Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 5: Compromised
One of the bigger problems I have about Legends of Tomorrow casting Damien Darhk as a villain is that, well, at the end of the day, he has to survive all the way to 2016, so he can kick-start the plotline of Arrow's fourth season and participate and be the crux of everything that happens there, before dying. And we've seen how the death of a single person that's important to history -- RE: Barry's mother -- changes to many aspects of the present day. Vandal Savage and Hawkman are the only ones to be killed outside of time, and they are special cases because one is immortal and a time-traveler, while Hawkman constantly reincarnates.
So yeah, this episode tries to deal with that particular bit. As well as move the main plotline along. The season lost a bit of momentum with the shogun and the zombie episodes, which are fun excursions but ultimately filler. We finally bring Damien Darhk -- and to a far lesser extent, Reverse-Flash -- back as they formalize the creation of the Legion of Doom. The plot in this episode is simple enough, with Darhk doing his normal M.O. of just gathering powerful artifacts while stockpiling weapons, and it's revealed that his brief trysts with Reverse-Flash are just temporary partnerships. However, after yet another failure, and being shook by Sara tormenting him with his eventual future, Darhk ends up joining forces with Reverse-Flash as they go into their own time-machine to fuck time up.
It's a very well-done confrontation, as Sara reverts back into her vendetta mode at the slightest sign of Darhk, leading to a well-written confrontation between her and Martin Stein. Sara ends up choosing the noble path, but she did taunt Darhk a bit too much in the end. Yes, it's a ploy to make Darhk drop his guard so Sara can steal the... artifact of doom or whatever, but at the same time, tormenting Darhk with the knowledge that, oh, he will lose, die alone, lose his family and generally have a pretty disappointing end (which holds true to his actual fate at the end of Arrow's fourth season) is enough to re-energize him. Damien Darhk is a very interesting villain that I've grown relatively fond for over so many episodes, and having him committed to basically rewriting his own history is a lot more interesting than just another immortal uber-terrorist, which we've already done three times in CW's history with Ra's Al Ghul, Vandal Savage and Damien Darhk's first outing.
The rest of the cast also went character growth, most notably in my opinion the unlikely pairing of Ray and Mick. The two are trying to get Ray to fit into the shoes left by Captain Cold, and in a very inspired move actually shows Mick's grieving side of the story as he tries so hard to not show any vulnerability in the one person on the team he would deign to call a friend, yet he is still grieving so hard about Snart's death that his attempt to remake Ray in Snart's image ends up digging up old wounds. We go from hilarious as Mick goads Ray to steal presidental jelly beans to be evil, to Mick being so poignantly angry and sad during that stakeout. This ends up with Mick telling Ray to be Ray, to be science guy who can solve everything. And, yeah, Ray doesn't quite find a proper niche in the team without his Atom suit yet, but he still can be science guy... even if it means dismantling the cold gun, which Mick just shrugs at.
Martin also gets some character development, with the return of Young Martin! There's a bit of drama where Young Martin is stabbed in the gut by Darhk, and Old Martin is absolutely incensed that his younger self is such an insane workaholic that he would leave Clarissa alone on her birthday. There's a nice bit of self-loathing and soul-searching that's translated well to Ray during their brief conversation, and the subtle fact that the older Martin knows everything about his dinner with Clarissa but had to struggle to remember what he was doing kind of shows just what memories the older man chooses to keep. There's a nice bit where the older Martin dances with the younger version of his wife, pretending to be a colleague of the younger Martin. Victor Garber is a very, very excellent actor and every scene with him is just amazing.
Equally amazing is the older Obsidian. We see Amaya and Nate trying to reach out to the Justice Society members of the 80's, only to find the old base abandoned, and all the members bar Obsidian apparently dead. Amaya tries so hard to shut herself off of Nate, but her meeting with the tired war veteran Obsidian and trying to get Obsidian to open up and be a hero again ends up causing Amaya to open up to Nate, talking about her old relationship with Rex Tyler. Still don't really care all that much about Amaya, but man, older Obsidian is so awesome and I'm sad we don't get more of him. I just like Obsidian, and as someone who's familiar with the source material I am absolutely sad that this seems to be all we're getting out of Obsidian. Though I don't know. Maybe we'll get a follow-up episode in the future? Fingers crossed for more Obsidian, that's for sure.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- More of an internal-CW thing, but Heat Wave and Captain Cold did cross their streams at the climax of their team-up of season one of Flash that led to their defeat. Damien and Eobard's time bubble is of the same make of the one that Eobard Thawne used at the finale of Flash's season one as well. The younger Martin Stein also makes several references to a transmutation project, no doubt what will become the FIRESTORM Project in our present.
- Multiple characters refer to Darhk's plans revolving around HIVE and the Ark, which all took place in Arrow's fourth season.
- Channel 52 News is yet another reference to the prominence of the number 52 in DC comics.
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