As established last episode, the time masters had dispatched their chief assassin, dubbed "the pilgrim" who specializes in targeting people in their youth, thus obliterating them from history.
Considering how lackluster the time masters' forces have been up to this point, the pilgrim really needed to kick things up a notch, given the hype. With such a wide window of time to work with, it seems like the heroes have their work cut out for them.
Actually, tracking her doesn't seem to be too much of a problem initially. In fact, early on, it seemed too easy. Fortunately, the episode made up for it by giving the episode a "chess game"feel. Each time the pilgrim made a move, the legends countered; at which point the pilgrim would change up her strategy to counter theirs, forcing the team to come up with a new plan. It wasn't played to the extreme, but I thought it was a nice touch.
She also manages to pose a credible physical threat, possessing apparent superhuman strength, being impervious to bullets, and having a device that allows her to manipulate time. True, she does end up getting killed, but she managed to serve her purpose and made for a solid one-off antagonist.
As the heroes come into contact with their past selves, it leads to some solid character development. Seeing pre-boat voyage Sara and younger Quentin was fun, but Mick and Rip also manage to show new layers.
Jackson probably gets the most emotional weight as he is reunited with his deceased father. A cynical viewer will probably see this as an attempt to recreate the emotional gut punch that was Barry getting the phone call from his mother's doppelganger on Earth 2 back in "The Flash". Admittedly, it isn't quite as poignant, as this aspect of Jackson's life was just established now, but it still manages to pack some punch of its own. The circumstances alone make for great emotional poignancy, but both actors pull it off well.
Really, though, as far as show stealers go, I think baby Snart takes the cake. Even Sara can't help but fawn over the little guy. I think the fact that it's Snart of all people that we're seeing at this stage really adds to the effect. Seeing baby Ray or Sara would have been nice, but seeing a baby rogue adds an extra level of d'awww.
For all the strengths, the episode does raise some questions. I'm not sure how kid Rip was able to move when the pilgrim was freezing time all around her. I guess she was aiming it, but the way the scene played out, it didn't seem that way. Some have said this is anti-climactic and ruins the villain, but I was more perplexed by the fact that there was no explanation for how Rip was able to negate her tech. I guess you could say he had a gadget of his own, but I don't recall anything said of it.
I'm also not sure why they have to hold on to their younger selves. Rip does say that the Omega protocol is still in place, but he also said that the time masters only had one chance to take each chibi person out for fear of creating paradoxes. I guess going back to the newborns means that the time masters can still target "future" iterations, but again, not really something that was explained effectively.
It does put the team on a clock as far as the mission against Savage goes. It seems removing their younger selves from the time line will make those closest to them forget who they are. It's not quite death, but it's still a dire situation. As such, the team goes to take on Savage at the height of his power so that they can wrap things up and put everyone back before it becomes permanent. It's not easy to create a "ticking clock" scenario when you have a time machine, so points for that, even if the mechanics are somewhat fuzzy.
I'm really looking forward to the next episode. Seeing as it isn't the season finale, I know that Savage won't exactly be bested, but the team will fight a giant robot. This is something that was first hinted in that initial trailer. Given how different the show is from that initial promo, I was convinced that it would be something that would have just gotten phased out due to budget limitations. I'm happy to see that they followed through on that tease. From what we saw in the latest promo, the special effects look amazing so that should be a fun spectacle of an episode.
This episode might not be up to the same bar as some of its predecessors, but this was still a strong outing. I was worried that my brain would dismiss it due to anticipation of giant robot fight, but this brought enough to the table that I was still able to enjoy it.
Click here to join our Patreon campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment