DC's Legends of Tomorrow S04E06 Review: Pugilist-Authors

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 4, Episode 6: Tender is the Nate

Another pretty simple episode of Legends, and one that's bizarrely comedic on the side of Hank Heywood considering the big revelation last episode that he's either evil or very morally ambiguous. Turning him into a goof feels like a weird bit of mood whiplash, but, eh, at least we get to see a whole lot of fun scenes out of him.

And honestly, that's what this episode mostly consists of. Fun scenes that jump immediately to each other. Since I won't be able to integrate them into the review, here's a listing of the things that happen in this episode: naked yoga, D&D, sneaking around in lingerie, a monster catering service, Ernest Hemingway fighting a minotaur, cow-men musk, high school love letter hijinks in a prison, 'inpolitically correct', James Taylor, a birthday cake, Sara's eighth-grade reading list, pizza party and a lute.

And I do feel like this episode suffers from the same problem that plagues "Tagumo Attacks", in that it has a couple too many sub-plots and storylines that none of them feel properly developed. Yes, Legends is largely a comedy show at this point and less of an action sci-fi superhero epic, but still. And this is an episode where several members of the cast quite literally do nothing!

And the main Nate/Hank storyline works well. Nate continues with his daddy issues problem, where his father feels like he's more intent on upstaging Nate by insisting that his way is better, whatever it is, which comes to a head when Hank joins the Waverider crew on a mission to see how they spend their budget (which, considering we know Gideon can fabricate anything, is in itself a bit of a plot-hole-in-service-of-an-episodic-plot). While mocking all the science-y stuff like a strawman antagonist, Hank goes all apeshit and fanboying when he meets with his her, Ernest Hemingway. Who, in turn, becomes quick buddies with fellow "pugilist-author" Mick, leading the three of them to go and hunt the monster of the week, a minotaur hiding in the catacombs of 20's-era Paris.

And all of this works relatively well. Nate gets a "no I'm not going to take this" speech, and gets determined to do 'his' way to take down the minotaur (involving a lute and Constantine's minotaur musk) peacefully. I think this is also the first time Hank actually sees Nate go Steel and fight? Though it's admittedly a pretty poor showing for Commander Steel there. The episode ends with Hank taking a page out of Nate's book and playing a country ballad to serenade the minotaur. It's a typical Legends main plot, I suppose.

I'm also kind of a fan of the Time Prison stuff, too, dealing with Nora Darrhk and her imprisonment in the Time Bureau... smack-dab on the first day that Mona starts work. Mona isn't a character I'm super fond of, but her cheeriness is just infectious. Despite Ava Sharpe's insistence that she "not ship the prisoners", she ends up sneaking a love letter from Ray to Nora, and all the awkwardness causes a huge explosion that traps her, Nora and Ava in the same room. Ava and Nora unexpectedly bond over shitty childhoods (Ava coming from a fabricated one, and Nora from a nightmare one). A birthday cake, some wine and some funny high-school sitcom bonding later, and the three of them are now best buddies. Oh, and Ray tried to sneak himself in the letter -- that was a funny punchline. But I do feel that this particular subplot feels... artificial, somehow? The actresses involved are clearly having fun, but I felt like there really could've been a better way to get the point of this scene across.

Likewise, I'm not the biggest fan of the Nate/Charlie plot. We get neither any sort of meaningful drama, nor any sort of funny capering hijinks of Charlie having to pretend to be Amaya, and this whole storyline just feels bizarrely neutered. I'm not sure if that's because of Nick Zano's filming schedules, but even if I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't go for the angst-hour approach, I really felt that the way that it's handled is utterly disappointing. The fact that Nate and Charlie's "night out" with the Fitzgeralds ended up amounting to jack shit was also pretty disappointing.

Anyway, it's not the worst episode out there, and Legends is decidedly taking a turn for the (even more) comedic this season. It's fun to watch, but it also doesn't really leave much to talk about.