This week on Legends of Tomorrow (S7E10), Gideon convinced the gang that temporarily preventing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the best way to lure out their evil doppelgangers. However, while in Sarajevo, 1914, the Legends discovered this fixed point in history was a popular spot for time travelers, either seeking to prevent World War I, or just watch them fail — and boy did they enjoy watching Sara repeatedly fail!
1. Live Die Repeat
It turns out no one has ever prevented the assassination, but like Tom Cruise’s character in the modern classic Edge of Tomorrow (or Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow, as it was known on home media, and here), Sara Lance can survive the usually fatal injuries incurred by trying to break the fixed point, and perseveres with a “little” help from her friends. The montage of her learning her to survive every step of the infamously chaotic assassination was great fun (I especially laughed out loud when she sucked in her own blow dart), and I loved seeing Nate carry her back to the Fixed Point bar each time like a coach caring for their weary boxer — the (I’m assuming) Bosnian cover of “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” was also an awesome touch. Gosh, isn’t Maisie Richardson-Sellers turning out to be a fantastic director?
2. Generation Wars
Sara and Nate spend much of their time this week being taunted by a trio of young men (including an alien), who basically called them old, failed, washed up superheroes. I think it’s telling that Caity Lotz and Nick Zano are respectively 35 and 43, so they’re young, but certainly not as young as when they started playing these characters, and as anyone who spends too much time online knows, Generation Z (teenagers and 20-somethings) are happy to mock millennials as much as anyone else their senior (despite having it worse than our parents), so it’s a really funny way to reflect our heroes getting older and more experienced. Unsurprisingly, these boys begin to respect Sara after seeing her persist with her quest, even eavesdropping on the Legends without snarking, and admit that — after some therapy — that their anger was a response to feeling intimidated. Well, isn’t that an empathetic take on young(er) people?
3. Spooner’s Big Realization
Zari and Spooner wind up spending this episode together as everyone else coordinates stopping the assassination, which was very awkward and funny given they’ve never spent time together alone — I loved that, I loved the acknowledgment that people can be friends even if they’re not very close to each other (it also feels reminiscent of the old chestnut that Frodo doesn’t remember Legolas’s name in Lord of the Rings.) The two very different women eventually bond by talking about men, which leads to Spooner realizing she’s asexual: it’s another wonderful touch from an already very inclusive show, and it is interesting Spooner felt more comfortable admitting that to Zari than Astra — given Zari informs us that “ace” people can still form romantic attachments, maybe there’s a love triangle blooming?
4. Ava’s Such a Good Friend
While most of the gang are at the bar, Gwyn and Ava try to form a plan to prevent Alun’s death in the Great War, and particularly how they would do that while ensuring Gwyn’s younger self is still motivated to invent time travel. Gwyn simply states he’s fine if his younger self is fooled into still thinking Alun died, something Ava objects to, but he maintains he deserves his suffering, because he believes his homosexuality is a sin. It’s a really heartfelt and touching moment, as was Ava imploring Gwyn “love is love is love” (something she has to admit was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work, as she’s no poet): how many LGBTQ Christians, Jews, or Muslims around the work have been misled to believe their God, who made them in His image, is a homophobe? How many of them could do with a friend like Ava? And can I just say how amazing it was Ava hugged Gwyn? Season three Ava would’ve never done that; her marriage to Sara has truly made her a better person.
Continued below5. MR. PEANUT! I Mean…
Thankfully for Gideon (who was starting to lose it at the fixed point’s implication that time is a vengeful god), it turns out Franz Ferdinand is being protected by none other than Matt Letscher’s version of Eobard Thawne, who was last seen finally succumbing to his destiny all the way back in season two. We learned the Time Wraiths reeducated him, and chained him to this point in history with a nifty bracelet/cuff, which gives him the power to stop time. It was really cool seeing this variant of Thawne again, especially as Legends has become less of a comic book adaptation over the years, and I loved his dashing new ensemble, including his top hat (something Nate commented made him look like Mr. Peanut, which is oddly appropriate given the Reverse Flash’s color scheme.)
It was also good fun to see Thawne try not to bat an eye at Sara’s reasons for preventing the assassination (he probably remembered his own life is pretty outlandish), and to be a good sport about delaying the event to draw out her enemies. It is pretty strange that she is immune to his new power, but whatever, maybe it’ll be explained properly next week: and speaking of which, all the foreshadowing about Sara possibly having to take his place if he dies was pretty intriguing, wasn’t it? It certainly makes me all the more eager to see what happens when the gang try to steal the Waverider next week.
Bonus Thoughts:
– Everyone’s mistaken descriptions of Nate’s lousy drawing was so funny, it’s a kind of a shame we saw them at the end of the scene.
– Gary’s such a wife guy, isn’t he?
See you all next week for the “Rage Against The Machines,” directed by Jes Macallan.
