Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1, Episode 3: Blood Ties
Holy shit, this episode was also good! We shine the spotlight on several of the other characters who were slightly shafted in the last two episodes -- most notably Rip Hunter and the Atom, who barely did anything in episode two -- but also gives White Canary much-needed screentime, allows Vandal Savage to actually be a threatening villain, and Captain Cold actually gave me sad feels.
Still stuck in the seventies, the team split up again, with the Rogues gangpressing Jefferson with them to steal an emerald... which seems like a wacky subplot until characterization happened and we all feel for Captain Cold. The Atom and Martin Stein, meanwhile, have their own sidequest to cure a bunch of microscopic blade fragments that are going towards Kendra Saunder's heart (Hawkgirl herself is mostly out of it this episode). This leaves Rip Hunter and Sara Lance as the only ones of the team that's doing anything in relation to the Vandal Savage plot.
And it's a nice little split-up as it gives the cast members more time to breathe. We get some more implications of what it's like to manipulate the timeline. Rip Hunter apparently tried to kill Vandal Savage in ancient Egypt, but failed, instead spawning a legend about this mythical Gareeb that opposes Vandal Savage. Vandal Savage himself proves to be far more badass and dangerous than his past two outings. One of the biggest problems is that, well, last episode Vandal Savage himself isn't that much of a threat to a superhuman team if his powers just is, well, master hand-to-hand combatant and great knife thrower. And unable to be killed by anyone but Kendra.
Well, this episode Vandal Savage breaks out the magic beams and manages to hold down the fort against the Rogues and Rip Hunter. And as much as Hunter manages to deal a mortal wound to Savage, the fact that Savage can just regenerate from his wound means that their work isn't done. It begs the question of why they don't just bring Vandal Savage with them and chop him up or something, but that's really how you make chronal villains like Per Degaton and Krona so nevermind that. Savage's horrifying in this episode, especially near his 'death' where he promises to wait until he finds Rip's family, whose faces he memorizes, and he will hunt them down.
Vandal Savage also shows a horrifying cult, using Hawkman's blood to give his cultists extended life. Among Savage's troops is the ninja banker Mr. Blake, who had a fair amount of awesome fight scenes with White Canary in this episode, and actually became a bit of a fun little character despite being mostly a mook. The other prominent cultist, the crazy-faced Caleb who bears more than a resemblance to Gotham's insane Penguin, also drank Carter's blood and I'm curious if any of them will show up in the next time period. Well, maybe not Blake. Sara kinda broke him.
Sara, the White Canary, shows some of her dealing with the aftermath of being resurrected, dealing with whether she's a monster or not, her bloodlust, and her career of killing, and I think it's something that her shafted screentime in Arrow didn't quite give her enough justice. Granted it would be preaching to the choir with Thea going through a similar thing, and I do appreciate how in-between ass-kickings and all that Sara is given some time to show that, yes, she's going to have a character arc and isn't just around for her looks.
And in addition to Rip's travel to ancient Egypt and failing to kill Savage then, this show also shows that, well, time travel doesn't always work the way you want. Captain Cold steals the emerald that his father would fail in stealing and go to jail for -- turning his father into the abusive motherfucker we saw on Flash -- but while he tries to steal that emerald and give it to Lewis Snart... Lewis ends up going to jail nonetheless for trying to sell said emerald. Time doesn't want you to fuck with it, apparently.
I do like how even Heat Wave tried to caution Captain Cold against messing with the timeline, and even if he's the dumb one of the team (lampshaded by a hilarious joke early in this episode) he's not, y'know, brick-level dumb.
Captain Cold's where it's at, though, and him visiting his younger self "Leo" and telling little Leo not to let anyone step all over him and shit, and resisting the urge to beat up or kill his father because doing so would prevent Lisa from being born... Lenny's reminiscing of how his father never beat him or his mother until he went to jail is suitably melancholic, and it really works well with this swaggering character that he, too, has a vulnerable point. He's a charming villain, a 'don't mess with me' suave character... but the flawed individual beneath Captain Cold, Lenny Snart, is equally compelling.
Martin Stein and Ray Palmer have less of a stellar scene compared to the other two teams. We get some nice moments where Ray starts to doubt himself, and Stein tries to pretend that he remembers Ray Palmer as one of the best students (which turns out to be a lie) and the two characters and actors certainly have great chemistry with each other, but the sudden confidence loss felt a bit out of character and forced on Ray Palmer. I guess last episode of humiliation kinda hurt him somewhat? The bit about Martin forcing Ray to admit who he lost felt odd, though. It's decent, at least, if not wholly interesting. And most importantly, it gives the Atom, well, something to do instead of being that one guy who I forgets about. And finally, making use of the crazy shrinking abilities and having Ray run around in Kendra's bloodstream zapping giant debris pieces (as insanely unrealistic as the CGI portrays it to be) is a very comic-booky moment and one that elevates Atom beyond Iron-Man-Knockoff that he's been rightfully accused to be in Arrow's third season.
Kendra doesn't get to do much, being in a coma for nearly the entirety of the episode, though we did get a bit of closure as we bury Carter and Albus.
Rip gives us a big reference in seeing "Men of Steel die and Dark Knights fall", and beyond referencing related characters like Oracle and the little Wayne cameo in Flash's future newspaper, this is the closest the CW-verse has to referencing the existence of Superman and Batman. Yay! Future plot-relevance, or just a nice cameo? Hopefully the former.
We get a couple of fun easter eggs, and not just to DC comics either. Ray references the Titanic, and Martin Stein's actor Victor Garber acted in Titanic, with his expression when Ray brings it up being just hilarious. Ray's dead wife, whose last name was not revealed in Arrow, is revealed to be Anna Loring. Ray Palmer's wife in the comics is called Jean Loring, but a different character bearing her name have shown up before Ray Palmer did in Arrow, hence Anna. Vandal notes a previous encounter with Jack the Ripper, when in DC comics lore Vandal Savage himself is Jack the Ripper.
Rip Hunter's room (around five minutes into the episode) is a treasure trove of DC references, and while we don't get a glimpse of all of the props made for Rip's office (including references to Sgt. Rock, Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Sandman and Ma Hunkel), this episode you can definitely spot Jonah Hex's wanted poster on the wall. Jonah Hex, of course, is the DC-comics Western-era mystic cowboy man, whose appearance in this show has already been confirmed. Will the others... whoa, a JSA appearance will probably blow me mind.
Great episode, still, even if the Atom/Stein bit didn't work as well as I hoped it would the rest really shines.
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