Getting back to this: right now, my WAG is that it was the Legends all along, in a closed time loop.
They’ll locate the Father of Time Travel, have some adventures helping him to get his time machine working, possibly some adventures trying to “fix” the timeline, and wind up realizing that the “changes” they’ve made so far are either what was supposed to happen in the first place, or changed the timeline for the better. So, they wind up rebuilding the Waverider or getting a temporal duplicate or somenthing, and then go back to blow up Waverider′, to preserve the loop. They also somehow manage to get ahold of a Robot Hoover to replace the real Hoover they accidentally killed and insert him to live out the rest of Real Hoover’s life and preserve the timeline.
I’m probably completely wrong about all of that, though. I have a terrible record of predicting plot developments in the Arrowverse.
A LITTLE LUCK - After Sara, Ava, Behrad and Gary arrive in New York City, they track down Dr. Gwyn Davies, who isn’t the scientist they expected. Astra, Spooner, and Gideon are still trying to stop the Legends from using the time machine, but they run into some more setbacks along the way. Meanwhile, in the pocket dimension Nate and Zari work together on the Hoover situation as well how to make their future together work.
Last episode, I thought that giving Gary the magic key and sending him on a train alone to travel cross-country to New York was a bad idea. So many possibilities for him to screw up. But, to my surprise, he managed to make it there without incident. No, he screwed up in an even bigger manner, by revealing to Edison that Dr. Davies (who looks suspiciously like John Constatine) was developing a time machine on the side. And thus began a classic Legends series of screw ups culminating in Edison himself dying and being replaced by yet another robot.
Meanwhile, Astra, Spooner, and Gideon’s cross-country trek seemed to go relatively smoothly. No real screw ups unlike the rest of the Legends. At least until “Cannonball” allowed his car to get stolen. One could argue that’s on Cannonball for leaving his car unguarded. The rest of the Legends could learn from the new girls.
So now the whole gang’s back together, with a working time machine no less. What other screw ups are they going to get into?
Was she not in the final shot? She was definitely on the machine when Davis threw the switch - she and Gary had a (weird) bonding moment about enjoying being in tight spaces as they watched him throw the switch.
I was certain that Astra hitting the tower with the lighting and causing a power surge was going to electrocute the Legends, as part of a closed time loop, but…not so much. It also really seemed like there was a 1.21 gigawatts joke sitting there that they didn’t use.
I think the theory I mentioned upthread, that the Other Waverider is actually the Future Legends preserving a closed Time Loop, is still plausible, though (they even lampshaded it this episode, with the revelation that HooverBot’s programming is to preserve the timeline, and Nate noting that doing that is literally the Legends’ job). The Future Legends may not be chasing Our Legends, they may just be tailing them, and cleaning up their messes. Of course, that leaves open the question why HooverBot’s Prime Directive was to kill the Legends, but maybe that’s part of the closed time loop?
I did, too. It’s far from the first time they’ve run into a temporal doppleganger - they seem pretty common. They also seem like they don’t resemble the “original” quite as much in-universe as they do to us in the audience. We mostly just get joking references to a resemblance, not anyone explicitly saying that Marie Antoinette looks exactly like Nora Darhk.
ADDITIONAL BAGGAGE - When the Legends and Gwyn finally time travel, the time machine goes haywire leaving them stranded in a lush forest with no idea when or where they are. Seeing that Sara and Ava are noticeably stressed, Nate takes over and gives everyone tasks to set up camp to keep everyone occupied. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Legends, someone keeps trying to destroy the anomalies that keep popping up which could create bigger ripples throughout history.
I really enjoyed evil Gideon taking over the whole mission and Bishop slowly coming to the realization that he’s the villain (again) and the Legends are true heroes. I also enjoyed seeing human Gideon sampling the local flora. I’m not so sure about human Gideon and alien Gary hooking up.
CREATING CHANGE - When the Legends crash land in 1940s Seattle, they find themselves right in the middle of WWII with a surprise guest. Needing replacement parts to fix the time machine, Sara, Ava, Astra, Spooner and Gideon find themselves working in different sections of an airplane factory alongside “Rosies.” With Astra frustrated with inequality in the workforce, she takes matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Behrad offers to play host and help teach Nate about Persian culture and etiquette.
Heh. Classic I Love Lucy assembly line gag. They even made up Ava to look like Lucille Ball. This might be the first time that the show stole from paid homage to an outright comedy.
Once again, this show has done social commentary better than certain other Arrowverse shows ostensibly all about social commentary. And it was relevant to the plot, no less. If Eleanor Roosevelt hadn’t seen the results of having an integrated workforce thereby changing the timeline, the evil Waverider would never have cottoned to where the Legends were.
This was the mid-season finale so we will have to wait for two months or so see the evil Waverider and its crew of evil Legends. Never fear, we still have one more Legends-adjacent episode coming. Next week, it’s the animated holiday special Beebo Saves Christmas!
I’ll just put this up here even though it’s not officially a part of the Legends season. We all know only this show could have created our Furry Blue Savior.
THE HERO WE NEED - Everyone’s favorite fuzzy toy-turned furry god will once again be a hero as he tries to save Christmas in BEEBO SAVES CHRISTMAS. When Sprinkles (voiced by Chris Kattan), an efficiency-obsessed elf, decides that Christmas would run better without Santa Claus (voiced by Ernie Hudson), Beebo (voiced by Ben Diskin) and his friends travel to the North Pole to help discover what truly makes Christmas meaningful. Also starring Kimiko Glenn as the voice of Tweebo, Yvette Nicole Brown as the voice of Turbo, Keith Ferguson as the voice of Fleabo, and Victor Garber as the narrator.
I haven’t delved too deeply into online reviews so as to avoid spoilers, but from what I’ve read, it’s presented as a purely in-universe artifact, the kind of toy-commercial-disguised-as-a-Christmas-special a toy like Beebo would have. It’s apparently a bit disorienting if you go into it cold, since part of the conceit is the expectation that the audience will already be familiar with the wildly popular toy/character.
So, apparently it’s a straight-up Christmas kids show and it will have an under-the-radar Legends vibe if you go in knowing that it’s an in-universe artifact.
I just got finished watching it. I thought it was a pretty solidy mediocre kids Christmas special. There are a few jokes aimed at adults that kind of work, and it does have a more nuanced and sophisticated resolution that the standard kids Christmas special. But if you found the first five minutes unwatchable, I don’t think sticking with it is worth your time. I only got through it because of the lingering frisson of knowing it was supposed to be an in-universe artifact from Earth-1 and curiosity of what they would do with it.
ETA: I suspect some Legends fans embrace it ironically as a subtly sly parody of the genre. But I don’t think it is. I think it’s exactly what it appears to be.
