Titans Season 3's ARGUS Reveal & Season 4 Setup Explained
The Titans season 3 finale revealed that ARGUS had been working behind the scenes in Gotham and this set up several possible plots for season 4.
Warning: Contains spoilers for the Titans season 3 finale.
The Titans season 3 finale wrapped up a lot of loose ends but dropped some bombshells, including a reveal that ARGUS had been working in Gotham all along, providing a setup for season 4. While ARGUS has come up in the DCEU more than once, there had previously been no hint of their existence within the Titans continuity. With their presence not revealed until the closing act of Titans season 3, their existence will almost certainly be a key element in Titans season 4.
After Fletcher (Greg Bryk) started working for Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser) and turned on Barbara Gordon (Savannah Welch), the entirety of the GCPD appeared to have gone rogue and there didn’t appear to be much hope for Gotham. One person that remains loyal throughout the mutiny is Gordon’s assistant Vee (Karen Robinson). Vee proves herself to be adept in hand-to-hand combat, taking out several of Fletcher’s men, and then reveals to Barbara Gordon that she has secretly been working for an agency called ARGUS all along and has brought in her team to help secure Gotham and the police force once again.
While ARGUS has not previously been mentioned in Titans, they have existed in the comics for almost a decade and have appeared in numerous other adaptations. The group is analogous to SHIELD in the Marvel universes: a government organization tied to Homeland Security that works alongside superpowered individuals. ARGUS (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans) was first introduced in The New 52 DC comics reboot in 2012 under the command of Steve Trevor and Amanda Waller (who more famously runs Task Force X in The Suicide Squad). While a small group of the core Titans leaves Gotham for San Francisco, several other members and acquaintances have spread out across the Earth and beyond. In season 4, ARGUS is likely to work as a liaison to help the Titans have a reach beyond San Francisco and be able to strategically draw in other characters from around the globe, in particular Titans’ Donna Troy, who plans to meet up with Dove to pass on Hank’s message and then look into working with ARGUS.
One key part of the ARGUS setup for Titans season 4 is a call back to an Easter egg dropped back in Titans season 2. When Starfire and Donna Troy are hunting Shimmer (an event that Vee brings up) they receive information to help their mission from Roy Harper. However, after the job is complete, Donna ignores a call from him. Titans season 3 reveals that Roy Harper is in command of ARGUS in the Titans continuity. Roy Harper, a.k.a. Arsenal/Speedy/Red Arrow, is a regular sidekick of Green Arrow and has appeared in Arrow alongside ARGUS.
The news of ARGUS’ long-term activity in Gotham pays off other early references and further suggests where the plot for Titans season 4 might go. Vee reveals that ARGUS turned their attention to Gotham because of Ra’s Al Ghul’s Lazarus Pit in the area, and while it has been mentioned that Ra’s is dead, that is rarely an impediment to his return. Ra’s Al Ghul’s sword is seen as an Easter egg in the Bat Cave and Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) does some research into Batman’s journals about the figure while trying to figure out what happened to Jason Todd (Curran Walters). While this might be a setup for Titans season 4, introducing Ra’s and ARGUS in Gotham might draw the Titans back to the city and risk another season focused too much on Batman stories.