Legends of Tomorrow - "Outlaw Country" Television 

Five Thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow‘s “Outlaw Country”

By | November 18th, 2016
Posted in Television | % Comments

Jonah Hex was too fun to be a one-off character last season, so it was only a matter of time before he showed back up. This week, the Legends return to the Old West to stop the annexation of the western United States.

1. The return of Jonah Hex

I don’t know if Johnathon Schaech seriously dialed up his cheesiness, or the novelty of seeing Hex the first time undid some of the scenery chewing, but boy howdy did he have his performance dialed up to 10. It didn’t help that his facial makeup – perhaps for similar reasons – looked more rubbery and cheap than it did last year, but this was far from Hex’s best hour.

I love that the show isn’t afraid to go big and swing for the fences, but a little subtlety goes a long way. That’s why Sara has been so great this season: she’s the only person on the show who isn’t regularly operating at full volume.

The episode, in general, had a very simple plot: stop Quentin Turnblatt from starting his own nation in the western United States. Turnblatt can do that because of a cache of dwarfstar that he found (more on that later), and he plans on cutting off the eastern US totally, allowing him to run his country his way. This is a very simple plot for the show, which sometimes requires mental jujitsu to execute a relatively simple plan.

2. Captain Lance

As I mentioned above, Sara has been the best part of the show this season, and a lot of that has to do with just how cooly Caitly Lotz is playing the role. With the exception of her ire over Darhk, Sara is more or less focused on getting the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Her pragmatism is a nice balance to Jax’s activism, Mick’s anarchism, and Nate’s wide-eyed wonder.

When/if Rip comes back, it will be interesting to see how she slides back into the role of cog in the wheel, rather than the one steering. I think, due to her aforementioned pragmatism, she’ll do just fine, but we shall see.

3. A toothpaste commercial

Look, I enjoy Nate and Ray ‘bro-ing out’ as much as the next person, but their sugary brand of optimism is starting to wear a bit thin. When it was just Ray, that was one thing – he was a great counterweight to Snart and Mick. But now, the scales have tipped, and Mick is the lone aggressor, and Ray and Nate – along with Jax now and then – represent this over the top cheese that is hard to balance out.

There’s a scene in A Mighty Wind – which I can’t find a clip of – where the Folksmen are complaining about the New Main Street Singers, and Haarry Shearer refers to their music as “a toothpaste commercial” and makes this absurd face – that’s exactly how I see Nate and Ray. We need to get them out of that mode quickly, and I’m not quite sure how to do it.

In the meantime, giving Ray some dwarfstar to rebuild his suit is a nice first step towards getting him back to being more than just an inspirational speech giver.

Also: is Nate the fastest healing gunshot victim in history? I’m pretty sure when Logan was shot in the head in one of the X-Men films he took longer to recover.

Double also: that Captain Steel costume looks way better on a mannequin than it does on Nate himself. Trust me.

4. Turnblatt

Jeff Fahey (aka Frank Lapidus from LOST) was wonderfully comic book evil on this episode, even pulling the old “since you’re going to die, let me show you how I will win!” trope. As a character, he wasn’t anything to write home about, but giving he and Hex some history went a long way to help him seem like more than just a random Western baddy.

One note though: why are people from the Wild West calling their era ‘the Wild West?’ That must be a term that came about after the fact, right? That would be like if in The Great Gatsby if Daisy screamed out “these really are the roaring twenties, amirite?”

Continued below

5. The Stein situation

So, in researching part of this episode, I came across that on IMDB, the woman who Stein is having visions of has a name: Lily Stein. Now, I know the show wants us to believe that this is his alternate dimension wife, but that’s too easy. I think there’s a different explanation that will prove both that, yes, Stein loves her, but that Clarissa won’t kill him: it’s his daughter.

In this alternate reality they created, young Marty was lectured to be better to Clarissa. What if he was? What if he found more time to be at home and, perhaps, start a family?

Mark my words: Lily is his daughter, and if I’m wrong, I’ll eat this sandwich.

What do you think? Am I right on or full of shit? Let me know in the comments!


//TAGS | Legends of Tomorrow

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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