WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Young Justice: Outsiders, streaming now on DC Universe.
Young Justice: Outsiders keeps pushing the envelope when it comes to the level of violence in a DC animated series. Earlier this season, the show seemingly reached its violent zenith when Lobo lost his finger and impaled Halo in the most brutal fashion. That emphasized how much this series was for adult teens and not kids, truly differentiating it from other DC cartoons.
However, in Season 3's 24th episode, "Into the Breach," the level of violence, especially involving young members of the squad, is taken to all new heights thanks to Granny Goodness and the forces of Apokolips.
Cyborg, after transforming into something more following his fusion with Metron's Mobius Chair, tracks Granny down while Beast Boy's Outsiders team seeks revenge for the kidnapping of Halo. They don't realize that Halo has been used to harness the Anti-Life Equation, and most of the team gets trapped in the X-Pit's gaze when they enter Granny's trap, where they're set up to be mentally conditioned for her to break.
However, Cyborg's digital presence is absorbed into Overlord's mainframe for a battle on the binary plane. Overlord controls the X-Pit and the Ghost Dimension it draws its power from, so Vic isn't ready for what's to come. He's beaten badly and in a stunning sequence of events, Overlord impales him in a finishing move that would be at home in the Mortal Kombat franchise. While Vic would realize this isn't real as he powers-up to hack Overlord's grid, it still left fans wondering how much more graphic the show could get.
This episode of the series answered that question with a surprising level of sadism.
Granny plucks Beast Boy from the X-Pit and fights him in her cosmic cube while his squad suffers. This arena is outside of the Pit's purview, and she simply wants to enjoy pummeling him for all the stress he caused her since leaving her Hollywood studio. She sees him as a bratm Granny mercilessly hammers away at him as he turns into various creatures, reminding him why she's an Apokoliptian general.
There's a particular scene where she hooks him and keeps slamming him from side-to-side similar to what Hulk did Loki in the 2012 Avengers movie, but the scene takes on a far more horrifying tone since a child gets this treatment. Additionally, she grabs him by his face and repeatedly rams her knuckles into his skull, swelling up his eye like a boxer. The incessant face hits are disturbing, and when Beast Boy tries to fight back in the aftermath, you can't help but feel sorry for the young hero.
Luckily, Cyborg shuts down Overlord and frees his teammates, which results in Granny fleeing to the Orphanage, but while they did show strength in numbers, the Outsiders have been shaken by her brute force. While Cyborg frees Halo and the group ultimately reunites, Beast Boy knows deep down that they all dodged a bullet, because the demented Granny truly hates them all and wants to torture them in the worst way possible.
Young Justice: Outsiders is currently streaming on DC Universe.