"Artemis is Dead".

After recovering from the shock of Artemis' death, the team heads to the Hall of Justice where a squad of soldiers are defending the Hall. Once they have helped the soldiers, they go into the Hall where they find Martian Manhunter under a statue. Me'gan, being understandably distraught up to this point, rushes toward Jon for just a shred of hope; but Kaldur insist that she check his mind in case these alien invaders can shape shift. The team is curious why Jon is alive when they saw him killed in space; Jon has a clouded mind so he does not remember why he is alive. Wally, in desperation, infers that everyone that has been shot by these rays have been transported, because the emissions from the shots are the same energy of the Zeta tubes. Jon isn't sure, but since his mind is clouded, he doesn't want to rule out any possibility.

The team is not given much time to plan as the invaders blast into the Hall. They soon discover that the blasts from the ships are not transporting anything, as Me'gan's bioship is destroyed and she feels the pain from her connection to the ship. Wanting to make sure the soldiers are safe, Kaldur stays behind, making the other team members and Jon leave; due to this decision, Kaldur dies.

Dick, being the natural leader, comes up with a plan to take out the mother ship. Me'gan is against Conner being used as a distraction so the rest of the team can get into the ship. Though it is clear that Dick doesn't want to lose anyone else, he understands that it is necessary to complete the mission; Conner tells Me'gan that this is something Superman would do. Because of this decision, Dick will begin to get away from being the heir to the Bat; but this will be discussed in a greater length in 'Disordered'.

Before they go against this mother ship, the team broadcast a 'Independence Day' like speech(if that speech was written well). During this speech, there is a montage of heroes shown; either from those already established in the series(Roy, Tula and Garth, and Zatanna) and those that are in this universe but not given screen time up to that point(Icon and Rocket), as well as those that will be revealed later(Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown being the noteworthy examples).

Later, after the team is safely inside, Conner goes out the way he always wanted, fighting. While Me'gan is just recovering from the shock of another death, Wally tries to comfort her and himself by the denial that they will find Conner along with Artemis. Jon's mind, however, clears to the point where he can tell plainly that the people that are assumed to be transported are dead. Wally gets angry at this and Dick basically tells him to get a grip and let's finish the mission. Once Wally and Dick get the explosives onto the central core, they tell Me'gan and Jon to leave. Wally makes a remark which is never clear on what is meant by this line, "You knew all the time why we were here". It may mean the suicide mission or what is to be revealed soon after the destruction of the mother ship. Wally and Dick give this nod, as if to say that they are both ready to die and the with them goes the mother ship.

Me'gan is completely broken when another ship emerges, but before she and Jon could leave, he drives his fist through her stomach. This shocks her out of an unconscious state, where the rest of the team is on these metal slabs in the cave, along with the League. While Me'gan is joyful that the team is not dead, the rest of the team want answers; especially once they are told this was a training exercise. This entire explanation is what separates this episode from any other show that all takes place in a dream or complete fantasy. Turns out that the team knew it was a training exercise going into this state, initiated by Jon. They did not know, however, was that this was a Kobiashi Maroo(Star Trek term essentially meaning a an exercise doomed to fail, regardless of what is done). Up till the point that Artemis died, they knew it was just training(explaining why they hardly reacted to the deaths of the Justice League). But when Artemis died, while Me'gan knew it was training, she couldn't differentiate training from her senses. This makes Artemis herself believe she was dead, and is launched into a coma. Jon is sent to get them out of the exercise so the coma would not be permanent, but because of Me'gan mental abilities he was disoriented until the rest of the team died in the exercise because there was too much mental activity between five people. The whole purpose of killing Me'gan was to shock her out of the exercise, but even so one could wonder what that line of thought that her uncle could kill her easily at any time would do to her trust.

The episode ends with Jon asking Bruce not to blame her for the catastrophe. Bruce is quick to say that no one does. In the end, Jon says that Me'gan has a much greater mental ability than his own. This will be dealt with in a much greater detail in the second season.

Thus concludes 'Failsafe'. I know that this was longer than most blogs up to this point, but this has such detail, even apart from Artemis' character growth. This is going to be one of maybe two or three that will be discussed without Artemis having much screen time; but if the story is propelled by her actions or reactions, it will be talked about in as much detail as the character heavy episodes. Join me next time for the therapeutic 'Disordered'.