Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s07e08 – Paranoid Android

Every once in a while, “Legends of Tomorrow” will do an episode reminding Caity Lotz isn’t just top-billed on the show or the captain (now co-captain) of the time ship; she’s also really the star. This episode is done from the perspective of the (presumably) android Lotz introduced in last episode’s cliffhanger. Rogue Waverider AI Gideon has created (presumably) android duplicates of the “Legends” to hunt down the human versions and stop them from screwing up history by helping people.

The episode’s got opening titles setting up the new, evil team, and then there are appearance changes as well. Lotz is bustier in her android version, and Nick Zano has hilariously big arms because evil Gideon has a sense of humor. The other big change is Adam Tsekhman doesn’t appear in the episode, but his character’s alien form does. And this version likes eating people more than Tsekhman’s.

The team feeds the alien the innocent people history demands they kill, and history demands they kill a lot of people. Their mission this episode is to clean up after the Chernobyl disaster. Not the actual disaster, but the disaster of the good Legends saving a bunch of people. So Shayan Sobhian and Lisseth Chavez delight in irradiating terrified people to death while Lotz wonders if good guys should act differently.

When Lotz’s revised mission is to force Soviet general Ego Mikitas to lie to the citizenry about the Chernobyl threat being averted, he directly challenges her self-identification as the hero. A little investigating later, Lotz realizes there’s something else going on, and she especially can’t trust team doctor Jes Macallan.

After the recap and the conclusion of the cliffhanger, the episode starts with Macallan mysteriously resurrecting dead teammates. Everyone notices it—Sobhian and Chavez don’t care thanks to bigger guns—and Lotz can convince Tala Ashe to think differently.

It gives Ashe something more to do? She and Lotz don’t get to team up much anymore, and Ashe has been playing a different version of her character for a couple seasons, so bringing her back to the norm and then doing a Stepford riff on it has a lot of layers for Ashe to work with. Plus, there’s a lot of humor to the new characterization; it’s a dark episode, so the gags help. Zano’s goofy arms are worth at least a smile every time (and they’ve got an excellent spoof commercial tying into another DC property).

The finale’s depressing and raises some questions about how time travel adventuring shows work in general—but for a done-in-one concept episode. Lotz gets to do a good arc.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s06e15 – The Fungus Amongus

“Legends” ends this season with a cast change-up—ten main characters were too many, so they’re reducing to eight. One of the goodbyes is more surprising than the other, though only one of them gets anywhere near the attention it deserves. The other receives a rush job. Can’t really get into details without spoiling. There’s also a little bit of next season set-up, but barely any. Certainly not like coming back to find you broke time or unleashed demons or aliens. It’s a mellow finish, which is appropriate because it’s a rollercoaster.

Last episode ended on three big cliffhangers. One of them turns out to be fine immediately. The other two get wrapped together in the solution, which has the team trying to save Earth from invading aliens by going into the future to find a not-yet-evil version of Raffi Barsoumian to help them. Meanwhile, they’re also trying to figure out how to help ailing Lisseth Chavez and recovering from Matt Ryan betraying the team to get his magic back.

So the episode’s got to find time to resolve evil Barsoumian turning off Earth’s “keep the aliens away” defense system, Chavez’s relationship with her newly rediscovered and alive in 1920s Texas mom Alexandra Castillo, Dominic Purcell’s relationship with babies mama Aliyah O’Brien, Ryan and Tala Ashe’s relationship, and Caity Lotz and Ava Sharpe’s nuptials.

Starting with Shayan Sobhian’s return to a broken time and spaceship, it’s pretty clear Ashe and Ryan aren’t going to get the emphasis. Ryan’s arc is in its epilogue stages, but for all the hard stuff for Ashe, the show just puts her in her room and closes the door. Even after she gets some attention, it’s so slight and so pointless a scene… they could’ve just left it out. It’s just too much going on at once, and I’m all of a sudden worried it means Ashe might be one of the next cast members to go.

Lotz and Macallan have some nice scenes together, with Adam Tsekhman and Nick Zano stepping up to help out with pre-wedding jitters. Since neither of them have arcs to resolve, they’re just support, and it’s an uncompleted nice. The way the plot shakes out, Sobhian goes from doing a bunch at the beginning of the episode to very little by the end. No arc for him either.

Barsoumian’s fantastic as the not-yet-evil version of himself (he’s just a really fun egomaniac to have around).

David Geddes’s direction is more middling than not, and when he does find some good insight into a scene, he’s got to rush through it. Just because it’s a time travel show doesn’t mean there’s not a set runtime. The episode could’ve used another ten minutes.

Some charming work from Olivia Swann for her making friends arc, though they hopefully give her better-looking magic powers by next season.

There’s also a really big, really sappy moment, and it works because it’s “Legends” and “Legends” always manages to find sincerity in its absurd, silly, epic contrivances. It’s a perfectly solid season finale. Outside Geddes’s direction, all my gripes are because the show just doesn’t have time and space to fully utilize its cast. There are worse problems to have.

And it’s the first time in ages we’re going into a new season with no idea what to expect. Maybe first time ever?

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s06e03 – The Ex-Factor

If there’s a cohort who hears the Buzzcocks’ Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) and think it’s a cover of the Fine Young Cannibals song until they remember the FYC song was the cover… I am in that cohort. The episode opens with Matt Ryan and Tala Ashe having a booty call (because they’re not really dating, no emotions, he’s a hellblazer, she’s an influencer, after all) and he plays her the song so he can talk about punk rock to her. It’s a very good scene, even before Shayan Sobhian (Ashe’s brother) has to come in to call them back to the time traveling space ship for a mission. Someone on the writing staff—Grainne Godfree and Tyron B. Carter get the credit—has some music thoughts for Ryan to spout and they’re good thoughts. Plus it’s a cute way of showing him trying to date, not just play grab ass.

The crisis this episode is an alien robot arriving in Sobhian and Ashe’s future and killing Ashe’s ex-boyfriend, the host of the only show keeping network TV alive, an “American Idol”-type thing with some Eurovision thrown in. Or maybe “Idol”’s gotten more elaborate since I last watched it (whatever happened to George Huff).

Anyway.

The Legends are able to get back to the future before the alien (voiced by Andrew Morgado, but whoever does the suit work deserves a credit too) kills the ex-boyfriend (Ryan Bell, who’s always in a helmet too, actually). The only way to defeat the alien is for Ashe to get into the competition, which just happens to coincide with her needing to reestablish her brand after her season-long “Legends” adventuring. She also decides to trot Ryan out as her new beau—a London street magician—while telling her mom (Mitra Lohrasb) it’s just a fling. Without having told Ryan she expressly thinks of him in those terms.

Drama.

And effective drama. Ryan and Ashe are really cute together. Nice scene with Lohrasb too. “Legends” does a particularly nice job finding the humanity in the fantastical this episode.

Meanwhile, Jes Macallan has captaining troubles because Dominic Purcell is in a snit over Caity Lotz still being gone and new team member Lisseth Chavez is counseling Macallan to confront Purcell. It’s an okay subplot, purely functional compared to the A plot.

Off on the unknown planet, Lotz and Adam Tsekhman are trying to survive armed pursuers (nice reveal and call back on them too) while Lotz suffers from some kind of alien infection. It’s a busy, good episode.

Even if Nick Zano’s still just around. Though he does get a nice Die Hard reference in. “Legends” doesn’t often get to do near future riffs for laughs, so handful of good “Taco Bell won the franchise wars”-esque gags are welcome.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e10 – The Great British Fake Off

Okay, “Legends” is going to fifteen episodes this season; this one is episode ten and it feels like they’re getting really close to resolving the season’s main plot and I’m really hoping they don’t meander this season like they did last. They got lost meandering.

This episode is split between John (Matt Ryan) and Zari (Tala Ashe) trapped in his house looking for the third magic ring, only they’re trapped there sometime in the past and there are immortal serial killers after them. The third ring gets introduced in an Ancient Egypt prologue, which sadly does not feature first season Hawks man or woman but it was an infinite shot, and the Egypt theme stays with the episode. Ashe eventually has to dress up like Cleopatra to try to save Ryan’s butt.

The other plot has Jes Macallan leading an expedition to Hell—Dominic Purcell and Adam Tsekhman tagging along—to try to convince Olivia Swann to stop messing with Ryan. Macallan’s in charge while Caity Lotz is out of commission, suffering some kind of time sickness.

The Macallan stuff with Swann proves a lot more effective than expected, which kind of makes sense. Macallan’s a time traveling super clone; “Legends”’s version of Hell probably isn’t going to freak her out too much. And she and Swann bond… which is unexpected but not unwelcome.

Purcell and Tsekhman are great comic relief; I’ve missed Tsekhman more than I realized.

But the main plot’s where it’s at; it’s Ashe’s episode. Ryan gets a lot to do and the two spend the episode developing chemistry together, which is… weird since Ashe starts the episode almost kissing alternate timeline ex-boyfriend Nick Zano.

But then Zano was never on par with Ashe; Ryan’s a much better choice, especially as this version of Ashe’s character is racing downhill with the character development now.

There’s also a cameo appearance by Samantha Cole… who’s playing “Enchantress,” a character in need of redeeming post Suicide Squad: The Movie. Cole’s only it for a couple scenes but… interesting to see them try to clean up that brand.

Wait, wait. Almost forgot—apparently following last episode’s tragic conclusion, Ashe and Maisie Richardson-Sellers got their hair done. Richardson-Sellers is a shapeshifter so okay but Ashe’s new do deserves some explanation.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e03 – Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me

It’s a strong episode. Like, really strong; great pacing too. It starts with Constantine (Matt Ryan), who teleported to Hell at the end of last episode, getting to Hell and having a chat with lost soul turned season villain Olivia Swann. It’s a welcome scene not so much for the content—Swann is better in her second appearance this episode, when Ryan’s actually able to surprise her—but for its presence. I was thinking Ryan was zapping off to Hell for an unseen adventure and would be sitting out this episode—he’s still credited as a “special guest star” or some such thing; he’s not a “Legends” star proper. But, as it turns out, he seems to be a regular because he doesn’t just get one of the biggest plot threads this episode, they also get him to start acting goofy.

Ryan’s never really been goofy on “Legends” before. But now he’s getting close.

His part of the episode involves him trying to get forties gangster moll Haley Strode to turn on Bugsy Siegel (Jonathan Sadowski); Bugsy’s this week’s back-from-Hell villain. Sadowski’s doing a Vince Vaughn impression but he’s not bad. He’s got a solid sense of humor, which is the most important thing for a “Legends” actor to have. Strode’s okay—she’s playing the Annette Bening part from the movie only without enough detail to be an actual historical figure—Ryan’s really good with her.

Meanwhile, odd couple Ava (Jes Macallan) and Mick (Dominic Purcell) are bonding over drinks, leading to some truly wonderful comedic showcasing for Macallan. It seems like it’s going to be good, then it just keeps getting better and better.

Caity Lotz and Brandon Routh are doing more serious (and less interesting) mission stuff, Maisie Richardson-Sellers is M.I.A., so the third major subplot has Nick Zano and new guy Shayan Sobhian visiting his family. Sobhian’s a new regular this season, in for Tala Ashe, who blinked out of the timeline at the end of last season. Only then Zano found a Princess Leia-esque message and now he runs into her at Sobhian’s parent’s house. Only this Ashe was never a superhero or Zano’s girlfriend, she’s a social media influencer in 2044 or something. It shouldn’t exactly work but… it does because Ashe’s amazing. The writing’s really good too—credit Ray Utarnachitt, especially on the bickering between Ashe and Sobhian—but Ashe playing lovestruck Zano? Just fantastic.

Between Ryan and—eventually—Routh playing Chinatown, Ryan getting some character development, Macallan getting to be hilarious, Ashe getting to flex her range… it’s a strong episode. It’s one of those, “Now, this is why you watch ‘Legends’ episodes.”