Legends of Tomorrow Episodes 4-5 review - White Knights/Fail Safe

White Knights

Anyone have any idea what relevance the title has with anything? No..? OK then

This episode had a lot on its plate, balancing several character chapters, and a pretty substantial main plot. Unfortunately, it’s not smooth sailing as there are multiple issues, around multiple different plot beats

So the show was juggling Chronos’ return, a theft from the Pentagon that realistically Ray could’ve accomplished on his own with less chaos, finding Vandal Savage in soviet Russia, finding a woman working on a weapon for him and coaxing her into finding the weapon itself, all the while Kendra and Sara continue working through their issues, Martin and Jefferson are on the outs, again and Rip is considering giving up, again.

So let’s have a look at the good of the episode. I liked the pairing of Kendra and Sara. Both have very similar issues with control and watching them work together (well, train together) albeit for only brief moments was satisfying to watch.

Captain Cold stole every scene he was in, Wentworth Miller absolutely kills in this role, providing charm and just the right amount of scenery chewing for him to be the funniest character in the show, his banter with Ray, whilst there were times I wasn’t optimistic about its point were some of the highlights of the episode

Having more than just Chronos trying to bring Rip Hunter in is a great idea, this show does need more than just Vandal Savage as a villain to satisfy its episode count.

OK, onto the bad. For one, we’ve already seen Rip Hunter go through the stage of questioning his mission, I was not feeling any desire to see it a second time. Topping my sense of déjà vu is the arguments between Martin and Jefferson. I get that they’re going for a more argumentative dynamic between the pair but the argument about Martin drugging him for him to be here is irrelevant now as he agreed to join the mission 2 days ago. I do sympathise with a lot of their arguments, it must be difficult having someone else’s voice in your head or having to deal with the loss a former firestorm guy it just hit too many similar beats to be enjoyable.

Then there was the idea that a team of scientists in within the region of 10 years managed to duplicate the firestorm matrix, a concept which was based on ideas barely discovered back then, based on a photograph. I said last week I wanted Savage to be more of a smart villain, this was not what I meant.

Still, it balanced action, character and drama with a pretty sweet ending to make me mostly satisfied with the episode overall

Rating 7/10

Fail Safe

More episodes like this please!

I think the biggest thing for me is that the entire episode is focused on a single task, rescue their captured teammates. I dislike the meandering around pointless subplots that go no-where or just boring setup.

So yeah, they have to rescue their teammates, stop Russia creating a soviet Firestorm, stop Vandal Savage again and make sure they can never duplicate the research, also Sara’s given the option to kill Martin if he ever gets too close to sharing his secrets.

Captain Cold and Sara Lance are probably my two favourites from the season, Martin and Rip being close thirds, so having those two spend a lot of time together for this mission was nice to watch. Especially given his code of honour gives an interesting perspective on her willingness to do whatever it takes

Jefferson and Kendra take more of a back-seat role in this one, which I’m perfectly fine with to be honest. That’s not, however, to say their roles aren’t important. They’re held back for probably the best reason the show’s ever come up with to do so, Savage wants both of them, and Rip doesn’t want to gift wrap them both for him but they eventually pluck up the courage and there’s some resolution to the Jefferson-Stein conflict.

Sharing the spotlight this week is Martin Stein on his own with the villain, trying not to be cracked and the adorable team of Ray Palmer and Heatwave. It’s interesting that Heatwave’s own code of honour came in here and lead to well… almost conflict with Cold’s, almost to a hypocritical point but I digress. There were some fun moments in the episode revolving around these 3

I have 3 gripes with this episode. 1) How did they make Stein hallunicate without using a chemical? 2)How come a nuclear explosion in Russia didn’t alter the timeline? And 3) Why do they all assume a Green Arrow from 2046 is Oliver Queen?

Rating 8.5/10

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Images/clips used in this review are from DC's Legends of Tomorrow and belong to their respective owners. All images/clips in this review are subject to fair use