Legends of Tomorrow S04E04 Review: Swamp THAAAANG

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 4, Episode 4: Wet Hot American Bummer

A bit of an... underwhelming episode, but it's par for the course for Legends of Tomorrow's new format. I just don't really have a whole ton to say about it. I did like the hilarious cold open of a generic low-budget B-movie, apparently named "Swamp THAAAANG" (four 'A's because it's the fourth movie in the franchise), not to be confused with DC superhero Swamp Thing, which Constantine assures us exists somewhere.

Anyway, the episode brings our heroes into a random summer camp in 1995 to hunt for the creature abducting and killing campers, leading to the pair of Ray and Sara being super excited about going to a camp, Constantine wishing that they'd take things seriously, and Ava just being plain uncomfortable. It's.... it's pretty predictable, really, with Sara and Ray being all about friendship bracelets and exploration and shit, getting into the fun vibe of summer camp, while Ava runs her cabin like a police officer and Constantine basically tells everyone to fuck off.

Kids start disappearing, of course, but everyone else just assumes they went off to smooch or whatever. Ava gets pranked by the campers and fall into the river, and then tells Sara about how much she dislikes this because of her whole "clone with no real childhood memories" deal going on, which is a genuinely emotional moment worked into the story. Somewhere in the episode Sara and Ava get turned into teenage girls to infiltrate the cabin and later be bait for the Shtriga (an Albanian folklore version of a vampire, made famous recently by The Witcher novel/game series). There's a generic but fun Scooby Doo bit of which of the two guest stars is the monster... it just kinda feels somewhat generic, is all.

I did really like the Constantine bit when after spending an entire episode being a dick, he genuinely panics at the sight of a seemingly lifeless boy, and was very willing to trade his own life force or soul or whatever to bring the kid back to life, going "no no no no I'm not losing another kid". Even without knowing what happened to poor Astra, it's definitely a great moment for Constantine and really helps to build up his character -- something that these episodes are slowly doing.

The Zari/Mick/Charlie stuff... the actors are clearly having fun, but I'm still unconvinced that Charlie will basically just end up being part of the Legends team just because. Richardson-Sellers is clearly far more fun as a snarky Brit punk than Amaya ever was, though, so at least from an entertainment point of view it's definitely a lot more interesting. Mick and Charlie bonding over being prisoners is... it's neat. I do kind of feel like  the show's at least trying to justify why Charlie should be part of the team, and didn't quite earn it in my book.

Overall, though, that's probably what I feel about this episode as a whole. It's neat, some of the emotional moments land (the Mick/Charlie stuff, Constantine and the boy, Ava's memories) while some just feel expected. It's not a bad episode by any means, but it's pretty much a 'filler' one. I don't like to use filler as a derogatory term for episodes, but it's certainly one that I feel won't leave much of an impression on me.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Constantine briefly mentions that he knows a "Swamp Thing", a reference to the iconic (if often left out of crossover events) DC character that, of course, was the original trope codifier for swamp man-beasts made out of bog plants. Constantine clarifies that he's worked with one before, and John Constantine's very first comic book appearance was actually in the pages of Swamp Thing. 
• The AVclub review that Sara and Ava reads for the fictional "Swamp Thaaaang" movie is actually a direct quote from AVClub's review of episode 12 of Legends of Tomorrow's own first season! That's hilarious!