At long last, Legends of Tomorrow has a good story, good characters, and good villains. And who better to kick off their newest adventure than a ’70s drug-dealing Damien Darhk? Saving him from a DEA drugs bust is Eobard Thawne who is casually dropping hints about his future plans.
Be Cool
Mick’s newest partner in crime is failing about as much as the villains are succeeding. Ray is struggling to ‘be cool’ like Snart. Instead of aiming for emotionless, he’s going for suave. Wrong type of cool entirely. Meanwhile, Heywood has crafted a time seismograph to detect and locate changes in time. First on the list is the INF Treaty in 1987. Vixen decides to reach out to the current JSA generation for help. Instead, she finds nothing but a deserted warehouse. Thanks to the ripple effect, her leaving could have destroyed the entire legacy.
Investigating the White House, the Legends discover a few changes — young Stein is somehow involved, and Damien Darhk is mediating talks. Considering the future plans of nuking the world and the INF treaty of removing nukes, this seems like a strange choice for the immortal. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, an aged Obsidian ambushes Vixen and Steel to confront her over leaving. Acting on instinct, Heywood knocks out the old guy. An angry Sara tries to make another attempt on Darhk but alerts security to her presence. Despite constant warnings and even Ghostbusters wisdom, Ray crosses streams with Mick. Only Firestorm‘s cover allows them to escape and try again.
Stakeout
While staking out Darhk, things get horribly cringey between Ray and Mick. ‘Colonel Cold’ is acting way too nerdy for Mick’s liking. The constant reminders of his friend are giving him f… ffff.. feelings! Although the arsonist might be, well, an arsonist, it appears that he’s actually just a slightly singed teddy bear. Once more, Stein Junior messes things up by trying to speak with Darhk and discovering the subterfuge. How can such a genius constantly be so stupid? Despite trying to debate his way out of things, Darhk has a few good (knife) points.
There’s wondering how stupid you can be and then there’s the Stein actually shouting at himself. Deciding to go after Darhk at the state dinner, Vixen seeks help with Obsidian. But the retired JSAer is reluctant because of Vixen’s previous relationship with Rex. Identity crises abound as Stein tries to recognise his younger self and Ray his current self. Both are struggling to come to terms with the changes that are happening in their lives. It’s a very human moment for the heroes.
Dinner Plans
Arriving at the dinner, problems immediately start showing up. Without Stein Junior to take her to dinner, Clarrisa is now in the firing line. Stein Senior dances with her, and under the guise of a friend of her husband, tells her how lucky he is. That is, young him. Which is also him. Time travel: there to ruin grammar. Thankfully, Darhk is spotted before anything else can go wrong.
Darhk is giving over vital information inside a slim new technology — the CD-ROM! — to the Russians. All he requests in exchange is a small box. When the JSA arrives, he reveals that existence of a bomb in the dining hall above. The dynamic duo of Ray and Rory attempt to clear the floor in their own ways. Rory goes for the standard ‘hold-up’, but his new counterpart calmly informs people of the bomb threat and lets the people make their own heading. ‘Colonel Cold’ isn’t able to defuse the bomb until Rory confesses that he was wrong to try and change Ray. Only Palmer can save them all.
Obsidian has the ability to phase objects — like bullets and punches — through himself. Damien Darhk has a gun. Enter the biggest superhero failure ever as Vixen provides a nice target with Obsidian taking a bullet for her. Only the timely arrival of Sara distracts Darhk long enough to spare them. Remember how the first rule of time-travel is no messing with the timeline? In less than a minute, Sara reveals why Darhk’s plan fails, how his wife and child die, how he dies, and that she is a time-traveller. There is not much more she can give away short of lottery numbers.
There are some touching reconciliation moments: Stein tells his younger self to love his wife, Todd goes back to his husband, Vixen tells Heywood about his grandpa. And then we get to the good bits. Darhk is not best pleased with his fate and asks Thawne to help him change it. The Reverse-Flash agrees and reveals a Time Sphere. One wormhole later and the pair disappears off to their next plot.
Observations
- For the leader of the Legends, Sara is being absolutely reckless about the whole ‘ruining history’ affair. She literally told Darhk exactly how he was going to die.
- Considering Stien, Jackson, Sara, Ray, and even Mick’s relations with Barry, why have they not figured out that the speedster is Thawne? If that isn’t in the next episode, I have lost all faith in this team.
- If you want to torture somebody, show them Ray’s identity crisis in this episode. Mick is almost as bad but clearly grieving, so he gets a pass.