Welcome back all you Legends of Tomorrow fans! Chris had to go fight a bunch of Beebo who worshiped that creepy Dr. Stein puppet so he’s left review duties to me this week! And boy howdy am I excited to review an episode of the DCW’s weirdest show bar none. So strap in folks! It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
And as always, spoilers ahead.
1. This is Starting to Sound Like A Bad Comic Book Plot
But it’s actually excellent. Clones. CLONES! Of course it’s gonna be clones. How else did we expect our good friend Man-Bun Tech Bro to have survived having his neck snapped by Sara last week. Especially after the whole AVA clone farm he has. Chris got it in one that he transferred his consciousness into a new body and it’s very interesting that he was so insistent on there being only one of him. We already knew that Bishop thought very highly of himself and very, well, not of the AVAs but seeing it expressed in this outburst really drives home just how much he sees himself as special.
For Bishop, clones are expendable but only when there is more than one running around, as that somehow crosses a line and removes the essential property that he defines as “person.” Cloning a body is like building a second Titanic after the first was destroyed and naming it Titanic, thereby making it The Titanic, but if he were to do it TWICE without one dying, suddenly both lose their value and neither are The Titanic. It’s a wrinkle that I was hoping we’d get to explore a little more before he got his face kicked in by Sara again but, eh, what can you do?
It’s not like there are any other twists when it comes to clones in this episode, right?
2. Can’t Sing, Can’t Dance. I Better Get Out of the Spotlight.
Poor Constantine. Now that he’s been thrown back to square one with his magic, and slowly being driven up the wall by the Legends crashing at his place, he’s feeling pretty useless. This is a great place to put John as he appears in Legends, as he was getting to be a bit of a get out of jail free card, and since he can’t be the real bastard he is in the comics, this is a conflict that lets him wallow in self-pity while also making bad choices and keeping secrets! It’s great stuff.
I have to wonder: does this mean his cancer is going to come back? I can’t remember if it was totally cured or just put off during last season – I remember it was sped up by a vengeful Astra. If it is back, that’s another ticking clock we got for him, one calling back once again to the excellent Ennis run. If not, well that’s just as well since we’ve got plenty of other complications to deal with with the rest of the crew.
3. Spooner, How on Earth Did You Get to the Middle of the Waverider, Speaking in a Language You’ve Never Heard Before?
The B-plot is all about Spooner this week, as she wrestles with what her powers mean for her. Because Rory & Kayla don’t seem to know how to lock the Waverider, it seemed that Amelia Earhart was able to steal the ship and fly it home to Rye, NY…sorta, hiding in an asylum under the name Sara Lance, which got the attention of our wayward crew, who picked her up and tried to interrogate her into revealing Sara’s location. Spooner goes all bad cop on her while Behrad tries to keep things mellow – you go Behrad – and after a series of mishaps, Spooner yells at Amelia in an alien language that makes her look like a cat which sends her into an existential spiral, a spiral that’s worsened by the revelation (to the crew at least) that this is, indeed, the REAL Amelia and she was experimented on by Bishop and turned into this creature. And that’s not even getting to the eventual, actual revelation after Spooner confronts Amelia that she was actually a SPLICING of Amelia and one of the wild creatures on the planet, essentially housing two “souls” in one body.
Continued below*whew*
That’s a LOT to process, not least my disappointment we didn’t even get a short shot of Rye Playland, and that’s not even bringing in Amelia taunting Spooner mentally, which feeds her anxiety around possibly turning into an alien like Amelia and all the psychic trauma that causes. Basically, Spooner is having a rough go of it and we don’t really get much resolution for it this week, which I am OK with! That gives us time to address it later on, even if that’s just a debrief, and allows AVA mourning the death of Sarah to take center stage and lay the groundwork for their next ill-advised mission.
And speaking of ill-advised missions…
4. “Subtlety is not your strong point, is it?” “Hey, can’t even spell the word.”
We all knew it was coming but you still love to see it. After spending 50 minutes bickering, backstabbing, and sizing each other up, Rory & Kayla end up trapped in a pod so they don’t die of Bishop’s planet’s atmosphere and the killer aliens and they find that to be the perfect moment to get frisky with each other. I was actively counting the minutes until we got this scene and Legends did not disappoint. All the lead up was worth it, especially because we got to see more of the planet and its cool purple sky. We’ll see if they stay a couple after this week, and maybe Kayla will join as a secondary cast member, but I think we’re more likely to see Gary again.
Poor Gary, forced to squirm through the sewer pipes like a sad nebbishy octopus. At least he gets some nice compliments from the other AVA clones.
5. No, No, Take It Back. It Clashes with the Color of My Costume.
Sara has to be one of the most beleaguered characters in the entirety of the CWverse. Ollie? Puh-leeze. The Wellses? Pssh. No one can hold a candle to what Sara has been through. You’d think that her luck would have changed after being “rescued” by Bishop but you would be DEAD wrong. Remember how Sara got poisoned by Amelia’s tongue (which was TOTALLY GROSS AND BACK THIS WEEK WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE TONGUE EUUCHCHHHGHHH?) Turns out Bishop didn’t have an antidote, or maybe she was too far in, and this Sara is a clone! So, in addition to having the existential nightmare that is having been resurrected multiple times, now she has to contend with knowing that she was put into a new body without her consent and who knows what else was added because Bishop subscribes to the “ethics are for the weak” school of science.
But before we got that bombshell, Sara got a chance to really shine as both a clever tactician and a befuddled prisoner. The many modes of Sara Lance never cease to amaze and Legends is all the stronger for Caity Lotz’s presence. She also gets the excuse to play off Gary again, which is always a joy.
That about does it for now! Thank you all for indulging me as I took over for Chris. He’ll be back next week, don’t you worry. Unless it’s actually a clone? As long as it’s just the one, it should be fine. If it’s three or more, we’ll need to call in Marvel Editorial to try and turn next week’s review into a years long, weekly storyline with diminishing returns. Or just time-travel back to beforehand as the Legends seem to be doing. That works too.
Best Line of the Night:
Spooner: “Get Tranqued.”
