Legends of Tomorrow S02E10 Review: My Name is Damien Darhk

Legends of Tomorrow Season 2, Episode 10: Legion of Doom

So, while last episode was entertaining, I had two burning questions that I set aside simply because I loved the superhero-vs-supervillain action too much. But yeah, Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk are both, well, basically Team Rocket. Sure, they're somewhat threatening and are a villainous presence, but they're not threatening at all -- the only reason why they're even a threat in the previous episode is that all the heroes are depowered for one reason or other, and the moment that they got their powers back, boom, curb-stomp battle. Despite being menacing villains in Arrow, the two of them don't get to do much here but chase after the MacGuffin, shoot people with space guns and generally hammy. It's not that they're not entertaining, but they're so obviously Reverse-Flash's bitches that it's a bit hard to see them reduced to basically goons.

Also, the fact that Reverse-Flash, despite being easily one of the most powerful beings in this setting, keeps zooming in and out of the plot only when it's convenient for the story. Like last episode -- why would Reverse-Flash only show up in the climax beyond obvious rule of drama? For that matter, why would Reverse-Flash team up with two 'mere' master assassins and not, say, other equally-powered enemies like Zoom or any of the many, many metahumans that our heroes had fought over three series?

Well, all of these questions are finally answered in what is probably one of my favourite (and easily the hammiest and most hilarious) Legends of Tomorrow episodes ever that not only functions as being a very excellent Villains' Day Out episode, it also addresses one of the biggest emotional plot points in the series, being Martin Stein's daughter, as well as very nicely arc-weld a lot of the plot holes regarding Reverse-Flash and the Time Wraiths and time travel in general considering what Eobard's been through in the first two seasons of Flash.

Legends have been treading the 'fun' side of things a bit too much for my liking, but then serious storytelling has never been its forte in the first place, and Legends tells its stories best in its own unique snark-filled way.

Of course, the main focus of this episode is the trio of Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn and Eobard Thawne, mostly on the former two, but Eobard's influence is very much felt. See, last episode, as entertaining as Darhk and Malcolm are, they are still glorified thugs. Or as Rip Hunter, er, Phil the hippie, I mean, notes, 'henchmen'. Darhk, Thawne and Malcolm are all very ambitious men and it's definitely a matter of time until they go chomping at the bit, and while it's all smiles when Eobard recruits Malcolm off his drunken funk in 2016, disagreements quickly come to the forefront in their first present-day scene. It goes from choked threats, thinly-veiled insults, and all sorts of glorious interactions as Eobard threatens Malcolm, and later on Malcolm and Darhk are forced to work with each other as they call each others' methods shit. Darhk prefers torture, Malcolm opts for hypnotism. Darhk wants to just kill everyone, Malcolm wants to use Phil-Rip to infiltrate the 2025 Switzerland bank stealthily. Malcolm tries to strike a deal with Darhk, Darhk thinks Malcolm's trying to backstab him.

All of this hinges on the simple question. If Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash, is so damned powerful, why does he even need to team up with two assassins? Especially when he calls the two of them 'a dead man and a washout' so derisively? Of course, all of these questions are answered very satisfyingly when Malcolm and Darhk decide to work together, ironically because of Phil's insults and general 'hippie sees what is happening'. Malcolm and Darhk trap Eobard in a supersafe, preventing him from running off like how he likes to do for the past ten episodes... and in a very unexpected but welcome moment, we get to see the Black Flash's debut, and apparently Eobard hasn't been zooming off to recharge his speed, or to build some great doomsday machine, or whatever... he's trying to outrun Black Flash, death itself.

And that was why Eobard needed the Spear of Destiny and two lackeys he can bully into helping him. We already know Darhk's wishes -- to change his future, to prevent his defeat and death in 2016. We also already know Malcolm's motives, to change his past, and likely to bring Tommy back to life and restore his power as Ra's Al Ghul. But Eobard is the mystery in all this, and it appears he wants to undo his being erased from the timeline at the end of Flash's first season, to get this very creepy zombie Flash to chase him down and murder him. It's a plot twist that I didn't see coming, and Eobard is very clearly shitting his pants at the mere mention of Black Flash.

He goes straight from being a cocky bastard to surprised to downright terrified when Darhk and Merlyn locks him in the safe, having no real choice but to accept these two muggles' help, and Eobard's sheer fear when the Black Flash gets up close to his face is amazingly executed. Darhk and Merlyn couldn't have known who Eobard was running from, meaning that they improvised the plan on the fly (though I guess if they were wrong and Eobard died, no huge loss for them). I guess they've just been preparing to fight a speedster for quite some time, eh? Granted, the solution they present is absolutely hilariously simple -- tell Eobard to stand still, something that the speedster would likely never, ever consider.

The Black Flash is absolutely creepy, by the way. I'm not sure if he's supposed to be a zombie Barry from the future, or if it's Zoom merged with the Time Wraiths, or something else entirely, but damn Eobard is scared shitless of it, and for good reason. In a way I'm a bit sad that none of these storylines are being explored in The Flash and instead we get very weak and faceless villains in Savitar and Doctor Alchemy, but eh, at least one show is being good.

Malcolm and Darhk's arguments throughout the episode might be a little immature and sometimes the scripting could've been less... cheesy... but honestly it's absolutely entertaining, and them constantly trying to one-up the other, before finally proving to be in equal terms with Reverse-Flash as a villainous presence if not quite in raw power, is amazing. Also Malcolm finally gets a bow back instead of having to rely on a silly space gun all the time. 

The Legends take second fiddle to the Legion of Doom this week, with a bit of a silly hilarity that they took all this time to finally figure out that they're fighting Eobard Thawne. Not that it's unrealistic, of course, since they only meet Eobard briefly during their confrontations, and Martin never saw Eobard's real face, but after so many moments of Sara, Nate and Amaya trying to figure it out and scratching their heads, well, they finally got an answer.

Martin Stein bringing Lily, his time aberration daughter, into the Waverider to try and decipher the Longinus Compass thing. Of course, it's also partly driven by a fatherly desire to see his daughter again, and it's absolutely sweet. Just as it's absolutely heartbreaking when Mick's callous reveal caused Lily to basically break down and confront her father, screaming that he never wanted any children, least of all her. Jax's confrontation with a brandy-drinking Stein (whiskey? What do you take him for, a sailor?) that his daughter won't know how he feels without a psychic link, and Martin's bonding with Lily is amazingly sweet. I don't think I can really describe this subplot much without retreading variations of 'd'awww' twenty times, but it's easily one of the strongest emotional points of this series.

Oh, meanwhile, Rip, or Phil, is still being tortured and being a long-suffering plaything for Malcolm and Darhk. Phil is a bit pathetic, but the actor is clearly having a blast playing someone forced to play in the games of these hammy monsters. What a silly hippie bastard, even if he's actually responsible in bringing two members of the Legion together with his hard-hitting words, and apparently the Legion brainwashed him into killing George Washington. Because your cliffhangers couldn't be more epic than that.

Oh, speaking of which, both teams get some progression -- the Legion jails Black Flash up and gets the location of the rest of the Spear from the memory banks of Rip's brain, as well as brainwash Rip; the Legends learn how to activate the Longinus Medallion, identify Eobard Thawne and Martin reconciles with his daughter.

Overall, a damned good episode. 


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Black Flash! While I was absolutely livid that the Black Flash seemed to have been replaced by 'Time Wraiths' in season two of The Flash, the dude finally makes a proper appearance here in the flesh. Well, what few he has, anyway. The Black Flash is basically death personified by speedsters, and takes the form of a skeleton with a black Flash outfit, and performs a similar function to what he does here.
• While trying to figure out Eobard's identity, the Legends look at pictures of all speedsters that Team Flash has encountered, among them Kid Flash, Jesse Quick, Trajectory and the Rival. It's Martin Stein, who had experiences dealing with Eobard Thawne in Flash's first season, that finally puts a name to the face -- and to be fair, Martin didn't get to see Eobard Thawne's real face, only when he as impersonating Harrison Wells. Eobard only revealed his real face briefly when he was erased out of existence at the end of season one, and Martin was absent when Eobard's earlier-in-time-for-him version showed up in Season two, and was unaware of all the Flashpoint stuff that happened, so he missed all his chances to see Eobard's real face. 
• Eobard and Darhk pulls Malcolm out of the timeline at the climax of Arrow's fourth season, right after 2016!Darhk's death, explaining his absence in Arrow throughout its fifth season.
• Eobard himself identifies himself as the version of the Reverse-Flash that was captured and imprisoned by Barry Allen in the Flashpoint timeline. So, trying to explain how Reverse-Flash traveled through time: Eobard from the future --> Eobard goes to 2015-ish for the first time (Flash season two) --> Eobard apparently fought Flash multiple times in the future --> Eobard goes way back to the past to kill Barry's mother. This is where the timeline diverges thanks to Flashpoint...
• In the original, 'real' timeline, Eobard loses his speed and impersonates Harrison Wells, leading to all the events of Flash season one, before finally getting erased out of the timeline thanks to Eddie's suicide.
• In the Flashpoint timeline, Barry travels back to the past and puts Eobard into a box, which is how we see Eobard in early season three of Flash. Eobard returns back in time to the night of Barry's mother's death, and 'fixes' most of the timeline, but afterwards either before or after he participated in the events of Flash season one (it's unclear which), apparently runs back through time to escape the Black Flash trying to erase him out of existence -- when he should have been erased when Eddie died.