DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 4, Episode 13: Egg McGuffin
We're sort of in the home stretch for this fourth season of Legends of Tomorrow and it's... interesting? Neron, of course, doesn't have much in common with his comic book counterpart other than being a big bad scary demon-man, but he serves his role as an antagonist relatively decently. I'm not 100% sure what his end-game is at this point other than general demonic stuff, but his interactions with the cast is definitely a lot more engaging than the malarkey we got with Mallus last seaso, where it was honestly more about the Darrhk family drama than Mallus himself.
This episode is a bit rocky, of sorts, as it's essentially Ray realizing that he's being possessed by a demon, and apparently if you're possessed by a demon, you physically can't tell anyone else? It's a bit of a bizarre detail and I'm pretty sure it contradicts what we've seen in the previous season when Mallus was going around possessing Nora, but I guess different demons, different rules? We get a combination of tense comedy as Ray tries his best to get rid of Neron, while Neron tries to get into situations where Ray would willingly hand over his body into demonic possession, and for the majority of that part, this includes threatening the well-being of poor, poor oblivious Nate.
And then you've got Gary, who ends up being Neron's biggest pawn and sucker. We've seen Gary consistently being treated as a bit of a joke. From just a supporting character in the previous season, the lovable loser, season four has been pretty mean to Gary without overdoing it (other than the ridiculous unicorn/nipple moment), and while Gary himself hasn't been the perfect sympathetic character -- having some creepy undertones when interacting with Mona and Ava, for one -- it's clear that he's got a bit of a self image issue going on, and Neron appeals to that. Neron tempts Gary with the thought of not being treated like a joke anymore, and the Legends' casual comedic abuse of him ends up sort of building into that hatred.
And... and I dunno. The twist that Gary ends up being easily corrupted by Neron into helping out his schemes, albeit in his usual slightly-confused Gary way, is a very neat one, particularly with the random timeline talk about how "doormats" have the potential to snap and do cruel things, while at the same time being overlooked since they stay in the background. It's a neat twist, and while I personally really wished Gary himself was more than a joke in these past couple of episodes, it's a neat enough twist that I don't mind.
What's utterly bizarre (and some would argue, what fits the most into Legends' theme these past two seasons) was Neron taking out Gary's nipple, consigned to hell thanks to the whole unicorn debacle, and offering it to Gary with a straight-faced offer to make him whole again, with scenes of Gary being all ooh-aah over the nipple which crawls on the ground like a disgusting caterpillar. Credit where credit's due, the showmakers do commit to this scene, but I genuinely am baffled why they think this was particularly necessary or to pretend it's so serious. I dunno. It's a moment that revels in absurdity, but at the same time is also a wee bit too absurd for my liking, if you catch my drift.
Regardless, though, Ray ends up finally cracking under the pressure, with him making a deal with Neron to be his vessel in order to stop his demon-possessed hand from murdering Nate. Also, Gary is still under Neron's thrall, and only the wacky legal terms of demonic deals prevents Neron from killing Nate at that point. Some amazing acting from Brandon Routh, by the way, probably only next to Dominic Purcell as the most under-utilized actor in the Legends cast.
The other two plotlines are... mildly interesting, I suppose? Nate and Zari being told to go off on a mission to uncover a golden egg or something felt genuinely bland. The two actors do have decent chemistry, but, again, I sort of feel that this romance felt like shoehorned in so we could have more shippy moments since Sara and Ava's worked out their issues. It's all right, I guess, but the time-displaced bit really just felt off, and the random "oh shit Nazis" moment felt sort of out of nowhere, and apparently the Waverider crew now has an unhatched dragon egg? Okay? I dunno. This all just honestly felt flat to me. Also, while all of this is going on, Sara and Ava have a book club wacky hijinks thing going on, and Nora is officially inducted into the Time Bureau. Neat.
There's also the whole Mick/Charlie/Mona scene, with Charlie deciding to pretend to scam a book convention posing as Mick's writer pseudonym Rebecca Silver while clearly knowing nothing about any of Mick's works, and just giving random "it symbolizes THIS!" token kooky-writer answers... until Mona shows up and exposes that she's not the real author, leading Mick to finally own up and answer the question. It's a lot shorter than either the Ray/Neron and the Nate/Zari/Sara/Ava hijinks, but I felt like this scene particularly has heart, and I can't believe how well-done Legends of Tomorrow has manages to play up Mick's little side-job as an author of raunchy sci-fi romance novels.
Overall, I do feel like this episode's B-plots were a bit weaker. I liked the Mick stuff, but everything else was clearly just there to give the rest of the cast an excuse to stay away from the Ray drama, which, to be fair, was definitely on-point. The Gary twist was done reasonably well, nipple notwithstanding, and it's interesting that we're finally seemingly out of the hijink-of-the-episode episodes and finally going into more serious Neron plot drama. Well, as serious as Legends of Tomorrow can get, anyway.
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