NuZari on the warpath to get her brother back was a sight to see. I think this is the first time we’ve seen the full power of her influencer status. She’s still a hacker, just a social one now. To top it all off, she tapped into the power of the totem in an outfit resembling her original Isis costume.
Other good stuff: introducing Enchantress into the Arrowverse, Astra joining up with the Legends, and unexpected Vandal Savage reference.
I assume Sara was knocked out of action so she could go shoot the Arrow finale.
SECOND CHANGES - Everyone is eager to use the Loom of Fate, but the team must decide who they want to bring back first leaving Charlie to make a tough choice. Sara struggles to understand what has happened to her and with the help of Constantine and Ava, they try to figure out how to help her. Meanwhile, Rory has a guest on the ship that he is trying to impress.
Gary shows up with an emotional support animal and immediately fucks everything up. Did it not occur to him that picking up a random animal from Hell is just begging for trouble?
Rory trying to connect with his daughter was pretty touching. For a moment, I thought that Lita was causing all the problems, but they played it pretty straight.
Sara is going to be getting a superpower. It seems to be related to telling the future. This makes some sort of sense as she saw the true form of Atropos, the Fate responsible cutting a mortal’s thread and hence would know their destiny.
SISTERHOOD - The Legends find themselves going back to college and form a sorority in order to try to retrieve an ancient artifact called the Chalice of Dionyus that will help Charlie operate the Loom of Fate. Proud to be back at his college, Nate falls under Dion’s spell, letting him know of Sara, Astra, Ava and Charlie’s plan to get the cup. Meanwhile, on a father-daughter weekend, Rory takes Lita (guest star Mina Sundwall) on a college tour, but Rory bails on Lita for an unexpected reason.
What would you call this week’s genre? Campus comedy? Frat house comedy? Whatever genre Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, and Van Wilder are in.
Makes sense that Dionysus, the god of wine and merry-making, would seek refuge (and worshipers) in a frat house. Apparently this show subscribes to the trope that gods need followers to gain power.
Sara winning beer pong while blind was, if not epic, perfectly in line with the show and the episode’s chosen genre. She seems to function well enough without sight.
I was assuming the whole time that they were going to show her losing the match, then revealing that was a premonition, then show her using her premonitions to anticipate Dionysus’ moves and wind the match. I was kind of caught flat-footed when she just won the match outright. I think they were leaning into the blind warrior trope that Sara briefly referenced in an earlier episode, when she made a comment about how the League of Assassins trained everyone to flight blind-folded.
STICKING TOGETHER - After drinking from Chalice, the Legends have immortality for 24 hours, which gives them time get to the Waverider and use the Loom of Fate. However, they quickly discover that the sisters have stolen the Waverider and they are stuck at Constantine’s house in the middle of nowhere in London during a Zombie Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Gary is left on the ship and once he discovers what is going on, he takes something important to the sisters.
How many zombie movie references did they cram into the episode?
[ul]
[li]I Am Legend (title)[/li][li]Shaun of the Dead (pub)[/li][li]World War Z (zombies ignore Constantine)[/li][li]28 Days Later (London overrun)[/li][li]Day of the Dead (Pilato on van)[/li][li]Return of the Living Dead (pink-haired zombie)[/li][/ul]
There were undoubtedly many more.
Seeing Gideon in human form is always a pleasure, this time as a figment of Gary’s imagination. I thought that maybe Gary was in a virtual reality, like Zari a couple of seasons ago, but I realized that it was different when Gideon rabbit-hopped her way across the deck.
Talk about your grimdark endings: Everybody died! How are the Legends going to get out of this one?
Did you notice that not only was Rory driving the bus on the wrong side of the road, but it couldn’t even function properly in England? The door was on the right side- it bugged me the entire episode.
BREAKING FREE - After Charlie does the one thing that goes against her nature when it comes to her sisters, she tries to protect the Legends by scattering them in different television shows. Of course, in true Legends style some can’t just be blissfully ignorant and happy but figure out a way to end up messing with the system.
The One Where We’re Trapped on TV promo: - YouTube
I’m fairly certain she did use her powers it just wasn’t displayed that well. She shook Dion’s hand just before the game and there was a brief pause there where she smirked. She knew exactly how the match would go.
Can I just say, it’s refreshing to have a show avoid the trope of “Person gets premonition of the future, and tries to prevent it only to cause the events to happen.” (Looking at you Flash). We had three episodes of future-sight Sara and we got:
Sara able to prevent the future from happening.
Playing it for laughs (“Zari, hide your fork”)
Seeing a terrible future, but realizing it had to play out that way and not try to stop it.
Fates be praised! This show is just getting better and better.
First we get a 1984-style dystopia, with Mona literally rewriting history. Which leads right into the new opening credits, featuring the Fates, with a new theme song. Then we see what’s happened to the Legends. They’ve been scattered into different TV shows, each a parody of real TV series:
[ul]
[li]Ultimate Buds - Friends[/li][li]Highcastle Abbey - Downton Abbey[/li][li]Star Trip - Star Trek[/li][/ul]
Kudos to everyone in production, who managed to recreate the look of each show. Not just the sets and costumes, but also the writing, the music, and even the cinematography. Ultimate Buds had the flat sitcom-style lighting. Highcastle Abbey was that lush and dramatic. Star Trip had that garish 1960’s scifi look. Plus each show title was a double entendre.
The ultimate show, of course, had to be Mr. Parker’s Cul-de-Sac. And they had an original song for that, as well.
The MVP of the episode was Mona, who inadvertently touched off a revolution against the Fates.
I continue to be impressed by this show. They seem to take a lot more risks than any of the other Arrowverse shows, and they seem to get a lot more creative. Even when some elements of the show don’t quite work, they’re at least interesting failures.
On the other hand, it’s not even really a DC show anymore. They’ve almost given up on even maintaining the pretense that many of the characters have powers - especially poor Nate. Presumably, his steel form is a really expensive FX. But even when they remember it, somehow it doesn’t actually seem to matter to the plot - he was apparently somehow eaten by zombies in the last episode, even after early in the episode he was clearly invulnerable to them.
And I can’t remember the last time they actually introduced a character or plot element from the comics.
Still, that’s really a minor quibble. I’m not a purist. Overall, I’m happy with the drift the show has taken since the Vandal Savage vs. Rip Hunter - Timemaster! storyline. It’s easily my favorite of the Arrowverse shows. Now, if only they had the budget for some half-way decent FX…
Not that I really expect a lot of consistency, but how is it that the Fates maintained their god-like powers? Dionysus/Dion got worship from the frat boys, but what keeps the ladies going? Random mentions of “it was fate”?
They didn’t retain their god-like powers. They still had some divine attributes, but they couldn’t actually shape Fates until the regained possession of the pieces of the Loom of Fate (which is somehow a set of rings???). Once they got the Loom back, they bootstrapped themselves back into full godhood by reshaping the Fate of everyone in the world so that they all worship the Fates.
I think.
I really enjoy the show, but, yeah, plotting, consistency, and continuity are not exactly its strengths.