Teen Titans 5.03

Trust

Madame Rouge hunts down Wildebeest, an honorary member of the Teen Titans. Rouge was sent by The Brain in the hopes of getting Wildebeest's communicator. The communicator is destroyed in the fight and Wildebeest is no where to be found after the fight.

Hot Spot is the next of the honorary members of the Teen Titans to be targeted by Madame Rouge. She uses a less direct approach with him by changing her appearance so that she looks and sounds like Robin. The real Robin heads to Paris, Hot Spot's last known location. He finds Hot Spot but Madame Rouge confuses things by continuing to disguise herself as Robin. The two Robins fight. with Hot Spot occasionally getting involved in the brawl. 

The episode ends with Robin and Hot Spot saying goodbye to one another after Robin gives him his communicator. Hot Spot's was destroyed during the fight with Madame Rouge. Hot Spot changes shape after Robin leaves revealing that Robin actually gave his communicator to Madame Rouge.

Thoughts

This episode is mostly Robin, Hot Spot, and Madame Rouge. Starfire has a few lines but Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy do not.

What happened to the real Hot Spot?

I like this episode better than the last two. This is the third consecutive episode in which the Brotherhood of Evil has appeared. The way this episode ends makes me believe that they will also be in the next one. I am considerably more eager to what comes next than I was after the previous episode.

This is the second episode in which Hot Spot and Wildebeest have appeared. They first appeared in 2.09 Winner Takes All. It has been almost nine years since I watched that episode. I don't have much memory of it. 

Notes

Madame Rouge first appeared in Doom Patrol (1964) 86 (Mar 1964). She was able to stretch and shapeshift in the comic book stories in which she appeared just as she did in this story. I've read all of her early appearances in the first run of Doom Patrol comic books. She also appeared in the three-part story that began in New Teen Titans (1980) 13 (Nov 1981).

There are multiple characters named Wildebeest in the comic book history of the Teen Titans. I think that the one in this cartoon series might be the one who first appeared in New Teen Titans (1988) 85 (Apr 1992).

Hot Spot (aka Isaiah Crockett) first appeared in Teen Titans (1996) 1 (Oct 1996). He appeared in the first 16 issues of that series but he didn't take the name of Hot Spot until 2006. I have no familiarity with the Teen Titans comic books of the late 1980s or 1990s. I only know about Wildebeest and Hot Spot from what I have just read online.