"Life, it’s gonna start going our way."
Hey, look at that. Legends of Tomorrow is back. In every sense.
There are so many good choices on display in the season seven opener of Legends of Tomorrow that I almost don't know where to even begin.
When we last saw our heroes (only about a month ago thanks to weird COVID scheduling) they'd wrapped up a season long plot about aliens and were walking back to the Waverider in Odessa, Texas, 1925. Suddenly, to the amazement of all, another Waverider swooped in out of the blue, bombed our Waverider into little pieces, and flew off at top speed. Fade to black. End of season six.
This leads me to the first really good decision they made in this episode. The 'previously on Legends of Tomorrow', 'lets bring everybody up to speed on what happened last season' that we'd usually open a season with. They're in a bit of an awkward position for that, as last season was only a few weeks ago. So, do we pretend like it's a normal year and do one, or just skip it and make things awkward for people coming to the seasons later on? Well, they found a third road and it's kind of a genius move. By opening the episode with a montage of local townspeople reporting what they witnessed, i.e. the events of the season six finale, to a very disinterested local sheriff.
Not only does this serve the function of reminding the audience what all went down in the previous finale, it also establishes that the local townspeople are really nosy, and really interested in what goes on over at Gloria's place seeing as she's a barely trusted foreigner. Since that's going to be one of the primary motivators of everything else that happens in this episode this was a great way to begin. Hey there, you two birds. Check out this one stone I have.
From there we spend the remainder of the episode getting the team to recognize and come to terms with the single best decision they made for season seven. That the Legends are clearly going to be stuck in one time period for the foreseeable future.
That's just such a breath of fresh air. It completely breaks with the established pattern of the 'Legends of Tomorrow season arc' and the show already feels re-energized as a result. This entire episode is structured like a series of waves, intended to gradually force the team to accept their new circumstances. First there's the possible quick fix of just time couriering onto the attacking ship a little bit in the past and stopping them from attacking. They get all geared up to do so and... Nate's Time Courier is out of power. So they're stuck.
Next we get the slightly longer wave brought on by the really clever misdirect of the Waverider Emergency Supply safe. They track it down, but oh no it's already with the Sheriff. They send Nate in to con it out of the Sheriff's hands, he succeeds, they open the safe to get all their high tech stuff back, and... all the useful stuff is gone because Mick used them for a beer run. So they're stuck.
Then they come up with the plan to go to New York and find a scientist who's somehow involved in inventing time travel. They create a bank robbery gang to lure Hoover away from Spooner's mom and her nosy neighbors, rob their first bank and create their first fan club at the exact same time, they're off to find the scientist who can help fix everything, and... whoops, we accidentally killed J. Edgar Hoover and probably destroyed the timeline completely. So...
And it's only then that Ava finally goes off the rails and abandons the idea that they're going to be able to make a quick fix of the situation. They're stuck. Well and truly. And all they can do is keep a running list of the damage they cause in the hopes of one day being in a position to fix it all.
The show is incrementally breaking the team, and by proxy the viewers, of the idea that there's going to be a quick fix on this one. They're very slowly and deliberately cementing the idea that all of the fancy toys the Legends are used to having at their disposal are gone. No easy memory wiping. No quick time hopping via Jump ship, Waverider, or time courier. No food or clothing replication. They're marooned in time with only their wits and their superpowers. I'm loving this direction. It's so new and different.
Because, honestly, they really have had way too much help over the last few years. I stopped even mentioning the sheer number of different ways they had to time travel a couple of seasons ago. And it's so much more interesting to see them have to deal with the consequences of snoopy Pastor Hanson nosing around than if they could just memory wipe him and move on.
And with that big change comes another equally big one that I'm excited to see play out. I refer to the overall shape of the season. Traditionally a season of Legends runs more or less as follows: Big inciting event that causes about a dozen different problems in various places and times. The Legends tackle those problems at roughly the rate of one per episode. About two thirds of the way through the season we have a seismic shift and what we thought of as the main villain gives way to something or someone lurking behind it. Then in the finale they deal with that newer enemy, usually in a thoroughly ridiculous way. Lather, rinse, repeat.
That is not a complaint in any way, by the way. It's a winning formula. Well... four seasons out of six. But the other two had other factors working against them.
This year, in contrast, it looks very much like the basic framework is going to involve the Legends creating a new screw-up every week, dutifully recording it in Ava's list of temporal oopsies, and then circling back and fixing them at the end. Probably by doing something ridiculous.
At least that's where it looks like it's going. I may or may not be right. Regardless, I'm more excited for Legends of Tomorrow than I have been in quite a while. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Everybody remember where we parked:
This week we begin and end in Odessa, TX, 1925. Well, at the end they're driving out of town. And I'm not entirely sure what town the bank they're robbing is in. Whatever. They're in 1925. Astra and Spooner remain behind at Gloria's place to recuperate and bond while Zari decides to hang out at the best new location ever.
The best new location ever:
So it turns out that the big skeleton key that John Constantine gave to Zari on his way out of her life is much cooler than expected. When turned in any lock, it makes that door open into an exact replica of John Constantine's mansion, but tucked away inside a pocket dimension in Hell, completely outside of space and time. At least we assume it works on any door. We've only actually seen it work on Gloria's closet, but it feels unlikely that John would have made it that specific.
This is just such a great excuse to keep using the sets for the mansion that I can't applaud it enough. And also, I totally want a copy of that key.
Quotes:
Behrad: "To be fair, when he left we still had a working time machine."
Zari: "Defending him is not listening."
Behrad: "Right. Sorry. Continue."
Ava: "Specifically, Rule 44 states that our cover story must be a circus."
Zari: "That is oddly specific."
Sara: "Time to use your superpower."
Nate: "So you want me to turn to steel and knock around some skulls?"
Sara: "No. Your other superpower. You are a white man in 1925."
Zari: "It’s too open concept in here to hide!"
Zari: "Is it possible that man is so conceited that he thinks I need an entire other dimension to get over him?"
Spooner: "How did Hoover not see you guys?"
Nate: "Oh, we just hopped over to another plane of existence where space and time don’t function normally. No big whoop."
Woman at the bank: "You can steal money from a safe, fine. But you don’t steal somebody’s gang name!"
Behrad: "Ooh, ooh, ooh! The Bullet Blondes!"
Nate: "Well it’s not just Sara and Ava. We’re in the gang too."
Woman at the bank: "They’re doing all the heavy lifting."
Spooner: "I like having you around. You're like my best friend."
Astra: "No one’s ever said that to me. But you’re mine too."
Bits and pieces:
-- The big news is of course the reveal at the end that Amy Louise Pemberton is now physically playing the role of Gideon, having been incorporated into a human body by Astra's spell. She has been overdue credit for how much she brings to the show for pretty much the entire run of the series, and I couldn't be happier to see her get more to do.
-- The scientist they're headed to NYC to meet is one Gwyn Davies, who is of course the new character played by Matt Ryan this season. Can't wait to see what he's like.
-- A lot of this could have been avoided if Nate had resisted the urge to pretend to be someone so important when retrieving the safe. Field Agent Heywood wouldn't have raised any alarm bells, Nate. That said, all of the stuff with how the gang's actions cause Hoover to react and vice versa was really solidly plotted.
-- Given the nature of time travel and everything they've been through, it's a little odd that everyone was so gung ho to go kill the people on that other Waverider without even considering the fact that there's like a 90% chance that the people on the other Waverider are them.
-- The montage of them making circus clothes was just the best thing ever. As was the montage of them wearing those clothes while damage-controlling anything the locals might have seen the night before.
-- So what about Stabcast inspired Ava like that at the end? Does she have a long term plan, or is she just leaning heavy into her true crime knowledge of how to cover up this particular homicide? Time will tell.
-- I'm probably going to keep saying this every week, but I love Astra and Spooner's friendship.
-- Robbing the bank for specifically $93.65 was a great joke. Particularly the apologetic way that the teller had to explain that he had plenty in his drawer to cover it and there was no need to go open the safe.
-- Jes Macallan and Caity Lotz were very clearly having the most fun ever in the bank robbery sequence.
-- Despite what I said a minute ago about not having a clothing replicator, it does bear noting that they came up with their new bank-robbing outfits surprisingly quickly. Also, Gloria's curtains seemed to be replaced without much fuss.
-- Is it just me, or did Nate's steel effect look a lot more matte in this one than usual? Also, is this the first time we've seen him only steel up part of his body? I think it is.
-- I'd like credit for making it through that last line without saying something completely inappropriate, because I am super classy like that.
For the first time in ages, I watched an episode of Legends of Tomorrow and didn't want it to be anything other than what it was as I was watching it. I've really missed that.
A great season opener, a great episode, and a great new direction for the team. Four and a half out of five chunks of Waverider.
Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, retired firefighter, and roughly 78% water. You can find more of his work at the 42nd Vizsla. If you'd like to see his raw notes for this and other reviews, you can find them at What Was Mikey Thinking.
I think the Stabcast Eureka moment for Ava was that the best way to hide a murder is to not have a body for anyone to find. Plus, if they don't find Hoover dead, then for the sake of history, he's not officially dead. That means one less thing to change back, everyone knowing he's dead.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I feel like Legends is back.
Mikey, I was thinking of you while I was watching this. As in, I bet Mikey is loving this episode. :) I loved it, too. Best episode in awhile and I'm enthusiastic about this season.
ReplyDeleteSo what about Stabcast inspired Ava like that at the end?
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought she was planning to leave herself some sort of breadcrumbs to realize that Hoover was mysteriously murdered...by Ava herself! And as she solved the mystery, she'd save the Legends...
But really, I think she was just trying to be thorough about hiding a body, right? She doesn't have binder for that, since the Waverider is gone.
I really enjoyed this episode. We're back!
The Legends are back baby! Much better than last season. It can't be the Legends without Sara with her team.
ReplyDeleteI loved the pocket dimension..in hell. Hmm..
Gary is so much more fun now.
Love Astra and Spooner as the female Ray and Nate sort of.
Can't wait to meet Matt Ryan. Again.
Human!Gideon looks..um best not finish that sentence. But whoa.
LOVED IT....a lot. Huge grin on my face from start to end...
ReplyDeletea) if you wanna see the new character :
http://dclegendstv.com/2021/10/14/first-photo-matt-ryan-as-dr-gwyn-davies/
b) yes Nate did partially steel up in
https://www.douxreviews.com/2020/05/legends-of-tomorrow-freaks-and-greeks.html
BUT I'm NOT telling which part of his body....you'll remember...