The following contains spoilers for Titans Season 1, Episode 5, "Inside Man," now streaming on HBO Max.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Titans Season 4 is how the show's giving more of the core cast time in the limelight with their individual arcs. Beast Boy is one of them, battling inner-turmoil in his mind with the Red encroaching, while struggling with the notion he might be a destroyer. It's led to Raven, in her depowered state, sticking close to Gar, further building on their deep bond.
However, despite his mind being fractured, Gar's displaying immense maturity, keeping it together as he knows Mother Mayhem's inching closer to kidnapping Sebastian. This leads to Gar stepping up big time when Superboy, unfortunately, becomes Mayhem's pawn. In the process, Gar becomes a subverted take on Ant-Man, and while he's very effective, it's also a mission not for the squeamish.
Titans Transforms Beast Boy into a Virus
Conner -- mind-controlled by the powerful Mayhem -- tries to attack his peers at Star Labs, but luckily, they restrain him. They realize they need to purge what's essentially a blood pathogen inside him that Mayhem has placed thanks to Zombie Deathstroke cutting Superboy. Dick, Jinx and the others decide that Gar could be the delivery mechanism, going inside to dispel the curse -- a big difference than Ant-Man going into an Iron Man suit to weaken it or crawling near someone's orifice to punch them out.
After all, a virus is a non-living thing, so once Gar binds with some magical dust Constantine taught Jinx about, he shifts form and is injected into Conner's body in the lab. It's a much more scientifically sound method of using his ability to shrink down into this microorganism, than say, Ant-Man in the "Thanus Theory," where a memed scientific conspiracy conceptualized Scott Lang experimenting by going up into Thanos' butt to kill him from the inside.
Titans Rescues Beast Boy in a Gross Way
Thankfully, the mission's successful, but when the time comes to extract Gar, it occurs in a chamber of Conner's bodily fluid. He's drawn out amid a ton of goo and liquid, with his green essence spreading throughout the tank. It's cool, at first, but when viewers realize what's happening, it does feel a tad vomit-inducing. It's made even worse when Gar reforms and jumps back to life, covered in a lot of icky stuff, which nods to The Boys as well, when Termite expanded in someone's penis and sent blood and guts everywhere.
This scene -- while not that graphic -- is definitely one of the show's funniest moments as Gar enjoyed the trip, but it still turns stomachs. That said, even though the show doesn't spend a ton of budget on CGI (showing Gar fighting off the threat inside), viewers' minds fill in the space and their imagination takes charge as Conner bleeds out. But this final sequence, however, is vivid and speaks for itself. This does remind fans how dirty Ant-Man would have been had he followed through with his plan to boldy go where no Avenger has gone before.
Titans debuts new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max.