Review: Young Justice Phantoms “Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Rocket learns the hard way that nothing stays buried forever.

Our Take:
For an arc that focuses on Rocket’s issue on New Genesis, it doesn’t place that much focus on the character compared to the other side plots. Considering that I do not know the hero, this is a bizarre direction for the show to take. But, at the very least, we have some exciting revelations for the supporting characters, so that’s good.
The episode sees Rocket, Flash, Orion, and the Green Lantern members continuing their conversation about New Genesis’s future. Unfortunately, this segment doesn’t offer anything significant to advance the arc’s main plot, save for Forager considering staying on New Genesis with Female Forager. I wonder how this decision will turn out in the next episode.
The main focus of this episode once again centers on the side characters, particularly Lor-Zod. Along with Ma’alefa’ak and Mantis, he continues his search for the Phantom Zone projector using his trusty time-pod. The Apokolips team eventually located the projector in Metron’s vault. But, unfortunately, they have to survive against a baby Sun-Eater and Metron himself to retrieve their prize. Meanwhile, Connor follows Dru-Zod to a tribe of imprisoned Kryptonians in the Phantom Zone, where he eventually accepts Dru-Zod’s invitation to join them. This revelation is quite surprising, mainly because I constantly hoped for him to find his way out of this imprisonment. But I should’ve known better since the Phantom Zone is nothing but an endless void. Hopefully, this doesn’t affect the team’s upcoming mission to rescue him in the future.
The other side-plot that I think was the best part of the episode involves Beast Boy receiving mandatory counseling from Black Canary. During the session, Beast Boy comes to grips with the losses of his closest friends and family, including Connor, before finally admitting that he needs help. The first sentence that came to my mind during this segment was, “Finally, he admits it.” The other thing was, “Wow, that’s deep.” Beast Boy’s side-plot was satisfying and emotional due to its representation of guilt and Greg Cipes’s stellar vocal performance. It shows that I didn’t need to watch the other seasons to understand what this character has gone through, which is good for my fresh eyes.
Overall, it’s no secret that “Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past” paid less attention to Rocket in an arc that involves Rocket. However, that doesn’t stop it from being another engaging and thought-provoking character-driven episode. Despite Rocket’s situation being nothing but filler, aside from Bear’s appearance and Forager’s shocking decision, the episode provides more surprising (and emotional) revelations for the side characters, mainly Beast Boy. How they’ll affect the outcome of Rocket’s episodic arc and the overall season is something that I don’t want to miss.