Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Teleplay:Phil Klemmer & Chris Fedak
Air Date: May 12, 2016
I looked up this show on IMDB, yesterday, in order to familiarize myself with what people thought about it. Boy was I surprised. This series is apparently incredibly divisive, scoring a 7.3 and earning the title of second lowest scoring current DC show. For the sake of comparison: Smallville earned a 7.5 and Arrow and Gotham both earned an 8.0. Now, I don't judge a show by the perceptions of others, but they do peak my curiosity. Largely speaking, I feel like LOT is probably a bit better than people give it credit for, not great, but pretty good. With that in mind, I head into this episode hoping that it will prove me right. I don't like having to eat my words.
Explain it!
This episode begins with pretty much everyone in prison. The team has been betrayed by the Time Masters and only Captain Cold and Sarah are free to come to the rescue. Jefferson Jackson is free, but in the far past and Rip Hunter is temporarily free as the Time Master expose their plots to him. As it turns out, all the events in the show so far have been predestined by the Time Masters. Now, this is a great story telling device. Why? Well, because suddenly Savage becomes a threat again. Savage had been losing again and again, but now we know that it was all a part of plan hatched by him and the masters. Also, it presents a true Justice League level challenge, the bad guys literally control fate, Rip Hunter gets to see it. Anyways, after exposition hour, Rip is sent to the jail with the others and all hope seems lost.
Fortunately, Superman err. I mean, the Atom knows how to inspire hope in people and indeed he does. He reminds his team that both the Captain and the Canary are still out there and will soon come for them. He is not wrong. Because the entire station is outside time, the Time Masters' destiny control machine can not work on them. Finally, something in this show that is time travel related makes sense! Anyhow, the team is genre-savvy enough to know that they have to destroy the destiny control machine and they start making plans to do so. Meanwhile, in the present day, Jefferson has found a way to fix the time machine and after the talk with Stein (in which he bring up the whole roofie thing again) he's ready to help.
In another great twist, the villains on this show are also genre-savvy and thus are aware of their only vulnerability. When Rip and his team arrive the Time Masters are already waiting for them. Cue Firestorm's opportune arrival and an epic brawl begins. At the end of the day, in order to destroy the machine someone has to be left behind. In a show of consummate free will, Lennie Snart decides to do the ugly deed and gets a kiss out of it too. Thus, our team escapes and the finale of Legends is set up.
Bit's and Pieces:
There's a lot to like about this episode and even some to love. Pound for pound, I think it just might be the best one. Not only does our main bad guy get propped up and the time travel actually make sense, but various exciting plot threads get introduced. Some I haven't even mentioned, such as to not spoil them, but suffice to say they have begun adapting one of my favorite Justice League stories of all time. Not only that, but Captain Cold has never been better and the action has never felt so satisfying. We've been dealing with these sanctimonious Time Masters for months now and it feels good to see them get their arses kicked. So with all this in mind, I stand by what I said in the beginning and I award this episode a...
9.5/10
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