DC's Legends of Tomorrow S03E11 Review: Hedgehog Day

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 3, Episode 11: Here I Go Again

This is undoubtedly one of the most hilarious episodes of Legends of Tomorrow, giving Zari Tomaz some much-needed characterization. She's been really nothing but a grumpy lady most of the time that she's been on board the Waverider this season, and this episode gives us such a large amount of fun stuff with her. Especially in the 'fun montage' part of this episode, where Zari, among many other things that she does, eats whipped cream, holding up cue cards as Mick and Ray have a conversation, muck around with Hawkgirl's helm, her eye-roll "kill me now" reaction to Nate and Amaya's super-powered sexytimes, the bear trap scene, and her actually getting touched by Mick's smut fanfiction. Zari's a character who has previously been defined by her dramatic and tragic superhero backstory, and most of her actions prior to this episode has been defined by that, but here we get to see a sillier side, while at the same time exploring all the qualities of her that we know she possesses.

And it's just essentially Zari being trapped in a strange Groundhog Day loop, eventually learning to get close and trust her allies, particularly the geeky Nate and Ray who buy into Zari's Groundhog Day story pretty quickly, and eventually making friends with the "hard on you because I care for you" captain, Sara. There is, of course, some rather eye-rolling chunks of shipping. Sara and Ava is done relatively well, but Nate and Amaya (perhaps intentionally?) feels really bland.

It then turns out that everything Zari's going through is the result of the super-awesome simulation program she's been intending to use to 'hack history', and after the initial argument with the honestly under-utilized Gideon, it turns out that the entire thing is just Gideon trolling Zari and getting her to realize that even if she wanted to hack history, the only way she's ever going to be able to do that is by trusting the Legends -- and Gideon -- as friends. It's pretty cheesy, but it's in keeping with Legends of Tomorrow's own tone. We also get the side effect of Zari (and Gideon) pulling out Ray's whole 'secret' about being instructed by Constantine to kill Sara if she gets taken over by Mallus, and Sara's response is a hilariously deadpan "yeah, good idea."

Gideon's just amazing in this episode, isn't she? Especially the moment when her human avatar shows up to talk to Zari, with such deadpan comments like her adding Gary into the simulation because she thought it'd be funny. (Oh, and of course Gideon made the bomb in the simulation be placed in the weird disco cassette Mick stomped on in the cold open)

Of course, I'm not a big fan of Sara just shrugging off changing Zari's past because "hey, that's my future, not my past, lololol" but I've given up on Legends of Tomorrow being any sort of intelligent time travel science fiction, and has accepted it as a madcap ride that just happens to star some of my favourite superheroes.

Oh, and there's the cliffhanger, where we get the unexpected scene of Yun'nan Province in China, where Wally West with a topknot is meditating, and Rip Hunter shows up to recruit him. It's been rumoured all throughout the break that Wally West is going to join the Legends of Tomorrow team because the Flash really doesn't know what to do with him, and I'm actually glad that I've remained unspoiled during my brief sabbatical from superhero shows.

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Wally West was last seen in Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1, arriving for the wedding but skipping out on the rest of the crossover because he's guarding the rest of the West family. He's been flitting in and out of the cast of the Flash ever since early season four of the Flash. 
• One of the things Zari does is to wear Hawkgirl's helmet. Hawkgirl hasn't been seen after the end of the first season of Legends of Tomorrow.