‘Titans’ Season 4 Episode 9: Recap & Ending Explained

Titans season 4, episode 9, was exactly what we hoped it would be. The whole episode follows Gar as he learns about The Red and his purpose in life. He also experiences echoes from the past which helps him evolve even more. The episode was just like Beast Boy needed, and let’s see a recap and ending explanation of it.

Beast Boy learns what happened to him and where he is

The episode starts with Gar as a boy, frightened in the zoo as he gets separated from his parents. After observing a gorilla in a cage, he has a vision of everything done to that gorilla and senses other animals in the zoo as well. Seconds later, it is revealed that Gar has a retrospective vision and is in The Red. He hears Titans calling his name but does not know where the voices are coming from.

A few moments later, he comes to his senses and finds himself in a cave at the top of Kilimanjaro with Dominic and the lion/bat beast as his companions. Gar wants answers, as he has no idea where he is or who Dominic is. Gradually, Dominic explains to Gar that he pulled him out of The Red and brought him to the cave. He also gives enigmatic answers about his identity, stating that he is ‘the truth’ and ‘Gar’s freedom.”

None of it makes sense to Gar, and the last thing he remembered was being with the Titans during the Blood Moon ritual. Dominic explains to Gar that he did as he told him before: go to The Red to save himself from Sebastian’s attack. Gar was furious and wanted to know where the Titans were, but Dominic did not have an answer to that. As Beast Boy tries to go to The Red, he realizes he can’t.

After that, Dominic finally starts providing some valuable information to Gar. He says that The Red is a force that connects and pervades all animal life in this universe and many others. It is a place fully alive, and the one that every beating heart flows into, and only a chosen few can tap into its raw power. Dominic also explains that Sakutia, or Green Plague as he calls it, killed Gar’s parents and changed Gar. Beast Boy disagreed, stating that Dr. Niles Caulder, a.k.a. the Chief, was responsible for turning him into what he is.

Sakutia killed Dominic’s family too, and they experienced the same grief. Dominic asks for help, but Gar thinks it is important that he returns to Titans because the threat they face could end the world. Soldiers stormed into a cave and started firing shots at them as they talked.

Dominic is revealed to be the Freedom Beast

Dominic outpowered all the soldiers by himself, forbidding Gar to get involved. The soldiers are members of the organization that conducts experiments on the apes. When Dominic puts the helmet of The Beast on his head, he can hear apes screaming and being tortured in the labs by Dr. Myers. Dominic wants to free the apes and burn the lab to the ground. In that same lab, Sakutia was invented, so Dominic believes that it is his and Gar’s sacred mission to destroy it and get revenge for their families. After that, Dominic opens up to Gar.

Once known as Dominic Mndawe but goes by the name Freedom Beast since Mike Maxwell provided him with the helmet. The Beast helmet tied him with The Red, prolonged his lifespan, and gave him strength and stamina. He can now fuse two creatures into one super-hybrid, as with the lion/bat.

The Beast is known for generations as a protector, and every once in a while, there would be one helmet owner. However, Gar is different from them as he does not need the helmet, and Dominic is convinced that Beast Boy is even more powerful than Animal Man and Vixen and even more powerful than him.

Gar wants to know if he is more connected to The Red than anyone else and why he only turns into green animals. Dominic explains that Gar has more influence over The Red than he can imagine and gives Gar a vile with some serum. Beast Boy drinks it, and his spiritual journey begins.

Beast Boy and Freedom Beast put a stop to Dr. Myers’s experiments

Moments after drinking the serum, Gar starts having hallucinations. One of them is Rachel telling him it is time to stop following everyone else. Then, Jynx appears and makes Gar understand that life and death are not so much different and that life is more than an individual existence; the spirits are equally important and connect all beings. The Red connects all across the universe, regardless of space and time. And after Gar grasped it all, he was ready to help Freedom Beast. The Red needs all its champions because the great danger is upon it. Dominic states that when one becomes one with The Red, all individual relationships become meaningless.

Beast Boy and Freedom Beast located the lab where the apes were tortured. Gar transforms into an ape, a bird, and a tiger to overpower all the guards. When they tracked Dr. Myers in the lab where he experimented on a semi-dead ape, The Beast used his powers to merge Dr. Myers with the animal, killing them both in the process.

However, Dr. Myers did not operate alone, and it is revealed that the lab is actually Dr. Niles Caulder’s, who released Sakutia on purpose. But all of that had already happened, and Dominic revealed to Gar that he’s been in The Red up to this point, and everything had already happened years ago. All the things Gar had experienced were nothing but the echo of the past.

The whole purpose was to prove to Gar how people can be misleading and can hardly be trusted. Dr. Niles Caulder modified and reengineered the virus because he wanted access to eternal life. That way, he interfered with The Red and created Beast Boy as his only test subject who survived the experiments.

Gar experiences glimpses of a Multiverse

Dominic needs Gar to understand that the Titans are nothing but a distraction and that he is meant for so much more than being their Beast Boy. Gar is the true protector of The Red, and it is time for him to embrace that. The path that Dominic claims Gar has to take is filled with sacrifice and loneliness. However, Gar disagrees; if The Red chose him to be its protector, he would be able to connect with all living beings, meaning he would never be alone.

Gar will accept the position as The Red’s protector but will not abandon his friends, who need him now more than ever. However, he is not ready to travel through The Red, space, and time. He does it anyway and realizes what being connected to The Red means.

The Red pulled it into his cosmic power, opening the doors to many multiverses. We see glimpses of other worlds and many superheroes from those worlds, like the Flash, Stargirl, and Shazam. The Red is a force just like The Green, and we even get to see a glimpse of the Swamp Thing. This is overwhelming for Gar as he does not adequately travel through all this space. As a result, he ended up on the wrong Earth, where Cyborg found him unconscious.

This episode was fully centered on Beast Boy and his journey through The Red. He got a deeper understanding of his purpose but also realized that Titans are his true family. But, now that he is stranded on the wrong Earth, we have to wait and see how he will return to them and help them stop Sebastian from summoning Trigon.