Saturday, May 18, 2019

'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 3, Episode 10: 'Daddy Darhkest'

As teased in the last episode, this has John Constantine join up with the Legends to once again confront Mallus.  It's always great to have Matt Ryan reprise the role and it should come as no surprise that he continues to shine as the master of the mystic arts.

This easily could have been a Halloween episode as it is much creepier than what the show is used to.  Considering the team is battling a bona fide demon, it makes perfect sense and it is done quite well.

While Mallus is still arguably fairly generic at this point, you still feel the weight of the threat.  John Noble's voice adds quite a bit, but Mallus proves to be formidable even taking that out of the equation.  It says something that he's able to rattle both Sara (a hardened assassin) and John Constantine himself.

Still, the episode manages to inject quite a bit of humor into the mix.  It keeps things interesting and fun.  If done badly, it could have been a detriment, but the writers knew how much to add and when.  It makes for a well balanced episode that delivers a bit of everything.

There's even a bit of romance in the air.  Constantine naturally flirts with both Sara and Leo, the latter of whom admits to being taken.  The subtle hints of a potential ship with Sara and Agent Sharpe are also elaborated upon, albeit more bluntly.  It's a little weird how everybody is suddenly on to it, even making jokes, but maybe there were more interactions between the events of the last episode and this one.

Speaking of romance, Leo decides to leave the crew and go back to his original Earth and reunite with (The) Ray.  It's a pity as he was an interesting addition to the team dynamic.  Considering that this was supposed to be Wentworth Miller's swansong in the Arrowverse, it's a bit abrupt.  There's no big good-bye.  Instead, it's more of a casual "see you later".  I guess that leaves the door open, but I still feel like the farewell could have had more of an impact.

On other fronts, we got quite a bit of development for both Amaya and Kuasa. There are times where it seems like Amaya is picking up what the tropers refer to as "the idiot ball".  From an outsider perspective, her freeing Kuasa is a dumb move, but you can at least understand the why.  Kuasa is family and Amaya thinks she can reach her.  I know critics love to nitpick and armchair quarterback character decisions in stories.  From a meta-standpoint, you probably could.  Still, giving her good reason mitigates that to an extent.  She made the wrong decisions for the right reasons, essentially.

This does lead to some development for Kuasa herself.  We learn why she's on-board with this new villain team up and she even gets to air some grievances regarding Amaya herself.  Kuasa chastises her for not using the timeship to a greater extent (namely, saving their village).  The episode doesn't get bogged down in the morality debate, but it does give a "both sides have a point" impression.

This was a great start to the season's second stretch.  It was creepy, funny, and brought quite a bit of character development.  It also gave the season's big bad a strong introduction after several episodes of buildup.  It was great to see Ryan back in the Constantine role.  I remember when he first showed up on "Arrow", the producers were quick to emphasize that it was just a one-off.  I'm happy to see that that didn't turn out to be the case, as it really would have been a waste.  His show might not come back, but just having him as a recurring presence is plenty to satisfy viewers.

















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