Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 Finale (Episodes 14-16)

We've come to the end of the Legends of Tomorrow. It's been a shaky start but things are moving into high gear, will these episodes all work on the same merits? Let's take a look

River of Time

So erm, the Time Masters are working with Vandal Savage… ok…

With a 4-part finale, it’s easy for a lot of things to feel like filler or just an excuse to pad things out. Here, this episode does slow things down but it keeps some stakes and provides some solid character work, the biggest issue is that if these character arcs are like towers, they’re not built on the most solid of foundations

Sara gets a free pass since a lot of her character work was rooted in the second season of Arrow, the best season by far, and I’m told season 4 has been relatively hit or miss, so I’ve not been convinced to return to it. But Jefferson, Rip, and Martin do not get a pass

Ray, despite a pretty heavy presence in season 2 also does not a free pass, his arc is about how his relationship with Kendra is under threat with Carter about but the problem is I was never invested in their relationship ever and having it develop largely off-screen does not help matters.

So the story is largely around Vandal Savage using his incarceration to push the right buttons as the team aim to get Vandal tried at the Vanishing Point. But many of the team are not on board with the plan and want Savage dead or at least off the ship and facing delays.

OK, so it seems the bro-mance between Mick Rory and Leonard Snart is back on as they both agree on the same course of action, kill Savage. They’re also the ones that don’t visit Savage to get manipulated by him

Sara is only slightly manipulated as Savage warns her that Rip would sacrifice the lives of the team to save his family. Oh and there’s a brief mention to her own family, hinting to Laurel being fridged on Arrow. She confronts Rip about it and it’s kinda cemented with the fact that he sent Jefferson to the time drive to fix it and he was rapidly aged in the process. Thankfully convenient bullsh*t sorts that out, although Jefferson and hence Firestorm are now out of the series.

Speaking of convenient bullsh*t, Carter comes out of his mind control a little too easily for my liking, and of course it’s at the exact moment he needs to save Kendra. I like so many kinda wish for him to die again now. Not because I’m a rampant supported of Ray and Kendra but because I find Carter bland as loaf of stale bread. Also, couldn’t they have just killed Vandal Savage, I don’t know what control he had over Kendra but it seemed to stop rather arbitrarily.

Vandal tries to convince Ray that Kendra will always go to him and it ends in Ray being really really f*cking stupid and opening his prison cell and fighting him hand-to-hand. Ray, you’re not a hand-to-hand combatant – stop trying to play fair.

And of course this leads to the reveal that the Time Masters have allied themselves with Vandal Savage because of some bullsh*t that happens later down the timeline, presumably.

It’s a good episode, just feel like the emotional stakes would be higher if they weren’t on such a weak foundation.

Rating 7/10

Destiny

So those were the Time Masters, what a bunch of f*cking *sshole dipsh*ts

So in this episode it’s revealed that the Time Masters had been manipulating time using a device known as the oculus rift to ensure Vandal Savage’s rule including manipulating Rip and his team so that could be assured. Apparently he’s their only hope against a Thanagarian Invasion (bullsh*t) so the team after being rescued from the Time Masters decide their only hope is to destroy it.

God I thought I’d never say these words again, these past few weeks have had terrible or boring episodes of the various shows I’ve reviewed, so I’m delighted to say without any problems whatsoever, this was a great episode.

Rip Hunter’s despair as he realises the Time Masters are the ones who ordered Vandal to kill his wife and child, it’s Arthur Darwill’s best performance in this show. The comradery between Sara and Leonard Snart was pretty decent and the plan seems reasonable and works.

Even Jefferson’s sub-plot, whilst perhaps the least interesting part of the episode was not insufferable like many of Jefferson’s sub-plots have been. Worth noting how people change over the course of the season whilst also acknowledging a particular aspect I despised early might’ve been retroactively fixed.

Also, the knowledge that everything they’ve done has actually helped Savage and they’ve been manipulated by the Time Masters helps add a bit of weight to the weaker episodes that have involved Vandal Savage. It’s not unfair to say that some his episodes have been pretty week (although I’m harsher on the filler in this narrative because the goal is so urgent)

Mick Rory got his moment to shine once again as he got re-conditioned to become Kronos once again but by focusing on the team the same way he focused on vengeance the time before, he managed to not fall to their sway and has his moment of vengeance by crushing his programmer’s skull. See what you’ve done, Legends, you’ve made me cheer for cold blooded murder. Congratulations.

But of course, there’s the bit that everyone will expect me to talk about. After the game of ‘you’re not sacrificing yourself, I am’ which started with Ray and ended with Leonard, Leonard died in an explosion that destroyed the Oculus Rift. Well, I’ll give you this. You wanted to kill him off, it’s a spectacular note to go out on. Although given news about him of late I doubt it’s permanent.

This episode pulled it off, it’s fun, full of action, builds momentum and has some neat character moments as well. Let’s hope next week’s is just as good.

Rating 9/10

Legendary

3 times the charm, and 3 times the f*ck yeah, no more Vandal Savage!

It took a while to get there, but it’s hard to believe that Legends of Tomorrow is my happy place. And yes, for the quality of the last 2 episodes alone, I will return to Legends of Tomorrow when it comes back in September. Hopefully now Vandal Savage and the Hawks are out, arguably some of the least interesting bits of the narrative, we can continue to more interesting and better stories.

So in this episode, Rip Hunter gets mopey and drops the others off in May, where Mick has a slightly funny scene trying to recruit a new Captain Cold (he’ll be back) and Sara finds out about Laurel’s death.

If there is one thing about this episode I don’t like is its tendency to hand-wave. Like if Sara tried to rescue Laurel she’s somehow get not only Laurel but herself and her father killed. Wait what? I know Damian Dahrk is a bad dude (I’ve been catching up on what I can of season 3, it’s ok, still not reviewing it – although they do need to address the nuclear detonation from episode 21 some-when down the line) but how does Sara, a powerful bad-ass in her own right, lead to Dahrk killing both her and her father? Handwave

I feel that’s also the case with Rip’s wife and son… Unfortunately, because we live in the same timeline as the Flash, Vandal being killed in at least 2 different time periods whilst being mortal at those times, both before Rip’s wife and children were murdered probably won’t be enough to save them.

Still, I think there are a lot of positives to the episode as well. It handled the characters very well, and when they’re not taking stupid pills to allow for plot progression, that’s not abnormal for this show. I’m also glad they’ve thrown relationships in the burner because they really haven’t helped (I say they’ve handled the characters well but as individuals, the couples, particularly the ones formed within the show, haven’t)

I think Savage is a legitimate threat this time (although what did they do with his time ship?) and the fact that all of the members of the team get their moments to shine. We finally get to see Firestorm transmutate matter, we see the atom use a shrinking ray, we see Mick get to see Leonard one last time, everything that adds up to a very brilliant whole.

Also we get a teaser for the next season that while brief (rather than that whole 6 months later scene) was exciting and has me on board for the next season, which I believe starts in September. Until then, this show has wormed its way into my heart and I will be back for it.

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