Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 8: The Chicago Way
Last episode was all about the Invasion crossover, and while we did tie up the little anticlimax that was the mysterious message from Future Barry, we also get the little plot thread advancement for the Legends of Tomorrow crew that is Martin Stein discovering that he's created a time aberration. But this season of Legends have been pretty much taking it light as far as keeping the main Legion of Doom plotline going, and honestly other than the one or two episodes that featured Darhk here and there, and a little cameo from Reverse-Flash every third episode, the majority of season two has been isolated plotlines.
So, well, the newly formed Legion of Doom (Malcolm Merlyn apparently decided to join up off-screen?) shows up in the gangster era and tried to wreak havoc by allying themselves with local historical figure Al Capone. It really seems to be the recipe for a filler episode had it not been for Reverse-Flash, Darhk and Merlyn's presence. And for the most part, it follows the formula. Our heroes find themselves embroiled in the conflict of the era, they have to correct history so Elliot Ness arrests Al Capone or whatever (I'm not too well-versed with the conflict of the era other than the fact that I have to rewatch Scarface because it's been some time since I last saw it).
It's definitely a fun era, with nice fedoras for everyone and a definite sense of fun mafia fighting all throughout the episode, and I for one enjoyed the rather... straightforward conflict that we had for around two-thirds of the episode. It's pretty tame superheroes versus supervillain material with truthfully not much to buckle the formula other than actually having the Legion of Doom be the villains... up until the last half, anyway.
Martin Stein, in a way, is the lynchpin for this episode. Merlyn tries to tempt Sara into giving in by erasing basically everything that happened to cause Arrow to take place, which would mean Sara wouldn't have to go through Lian Yu, Slade Wilson, the League of Asssassins or both her and her sister's death. But in a nice bit of character development, we know that Sara has resolved her desire to move on thanks to a Dominator-invoked dream sequence, and she refuses point blank. Sara doesn't know it, but Martin has been wrestling with his own little crisis of conscience, trying to keep the aberration Lily's existence a secret from everyone except for Jax. And, well, Martin is ashamed, naturally, that Sara sees him a shining beacon of responsibility when he's hiding an aberration from everyone on the team.
And Stein gets attacked by Reverse-Flash's device, which isn't a torture device but rather the face-stealing device that he uses to steal Harrison Wells' face in Flash's first season. It's a bit obvious for those who paid attention, but I wasn't, not really, and while it's a bit odd for Jax not to notice anything strange when Eobard!Stein was brought on board the ship, it is very cool for Eobard!Stein to fool everyone enough for him to reach into the office and ransack it to find the amulet.
There's a bit of hilarity that no one bothered to tell anyone on the Legends team about Reverse-Flash's face-stealing technology (Stein knew, but he was incapacitated at the time) and this allowed Reverse-Flash to wreak havoc abroad the Waverider. Add Al Capone's men arriving with tommy guns, and Malcolm Merlyn fighting Sara (and getting hilariously trash-talked by the lady!) and you've got yourself a pretty tense climax. Pretty obviously, Reverse-Flash is the biggest threat to the Legends team, especially with Firestorm out of commission for most of the episode. We get a very cool scene of Atom finally making use of his shrinking powers again, we get a cool martial arts scene between Sara and Merlyn, and it's generally a pretty cool climax all around.
I guess I have to talk a bit about Heat Wave in this episode. The CW verse in general have played around with the 'is he a ghost, a hallucination or the character actually come back to life?' card multiple times, especially in Arrow, with Captain Cold showing up and talking shit about Mick, noting that he's basically been domesticated from a villain to basically someone who takes orders just to get a few nice words from Amaya. Mick does get to be the most crucial part of the plan to take down Al Capone's alliance with the Legion of Doom by thinking like a criminal, and he doesn't actually fall to villainy again... and, of course, Captain Cold is just a figment of his imagination. It's nice and amazing how the one-note 'burn shit, be a good thug buddy' Heat Wave has been turned into a pretty three-dimensional character, and while Amaya still feels like a pretty bland love interest to Mick at the moment, it's still pretty entertaining nonetheless.
Yeah, the episode ended with a nominal loss for the Legends team -- the Legion of Doom escaped with the amulet, though no one from the Legends team died, and Sara decides that Stein's daughter is important enough to keep around because, well, it's important enough for Stein. We did get the revelation that the Legion of Doom's big goal is to track down the mythical Spear of Destiny, which apparently will grant them total mastery of time. Well, it's just tracking down a plot device, but still, at least we kinda know what the Legion is planning to do. Bit curious why they needed Malcolm Merlyn of all people to pull it off, though... just what is Merlyn offering to the table that Darhk doesn't already do? I mean, yeah, story-wise he plays the good cop to Darhk and Eobard, but it doesn't seem like the two of them care all that much for Merlyn's deal brokering skills.
Oh, also, Rip Hunter is directing a shitty movie about Rip Hunter, so we're going to have him back and it's not just an excuse to kill him off. That was a bit of a hilarious little sudden fake out, with Rip being chased by a future cop only for it to be part of a movie.
It might not be the most epic of mid-season finales, and certainly it isn't anywhere as 'OMG GAME CHANGER' like the way the Arrow or Flash mid-season finales are, but it's still a pretty entertaining watch.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
So, well, the newly formed Legion of Doom (Malcolm Merlyn apparently decided to join up off-screen?) shows up in the gangster era and tried to wreak havoc by allying themselves with local historical figure Al Capone. It really seems to be the recipe for a filler episode had it not been for Reverse-Flash, Darhk and Merlyn's presence. And for the most part, it follows the formula. Our heroes find themselves embroiled in the conflict of the era, they have to correct history so Elliot Ness arrests Al Capone or whatever (I'm not too well-versed with the conflict of the era other than the fact that I have to rewatch Scarface because it's been some time since I last saw it).
It's definitely a fun era, with nice fedoras for everyone and a definite sense of fun mafia fighting all throughout the episode, and I for one enjoyed the rather... straightforward conflict that we had for around two-thirds of the episode. It's pretty tame superheroes versus supervillain material with truthfully not much to buckle the formula other than actually having the Legion of Doom be the villains... up until the last half, anyway.
Martin Stein, in a way, is the lynchpin for this episode. Merlyn tries to tempt Sara into giving in by erasing basically everything that happened to cause Arrow to take place, which would mean Sara wouldn't have to go through Lian Yu, Slade Wilson, the League of Asssassins or both her and her sister's death. But in a nice bit of character development, we know that Sara has resolved her desire to move on thanks to a Dominator-invoked dream sequence, and she refuses point blank. Sara doesn't know it, but Martin has been wrestling with his own little crisis of conscience, trying to keep the aberration Lily's existence a secret from everyone except for Jax. And, well, Martin is ashamed, naturally, that Sara sees him a shining beacon of responsibility when he's hiding an aberration from everyone on the team.
And Stein gets attacked by Reverse-Flash's device, which isn't a torture device but rather the face-stealing device that he uses to steal Harrison Wells' face in Flash's first season. It's a bit obvious for those who paid attention, but I wasn't, not really, and while it's a bit odd for Jax not to notice anything strange when Eobard!Stein was brought on board the ship, it is very cool for Eobard!Stein to fool everyone enough for him to reach into the office and ransack it to find the amulet.
There's a bit of hilarity that no one bothered to tell anyone on the Legends team about Reverse-Flash's face-stealing technology (Stein knew, but he was incapacitated at the time) and this allowed Reverse-Flash to wreak havoc abroad the Waverider. Add Al Capone's men arriving with tommy guns, and Malcolm Merlyn fighting Sara (and getting hilariously trash-talked by the lady!) and you've got yourself a pretty tense climax. Pretty obviously, Reverse-Flash is the biggest threat to the Legends team, especially with Firestorm out of commission for most of the episode. We get a very cool scene of Atom finally making use of his shrinking powers again, we get a cool martial arts scene between Sara and Merlyn, and it's generally a pretty cool climax all around.
I guess I have to talk a bit about Heat Wave in this episode. The CW verse in general have played around with the 'is he a ghost, a hallucination or the character actually come back to life?' card multiple times, especially in Arrow, with Captain Cold showing up and talking shit about Mick, noting that he's basically been domesticated from a villain to basically someone who takes orders just to get a few nice words from Amaya. Mick does get to be the most crucial part of the plan to take down Al Capone's alliance with the Legion of Doom by thinking like a criminal, and he doesn't actually fall to villainy again... and, of course, Captain Cold is just a figment of his imagination. It's nice and amazing how the one-note 'burn shit, be a good thug buddy' Heat Wave has been turned into a pretty three-dimensional character, and while Amaya still feels like a pretty bland love interest to Mick at the moment, it's still pretty entertaining nonetheless.
Yeah, the episode ended with a nominal loss for the Legends team -- the Legion of Doom escaped with the amulet, though no one from the Legends team died, and Sara decides that Stein's daughter is important enough to keep around because, well, it's important enough for Stein. We did get the revelation that the Legion of Doom's big goal is to track down the mythical Spear of Destiny, which apparently will grant them total mastery of time. Well, it's just tracking down a plot device, but still, at least we kinda know what the Legion is planning to do. Bit curious why they needed Malcolm Merlyn of all people to pull it off, though... just what is Merlyn offering to the table that Darhk doesn't already do? I mean, yeah, story-wise he plays the good cop to Darhk and Eobard, but it doesn't seem like the two of them care all that much for Merlyn's deal brokering skills.
Oh, also, Rip Hunter is directing a shitty movie about Rip Hunter, so we're going to have him back and it's not just an excuse to kill him off. That was a bit of a hilarious little sudden fake out, with Rip being chased by a future cop only for it to be part of a movie.
It might not be the most epic of mid-season finales, and certainly it isn't anywhere as 'OMG GAME CHANGER' like the way the Arrow or Flash mid-season finales are, but it's still a pretty entertaining watch.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- The Spear of Destiny, in DC lore, is used by Adolf Hitler to gain mystical advantage during the second World War, which necessitated the rise of superheroes and the Justice Society of America to bring him down. The Spear would later be used by various differing mystical villains to, well, do all sorts of magical nonsense.
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