Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1, Episode 16: Legendary
Okay, if you shut down your brain from all the stupid plot holes in this episode (and the previous one), this is actually a pretty entertaining smashy-smash blasty-blast season finale. But I could say that about the previous episode too. Except I didn't. It's... well, let's bitch about the plot holes first, shall we? How does killing Vandal Savage off in three different timelines not make Vandal Savage disappear all Eobard Thawne style after he was killed in the earliest time period? While the show tries to explain every other time-travelly aspect of this episode with Martin Stein's sciency goobledegonk, this part isn't made clear. And while Vandal Savage is dead, why doesn't any of the events he had caused (or will cause, depending when he is killed) all throughout the timeline revert? I think the show just raised up its hands and given up on making time travel consistent in favour for a couple of cool fight scenes, which is just dumb. I guess we can just quote the episode itself and go "we're past the point of worrying about the timeline!"
Still, it's an end to one of the most... insane superhero shows ever. It's got so many ups and downs, and it has so many things that I absolutely loathe, and so many things that I adore. To say that Legends of Tomorrow is a mixed bag is an understatement. This episode wraps up the first season succinctly, but the writers really could have done a lot better.
The plot for this episode, at least, was attempted to be explained rather quickly with some Martin Stein/Rip Hunter magic science handwaves. Vandal Savage plans to 'simultaneously' (whatever that means in terms of time travel) detonate a Thanagarian meteor at three time points with the Hawks' blood in order to kind of fuck up the timeline so much that it will revert back to ancient Egypt, with only Vandal Savage retaining his knowledge and immortality. I think. How did he know how any of this would happen with crazy blood rituals and magic meteors, no one can really guess. And honestly, how does a bunch of weird meteors with reincarnation powers have timey-wimey destruction powers anyway? Eh. Also, apparently, detonating the meteor will fill Savage with so much chronal energy that it will make him mortal. So the Legends crew decide to kill him off three times in three different times. Does it make sense? Not particularly, but okay, whatever.
The thing is, the time spent in this episode just to set up this long particular showdown takes up nearly half of it. Generally if you're organizing a season finale, you do the buildup in the episode prior to the finale. This episode spends half of it having Rip Hunter tell the team to bugger off in 2016, before the Legends team grouping back together and deciding, 'hey, we gotta summon Rip back here and stop Vandal Savage!' It's a bit of a momentum-killer. And while it does give us a couple of pretty awesome moments courtesy of Sara Lance discovering about Laurel's death in Arrow (coupled with a very welcome guest star by Quentin) and Sara confronting Rip for not telling her that -- it's a very raw, very emotional scene that I think is easily Sara's best moment this season. We also got Heat Wave trying to strike up a partnership with a random knockoff Captain Cold* which is a nice moment when he's just dissatisfied about how the knockoff was far more hotheaded than he was.
*This actually happened in the comics when Captain Cold temporarily retired, though it was Golden Glider who sought out a C-lister villain called Chillblaine to fill in for her brother.
But really, was there any doubt that the Legends Team would rejoin together to beat up Vandal Savage? Because they do. I just wished that it didn't take half the episode. Also, while this is going on Kendra and Savage are fighting in World War II with a possible cameo by Sergeant Rock (he's got the right helmet, at least) who got himself killed by Savage. This is for Kendra to send a time-ripple message thing through Sgt. Rock's helmet... which makes me kinda wish that this particular prop was actually called to attention earlier in the series. It's a weird thing to do, honestly, and couldn't we just have had them find out Savage's temporal location by seeing the destruction he's wrought or something? They rescue Carter (but fail to bring Kendra), and then take a long time to explain Savage's plan and their countermeasure.
Other than the Sara moment, this all felt like a big time-waster, and when the team finally gets going (to the sets of that suburban village in the 50's with the Manhawks and the TerroristCon, explaining what Savage was doing there, which are nice callbacks) it's rather too straightforward. The team splits up into groups of two to take down Vandal Savage in three different time periods and it's... well, it's just a big smashy-smash. There were some standout moments, of course, with Vandal Savage single-handedly taking out that army of Nazi's, with Rip's summoning of the Waverider to stop his fall, Sara's awesomely brutal hand-to-hand combat with Savage and snapping his neck, and Heat Wave burning Savage alive. That last bit has to be my favourite moment. But ultimately it felt a bit lackluster, especially when Kendra, yet again, got herself shot out of the sky and recaptured not moments after he got rescued.
Yes, Kendra does finally manage to stab Savage in the chest in one of the timelines, her first actually meaningful contribution to this whole endeavour. Then the third meteor, for whatever reason, refused to explode or shrink, with no particular explanation to why Firestorm and Atom can't do it beyond 'lol plot', leading to this very long moment with Rip Hunter carrying the meteor via the Waverider into the sun, trying to martyr himself and then some random near-death appearance scene later, decides that he wants to survive, and with the aid of Gideon time-jumps to when he left off.
Also, while this is all going on, the writers finally acknowledged that Firestorm's comic-book powers are far, far more intricate other than just combining into a dude that shoots out flames. Comic-book Firestorm has atomic restructuring powers, and Jefferson finally gets to explore it as he accidentally turns a Nazi's gun into dust, and spends a good chunk of the episode trying to learn that power -- managing to turn one of the Thanagarian meteors into water. It really should have been an ongoing struggle for Firestorm throughout the season, instead of randomly introducing this power-up two minutes before the finale. Certainly, say, the backlash from attempting atomic reconstruction would be a more interesting plot point to take Firestorm out of the equation other than stupid 'hey, let's separate Martin and Jefferson for no good reason'.
Anyway, Savage dies, at last... and we still have no idea how he survived from being turned into dust in that Arrow/Flash crossover, and what Malcolm Merlyn did with the Savage dust. We also got a lot less Vandal Savage magic blasts than I would've preferred. But, hey, Vandal Savage got a pretty awesome exit, even if it doesn't particularly make sense.
I really wished the episode didn't focus so much on Rip, though. In between him doing absolutely nothing while telling the Legends team to fuck off, to his long, extended sequence with his heroic sacrifice and all that felt like we're spending way too much time on him, when really other characters should've gotten the screentime. The Hawks, for example. Cut off all that stupid 'Kendra in distress' bit and give them some actual characterization.
After the deed was over, we get another montage of the characters and what they did, with Sara and Stein's families telling them to embrace their destiny. I really liked the moment with Stein's wife, which was pretty heartwarming. We also get a surprise cameo from Captain Cold, with Heat Wave visiting Captain Cold in 2013 to, well, say goodbye with his lack of emotional capabilities while Cold is just going all 'what is this damn fool doing'. They seem to be keeping Captain Cold dead for a while, which is honestly quite fine. It was a pretty awesome way to go out, though when it comes to the line I really want Captain Cold to stick around and if he dies I really want it to be something more personal. It was a great scene and definitely one of the best ones in this episode, though, easily one of the most heartwarming things the CW universe has ever done, easily rivaling all the moments that the likes of Barry and Oliver had went through.
And while Firestorm, White Canary, the Atom and Heat Wave have put their affairs in order to rejoin Rip Hunter to become new Time Masters, apparently Hawkman and Hawkgirl decides to bugger off. Even if this Hawkman really is not the Hawkman from the 2016-era time period, which you would think would cause some time ripple problems, but eh. The show has kinda screwed over this really interesting concept and the only feasible time to bring the Hawkman/Hawkgirl reincarnation story into a satisfying condensed version of the headache we got in the comics. Though I'm sad that they can't do the storyline justice, I'm happy to get these two characters out of the way.
And it seems like we're going to get new characters to fill in the ranks, with the final scene showing a damaged Waverider popping up with a dire warning, telling our heroes not to get into that ship. Rex Tyler is the alter-ego of the second Hourman, and while Tyler hasn't revealed his superhero name yet, he does have Hourman's distinctive hood and he does introduce himself as a member of the Justice Society of America. Yay for that!
As far as finales go, this one is... functional enough not to be outright bad. There was too much padding, granted -- the bit with the Nazis and the Rip sacrifice were hardly necessary. While this ending was a bit messy and honestly underwhelming, I can't deny but feel a real sense of happiness as the team finally succeeded in defeating Vandal Savage, and I can't deny that I'm excited in seeing where this show can go. With the worst elements of the show (well, other than Rip himself) I think everyone can give this awesome cast a second chance.
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