[7.6/10] Hooray! Answers! After a half-season of teases, I’m glad to get some details for what the bad guys are actually up to. “The Partner” aka “The Competitor” turns out to be The Reach, some mysterious aliens who are connected to the scarab on Jaime Reyes’ back. They are abducting humans to study the “metagene”, a genetic signifier that indicates the potential for people to develop superhuman abilities. That's something! It helps explain the focus the early part of the season has put on Blue Beetle in lieu of some of the previous characters, since he’ll obviously play a pivotal role with regard to the bad guys. And while I don’t know how I feel about giving the D.C. universe an X-Men-esque explanation for where all the supers come from, I appreciate it as a motivation for The Reach’s interest in Earth. The chance to weaponize and borrow those abilities would make for a good motivation. We even get more clarity on what Bart Allen is doing here. The idea that Blue Beetle becomes the ultimate Big Bad in his future is a good narrative device, because it gives Jaime a possible future to be concerned about and try to avoid. Why he waited to explain this until now, or even decided to explain it now, is beyond me. But again, just knowing the stakes and the reasons after so many teases and twists puts the season in better stead going into the back half of this cycle. All of that said, this episode is basically just exposition and action. That's fine given how much ground there is to cover. The action is solid, with some Beetle-on-Beetle combat, and the added excitement and tension that comes from the Young Justice crew infiltrating The Reach’s underwater base of operations to rescue their compatriots and the runaways. This is also the coming out party for Black Beetle, who’s a pretty generic bad guy so far, but at least poses a threat to the heroes by trying to smash Wonder Girl to bits and stymying Miss Martian mid-density shift. The M’gaan material here is my favorite part of the episode. The idea is that she’s so ready to use her brain-melting psychic abilities because she’s using them on the bad guy. When doing that to Aqualad, since she thinks he’s a traitor and a murderer, she discovers mid-mindwipe what the ruse is. Suddenly, whether you're using your mental-destroying powers on a bad guy or a good guy is a lot more complicated. I like this moment as a wake up call for M’gaan, I especially like that the show doesn’t have her just get over it, but have her be shaken by what she’s done throughout everything that happens. What’s more, I like the final reveal here. Even as the Young Justice team learns the truth about their extraterrestrial enemies, The Reach is one step ahead, publicly approaching the U.N. as a friend to Earth, belying their surreptitious and malevolent plans. I particularly appreciate the fact that G. Gordon Godfrey is on board with this, arguing that these aliens are “knocking on the front door rather than sneaking in the back”, which scans as true to such discursive dodges in the real world, and extends the themes of the season. Overall, this isn’t necessarily the most deep or artful episode of *Young Justice* ever, but it’s nice to have the key details the show’s been shrowding to this point finally in the light, and the developments with M’gaan in particular point the way to some interesting stuff.