Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 13: Land of the Lost
Unlike what the title or setting promised, we didn't really get to see a lot of dinosaur (or caveman) action. The Waverider's stranded in the same Cretaceous period that Ray found himself in at the beginning of the season, sure, and we did get a pretty badass moment of Amaya channeling the power of a T-Rex to calm down Ray's old nemesis, Gertrude the Tyrannosaurus... but the meat of the episode takes place not in the Cretaceous period, but in the mental mind-space of Rip Hunter.
The Cretaceous bit really felt like fun filler more than anything. Sure, it's cool to see Gertrude and Amaya, but honestly what's stopping Ray or Firestorm from flying down to the T-rex nest and taking the... thing that fell off of the Waverider? We have another "don't date with people outside your time" bit because Ray knows that Amaya's place is needed in history, noting something that was part of Rip Hunter's recruitment criteria -- none of the original Legends matter in the timeline. And, well, Amaya matters because her descendant will be Vixen, the superhero of Detroit. Which is something that wasn't outright told, but hey, Amaya's the only Justice Society member not plucked in the 'scatter JSA members across time' mission by Rip, yeah?
There's the Nate/Amaya romance, which... well, it's not as bad as anything resembling season one's Ray/Kendra, but it's still something that felt unnecessarily complicated due to all the timey-wimey thing. Also Nate learns absolutely nothing from Ray's speeches, and heads back to bang Amaya again at the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, Sara and Jax head into Rip's mind and have to fight evil Bizarro-World versions of themselves (holy crap, though, that black-flamed Firestorm is awesome) which was a bit of a fun adventure. The action sequences were decent, but the highlight is definitely finding Rip Hunter, broken and locked up in the brig of his own mind, and has to be forced to take charge by Sara. And, um,Leslie Thompkins Gideon shows up in Rip's mind as an actual human being, noting that this manifestation of Gideon's the one safeguarding the real Rip's mind all this while. The ending leaves it a bit ambiguous if Gideon is actually in Rip's mind, if it's like a program or a chip or something. Really hope that we actually get the ball rolling on this sub-plot. It's kind of interesting.
Gideon's really interesting throughout this episode, going from helplessly obeying Rip's commands, apologizing profusely to the rest of the team, being snippy to Nate when he keeps passive-aggressively insulting her, and definitely when she's allowed to emote as a human being in Rip's mindscape. Very, very interesting and maybe, who knows, we'll actually get to see an EDI-style upgrade for Gideon?
We also get a pretty nice bit between Mick and Stein about how Stein needs to trust his partner Jax, and since Mick's the only one in the team with a 'partner', so to speak, it's actually a nice little setup.
So yeah, the episode's more of a detour to allow Rip to take back the reins of his life, returning back to Time Master instead of Legionnaire of Doom. Everyone brushes off his evil misdeeds (poor Galahad!) as something not done while he's in control, and we're all set to hunt down the last piece of the Spear of Destiny.
The Cretaceous bit really felt like fun filler more than anything. Sure, it's cool to see Gertrude and Amaya, but honestly what's stopping Ray or Firestorm from flying down to the T-rex nest and taking the... thing that fell off of the Waverider? We have another "don't date with people outside your time" bit because Ray knows that Amaya's place is needed in history, noting something that was part of Rip Hunter's recruitment criteria -- none of the original Legends matter in the timeline. And, well, Amaya matters because her descendant will be Vixen, the superhero of Detroit. Which is something that wasn't outright told, but hey, Amaya's the only Justice Society member not plucked in the 'scatter JSA members across time' mission by Rip, yeah?
There's the Nate/Amaya romance, which... well, it's not as bad as anything resembling season one's Ray/Kendra, but it's still something that felt unnecessarily complicated due to all the timey-wimey thing. Also Nate learns absolutely nothing from Ray's speeches, and heads back to bang Amaya again at the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, Sara and Jax head into Rip's mind and have to fight evil Bizarro-World versions of themselves (holy crap, though, that black-flamed Firestorm is awesome) which was a bit of a fun adventure. The action sequences were decent, but the highlight is definitely finding Rip Hunter, broken and locked up in the brig of his own mind, and has to be forced to take charge by Sara. And, um,
Gideon's really interesting throughout this episode, going from helplessly obeying Rip's commands, apologizing profusely to the rest of the team, being snippy to Nate when he keeps passive-aggressively insulting her, and definitely when she's allowed to emote as a human being in Rip's mindscape. Very, very interesting and maybe, who knows, we'll actually get to see an EDI-style upgrade for Gideon?
We also get a pretty nice bit between Mick and Stein about how Stein needs to trust his partner Jax, and since Mick's the only one in the team with a 'partner', so to speak, it's actually a nice little setup.
So yeah, the episode's more of a detour to allow Rip to take back the reins of his life, returning back to Time Master instead of Legionnaire of Doom. Everyone brushes off his evil misdeeds (poor Galahad!) as something not done while he's in control, and we're all set to hunt down the last piece of the Spear of Destiny.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Ray makes a couple of references towards the Vixen web-animation series that's set in the CW continuity, giving a basic recap of Mari McCabe's backstory, how the totem will be passed down to her, and how her village burnt down at the end. Ray himself met Mari in Vixen's second season.
- Sara refers to the evil counterpart of herself in Rip's mind as "Bizarro-me", which, of course, is a reference to Bizarro, the evil, imperfect clone of Superman, and the many other Bizarros based on other superheroes.
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