On a random note, I did love Stein's method of acquiring said toy. Having the "Arrow" theme play as he pulls back the quiver on that cheap little toy was a hilarious and nice touch, but the results themselves are legitimately awesome as well.
The timing is oddly convenient, but even the characters acknowledge it and add it to the list of coincidental run-ins that can't just be coincidence this season. It also provides great character fodder, as Jax is now tempted to change things. Given that this is a time travel show, the urge is natural. Heck, Sara herself had to fight it (she doesn't bring this up when talking to him oddly enough.) It was still well done and it gave Jax some sense of closure as even past Stein is content with the way things play out in his life. Credit to Graeme McComb. He does a great job stepping in Garber's shoes. He gets the general mannerisms, but also manages to hit the more emotional scenes out of the park with his performance.
The shot at "Back to the Future" style time travel was oddly amusing now, what with "Endgame" having come out and making a similar jab. The weird thing is that this show's rules of time travel are much closer to the film, yet the writers still felt the need to take a potshot. I don't get why everybody feels the need to bash on it all of a sudden, it's a great flick.
In any event, young Martin's presence in the past causes one of the largest timeshifts to date, as the Vikings declare the toy their new god and never leave the Americas. Of course, with this comes some who twist even Beebo's innocent words to ill effect. Mick almost gets burned alive due to the Vikings thinking that their god is hungry...for blood. Shockingly, nobody pointed out that Heat Wave, of all people, almost got burned alive. It seems like something they'd do, oh well.
Darhk's appearance was a bit on the perfunctory side. We're still not sure what his overall goal this year is. As far as this goes, it seems like he just wants to take over the world, but if there is some larger scheme in motion, it's never specified. Normally, McDonough is able to overcome any shortcomings with his performance, but he's not given a whole lot to do here. It just feels like he was there just to fill in a slot.
Conversely, I thought Agent Sharpe's inclusion was well handled here. Simply having her offer her condolences for Stein was heartwarming enough, but she seems to be shifting more towards an ally position. Going so far as to help the Legends on more than one occasion. Not only do she and Sara start to come to terms, there is plenty of shipping fodder. Sara notes that Sharpe looks good in Viking garb and later gives her a once over when Sharpe tells some Vikings that she's not into the whole having a husband thing.
With this being the mid-season finale, we do get something of a confrontation with the season's big bad. It isn't Darhk, rather, Mallus itself. We don't see him, but we do get an ominous voice that makes its intentions known when Sara is randomly pulled into what I suppose is it's realm. I figured Sara's newfound location was going to be the world after he got free, but that doesn't seem to be the case. We also get to see the reflection of a giant hand coming towards Sara in a close up shot of her eye. I figured there was going to be some cliff-hanger about her being possessed. It may still come up later, but so far, that doesn't seem to be the case either.
I did love the appearance of Constantine at the end. I knew he was going to pop up on the show this season, but I didn't know it was here. I can only imagine how fans reacted seeing that when this first aired. I have the luxury of being able to watch the next episode. Back in the day, though, it would've been at least a two month wait. That's a heck of a note to end on.
All in all, this was a strong episode. It brought heart, a fair dose of comedy, and plenty of character development. True, it did force us to say goodbye to yet another show regular (Jax leaves) but this was on a much happier note. The farewells were fond and Jax gets to give a nice speech about the formation of this particular family. It'll be interesting to see how things move forward as we move into the second stretch of the season.
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