This week on Legends of Tomorrow, the gang, now reunited with their fearless co-captain Sara Lance, went to track down an alien in Fist City, Oklahoma, 1891. They discovered a giant gold (as opposed to carbon)-based worm being used by the outlaw-turned-sheriff Levi Stapleton (Nic Bishop), to pacify the normally rowdy townspeople. The legendary Bass Reeves was also there investigating, and Sara thought he looked oddly familiar…
1. Sara and the Hole in the Head
Sara discloses almost immediately to Ava that she’s a now cloned human/alien hybrid who can quickly heal from any wound, but doesn’t want the other Legends to know, since she wants them to feel like everything’s gone back to normal (or at least what passes for it). However, when she challenges Stapleton to a duel, the rotten scumbag shoots her in the head, exposing her secret. Ava realizes she’s not as comfortable with her fiancée’s transformation as she first thought, and that’s understandable: not only is it disturbing to watch, it might cause her to be even more reckless, and burn out her new powers in future.
2. Gary the Liar
Now aware that Gary is an alien, Constantine starts prodding him about the Fountain of Imperium, so he can regain his powers as soon as possible. Gary feigns ignorance about the myth to protect him from the potentially risks, but John susses him out, pointing out he lied about being a human for all these years. Gary confesses, and gives John a hint that the Fountain is on Earth, but otherwise wants nothing to do with this dangerous quest, only directing his former mentor to speak with Crowley. Suffice to say, I like this slightly sober new Gary, who feels far more like a genuine part of the show with these occasionally serious moments.
3. “Dig?”
Given he directed and guest starred in this episode, I was disappointed but not surprised we didn’t get a lot of David Ramsey as Bass Reeves. Still, it was a fun way to play on his guest appearances in the other Arrowverse shows this year, and to not have to contrive a reason for John Diggle to go on a trip through time. Sara’s reaction to Reeves’s resemblance to Diggle was pretty hysterical, as well as the way his reply to her saying “Dig?,” was basically a 19th century way of saying, “yes, I can dig it.” I hope he comes back at some point to explore Reeves in more depth, because he was such a fascinating person, but it was pretty cool to see him nonetheless.
4. Nate Goes to Therapy
The worm gets agitated whenever there’s tension in Fist, and Nate — who easily proves himself to be the most mature and level-headed veteran member of the team this week — decides to draw it out by going on a glorious rant about everything he’s been bottling up, from the departures of those closest to him (including his Zari), to the freaking thermostat on the Waverider. He didn’t plan what to do when the worm showed up, other than presumably punching his way out of it in his Steel form, but hey, it was good he let it all out — and it convinced the Tarazi siblings to lend him their Air Totems, so he could visit his Zari in-between missions. (Score!)
5. The Cowboy Who Would Not “Can It”
By far the funniest and most random part of the episode was Duane Keogh’s “Cowboy Narrator,” a country singer who narrated most of the episode (despite Sara’s request that he “can it.”) I just kept wondering, how many songs was he gonna have? And he kept going, even when the main cast had returned to the Waverider for the final wrap-up scenes. I assumed he’d transitioned to become part of the fourth wall, eg. the opening credits, but then Ava saw him on the bridge, and reminded Nate and Behrad they could not keep him, which was simply amazing.
(Sigh) Ava’s such a killjoy.
Bonus Thoughts:
– Mick spent the whole episode passed out on the sofa? Damn, I thought he’d already be back out there looking for Kayla.
– Sara’s newfound addiction to milkshakes and cherries is presumably because she has to consume lots to maintain her powers (like the number of calories Barry Allen has to consume), but could it be a sign of something darker?
Continued below– Nate using the buddy system to force Astra and Spooner to get along sooner than later made me laugh, because the only time I’ve heard of the buddy system was on Freakazoid! (They should totally do a crossover: I mean if Teen Titans Go! could do it…)
– Ava cringing at the memory of “Thong Song” — that is all.
See you all in two weeks time, after the Independence Day weekend break, for “This Is Gus.”
