DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow explores moral complexity with a big-hearted Zari Party
1925 Chicago gets a shot in the arm by Legends’ resident makeover artist in “Speakeasy Does It”
TV Reviews Zari
After last week’s bittersweet trip down spacetime-memory lane DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow has returned to its regularly scheduled tomfoolery in the year 1925. Despite the various fan-friendly story beats that were visited during that 100-episode celebration, which spanned six rambunctious seasons of wild time-traveling hijinks, the Legends were very much still temporally trapped in ‘25, a cool, goofy sci-fi detail that tends to pop up whenever Legends is operating at peak levels—and last week was certainly a high for the show.
When Legends at its schmaltziest, however (which, to be fair, has totally been the vibe of the show for a long while now), we get installments like “Speakeasy Does It”, a saccharine loony tune which tests the Legends’ responsibilities to the timeline and shows how quickly they are ready to torpedo said responsibilities when doing the moral thing makes itself abundantly clear. (And the show does go to great pains to make these moral choices abundantly clear, my goodness.) It at once brings up the perils of interfering with the timeline—a thing we are often told is not just a no-no, but the greatest of no-nos—while also purposely altering the established course of peoples’ lives anyway. At least Zari makes darn sure they have fun as they do it. Legends!
“Speakeasy Does It” lands the Legends in Chicago, 1925, an fitting pit-stop for the crew considering their brush with Al Capone’s outfit two episodes ago, and besides, it’s a chance to gin up another totally reasonable excuse for Sara & Ava to trip the light fantastic in glamorous (semi-) period-specific outfits. King Alphonse (or “Scarface” if you prefer) doesn’t pop up this week, even though the Bullet Blondes do find themselves dabbling in the Chicago bootlegging business to scrape together enough dough to finally make it to the Big Apple. Instead we’re introduced to the comically mean-mugging, lower-rung mobster equivalent Ross Bottoni, who as the episode’s quasi-heavy becomes the impetus behind every giddy thing that happens across this week’s two converging storylines.
That’s right, the crew of The Waverider are still broken into two teams, but this time their distance away from each other is only a matter of blocks instead of states (or even states of mind). Spooner, Astra, and Gideon make really good time catching up with Sara, Ava, Nate, Zari *counts fingers* Gary, and Behrad, though their train-hopping jaunt does land them in the first of the episode’s multiple displays of racism. Their fortunes quickly shift, however, when a suspicious train attendant gets himself mollified by Maude, gangster’s moll and lead singer of a traveling band called the Masqueradies. (Which I’m guessing is a portmanteau of “masquerade” and “ladies.”) “Gals help gals make new pals, that’s how I see it,” Maude says to the group cheerfully, before a telegram from her violent beau Bottoni calls her home to perform at his newest ill-gotten speakeasy.
That speakeasy had been the property of a young man by the name of Eddie—until the Legends came blundering into his path, that is. From here things break down in standard Legends fashion, where a small problem quickly leads into a temporary solution, which then spirals into a full-on predicament: Sara and Ava’s need to disguise their luxurious (and headline-grabbing) blonde locks has them spending what remains of the crew’s travelling cash on designer wigs. (Gary spent the rest tipping a waitress 20 bucks: “20 dollars for a six-top seems fair to me.” Good for Gary! But also, dumb of Gary!)
The crew’s mad scramble for cash pulls Eddie into their orbit at just the right time; he invites them into his especially-on-the-q.t. speakeasy, one of the very few safe spaces in all of Chicago where people who stand out can hang out. (In fact, Eddie wants to make his spot so open to those who might need it that his password turns out to be “password.”) There Sara makes a deal to get an ample supply of whiskey for Eddie’s speakeasy, which seems like it’d be a great way for both parties to make some extra money… but—and Gideon would have definitely come in handy in this instance—Sara unwittingly barters with the wrong Chicago gang. Sara’s gangster gaffe brings the wrath of Bottoni down violently upon Eddie, who is left with his life but without his livelihood.
(Sidebar: wouldn’t Eddie question where the booze came from, considering he’d originally made an arrangement with Bottoni? If his hold on his own club was so tenuous, why wouldn’t he be more particular about who gave the hooch to Sara?)
Eddie’s misfortune is an interesting place to brew a bit of light melodrama. It’s a fine example of how delicate messing around in the past can be, especially when the Bullet Blondes decide on a whim to do something wildly dangerous like, say, hop into the bootlegging trade in Chicago in the year 1925. (I do often wonder if Sara Lance ever studied any history in school.) Consequences in a time travel tv show are always welcome, even if these complex issues do end up getting resolved within the span of a tidy 42 minutes.
So how do the Legends make things right? Like any misfit sports team from a 90s movie knows, the only proper way to rescue A Special Thing is to rustle up a fundraiser: within nanoseconds of getting the opportunity to help someone Zari opens her hellacious house of mystery to Eddie for use as an impromptu speakeasy pop-up. It’s a Zari Party and everybody’s invited! (Not you, Hoover-1000, with your dark scanny eyes, looking for trouble.)
As Zari works relentlessly to makes things right with Eddie, the only person in 1925 Chicago who has been decent to her (not to mention incredibly sweet), Astra and Spooner discover the root cause of Spooner’s initial wariness about the Masqueradies courtesy of Maude, who lets Astra in on her tragic backstory. When Astra suggests that she just up and leave Bottoni, a reasonable suggestion to make in 2021, maybe, but certainly not in 1925, Maude hits back: “You just don’t get it.” Her response stings, because how can it not, but Astra isn’t daunted.
This brings us to a recurring conundrum for DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow: futzing with the timeline even when it’s the moral thing to do. In the moment, it is absolutely the right thing for Zari to fix Eddie’s speakeasy problem; Eddie moving out from under Bottoni is a positive change in his life, but who’s to say how this will affect his fortunes in the years to come? Will another Bottoni show up one day and try to horn in on Eddie’s action, just because they feel entitled to it?
And then there’s the matter of Maude. Astra asks Gideon about Maude’s fate, and her answer is predictably hideous: Maude’s on a one-way track towards oblivion if she stays with her abusive gangster boyfriend. Getting Maude away from Bottoni and saving her life is for sure the right thing to do… but what happens tomorrow? Singing in clubs in 1925 Chicago isn’t going to make Maude safer—and besides, Bottoni’s got big-time Chicago connections, debilitating spider-phobia or no debilitating spider-phobia. It’s not unreasonable to think he or some lackey of his will go looking for Maude long after the episode’s reliably awesome song-and-dance number comes to a close. What happens then? Is Astra going to be keeping tabs on Maude in the future?
This week spent some time pointing out that things were bad for certain folks in 1925, an obvious thing that doesn’t exactly do anything on its own. But in the year 2021, presenting hope for those who didn’t have much to hold on to in 1925 has material value even if it is goofy. Hell, especially if it’s goofy; Legends is a goofy show, but no one can ever accuse it of having its heart in the wrong place.
So what’s to be done about Maude? Spooner brings up a solid point when Astra is faced with this decision: “If we try to rescue every woman in a bad relationship from here to New York, we’ll never get a mile out of Chicago.” It’s good reasoning (and a really good line) even if the episode does end up glossing over the murky ramifications of the team ultimately making the decision to change Maude and Eddie’s lives anyway. The timeline has an order to it, but it seems that so long as the Legends’ changes remain small the continuum won’t go into a tailspin. (Though it might have helped to double-check with Gideon in Maude’s case.)
Maude takes a powder but not without a teary goodbye, and the day is saved (plus, now the crew has a bionic G-man in tow to figure out). But! All this moral quandary does raise at least one more big question that feels like it ought to be explored more thoroughly at some point in the future: is fate… mutable, actually? Or maybe I’m barking up the wrong timeline here; in DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow fate just hasn’t seemed like that complicated a thing. Bend the time-space laws to have a bit of fun, break them if somebody’s in danger. Simple. Imagine what could happen if things suddenly got heavy.
Stray Observations
- Episode’s MVP: Spooner Cruz. Lisseth Chavez’s level-headedness and good nature has been this season’s greatest strength so far. She’s the most interesting character in this newest band of Legends, a budding leader and a low-key superhero-in-the-making. Look to the moment when Spooner let fly her rallying cry this week (“Legends… vámonos!”). It’s awesome. More Spooner!
- Bishop Watch 2021: Bupkis this week. Perhaps he’ll be spoiling the Legends’ NYC reunion with Matt Ryan next week?
- One thing that’s been gnawing at me: when the Legends finally do travel forward in time, where/when are they going?
- So we’re all gonna be polite and not point out how unconvincing 1925 Chicago looks this week, right? Yes?
- The papers think Ava and Sara are sisters, a subtle nod to how queer relationships were often completely omitted from the recorded lives of historical figures.
- Astra: “Okay, Captain Sharpe.” Gideon: “That’s Spooner Cruz.”
- Did I see a bottle of whiskey in that totally not period-correct refrigerator? Who puts whiskey in the refrigerator? Legends Recapper PSA: Don’t do that. I don’t care what your dad told you.
- Zari, to Eddie: “Pics or it didn’t happen.” Bartenders are generally socially malleable as a rule (speaking as a former bartender myself), but I think this Eddie guy was so sweet on Zari that he was actively ignoring the warning signs that Zari, Sara, and the rest were (inadvertently) leading him astray. Zari wasn’t even trying to be period incognito.
- Did anybody else catch Gideon stuffing her face with food? Was that a part of a cut scene, or something? Whatever it was, Gideon’s face was priceless.
- What are we calling Spooner’s stabs of intuition? Spooner-sense? I’m calling it Spooner-sense.
- Bittoni is a high-ranking tough-guy gangster, so can’t he afford a decent haircut?
- Hey! Behrad can play a mean guitar! Legends is closer to putting out an album than it isn’t, I’m just saying.
- In the DC Multiverse, Hell is real, and Phil Spector is renting space down there.
- Nate, to Gary: “You get off being bossed around, you little sicko.”
- Also: Gary and Nate’s doorman brouhaha against the time-robot Hoover-1000 was pure gold. Gary: ass-kicker and relationship problem-solver.
- Hoover-1000’s greatest weakness: drapes. Maybe we stopped producing titanium in the future? It’s a green hunter-robot!
- So what did you think, group? Are you stoked to see how lush Matt Ryan’s new beard actually is? Will Nate and Zari figure things out over a Hoover-1ooo autopsy? How much is a good tip in 1925, anyway? Let’s tabulate our totals together in the comments below.
84 Comments
Man i do hope this ep’s budget issues was a result of last week’s effects heavy story. Nonetheless, the cast and crew made it all work.
I thought this one was utterly delightful. Granted when you have Gideon singing a love song for Ava and Sara while the Bullet Blondes do a dance number it’s hard for me not to love it. Just a grand fun time all around.
Same, a B for this is criminal. That musical act alone make this a A+, and needs to be some as yet undiscovered grade for Nate and Gary being surprsingly good at digging into each other’s flaws with relationships.
It reminded me of that great old (it’s old now, sigh) Firefly episode where Mal and Wash keep working through their relationship troubles while being tortured.
I thought this was a fun episode – racist dicks aside.If that’s really Amy Louise Pemberton’s voice, then she has some serious pipes. I love Spooner and Astra together, and I hope their dynamic stays throughout the rest of the run. Sara and Ava are delightful as always, but I really loved Zari; I felt every ounce of her anger and her need to put on the beset party ever – a true Zari Party, if you will.I’m looking forward to the whole gang getting back together again. I want to see how they react to Gideon. Knowing this show, it’ll be with a shrug and a “moving on” sort of vibe – kinda like how Nate and Charlie reconciled how she looked like Amaya.
Damn, was that Amy Pemberton’s real singing voice?
Yes it was. Her IG has a bunch of clips of her singing. She’s amazing.
The whiskey is from Johnny C’s magical fridge in his pocket hell-dimension mansion that keeps regenerating whenever they open the fridge door so that’s why the Legends were asking to use the storage unit, so they could go get whiskey from the fridge. Gary and Nate just psychoanalyzing each other was a thing of beauty, I need more of it. And obviously any other excuses to have Amy Louise Pemberton sing.Zari Tarazi was being a lot like Zari Tomaz this episode, though essentially they’re the same people who just grew up in completely environments so it was one of the few times in Zari 2.0’s life where she was being openly discriminated for who she was – which was how Zari 1.0 grew up. I was so happy then the latter showed up at the end… though from how Nate’s face was, her reappearance might be one of the last ones coming up?
Yeah, I enjoy the recaps, but the bit about who gave Sara the hooch and bartering with the wrong gang is an obvious misinterpretation. The booze came from the neverending magic fridge. That’s how they “bootlegged it”.The mob guy just extorted extra money from wholesaling the booze during prohibition. I assume he charged rent and a big markup on the liquor.
The real question is why John put the whiskey in the fridge in the first place.
I’ll never stopped being impressed at how notably different Tala Ashe’s Zaris are. Even if they didn’t dress Zari 1.0 like how she used to, Ashe’s delivery alone sells the difference.
Yeah Zari 2.0’s voice is pitched differently too.
It was a fun outing. I do wonder if Eddie will have more consequences. He can afford to rent a place that isn’t mob owned now, but he still has to get booze from somewhere. On the other hand, Capone’s a business man. As long as Eddie toes the line in future, he may be find selling him liquor.The Nate and Zari thing has to be resolved somehow. It really is a relationship without a future. I have no idea how, though. Loved how Gary refused to be kink shamed and turned it around on Nate. Gary seems a million miles from who he was in the first season, but not in a personality transplant way. It’s like we’ve just gotten to know him well enough for him to show his true self.
Loved how Gary refused to be kink shamed and turned it around on NateAgreed, the making him in an alien seemed to be rather crowbarred in, even by Legends standards, and yet it’s really working out for the character.
Yeah, making Gary integral to the Legends and not just the perennial butt monkey really did wonders for his character. Also the show needed another guy for Nate to riff off of for this scene, and it might’ve felt awkward if Behrad was talking about his alt-timeline sister.
I love that his response to Nate ribbing him about liking being bossed around was essentially, “No duh.”
This was a pretty fun episode that is kind of hampered by the rampant uses of “Didn’t Think This Through.” Also, the fact that Spooner, Astra, and Gideon managed to catch up to the gang THAT fast, through so many contrived coincidences, is a bit irritating.
But again, it was a fun episode. Gary and Nate analyzing each other, Zari getting a plot that’s not her relationship with John, and Gideon being Gideon were all quite amusing to watch. I do find it weird that the only actual racist they ran into in Chicago was the wig dealer, though. Also, props to Jes MacCallan for making Ava’s dance as awkward and corny as it should have been.
Batwoman corner: I’m glad they’re finally acknowledging the whole “CEO of Wayne Enterprises” bit that the first two seasons barely bothered with, but Jada being so spiteful makes me facepalm. Then again, it’s also rather fridge logic-y that Ryan was made CEO of Wayne Enterprises to begin with, since we’ve never seen anyone actually employed at WE (except for the publicist this episode) except for the main cast. I also wonder why they’re using the Black Glove, but giving them the role of the Court of Owls. Were they not allowed to use them?
This was also the first mention of a Wayne Enterprises’ board of directors. Did they ever visit Wayne Tower? Didn’t they already have a CEO?
Honestly, who the fuck even knows at this point? Wayne Enterprises was such a non-entity in Season 1-2 that it just seems weird that it’s still around and funding Batwoman today.
It was a minor plot point in season one, when Kate to decided that the corporate focus should be on rehabilitating low income neighborhoods in Gotham. then season two had too many other things on its plate to really be concerned about WE.
I wonder if Wayne Enterprises being a functioning entity is a Crisis thing. I seem to recall Kate had to scale the wall and Luke was basically security guard/only remaining employee at the start. And Jada must be crazy good to find the Bat-fund, or Bruce and Lucius were slipping hard. Or it could just be that Luke isn’t as good as they were, leading them to be able to trace it back.
That’d make sense except it hadn’t been established in the season & a half Post-Crisis until now.
I love Ryan but being made Wayne Ceo and 30 f0r 30 is one of the more ludicrous plots i have seen on the Arrowverse shows. Even more so when they put Oliver in charge of Queen consolidated. Then again Ryan looks and seems to be adapting quickly to the part and we got Andrew from Buffy so whatever.
At least Queen Consolidated was an active business and Ollie had been involved in his own business for a bit at that point.
Exactly.
Honestly, up until that episode I assumed that Wayne Enterprises was defunct (or at least off doing its own thing somewhere) and Kate/Luke had been doing some sort of conservatorship over the Wayne Estate not an actively functioning business.
How did legally dead Kate Kane unilaterally make Ryan Wilder CEO?
I’m wondering what the in-universe explanation was for Ryan being made Wayne CEO. Kate I can understand – she was Bruce’s cousin. But Ryan has no connection to Bruce or Wayne Enterprises, and has no business experience. Plus she’s an ex-con and was homeless a year ago. How exactly did the public (or anyone in the business world) accept this?
The last time we saw Bishop, he had an Ava clone and was vowing revenge for erasing his memory of the events in 1925 Texas during the Season 6 finale and he had a copy of Gideon’s operating system — I believe he said he found in his coat pocket — so I assume he uses it and knowledge of the timeline to build a Waverider to go back and destroy the Legends’, the last place he saw it.(Future-Bishop might know that past-Bishop could use the thing he downloaded while the eggs were hatching, so that future-Bishop can get to that other planet in the future to capture Sara and build more Ava clones.)I don’t know that they will have to go back to pre-erasing Bishop’s memories and having to let both John and Spooner’s mom die, so that they didn’t kill Hoover and he gets to go to hunt and harass minorities and so many major 20th Century figures. I haven’t worked out all the kinks, like what that would do to future-Bishop, but it’s my guess as to what is going on with Bishop and the Waverider.Otherwise, I don’t see a song credit for the one Gideon sang. A few of the lyrics were pretty on the nose. Does anyone recognize the tune or was it an original for the show?
Dude. Don’t be a timeline scold. You sound like Rip Hunter. Future episodes will circle back to Maude and Eddie … or not. This was an A episode. Ahem, again all characters were balanced. Eddie & especially Maude were fantastic “guest stars.” This was a Zari episode (kinda by default) but it ranks with her others. It’s a magic refrigerator, presumably they can set it on “low.” That dance number!
Agreed. This episode was better than last week, which was pretty good.
I mean, the entire raison d’etre for the Legends is that there are people who can be plucked from the timeline and jerked around without causing major complications, right? Yes, it’s better if you ask Gideon first before you start meddling, but it would surprise me if almost everybody wasn’t that kind of person, even people who are in the orbit of the “big names” of history — if you inadvertantly time-nap Douglas MacArthur’s personal chef, somebody else will heat up his eggs and bacon for him on the morning of D-Day. It’s fine.
I always think they should send all the women to Themyscira. It would be funny if that’s how the island replenished its supply of women-warriors: they wait for The Legends to drop off new recruits every so often.
headcanon-ing the Themyscira thing. they’ve only used in once in-show with Helen, right?
Just Helen of Troy, though I forget what Female-Merlin went on to do – besides all the Arthurian things. Last season I was like: “Ooh! Pick up Amelia Earhart and drop her off on Themyscira!”
“if you inadvertantly time-nap Douglas MacArthur’s personal chef, somebody else will heat up his eggs and bacon for him on the morning of D-Day. It’s fine.”After all you they have to be present when the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor. 🙂
I kinda wish I /did/ sound like Arthur Darvill, to be quite honest.
He keeps his facial hair tight. Which I like, tbh.
Gideon is joy personified..Must be protected at all costs. Astra is so tall and Spooner is so small and i love it. Zari…s. loved how she just peaced out at the end.Ava and Sara. I liked Garys talk with Nate but i just cant come around with the character. Less was always better. Between he, Behrad and Nate neither are particularly high up on my list of fave characters, there all pretty ineffective but cool dudes. He is taking up the spot of what could be a heavy hitter character. Last week just made me miss Ray, Cold and Mick.
Gideon licking her fingers after snacking as they were rushing out the door was so precious.
I also really appreciate the show is leaning into a pure real friendship, nothing more between Astra and Spooner. TV needs more good solid female friendships like this. Very healthy.
So refreshing.
For anyone who enjoyed Amy Pemberton’s performance, “Future Favorite” is already up on iTunes and other streaming music sites. Glad they got this one out, it’s a great number all around.I continue to enjoy the Legends’ odyssey across the 1920s. Serializing the adventure like this has the advantage where some weeks you can do a smaller scope story without the big action scenes, and you don’t feel cheated. I’m reminded of Quantum Leap or some other retro series where the heroes travel around helping people, and it’s a good vibe.I really wish they’d let the Nate/Zari 1.0 relationship rest. Gary’s totally on point, but I thought we spent last year figuring this out so I’m a little annoyed they’re going back to the well on this one. I wish Astra and Spooner had done something…stronger to scare off the mob boss from Maude. I mean, this is kind of on par with what the show usually does, but it feels so lightweight after this week’s shocker over on Supergirl.
I also thought that Gideon with a mouthful of food must of been from a gag that got cut. Maybe it will wind up on a gag reel sometime. I stopped expecting the Legends to not mess with the timeline ages ago. After all, sometimes they screw things up for the better.
The Legends DO have an album!
Gary is a proud sub!I don’t understand the last paragraph concerns. Since season 2, the timeline has been pretty malleable. In season one, however, the timeline bent back into shape no matter what they tried to change. So even if they suddenly went back to season one rules the team’s actions this episode should barely change anything.
They literally broke time at the end of S2. That’s what they do, break the timeline and then fix it, and in fixing, break it again.
But it still takes a lot of effort for them to break time. Even when it does get broken in season finales, the timeline generally heals itself around the break fairly easily rather than being a grand existential Armageddon.
The Ever Fallen in Love cover on that album is so good.
ohhh that’s why I couldn’t find the song.
Liked and subscribed.
Ah, I was kind of hoping they had found a suitable old song from that era like that song Harley sang in Batman: The Animated Series.
Love that Zari’s social skills are being useful.
And she still calls Ava “Avs”.
They found that car SUPER quick.
For a moment I thought that Maude was being played by Tala Ashe.
Historians say that they were sisters.
Hoover is wearing a checkered stripe suit. I didn’t know that was a thing.
Zari is back to being dry.
Hate when they portray that people like Zari don’t know how to actually live. She wouldn’t have survived in her industry as long as she has if she didn’t know how to occasionally live in the moment.
So Gideon singing last episode was foreshadowing.
Cirque de So YAY!
Wait, after all of that effort last episode in showing how racist Hoover was, they have a black man on his squad?
“We’re not sisters.” Whew. You hear that, cousin-wife? That might have ruined things for me.
I do like Gary now. He seems like a nicely supportive B-lister.
Wait, after all of that effort last episode in showing how racist Hoover was, they have a black man on his squad? The “I have a black friend” defense originated here?
It’s a little weird when a character becomes less creepy after revealing that he’s actually a tentacled alien who occasionally eats people, but that’s Legends for you.
I think the writers found a way to dial Gary back just a tiny bit and I think it’s working well so far.
Right, Gary is great in limited doses. He was great when first introduced as just a supporting player. Then they gave him more screentime without dialing back the manic energy that Gary had. It seems like they’ve nailed it this season. A decent amount of screentime, but slightly lowered energy, which makes him feel more like a Legend then he ever has.Also, he’s actually usefull now, like on purpose, sometimes.
Remember when Gary had that crush on the werewolf?
Is Gary considered a Legends member now? They’ve always framed him like a sidekick, first to Ava, then to Constantine, then as the alien dude for last season. But this season Gary truly feels like he’s part of the gang. Love it, btw.
“all of that effort last episode in showing how racist Hoover was, they have a black man on his squad?”That’s a really egregious anachronism. Besides 1925 being the height of KKK influence, there is a famous fictional book/movie about the first black FBI agent written in the 60’s (The Spook Who Sat By The Door)
Well, it’s not the real Hoover, but a robot lookalike. Also, I assumed he was just conscripting whatever Chicago PD officers happened to be handy.
Two episodes in a row with live-action Gideon, and two episodes in a row where she sings.I am more than OK with this.
And my favorite low-key hilarious moment was how, after Sara and Ava kissed, Ava immediately knew what was bothering the crowd: “We’re not sisters.” She knew that fake news was going to come back to haunt them!
I legit forgot about the sisters thing. When the scene was going, I thought “Oh, yeah, it’s still 1920s after all”, but then Ava dropped the line and everyone cheered. I was pleasantly surprised.
I legitimately LOL’d when they kissed and only one person awkwardly applauded, and then Sara said “We’re not sisters!” and everyone cheered/applauded.
It was too preachy, despite the good parts. The fight set to Gideon’s singing was obviously the best part, in a grand tradition of other musical fight scenes. But the race/gender/sexuality stuff can be overdone, and Legends doesn’t usually overdo it, but they have the last couple weeks. Hoping they cut back a bit to their usual levels.
I want to know whose idea it was to have, at essentially the same moment that a guy is ignoring Zari because everyone in 1925 Chicago is racist, a white woman and black man walking together just outside the window, chatting and laughing, which also contradicts the entire point of Eddie’s “only place all people are welcome” thing.
Yeah, that shot of the interracial couple was pretty obvious, considering it was right at the moment that Nate pulled back the curtain to look outside and the couple walked by at just that moment. It was very noticeable.
Let me stipulate that I love the show, but it understands and portrays 1925 about as well as a five-year-old would. Most of the music was excruciatingly wrong, sounding like something from the mid-30s. It’s like having a movie set in the disco era that has a rap soundtrack or something from the 50s with acid rock playing. It goes with the mics, I suppose, which were a good thirty years out of period, and the costuming, which gives new levels to cliches.
As usual they are reacting more to a pop culture concept of a period, in this case the 20s, than the historical era itself. So they riffed on prohibition, racism, sexism, and bobbed wigs. On that level it worked for me, it is always going to have a modern sensibility and the anarchic spirit that makes the show work
Sure, but it takes so little to get it right — which they do often enough to make the places where they don’t that much more frustrating.
I watched this episode with someone else, and they were going ballistic on the period hairstyle choices. (“Bobs! Where are all the bobs??!” and the like.)
-Fancy!Zari saying “pics or it didn’t happen” to a 20s bartender <3-Love Gary’s “you’re just figuring this out now?” to Nate noticing Gary’s masochism. What kind of Legend kink-shames a teammate, Nate?-GIDEON’S GONNA SING-LEGENDS MUSICAL BAR FIGHT! Ok, the fight’s mostly outside, but I’ll take it.-I’m gonna need to see Flannel!Zari’s reaction to the entire killed-Hoover-stuck-in-1920s situation.-Going to find ways to use “we’re not sisters!” in my daily life now.
Funny enough, in both 1920s and in the late 2020s slang that Zari’s familiar with, they refer to pictures as “snaproonies”.
I like that Astra remembers who she tortured in Hell. Girl is a professionnal. I feel like in any other show, Maude’s death day would have just been pushed back a bit or even advanced, as in Doctor Who’s fixed point in time. But I like that this is not that kind of show. Although I do wonder what The Bullet Blondes’ (canon queer now!) legacy is going to be for the new future
In defense(?) of Sara’s history knowledge her pre-superhero life was ‘delinquent party girl yachting with millionaires’ so, no, she probably didn’t pay attention in history class.
As for Bishop I fully expect robo-Hoover to be his doing. He has time travel info and AI tech due to Gideon and a grudge with the Legends.
yep. Sara is clever and quick-witted but there’s absolutely nothing in the Arrowverse suggesting she’s book-smart. it’s nice characterization in a TV landscape that tends towards genius creep whenever a show wants a character to know something for plot reasons.
Don’t forget about “assassin”, which is also unlikely to require a course in Depression-era Chicago.
I really like the team’s lineup right now, even though many of my favorites are no longer around. Sara & Ava are the best ArrowVerse couple to me & great leaders, Zari(s) a unique and great character and performance(s), and Astra & Spooner are gaining ground as one of the show’s best teams/ friendships. Nate as he has always been is a great glue guy, lending support as needed and being fun. And Gideon, who has been there since the beginning, deserves this chance at being goofy & spectacular & getting to have fun with the team. And Gary is also there
I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I’m finding this season kind of boring. On their own, I really like each character (even though Zari 1.0 > Zari 2.0), but without a Mick or Constantine or a Charlie, I feel like I’m watching time-traveling Friends (not even Best Buds!).
Legends has managed to entertain even as it shed its recognizable (and likely more expensive) super characters. Even though seeing Firestorm or Atom (briefly) power up was part of the initial fun, the show managed to stay in motion by changing the backdrop each week and dial up the wackiness. It might be cost-effective but I’m a little over the 1920s America this season. Plus, RoboHoover is a less-compelling villain than even Bishop was. The show’s colorful characters and joyful whackiness is kind of waning, I’m starting to check out on one of my favorite shows. From the comments, it looks like I’m in the minority, but I feel like Legends is stuck in the mud.
I am still high on the show overall. But I agree being stuck in the 1920s for an extended period is robbing the show of an essential part of its fun, the different period & fashions every week & seems frankly somewhat lazy. Also Mick’s role as the team wild card is going to be hard to replace. I wonder if human Gideon in a different way can do that once she figures herself out?I also would rank RoboHoover very low on the show’s list of villains & Bishop is not much better
Maude was great, I hope that character comes back later this season. Maybe they’ll run across her in New York? I couldn’t find any info on the other Masqueradies (except Suzie). I was kinda hoping they were an actual band like Cowboy Narrator.
This was, with out doubt, the best episode in a while. Not that the others were bad, but this was so good. S+.To be more specific: song! And dance!ps: The thought that one of Zari’s superpowers is choreography is hilarious, but I’m ok with it.