Young Justice: "Secrets" Review

Full superhero sidekick spoilers follow.

It's a shame this Halloween episode didn't actually air around the holiday, because it's both a spooky yet fun tale, and one that takes a welcome diversion from the heady developments from the past couple of weeks.

The spooktacular holiday has arrived, which means most of the team are gearing up for the Happy Harbor High Halloween Dance. Megan has shape-shifted into a (hot?) zombie, Superboy is dressed as a mummy and, best of all, Wally is going as… wait for it… Teen Wolf! Or the Michael Landon version, anyway.

Zatanna and Artemis show up (as a witch and vampire, respectively) with the idea of going to the dance too, but when Artemis has the sudden realization that Megan and Superboy are an item, she freaks out a bit. Huh? Have I missed something here? Has she shown an interest in Conner before? What about Wally?!

After poor Captain Marvel gets kicked around by the gang once more ("And I'm not sharing my candy!"), Zatanna and Artemis decide to go paint the town superchick-red on their own. Soon they encounter the villain Harm, whose recently stolen Sword of Beowulf proves to be quite a match for the ladies -- almost as much of a match as Harm's penchant for referring to himself in the third person, in fact. Fortunately, a mysterious young girl called "Secret" keeps showing up and helping the pair escape from Harm. Or is she?

It all leads to a creepy resolution as we learn that Z and A's benefactor is actually… the ghost of a dead girl. Who was killed by her brother. Even though she was the only thing he loved in the world. This is a kid's show, right?


"Secrets" occasionally runs the risk of feeling like a filler episode, but the final few minutes more than make up for it when Z and A realize the true nature of Secret and what they're really fighting for -- nothing less than to help free the trapped spirit of the poor girl. It's a very effective, and sad, wrap-up to an otherwise typically action-heavy episode.

The subplot at the school dance is less memorable, but cute. As Marvin, of Wendy-and fame, tries to dupe the attendees into believing a Martian invasion is taking place -- which, as somebody points out, is kind of weird since the Martian Manhunter is such a nice guy -- Conner, Wally and Megan pull a double-fake on him that even involves Megan doing her best impersonation of Marvin the Martian. Yes, sometimes it pays to fall under the Warner Bros. banner.


Meanwhile, the team leaders are too busy worrying about the long-discussed mole to go trick-or-treating. Batman is concerned about Superboy being the potential hazard, which certainly could be considering what we know of his origins (and his comic-book counterpart). Aqualad is perhaps too confident now that no one on his team is a traitor, which is something he may soon come to regret. And interesting, isn't it, how Robin is now being included in such discussions?

Other notes: This is the third week in a row that we haven't had a plot entirely driven by The Light. And these past three episodes have been some of the series' strongest, eh? Why is Red Arrow included in that meeting about the mole? And did we just get a bona fide House of Secrets appearance?!


Scott Collura is a Movies Editor at IGN. Sometimes he watches stuff. Follow Scott on Twitter and My IGN.

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