This week on Legends of Tomorrow, Sara, Ava, Zari, Nate, Behrad, and Gary threw a party in the pocket dimension to raise funds for Eddie (Hamza Fouad), a speakeasy bartender from Chicago, after they accidentally got him beaten up by his mafia landlord, Ross Bottoni (Sage Brocklebank). Meanwhile, Astra, Spooner and Gideon met Bottoni’s girlfriend, a singer named Maude (Aubrey Reynolds), and decided to help her escape her abusive relationship.
1. Screw History, History Sucks
If there’s one thing Legends of Tomorrow has always reminded us about, it’s that the past sucked for anyone who wasn’t a straight white guy, and here Zari — who gets subjected to some seriously passive aggressive racism in the first scene — feels compelled to help Eddie, whose bar is an incredibly inclusive safe haven for the 1920s. Likewise, despite Spooner’s concerns that preventing Maude’s historically recorded murder would set a precedent for helping every woman at risk in this time period, she and Astra agree they have to help her — this season really seems to be asking, what’s the point in protecting history if you can’t improve it a little bit along the way too?
2. Sappho and Her Friend
While reading the paper, Ava learns A) another Hoover robot is on their tail, and B) the press have assumed Sara is her sister. It’s gross, but such a realistic way to acknowledge how same-sex relationships have been erased throughout history by overly cautious records keepers (and bigots with an agenda.) During the party, the wife-and-wife duo perform a spectacular aerial silk show (set to Gideon’s song number: more on that next), where they tie up the intruding Hoover, and finish with a kiss. The crowd is shocked, though some cheer: Ava responds, “We’re not sisters,” prompting all of them to applaud. So next time you think someone doth protest too much that people like the Ancient Greek poet Sappho may not have been gay, feel free to show them this episode.
3. Kid Gideon
Now that she’s not falling in and out of consciousness, we’re getting an insight into what Gideon is like as a part of the ensemble, and she is very much like a new person, waffling on about all kinds of information she knows, and eating with her fingers like a young child (a parallel made explicit by Esperanza suggesting she play the quiet game, almost as if she’s an overgrown kid they’re babysitting.) The way she goes off and impersonates Maude during her scheduled song number also feels like something a child would do to save the day in a kids’ film, because of the way Astra and Spooner become deathly afraid, until they see the ruse is working. I have to be honest, I saw Gideon impersonating Maude a mile away, because Amy Pemberton supplied Reynolds’s singing voice as well, but with a voice like hers, I can’t complain.
4. Gary was the Student, Now He is the Master
The scene where Nate and Gary bond over what they like in a partner was simply terrific: Nate notices Gary is attracted to Zari taking charge, and comments that, whether it’s Ava, Constantine or Kayla, he loves someone who’s bossy, commanding or domineering. Gary responds Nate loves people he can’t be with, like Amaya or Zari 1.0, because the impossibility of progressing these relationships means he doesn’t have to commit to them: Nate struggles to deny it, recognizing he may be right. Nate used to dish out dating advice to the alien nerd: now Gary’s got him figured out, and forcing him to confront where he wants his relationship with the original Zari to go. It’s a question that he’s going to have to tackle head on next week, as Zari trades places with her predecessor at the end of the episode to dissect the latest Hoover-bot, and I don’t think he should wait…
5. Salamati
If I understand correctly, “salamati” is a Farsi toast wishing someone good health. Eddie and Zari 2.0 use the phrase, and it reflects their storyline quite well: Zari works herself into a fuss preparing the party, fearing she’s forgot something, before realizing she neglected her hair and make-up. Eddie tells her not to worry about it, and encourages her to join him for a dance instead. It’s a good message: like the Legends in 1925, many of us have been stuck in a place we can’t get out of for a while, and it’s become easy to get overwhelmed and exhausted — but if we just cut ourselves some slack for the things we’ve neglected, hopefully we can all enter a better state of mind.
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– Astra namedrops Phil Spector as someone she learned to understand contracts from in Hell. Spector only died earlier this year, after Astra left Hell in season 6, so I guess time just works differently in the afterlife.
– The ending was a little weird, thanks to a continuity error: when Astra, Spooner and Gideon hear the Bullet Blondes are finishing up a party nearby, it’s presumably still evening. However, when they arrive at the store the pocket dimension was placed, it’s daytime — huh.
– Cruz has pretty much become a full on psychic now, no?
– Seriously, well done to everyone who worked on the aerial silk performance.
See you all next week for “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Scientist.”
