Even the more standard "team up with historical figure to achieve goal" aspect was well handled. Not only does recruiting J.R.R. Tolkien allow the writers to throw in some shout outs to the books, but it also tied in nicely with the team's own mission regarding the spear. Even if you took out the, again, standard parts where the heroes unintentionally inspire the historical figure in question, the parallels were still there and illustrated in a satisfactory fashion.
We also got some great character conflict as both Amaya and Mick are tempted by the power of the spear. Despite both Rip's and Sara's warnings, you can't fault them for at least thinking about it. While Sara mentions Laurel at one point, she doesn't even consider using the spear to bring her back. Credit to her for that resolve. If this had gone down back at the beginning of the season, I'm sure she wouldn't have hesitated to do it, so hooray for character growth.
This episode does feature the return of another deceased character, though, Captain Cold. The Legion comes up with the idea as a way to turn the tables. Granted, people knew it was going to happen as the producers dropped the spoiler before the season started. Even if the big wham moment was blown, it still made for some great tension with Mick as he is pulled between who he was and who he was becoming.
A part of me thinks that grabbing Snart before he joined the team would cause all kinds of paradoxes or changes to the timeline, but I suppose that the Legion's later possession of the spear would remedy that anyway, making it a moot point.
I remember getting a little tired of Miller's Snart back in season one, but it was nice to have him back. Sure, he kind of starts to veer in to large ham territory near the end, but for a majority of the episode, he was pretty compelling.
Really, it seemed like everyone was on point this week. A benefit helped by the fact that everyone had a chance to shine. That's not an easy thing to do when juggling a whole team of superheroes. It would have been nice to see Firestorm and Atom out in combat, but they had other highlights. I seem to recall feeling ambivalent about when they went all out back in season one, due to temporal aftershocks, so I probably shouldn't be too hard on that aspect now.
I also shouldn't be too hard on the side step regarding the "team goes to the crucifixion to get Christ's blood". A Christ/Legends meetup would be interesting, but I can't fault Rip's assertion that said time period is too vital a time to alter in any capacity. I have to admit, his line about how the team can never and will never go there was kind of amusing, just because it seemed a bit meta; like the writers were telling viewers that the show would (both figuratively and literally) never go there.
With that, though, the weight of the divine artifacts is well on display. The spear is directly said to be one of the most powerful objects in existence and when the team does come across the vial of Christ's blood in WW1, there is a palpable sense of awe, as everyone stops to take a second and let what they just found sink in.
As we move closer to the end of the season, it would stand to reason that the episode would end on a dour note and it didn't fail to disappoint. Not only does the Legion come away with the spear, but they also nab Mick, who has gotten tired of being treated like the team pet and decides to awaken the darkness in his heart once again and return to the cold (yes, I'm aware of the irony,) ruthless criminal he was before.
The betrayal was especially interesting, as even some of the team acknowledge that Mick may not have been that far off on his assessment of their view of him. It was clearly true with some, like Stein and Rip, but it seems like both Ray and Amaya genuinely connected with the "thug". The latter is especially true as Mick offers for her to come with them before the villains exit stage left. Of course, she turned it down, but it still spoke volumes about the two's connection that he even made the offer in the first place.
Next week's episode should be interesting to see, as the Legion has effectively rewritten reality. Man, between this and Flashpoint, reality is not having a good year. It's a shame that neither one really stuck around long enough to explore. Seeing how the "Doomworld" affected the other shows would be cool to see, but I doubt we're going to get much of that. At the very least, like Flashpoint before it, we could have some longer term ramifications that could play out over the remaining episodes of "Legends' sister shows. We'll just have to see, I guess.
Click here to join our Patreon campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment