Monday, May 23, 2016

DC's Legends of Tomorrow Episode 16 "Legendary" Review and **SPOILERS**


Director: Dermott Downs
Story: Greg Berlanti & Chris Fedak
Teleplay: Phil Klemmer & Marc Guggenheim
Air Date: May 19, 2016


For what seems like an eternity (but was actually just a couple of months) I have been reviewing DC's Legends of Tomorrow. All this time, we have been watching various plotlines get set-up (Savage, Time-Masters, Thanagarians, Hawkpeople and many others) and now, we will finally get see how they each get resolved. Will the writers successfully tie everything together? Will they provide a satisfying ending while also teasing the next season? Who will live and who will die? Does anyone have any other interesting questions? I don't know, but I do know that I'm ready for some big splashy fights and TV Justice League action. On to the review then...





Our episode begins with the crew of the Waverider being offered a choice. As Rip puts it, he is the captain of the ship and uniquely responsible for the mess Savage has created. For this reason, every member of the team is returned to 2016 and expected to resume their regular lives. This leads to a variety of scenes the range from mediocre to fun. Mediocre: Stein's, ok: Sarah's (important thought) and fun: Ray and Heatwave's. With the decision made they create a signal for Rip Hunter and use to call him back and finally go confront Savage. When to go thought?  The 1940's, as Kendra appears to have been able to leave a message for them (in a way the may or may not include Sgt. Rock.) Thus it's time to go back to action and indeeed they do, getting into a threeway fight between Savage and a couple of Nazi soldiers.




As the fight unfolds, the team fails to rescue Hawkgirl and kill Savage, but successfully frees Carter and learn of Vandal's final plan. It appears the Savage will use Thanagarian meteors and his time machine to reset time. How does this work? Ask Stein. Anyways, the team has to stop him at three different points of time so we get a classic Justice League split team scene. The fight seems to go well in ever timeline as we see Savage get killed again and again. Alas, while two of the teams manage to "deactivate" the meteors one of them does not and it appears the the Earth will be consumed by fire and brimstone.


In a last ditch attempt to save the planet, Rip Hunter takes the last meteor into his ship and prepares to drive it into the sun. As his death approaches he hallucinates his wife and child. This gives him a clarity of mind and Rip figures out how to save himself. He makes a time jump right after dropping of the meteor and survives his lastes challenge. Alive and considering himself the last true Time Master, Rip makes an offer to the rest of his team. Will they aid him in preserving the timeline or return to their ordinary lives? Kendra and Carter decline, but as the rest of the team accepts a strange visitor arrives. It appears I was wrong, this is not TV's version of the Justice League.

Bits and Pieces:

At it's core this episode was good. Not great, but good. Perhaps I've been expecting to much after giant robot fights and the death of Captain Cold, but nevertheless the episode is quite predictable. Sure, we get the appearance of a DC comics staple and a classic use of Firestorm's powers (for the first time), but that just isn't enough.The time travel makes less sense than ever, the action is just ok and if that truly was Sergeant Rock we saw then that was a horrible portrayal. Also (and this doesn't factor into my score, but is something to consider) the producers have openly stated the Green Lantern mythos is beyond their access. So if the Hawks are leaving, GL is inaccesible, they've already introduced a young Wildcat and Black Canary is dead then I don't know how much the surprise visit really means. Anywhom, I give this episode a...

8.0/10

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