against Dru-Zod and punch him into the boom tube. A recovered Ursa cries out for her husband, but the Eye creates a bubble around her and flies away with her against her protest. Lor recovers and charges through the heroes into the Time-Sphere, which quickly disappears. Moments later, a group of Justice Leaguers and Outsiders arrive. Black Canary is shocked to see Conner alive, and asks if its all over. Dick says it is, but the Legionnaires disagree; with Lor stealing the Time-Sphere they are back to where they started. The heroes look on as the sun rises over the city.
Clark watches Stargirl in his apartment. Stargirl is interviewing Beast Boy, who talks about his struggles with mental health. He then begins to talk about Superboy as Lois and Jonny approach the apartment. Clark quickly switches the TV off, but Jonny already heard. Clark and Lois explain to him that what they had told him about death was true, they were wrong about Conner being dead. Jonny is unsurprised and delighted when Clark offers him the chance to see Conner. Clark shows him a video; Conner and M'gann's wedding invitation. They don't want to risk anything else bad happening, and so are going ahead as quickly as possible.
Traya and Cullen set out chairs in the Carr house's yard, as J'ann and M'aatt M'orzzZeta in. M'ree M'orzz welcomes them to Earth and tells them she has decided to go back to using her birth name. On the porch, Black Canary tells the other Leaguers present that she thinks they need a better solution to help heroes struggling with mental health, and proposes setting up a dedicated sanctuary where they can get away from the life and get treatment. Gar and Perdita Vladek talk by the apple trees. Perdita tells him she is glad he is doing better and she will always care for him, but she has moved on and tells him he must too.
Conner and Clark arrive in a black limousine, and approach Kaldur, who is telling Orion, Chameleon Boy, Green Lantern Forager and Raquel that they cannot leave the Kryptonians in the Zone forever. Cham objects, noting that releasing them in the 31st century is what caused this whole crisis to begin with. Clark proposes letting them out on Trombus, an uninhabited world under a red sun, where they would have to build from scratch. Raquel notes the League, New Gods and Green Lantern Corps could keep watch over them. Kaldur agrees and determines to go to the Phantom Zone once the wedding is over.
Vandal Savage admires the rows of stasis chambers filled with Kryptonians, as Ultra-Humanite announces that there is not a Kryptonian left in the Zone and notes how helpful Klarion had been in hunting them down. He was pleased Apokolips required only one Kryptonian in tribute, plus Ma'alefa'ak.
Grayven boom tubes to Durla with Ma'alefa'ak. The planet is his reward for faithful service to Darkseid, a place the A'ashenn can call their own.
Back at the Carr home, Orion asks Raquel how she survived. She explains that her force bubble protected her when the boom tube collapsed and she popped up in the Infinity Vault. Metron offered her the repaired Time-Sphere as a way home. Orion is surprised Metron was so helpful, and Raquel admits he said it was out of gratitude for her prior help, as well as part of an experiment. When Orion asks how she operated the Sphere, she tells him Metron pre-programmed it. She was just sorry Lor-Zod was able to escape with it.
Lor charges through the heroes into the Time-Sphere. He soon finds the controls are locked.
The Sphere takes Lor back to the site of the gene-bomb explosion, just before it went off. Lor thinks he is being given another chance to kill Superboy. He leaves the Sphere to prevent Phantom Girl from saving Superboy, but is distracted when the Sphere leaves on its own, and misses his chance. Phantom Girl phase shifts out with Superboy, and the bomb detonates moments later, incinerating Lor and leaving a shadow of his ash on the cave wall.
Restored as the Emerald Empress, Ursa flies in a bubble to Daxam, where she vows to raise her unborn child to seek vengeance for the House of Zod.
Back at the Carr home, Chameleon Boy tells Kid Flash the Legionnaires shouldn't be there, but Bart tells him to get used to the now, but corrects himself when a Time-Sphere appears; Brainiac-5 has come to take the Legionnaires home, telling them he is 99.84% sure they have substantially restored their timeline. Cham worries about the other 0.16%, Bart tells him to let it go. Conner spots them leaving, and they tell him it is past time they went. Phantom Girl wishes him a wonderful wedding and life. Conner asks what made him so special, but Saturn Girl just tells him he will see, before entering the Sphere and leaving. A white limousine arrives, and Lucas Carr calls for everyone to take their seats so the wedding can begin.
As Conner walks down the aisle, escorted by Jonathan and Martha, Marvin is flabbergasted that he was the only one who didn't know all his friends were superheroes, but is shushed by Wendy, Mal and Icicle Jr.. M'gann exits the white limo and walks down the aisle with her parents, as the two limousines shape shift into Bio-Ship and Baby. Lucas begins the service, and is quick to get to the vows before the next supervillain attacks. Jonny runs up the aisle and presents to rings. Conner and M'gann exchange vows talking about what they learned about love from each other, and swearing to love each other for all eternity. Lucas pronounces them married, and the couple kiss.
End credits scene: As Wolf, Leroy, Brucely and Wingman sleep, the wedding reception can be heard underway. Lucas announces the throwing of the bouquet, which ends up in the hands of Icicle Jr. A little later, Lucas calls for the floor to clear for the newlyweds' first dance, but recants when they decide to dance 16 feet in the air. Lucas is then confused when something steals the wedding bouquet, and runs past the sleeping pets.
Grayven introduces Darkseid to Black Mary and Supergirl, the next generation of Furies, set to take the fight to the heroes who "betrayed" them. Darkseid smiles.
Superboy states he can't kill Superman "again", referring to the hallucination in "Emergency Dive", in which Match snapped his neck.
Nightwing mentions Miss Martian worrying about abusing her powers. M'gann's abuse of power was first seen in "Earthlings", and her decision to restrict the use of her powers was first mentioned by Superboy in "Away Mission".
As she steps out of the Phantom Zone, Faora grimaces from her wounds induced by a Devourer in the previous episode.
Saturn Girl lets Danny Chase do the honor of defeating Ma'alefa'ak, after Ma'alefa'ak brain blasted him and took control of the Kaizer-Thrall in "Over and Out".
Miss Martian finally finds out that Lor-Zod was the one responsible for attempting to take Superboy's life. In "The Lady, or the Tigress?" she was desperate for someone to blame.
Miss Martian accuses Ma'alefa'ak of being happy about Conner's death, a sentiment which Ma'alefa'ak echoed in "Encounter Upon the Razor's Edge!".
After fighting the Zods, Superboy states that he is "Fine. Feeling the aster", which he reiterated from "Schooled".
In his interview on Stargirl, Beast Boy mentions his leave of absence from the Outsiders, which started when he went to Mars in "Inhospitable", and his departure from Space Trek 3016 in "Og Htrof Dna Reuqnoc!". He also opens up about his mental health struggles, for which he started receiving treatment in "Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!".
M'ree M'orzz has switched back to her birth name, finally overcoming her shame over her A'ashenn heritage. This was a big point of contention between her and M'gann in "Volatile".
Perdita has moved on since Garfield broke up with her in "Kaerb Ym Traeh!", and is glad he's getting help, which started in "Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!".
The ashes from the gene-bomb seen in "Involuntary" are shown to be from Lor-Zod. They were thought to belong to Superboy at the time.
Metron takes his revenge on Lor-Zod for the humiliation he endured by the Kryptonian's hands in "Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!".
Saturn Girl is elated to find out that she and her companions were not as far removed from her old timeline as she had posited in "Ebb Tide".
Marvin White has only just found out that his former classmates, mainly Conner and Megan, are heroes. They first met in "Targets".
Icicle Jr. attends the wedding. He played a role in Conner getting together with M'gann in "Terrors", and was pleased to learn the couple were engaged in "True Heroes".
Conner and M'gann finally exchange their wedding rings after they gave them to each other in "Inhospitable". M'gann receives a new ring to replace the original that previously melted in the lava in "Involuntary".
Mary Bromfield had become Black Mary and joined the Furies after being persuaded by Granny Goodness to succumb to her lust for power in "Kaerb Ym Traeh!".
Supergirl is revealed to be Zor-El's daughter mentioned by Ursa in "Rescue and Search".
Chameleon Boy worries about the 0.16% chance his original timeline has not been restored.
The newlyweds have their first dance 16 feet above the dance floor.
This episode has the longest run time of all.
In addition to those seen earlier in "Over and Out", this episode shows additional billboards in Planet Circle for LexCorp, CatCo featuring Cat Grant, and Eyespasm. The billboard for the Daily Planet's sports section is seen more clearly, showing it includes coverage by Steve Lombard. It is also confirmed that the Circle is at the base of the Daily Planet building, and Chicken Whizee and Big Belly Burger restaurants are seen along it.
Black Canary's plans for a mental health sanctuary allude to the creation of Sanctuary, the setting of infamous 2018 DC crossover storyline "Heroes in Crisis."
Nightwing steps out of the Fortress of Solitude at 01:41 UTC, five minutes before the events taking place at Planet Circle at 05:46 EDT. However, UTC is four hours ahead of EDT—not behind. Therefore, the scene in the North Pole should be timestamped with 09:41 UTC.
When Superboy is fighting against Dru-Zod who holds him by the throat, his hand and neck are mis-coloured. They should be red from his burns, but are instead his normal skintone.
In the wedding video invitation, Conner's hair on the left side of his head is burnt off, when it was really the right side.
When Conner and M'gann embrace, Conner's arm is underneath M'gann's cape, but when the group is watching the sunrise, his arm is above her cape instead.
Cultural references[]
Questions[]
Questions
Do not answer here.
Keep the questions open-ended and neutral: do not suggest an answer.
Dru-Zod: I have a theory. You see, Jor-El could've sent his son to New Genesis. He had allies there, but on that world, his boy would have been an orphan, at the mercy of New Gods. So, instead, Jor-El chose this world where his son could be raised in benign anonymity, before rising to become a god among men. But where Kal-El, the Superman, failed to take his place as humanity's god, where he failed to rule and raise your world to galactic supremacy, I, General Zod, will succeed for you all and a new day will dawn on this world, today, re-christened as New Krypton, re-christened in the blood of your failed savior. Superboy, execute Kal-El now.
Marvin White: So, I was the only one who didn't know my friends are all superheroes. And the reason I didn't know was because everyone thought I already knew?
Lucas Carr: I think we can all agree that even death can't part these two. Still, before the next supervillain attacks, let's get right to the exchange of vows and rings.
Lucas Carr: And now, by the power vested in me by the State of Rhode Island, the website that ordained me last night, and hopefully with a blessing of love and long life from, uh, C'eridy'all... I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.
Lucas Carr: Get ready, everyone, the bride's about to throw the bouquet! And the lucky lady is... Icicle Jr. Okay. Did not see that coming.
Grayven: Lord Darkseid, it is my honor to officially introduce to you Granny Goodness's two newest recruits. The first: Black Mary was stripped of her birthright by her brother, her mentor, and all her peers. As for the second, she is a Kryptonian captured by The Light and turned over to Apokolips as tribute. Decades ago, she was sent to the Phantom Zone alone. This is Kara Zor-El, the Supergirl. Together, Kara and Mary represent the next generation of Furies ready to take the fight to the so-called heroes who betrayed them.
