'Legends of Tomorrow' season 2, episode 11: 'Turncoat'

On its face, this episode bears some similarity to "The Chicago Way"; what with the Legion luring the team into a trap by altering history in some major fashion.  In this case, it's killing George Washington.  Even Sara notes that it's a trap, but with the future of the United States at stake, they don't really have much of a choice.

While the villains don't manipulate the heroes to the same extent that they did before, the villains do again gain the upper hand.  A lot of this comes from the addition of Rip Hunter to their roster.  Really, the rest of the Legion sits this one out, though I did get a kick out of the amused look on Thawne's face as he watched the British soldiers firing assault rifles during target practice.

I do like that this wasn't just traditional brain washing.  The heroes jump to this conclusion and try to "snap him out of it" to no avail.  It makes sense, as they restored his memories, just tweaked his outlook on things.

The new state makes Rip a formidable villain, as he knows about his past with the team and uses that to gain a psychological advantage over his intended victims.  The sequences where he is stalking around the Waverider's dark corridors hunting Jax (I see what you did there, writers) make for one of the episode's highlights.  Rip has this cold, assassin like quality that makes for a tense viewing.

Of course, credit goes to Jax too, setting up various traps and using guerrilla tactics to fend off the British invaders.  Considering he was, once again, unable to fuse into Firestorm, he managed to hold his own fairly well.

The episode wasn't completely without levity, though.  Ray getting stuck in his small form made for some fun sequences.  It was relegated to a small portion of the episode, but given the CGI involved, it was probably for the best.  Still, the rat chase was fun and the gag was set up nicely by an earlier exchange with Mick.  It would have been nice to see that dilemma resolved on screen as opposed to just showing a full sized Ray in the episode's closing scene, but the episode only has so much time.

We also get a subplot that starts to push Nate and Amaya together.  The two do have good chemistry, but it does seem weird given the fact that Amaya and Mick seemed to be the two getting close not too long ago.  I'd say this new budding romance comes out of nowhere, but these were the two that were left on the ship back when Barry called them for help, so maybe they bonded off screen.

It does speak to this weird problem where it seems like the characters don't interact all that often.  An ensemble like this is tough to juggle, and the show does enjoy splintering everybody off, but you'd think that there would be more palpable bonds at this point.  They seem to think of themselves as family, though, so there's that.

I did like the Jax/Sara scene, where the two discuss the responsibilities of leading a team and making the right call when there isn't one.

Overall, this was a strong episode.  There were some solid character moments, a lot of tension, and just enough comedy to balance out the darker tone that the episode seemed to take.

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