Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1, Episode 15: Destiny
With only one episode to go, I can safely say that this series has really kind of been a disappointment. It had a really strong start, a very grand concept, excellent actors (Kendra aside) and a wonderful visual effects team. It's just that the writing is so atrocious that it's a pain watching this show most of the time. I have since given up trying to rationalize all the insanity with the time travel rules expressed by the show, but man, this episode just causes everything to become insanely baffling, and most of it is due to the introduction of the deus ex machina known as the Oculus.
Apparently, the Time Masters have seen that there will be a Thanagarian invasion in the future shortly after Vandal Savage takes over, and the only chance that humanity has in surviving said invasion is, well, Vandal Savage. The concept is okay enough -- sacrifice humanity under the heel of a tyrant in order to safeguard them against the aliens. But the Oculus is implied to give the Time Masters direct control over the timeline, making them overlords of time, able to influence everything that has happened... which, in a sense, is how Vandal Savage keeps escaping in the previous episodes.
But really? You have this all-powerful tool to control everything and everyone's motivations, and you can't stop the Thanagarian invasion? Or make a less psychotic person than Vandal Savage unite mankind? Or get rid of the Legends team in a more effective manner? And apparently their big, big plan is to have Rip Hunter and his bunch of miscreants to travel through time and keep empowering Vandal Savage with Russian Firestorms, Atom suits and whatnot, and it's why, apparently, the Time Masters kept sending idiots like the Hunters and the Pilgrim to fail in apprehending the Legends team. Apparently everything the Legends team did was predetermined by the Time Masters. It's an utterly odd and ridiculous concept, really, and they certainly could've gone about with selling a more compliant Time Master than Rip to solidify Vandal Savage's reign. And, yes, for all the posturing they did about how the Oculus can see 100% into the future, apparently it failed to see this thing happening? The Vanishing Point is a weird place in time, I know, but that just doesn't really answer anything. It has more plot holes than I would care to talk about, and it just leaves my head reeling.
In any case, though, the episode ends up boiling down to 'blow up the plot device' and wait for the inevitable Chekov's Gun of Jeffeson returning to the Vanishing Point. Apparently they have free will now. Yay?
That's not to say that the episode didn't have great moments. Jefferson interacting with pre-characterization Martin Stein was fun, seeing how much the journey has changed Stein as much as Jefferson, and it does address a little plot hole as to why someone like Stein would roofie Jefferson. Informed consent from future self. Heat Wave breaking through the Chronos conditioning and stomping that one Time Master's head was great. Gideon hacking into all the other Time Masters' ship was hilarious. And, well, Captain Cold's "death" was... it made me cry out loud NOOOOO. He was easily the best thing in the show, and what made me so happy to come back to it every week despite the decline in quality. I highly doubt he's going to be killed off permanently, though... he's definitely the most popular character by far, and I highly doubt his death will be permanent. There's a bit of a romantic tension between Snart and Sara, but this actually... kinda made sense. Moreso than the stupid Ray/Kendra thing that came out of nowhere.
It was a great moment, as Ray was prepared to seal his fate by doing something actually important, Rory finally finding out that he actually does care, and taking the suicide switch thing, and later Snart and Sara running back to save Rory, because you don't leave a man behind. It's a great, great moment. Also, Rip Hunter is a gigantic twat for not even offering himself.
But the Time Masters Declan and Druce, the only two that really had names, are dead. The Vanishing Point apparently blew up, so no more of that nonsense.
Oh, and in this new revised timeline free of Time Master scriptwriting, apparently Savage still does manage to kill Rip Hunter's wife and son. And he has Kendra and Carter with him, tied up and being irritating. It's shaping up to a final confrontation between the Legends and Vandal Savage, so hopefully we at least end on a more sane and less 'wait whaaat' episode than this one. I think if all the talk about the time travel and predestination and Time Masters controlling everyone had been delivered in such a way that it doesn't feel like a load of crap -- though it isn't helped by the show's already tenuous grip on consistency as far as time travel goes -- it would've been a better episode. But as it is... it's a bit of a disappointment, honestly, though balls for killing off Captain Cold.
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