Legends of Tomorrow S01E04 Review: Ray is Dumb

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1, Episode 4: White Knights

We finally swap out the seventies for the eighties. This week's Flash got me real excited for travelling to different eras with Connor Hawke, Jonah Hex and the Legion being teased, and this episode... well, it worked marvelously on some parts, and it didn't on some others. Let's go with the bad first, then the good, shall we?

First up, Ray even points out the idiocy of not letting him just shrink down as the Atom and do whatever they need to do. Ray could've done it both in the Pentagon and the Russian science facility to far greater effect than what they ended up doing, but it's extremely odd for them to go in this direction and even lampshade it. Ray himself ends up kind of fucking up kind of bad in the end. If he would just left Valentina Vostok alone and not be enamoured by the idea of redeeming the poor pretty scientist 'duped' by Vandal Savage, they would've finished up the mission far cleaner than they did.

Another thing that really didn't work was Sara and Kendra. I get it, they're trying to give some character development. Sara's bloodlust, and Kendra dealing with the fact that she needs to build up her own confidence and control Chay'Ara within her and deal with Carter's death... but the way they went about doing it ends up feeling rather stilted and odd. It's just done rather poorly, and after all the buildup that Sara and Kendra are trying to get their bloodlust under control, neither of them show up to help beat Chronos or the Russians. That felt like a real missed opportunity. Or maybe Arrow going with the whole 'anger issues' thing with Laurel, Slade, Thea and Sara on different seasons kind of made me sick of the plot line being revisited again.

The Firestorm interaction irked me a fair bit initially, because it was totally Jax's fault not listening to Stein that fucked up the Pentagon mission and blew everyone else's cover. But then we get a couple of great moments for the always-awesome Martin Stein, confessing that he's especially hard to Jax because he didn't want to lose Jax the way he lost Ronnie. I thought this was kind of a great tie-in to the fact that they cut Ronnie Raymond out for whatever the hell reason. Martin also got a great moment when he arrives at the reasonable (but wrong) conclusion that he should stop putting Jax's life in danger and goes in alone to stop that Russian Firestorm power core thing.

Of course, though, Jax is just running high on emotion and he did redeem himself somewhat by trying to save Stein's life via radio near the end, but hey. I thought it was odd since they reconciled in episode two over the whole kidnapping thing, but it's a small inconsistency I'm willing to swallow.

The rest of the episode was definitely brilliant, though. From the fun little infiltration of the Pentagon, which naturally caused all hell to break loose, to the space fight with "Boba Fett" Chronos, to everything surrounding Rip Hunter, Captain Cold, Martin Stein and Heat Wave, who stole the show in their respective scenes.... the show was on full throttle in terms of writing quality for those scenes.

Captain Cold is just awesome, just being suave and pickpocketing every single person they meet. He lays down the charm on both that lady in the Pentagon and Valentina Vostok, and completely outshines lovesick Ray. Ray is just so desperate to impress Valentina, yet he just gets coldly turned away and I loved that scene. Leonard Snart just steals the scene (and the mission, and a kiss, and a wallet). That scene in the end where he's just absolutely pissed off at Rip and is sitting in his office all calm and freeze-gun pointed at his face is brilliant.

Meanwhile, as the cast splits up, Rip Hunter and Heat Wave investigate the crash site of Chronos's ship, only to find Time Master Druce claiming that Chronos is dead, and offering him and his team full amnesty if they returned with him. Heat Wave, showing that he's nowhere as dumb as he acts, tells Rip to reject the offer, knowing that the Time Masters are just trying to get them all in one place so they can be killed. It's nice to see the Time Masters be more proactive instead of just relying on Chronos -- that break-in in the Pentagon probably ruffled some feathers. Maybe that's the reason ARGUS was formed? It was a great scene -- we don't believe for a moment that Chronos died off-screen, or that Rip will give up -- but it was executed well. Chronos and Druce are driven away by the sudden appearance of Rip's allies.

I like Druce! He's a far more compelling antagonist than Chronos, who sadly lives up to his 'Boba Fett' nickname... looks cool, acts cool, does nothing but hang around in the background, looking menacing and getting beaten easily. Druce doesn't fight, but he tries to get in Rip's head, he definitely is a friend of Rip and you truly believe that the two are buddies before all this madness.

The bit at the end where Captain Cold was forced to escape and leave Ray, Mick and Martin captured by the Russians in league with Vandal Savage was great, too, mostly because I was expecting the remaining three or four members of the Legends team to show up and help. I'm honestly not sure why Rip is sure that Ray and Mick would be spared, and I thought that bit was odd if nothing else, but it was a great scene. Shame Ray's just, y'know, dumb. It ends on a cliffhanger, with the promise that Savage's lackey Valentina Vostok (who's evil, don't you know) is planning to create a Russian Firestorm. I'm not sure whether this also happened in the original timeline, or if Savage got his inspiration from fighting Firestorm in the seventies, but hey, it's a nice little plot for now that facilitates taking prisoners.

Comic-book fans like me are probably rejoicing now, because there is a Russian Firestorm in the comics, namely Mikhail Arkadin, otherwise known as the villain-turned-ally Pozhar, who I think actually became Firestorm for a bit. Valentina Vostok is a character I am more familiar with -- the alter-ego of the Doom Patrol superhero Negative Woman, who later took the alias 'White Queen' of Checkmate... we'll see whether this version of the character will embrace the light as Ray Palmer desperately wants her to. I thought the title of the episode is pretty fun, too, very subtly referencing Checkmate and Vostok's role in that organization.

More Easter Eggs include... well, everything in Rip Hunter's office, basically. Some of the artifacts we missed last episode are shown in panning shots, like Hourman's hourglass. We also get Ray Palmer being nicknamed 'boy scout' numerous times by Captain Cold... which, y'know, Superman reference, past actor's career, we all know the drill.

Overall? It's definitely a weaker episode than the previous one, but the strong scenes here really work. It's definitely entertaining and, well I really do love this show.