WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Titans Season 2 finale, "Nightwing," streaming now on DC Universe.
DC Universe leaned in to comic book tropes in the promo for Titans' Season 2 finale, promising, "A Titan Will Fall." This week's episode, "Nightwing," delivers on that promise, only in the most anticlimactic of ways. There were plenty of candidates for the casualty, what with Hank Hall hitting rock bottom and Rose Wilson revealing herself as Deathstroke's mole within the team. However, the Titan who falls in either of those; it's Donna Troy.
It might have been logical, from a storytelling perspective, for Donna (Conor Leslie) to be taken down in a heroic last stand against Slade Wilson (Esai Morales), to finally exact revenge for his murder of Aqualad (Drew Van Acker) five years earlier. Or perhaps she could sacrifice herself in the fight with Superboy (Joshua Orpin), rather than allow the brainwashed clone harm innocents.
But it's neither of those scenarios, as Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites) and Rose (Chelsea Zhang) confront Deathstroke, and Donna proves she can endure direct blows from the Boy of Steel. Instead, Wonder Girl falls immediately after those battles, in a freak accident that, by all evidence, she should have shrugged off.
Like Shazam! and HBO's Watchmen before it, Titans chooses a carnival for its big set piece. Well, technically, Cadmus chooses the location for a demonstration of Superboy's powers for bidders interested in having a mind-controlled superhuman powerhouse of their own. With Deathstroke (too) quickly dispatched, and Gar (Ryan Potter) deprogrammed by Rachel (Teagan Croft), that leaves only Superboy for the Titans to confront. With a bit of teamwork, the heroes succeed in freeing the Boy of Steel from Cadmus control, and then bask in the adoration of carnival-goers, who ... apparently comprehend what they witnessed.
With about 22 minutes remaining in the finale, it would appear the Titans appear to be reunited and victorious, until some sort of pylon damaged in the battle, oh-so-slowly falls, threatening to crush Dawn (Minka Kelly) as she returns a doll to a girl. Donna springs into action, and grabs the pylon before it can strike any of the onlookers. However, electricity courses through her, and she collapses, lifeless.
The Titans mourn her loss, and even deliver her body in a casket to Amazons waiting at the airport to whisk her away to Themyscira, Donna is never actually said to be dead. "They have a place for warriors like Donna, sacred grounds," Dick tells Rachel, which implies a tomb or cemetery, but may mean something else. The latter is underscored by Rachel's decision to accompany them back to the island. "If anyone can help Donna," she says, "it's me."
While Dick assures her, "We all want to bring her back," Rachel believes her growing powers may provide Donna with a chance of returning. Odds are, she's right, and we'll see Wonder Girl again in Season 3. She will still have fallen, technically; she'll just get better.
Streaming now on DC Universe, Titans Season 2 stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Anna Diop as Kory Anders, Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth, Ryan Potter as Garfield Logan, Curran Walters as Jason Todd and Conor Leslie as Donna Troy, with Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger, Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall, Joshua Orpin as Superboy, Chelsea Zhang as Rose Wilson, Chella Man as Jericho, Drew Van Acker as Aqualad, Esai Morales as Deathstroke and Iain Glen as Bruce Wayne.