"Superboy Isn't the Only One with Bad Genes".

Alright, I will briefly touch on the episode 'Performance'; just not dwelling on it since it is primarily Dick's story. Though there is enough development with Artemis, that it's worth touching on; but the bulk of this blog with be focused on the episode 'Usual Suspects'. Consider this making up for time lost since my last blog. So, sit back and enjoy a double performace.

The nice thing about Performance is that there is nothing that contradicts the possibility of Artemis' betrayal of the team, from the end of 'Insecurity'. The major development to come from this episode is found, mainly in two scenes. One is with Roy(who has been brought along because he still believes there is a mole in the team, and the three candidates consisting of: Artemis, Me'gan, and Conner, are all a part of this mission). Roy finished accusing Conner because of his use of the patches he got from Luthor a few episodes, at least in the fact that he shows off the Kryptonian powers he does not normally have; Artemis trying to stick up for Me'gan and Conner as well as herself says that while none of them are perfect, they would all sacrifice themselves for this team. So one could argue that Artemis is too far on the side of the angels in this episode to make a mystery of whether she is on the team's side or not; but with the intricacy she makes of the lie of her being Oliver's niece, it's still plausible for her to be manipulating them to throw the team off track.

The second scene to mention is when the team finishes the mission and Artemis offers a hand to a fallen Roy, to which he responds by taking her hand. Without words(though some are given later in the scene) it shows that Roy has officially learned to trust Artemis and the others, despite the mistakes clearly made; his reasoning being that any one of them could easily have betrayed the team during the mission. So if one is still to hold to the possibility that Artemis is a traitor, then one could say that she officially accomplished her goal of throwing the team off the track. Though if one is to take the path of thought that Artemis would never betray the team, from the analogy she gave saying this team was her family in 'Homefront'; then the trust has been won by the one who has been the hardest to win over.

Going into 'Usual Suspects', we see the team watching the induction of the new members in the Justice League; along with their newest member Rockel(or Rocket), until they get a report that Jade has been spotted heading onto a plane. While on the plane, Dick questions Artemis to make sure that Jade's face matched up as she is the only one who has seen her face. Artemis confirms it. Jade is shown with the case that was seen in New Orleans where Klarion, Ivo, and the others were shown tinkering with the sea creature's remains from 'Downtime'; Rockel is confused until Wally fills her in while taking a jab at Artemis for(his perception) her selfishness. This all occurs until they come onto the site the plane was last seen until they find it crashed, one could even see Artemis' reaction to seeing that her sister might be dead. The team searches for bodies, when they can't find any, Cheshire shows up along with Riddler and(from what I can tell) the League of Shadows with an ambush.

While the team goes into a brawl, Artemis goes after Jade, though Jade treats this as much more of a game with a really telling line of their childhood's with the line, "Just like when dad used to pit us against one another". If that line is not proof enough that Crusher abused his children in this way, the line later would certainly make that clear if there was any doubt after Jade's line. The fighting continues until Conner pounds 'Mamoth' into an iceberg which would have crushed Artemis if Jade had not pushed her out of the way. Jade, to this point, has been treated as an antagonist, albeit an aprehensive and fun antagonist. Here is where not only the audience, but Artemis herself has come to the conclusion that this is someone that can be redeeemed.

Once the team regroups at the cave and gives the case to Bruce, the secrets are all revealed. To go into all of them would take too much time(and certainly will take blog space for their own later down the line), so to tackle Artemis' alone; after Conner reveals his issue with the DNA enhancer and Luthor being his father, Artemis decides that the time has come to test her trust into the new family by revealing her entire family are criminals, former or otherwise. One of the best things about this scene is the reveal that Dick knew and on second viewings it's clear as day from 'Homefront' he knew and is having fun with her throughout. There are too many shows where the secret reveal causes needless drama between the characters for episodes on end, not here. The moment Artemis revealed her family history, Wally understands why she acted the way she did, and one could say that he may have suspected she was hiding something and was just waiting for her to reveal it so they could move forward in their relationship as that is all it took for him to officially begin the relationship with the simple gesture of putting his hand on her shoulder.

In the episode itself, Artemis reveal is shown in the middle of a scene where she, Me'gan and Conner go to Santa Prisca to, as it appears, meet up with their potential new partners of Lex, Queen Bee, and Sportsmaster. It's played up that Artemis may be joining her father and sister until that reveal and shoots an arrow to stop 'Blockbuster' from taking Conner after he fakes being under a trance with Lex saying Red Sun; callback to 'Agendas'. Artemis starts shooting at Crusher saying that she was playing him like he tried to play her. Crusher makes the statement that he does not accept disobedience and says that she knows what the punishment is for disobedience. Certain proof of abuse, not just discipline, as Artemis says that she and Jade know what he's talking about; trying to get Jade on her side or at least not help her father anymore. The fighting ensues until Zatanna makes the ground liqufied into quicksand; once Artemis jumps onto a tree for a time and jumps on Crusher's head to avoid the pit, Crusher is left in the quicksand asking Jade for help. Jade retells her line from 'Homefront' where, "In this family, it's every girl for herself", and walks away.

This leaves Jade with a few directions she could possibly take in the next season with that decison made, but we'll get to that a little later on in season 2. Artemis knocks out her father once she knows where Jade stands and removes Crusher's mask and throws it at Wally's feet, saying it was a souvenir. With that, we get that idea that Artemis' family issues are behind her and not going to be brought to the forefront as both she and Wally know and accept the truth and is willing to keep it all in the past.

That's all for this blog guys. I know it was a long one, but thanks for sticking with me. Only one more blog left until we move onto season 2. Hope you guys come back when we conclude the season with 'Auld Aquaintance'.