This week on Legends of Tomorrow, an alien unleashed by Sara into the timestream landed in San Bernardino, 1955, where its enzymes were used in a fast food restaurant, causing customers to turn rabidly hungry. Meanwhile, Sara and Gary crashlanded on the world of the power hungry space lord who hired him to kidnap her in the first place.
1. Spooner v. Sharpe
New girl Spooner gets a lot of one-on-one time with co-captain Ava this week, as her vengeful, violent personality clashes greatly with Sharpe’s more cool-headed approach to uncovering the alien presence in ’55 — as Constantine quips, Spooner makes a better “squire” for him than her. The two women eventually realize they complement each other well, as Spooner’s refusal to follow orders saves Ava from a fateful encounter with Rhonda Beeman (Kirsten Robek), the woman using the extraterrestrial cocoon to make her husband’s special sauce.
After blasting the giant moth that emerges from the chrysalis, the two gain enough respect for each other to lead Spooner to disclose that her hatred of aliens is motivated by her abductors keeping her mother. She comments killing the beast didn’t make her feel better, but she’ll probably feel less empty if she kills some more: Ava knows that’s not the right takeaway, but bites her lip, knowing as well as we do that their next breakthrough can wait.
2. Burger Buddies
Behrad gets fleshed out (no pun intended) a little this week, as we learn he’s an organic food enthusiast, who conversely first stepped out of his sister’s shadow when he got a job flipping burgers. He’s not keen on Zari deciding that she’s earned the right to use the Air Totem as well, because she had everything as a child, while he was just the little brother of the girl with a pet dragon.
Regardless, the two work well as a team when it comes to safely ending the outbreak, so by the end… the two still disagree: Behrad thinks she ought to share their heirloom, while she thinks she can do well without it. Overhearing this tedious nonsense from inside the totem, the spirit of Zari 1.0 intervenes and duplicates the totem onto Zari 2.0’s wrist — how’s that for conflict resolution?
3. Gary Makes Sense Now
I keep going back-and-forth on whether Gary is likable or not, but now that we know he’s an alien, a lot of his dialogue is starting to make him feel more believable, and (believe it or not) even profound, as cringey as he is. For instance, I loved that he lists rose water as one of the items he loves about Earth: you ever think about how we take so many beautiful things like that for granted? Or the way he tries to cheer up Sara by pointing out she and Ava share a “Nordic complexion” that’ll look great during a winter wedding? It’s weird but true! He’s going from the Jar Jar to the C-3PO of the show.
4. The Secret Origin of Big Belly Burger
The Beemans’ restaurant, Big Bang Burger, is taken over by waitress Sandy Sledge (Naiah Cummins) after the pair’s deaths, and it’s revealed in a news report that she renamed it Big Belly Burger. I wonder if Gary’s trading cards of famous women from history like Shirley Chisholm may’ve been foreshadowing for that reveal, given how the achievements and contributions of Black people throughout history have been often overlooked. It’s not DC Comics canon that a Black woman founded the biggest fast food chain in their universe, but it should be.
5. Amelia Earhart, is That You?
Y’know what was definitely foreshadowing? When Gary and Sara spotted the Earth dog on the planet, and he reminded her they’ve been tricked by a dog before. The dog leads them to a hut inhabited by Amelia Earhart (Jen Oleksiuk), who’s apparently been stranded here since her disappearance in 1937. Unfortunately, Earhart turns out to be an alien shapeshifter, whose signs of PTSD were actually glitches in her imitation — I’m guessing The Thing-style creature was also the dog. It’d be great if it turned out next week that Amelia is still alive elsewhere after her abduction, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up: think of her as still lost to the mists of time.
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– Mick completely walked out of the whole episode after dissing Ava.
– That employee must’ve vomited enough cocoon fluid for a whole Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award ceremony.
– There’s something charmingly low budget about Behrad just hitting the pseudo-zombies with a spatula.
– Could you imagine how the much more antisocial, stoic season 3 Ava would’ve been like in Rhonda Beeman’s home?
– Loved, loved the black-and-white flashback to Rhonda discovering the cocoon, it was such a perfect homage to the sci-fi/horror B-movies of the era.
– The alien uses the classic Godzilla roar and is compared by Behrad to Mothra, which I guess makes it their secret love child?
‘Til next week fellow Waveriders!
