[7.3/10] Who the hell is Razor and why should I care? I gotta tell you, I am pretty tired of *Young Justice* doing this. I’m sure if you know Razor from the comics, and you appreciate his time as a Red Lantern or a Blue Lantern, him showing up here is a big deal. But despite having seen a King Shark’s ransom of D.C. superhero shows, I’ve never heard of the guy. So to me, he’s just some rando who shows up with minimal introduction, takes over the episode when there’s more important stuff going on, and then becomes this powerful new figure who I’m suddenly supposed to care about. What the hell? It’s like they delivered a new Violet but condensed everything down to one episode rather than letting us see her development as a person and a hero over the course of a whole season. Sure, we get a little backstory and appreciation from Killowog, but we barely know Killowog in this show either! You have to introduce and establish new characters at least a little if you want to make them such a big deal and get the audience to invest in them! You can’t just coast on other works that aren't in continuity with *Young Justice* to do that! The actual Razer story is fine. The concept of a Red Lantern who got fed up with anger, and then became a Blue Lantern who ran out of hope is an interesting one, or at least it would be if it got to develop over longer than seven minutes. The showdown with Metron is compelling given Metron’s detached, scientific approach to someone going through something difficult and personal. And the concept of someone with two power rings who uses their combined powers to help and heal is an intriguing one, even if his character design looks like some ridiculous cross between a rejected David Bowie costume and a 1990s eXtReMe aesthetic. But I’m much more interested in the show spilling the beans on what exactly is going on with the Legionnaires and the Zod. Despite all the timey-wimey nonsense, the answer to the season’s big mysteries here is truly satisfying, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting! Again, I don’t know how the Zod family stuff would land for those who aren’t already familiar with them, but knowing their basic deal already means I appreciate it. The basics are intuitive. The Zod family was stopped by the Legion in the future. Zod Jr. went back to the past to kill Conner, the inspiration for the Legion, to prevent it from being formed. And the trio of Legionnaires we’ve been following were close enough to Zod Jr.’s time sphere that they were unaffected by the timeline changes, and so went back in time themselves to try to protect Conner and thwart Zod Jr. Is it a touch byzantine? Sure. But the cross-cut exposition and flashbacks (flashforwards?) with Zod Jr. explaining the deal to M’comm from his perspective and Saturn Girl/Chameleon Boy explaining things to Bart Allen from theirs gives the scenes some life and dueling POVs to liven things up. It accounts for the various mysterious stalkers, attacks, and saves that have plagued Conner and the others until now. And the episode does a good job of establishing the motivations for everyone involved, with plausible mechanics despite the supernatural/sci-fi/time traveling angle to all of this. It’s no small feat to get one of these big reveals right to where the show plays fair and the twists feel earned, so kudos! It’s just a shame it had to get buried in all the B.S. with Razer, even as he’s tangentially involved. The other elements here are solid. The superhero summit going poorly since New Genesis has a treaty with Apokalips and the Green Lanterns think Earth’s problems are small potatoes helps give these events a sense of place within a broader universe like we saw glimpses of in season 2. Rocket fearing stigma for her son while that blinds her to the chance to get him help is an interesting angle. I’d be lying if I said Forager’s sudden romance with Purple Forager did a whole lot for me, but it’s reasonably cute. And Bart Allen is nice to have as a presence again, especially with the boon to longtime fans that is the cosmic treadmill. Overall, the balance of this one is good, and in the case of the Legion/Zod reveal, downright great. But the out-of-nowhere injection of Razer and his whole deal into this arc drags the whole episode down.