DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow has a cosplay caper on a train
In “The Need For Speed,” Nate finds his inner G-man, Gideon finds her voice, and Sara & Ava find a bed.
TV Reviews Legends of Tomorrow
Getting trapped in time ought to be a cinch for the Legends, but in “The Need For Speed” it’s not so much how they’ve been stranded that’s the problem—though, that is also absolutely a problem—it’s when.
The year: 1925. And for the entirety of last week and a good chunk of this week the primary location of the Legends’ predicament has taken place in Odessa, Texas, a time and place where most of the cast on DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow can’t operate openly without all the worst kinds of attention getting thrown their way. That means the possibility for incalculable danger, not just for the crew of The Waverider, but to the timeline. Remember: they have no time courier, no Gideon (at least, not one that can help them right now), no ship, and thus no stable means of getting themselves closer to a solution without giving the entire game away. If Sara’s making-it-up-as-she-goes-along plan to get her crew to New York City so the Legends might have a chance to not only escape 1925 but also set their anachronistic gaffes straight, most of her crew needs to be benched.
As luck (or possibly fate) would have it, that’s not necessarily a problem right now. Zari’s nursing a broken heart, so popping weed gummies and guzzling whip cream in John Constantine’s hellborne manor is what she’s gonna be up to if anybody needs her. Sara and Ava, the masterminds behind the increasingly notorious Bullet Blondes gang, decide they need to, er, “let off some steam” and “bunk up” in the same stately interdimensional haven to “knock some boots.” (Sex, they run off to have some sex.) Spooner and her mother Gloria host Astra on the Cruz ranch outside Odessa while everyone attempts to communicate with the new sentient brunette that was once The Waverider’s central A.I., Gideon. So at least six of the Legends have things to do that don’t involve institutional racism and social bigotry, thank you very much.
That leaves Nate, Gary, and Behrad out in the open, train-bound towards what they hope is a solution to their troubles while also evading all the prying eyes who have taken notice that J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is riding the rails with them. Their interstate ruse: make like they’ve apprehended the Bullet Blondes (though that part is technically true), stash them onboard the train, and hope nobody gets wise for the duration of the trip. It works and it doesn’t. (Gary’s specially-made fizzy elixir is responsible for Nate’s transformation into the famed G-man—just add soda pop. Oh, and hair from the corpse of J. Edgar Hoover, currently digesting in the tummy of Gary Green, nebbish Time Bureau operative and also an actual alien being.)
Nate spending time in the skin of Hoover has to be rough on the historian who was inadvertently responsible for the FBI director’s untimely (and unchronicled) demise last week. “I murdered a man, Sara,” he tells his captain, those nigh-perfect jawbones clenching in anguish. “And for the first time in our lives we have to accept that that could be permanent.” Later, Nate breaks down Hoover’s legacy for his team just to articulate the historical impact that would be made if he did, in fact, die in Odessa in 1925. There’s a lot of bad in Nate’s history lesson of Hoover (think a less sciency Beakman’s World with far superior hair) but there’s a faint note of respect in there, too. (Nate really gets into his subterfuge a bit later: “We’re looking for anyone who has a reason to hurt HOOVER!”) Whether it’s the heavy burden for having caused Hoover’s death or Nate’s respect for history that’s responsible for this reverence, the episode later seemingly nips it in the bud with an enhanced interrogation sequence that involves a Russian suspect who once had the misfortune of crossing Hoover’s path. (Nick Zano is spectacular in this sequence, by the way; his delivery hits confident vocal highs and drops to anxious whispers by the second, he’s great.)
“The Need For Speed” doesn’t directly wrap up Nate’s murder-guilt arc, however (perhaps it’s a seasonal arc?), opting instead to have him engage in an impromptu, vaguely thematic, and ultimately fruitless therapy session with members of the Chicago mob who’ve been sent by Al Capone himself to kidnap J. Edgar. “You can’t outrun a lie forever,” Nate tells a gunsel. “Eventually, you just end up hurting the people you care about.” (You’re talking to bloodthirsty gangsters, Nate. Legends!)
Early in its seventh season, DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow finds the crew of The Waverider at once distraught over their temporal quagmire and pretty damn chill about it. Towards the end of this week’s brouhaha Sara Lance puts the kibosh on the episode’s big plot twist—a version of J. Edgar Hoover that pops in out of nowhere and turns out to be a Terminator kinda robot, which indicates to the Legends that mysterious parties may have some stakes in their latest time-jaunt—but that’s long after she’s spent the majority of the episode laying around in that awesome black robe of hers. (The property of a former Constantine flame?) It’s long been established that these sort of scrapes are old-hat for the Legends, but it sure would feel more exciting if, just for a change of pace, someone took this kind of stuff kinda seriously. (Not earnestly, like The Flash, or severely, like Arrow, but, y’know. Make it feel like what’s happening might actually wreck things for real. Consequences!)
Luckily Astra and Spooner are more assertive this go-around, even in their B-plot (Olivia Swann and Lisseth Chavez work very well together, by the way): Astra comes to grips with giving life to Gideon (a development that will likely get more air next week) and Spooner remembers that—hey!—she has telepathy, which triggers Gideon’s ability to speak. That’s pretty darn handy, because as it turns out Ol’ Hard Drive has dire tidings for the Legends should they fail to correct the timeline. What happens once our merry band reunites in New York, I can scarcely guess, but here’s hoping Gideon ends up charting a course more thrilling than Odessa.
Stray Observations
- So I guess all of Odessa did forget that the circus was in town and performing at the Cruz property. Legends!
- I genuinely wish that Gary’s J. Edgar Hoover indigestion had remained a visual joke; it would have made him horking up a Hoover Hairball later on a hell of a lot funnier.
- Sara, to Nate: “It could have happened to any man of steel.” Between this and the Lex Luthor Post-It this week, Legends is downright spoiling us DC die-hards with the references.
- Aw, Gideon, that’s not what apples are for.
- Ava, to Nate: “My safe word is core competency.” And she meant it!
- Among the potential suspects in Zari’s wine bottle-suspects list: “Lex Luthor”, “Rasputin”, “Kuasa”, “David Bowie”, “Damien Darhk”, and “Robot”. Who knew “Robot” would take the prize?
- Just an aside, wouldn’t Ava have an opinion on Zari’s mistrust of automatons?
- “I mean, what even is a paragon?” Uh, Zari? *adjusts glasses* Sara was a paragon in the Crisis. She was the paragon of Destiny. (Don’t these people talk to each other in-between episodes?) Although, the concept of a paragon in Crisis On Infinite Earths can be kinda nebulous, both on the screen and on the comics page, so Zari’s not all the way off-base.
- What do you reckon everyone’s oscillating period accents come from? Edward G. Robinson? Foghorn Leghorn?
- What say you, group? Is Legends on the right… track this season? (Jokes!) Am I the only one who’d prefer to ride out oblivion in Constantine’s whisky-laden pleasure mansion? What do you think Gideon was trying to say with her artisanal apple sauce demonstration? Let’s talk in the comments below.
82 Comments
So, Zari and Ava having a “Why the hell not” category was definitely a shout out to Allison’s reviews, right? That’s how I’m interpreting it, anyway.
Same. And judging from some of the other comments we are not alone in that.
Personally, I’m having a blast with this new season – I’m glad they shook up the usual “hunt the evil force of the year across time and space” format.
Same. Also the reveal and callback to Ava’s safe word was just the best.
I always love a good Chekov’s Gag and “Core Competency” was a great one.
The look on Ava’s face when Zari said it. Wonderful.
Speaking with regard to the entirety of all comedic superhero media, this was refreshingly mature.
CORE. COMPETENCY.
I definitely think grounding the show in one time period for a stretch is a nice change of pace from having to set up a new scenario every week. The 20s is a good mix where there’s just enough technology in the world that the Legends are challenged without being completely totemed, while being easy enough to create and maintain from a production perspective.
I dunno – I like that they’re doing something different, but it feels too similar thematically to the final season of Agents of SHIELD for me to get excited about it. It still feels like Legends at its core, at least, but I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
This feels very season 1, when Ray, Sara and Kendra are trapped in the 1940’s. I like that they have to solve every problem with 1920s technology and constraints.
– New intro…and a new theme song.
– Nate acting more like first season Nate. (His first season.)
– Spooner reaching for Astra’s sugar pot.
– “My safe word is core competency.” I love it.
– Fermented Edgar Hoover hair? That CANNOT taste good.
– “That’s my girl.” I love Ava and Zari’s friendship. Could I ship them? Yes, but I just enjoy them really being friends.
– And now Spooner and Astra are mothers. This analogy is literally writing itself.
– Historically speaking, Nate is nobody compared to Hoover. That’s why they’re Legends. Because the timeline won’t miss them.
– No, I think that Zari is actually onto something.
– I think that Gideon is trying to tell them something about the other Legends.
– At last, people are seeing that Zari 2.0 is a genius.
– Zari and Ava are so cute together.
– I thought that that guy was supposed to be Al Capone.
– Is this an autism storyline? Both for Spooner and Gideon?
– I know who blew up the Waverider. The Wyld Stallyns.
At first I thought that guy was Capone too, but as the episode played out he felt more like a gun thug than the boss.
That guy looks so much like Ralph Macchio, it was tripping me up.
I thought he might turn out to be Frank Nitti.
That’s why they’re Legends. Because the timeline won’t miss them.I was wondering if that may not actually apply to Nate – he wasn’t recruited by Rip, after all.
Nate acting more like first season Nate. (His first season.)I like when the writers remember Nate has a vested interest in (preserving) history beyond simply being a Legend, it adds some personal stakes to the screw-ups beyond just “Oh, we could break the timeline!”At last, people are seeing that Zari 2.0 is a genius.That comment makes me think of her as a less-annoying version of H.R. from The Flash, she’s not the brawn or the brain but she has insights that enable others into action.
I think Gideon was trying to convey that the Legends shouldn’t go to New York with her apples. New York has been called The Big Apple.I’m really enjoying this season. I feel like they are back on track.
Well shit, that makes a ton of sense.
I am choosing to believe the Why the Hell Not? pile of whiskey bottles was a nod to the old WTFN segments in the recaps.Stoned Zari was great, Zari going Pepe Silvio with the whiskey bottles was great, guys I think Zari’s just great.Gideon being a real girl now has me wondering, aside from Astra and Spoons, Sara and Zari are the only Legends who would recognize Gideon, right?N
That’s exactly what I thought, that the line was yet another nod to AV Club!! Yes, I think Sara and Zari 1.0 are the only ones remaining who had seen the physical Gideon, but from the voice and the makeover Zari gave to her, they could recognize her upon seeing her after spending all those years together.
Didn’t Gary also interact with human Gideon in season 5? While it’s workable that Spooner and Astra realize it’s Gideon due to the circumstances of the spell, it would’ve added more weight if they had been able to meet her in season 6.
I figure they recognized Gideon as a human the same way Nate could recognize Ray as a pig, and everyone could recognize Zari as a cat.
Yes, I forgot about that!! He saw his rabbit (?) as Gideon when he got electrocuted.
Ha! I thought the exact same thing when she said “Why the Hell Not?”
I think Spooner and Astra recognized her from the hologram head on the deck. One of them said something about her smirk.
Can we get the weekly WTFN moment back?
I was DEFINITELY beaming with pride as a longtime Legends recap reader to hear the (network-safe version of) “Why the Fuck Not?” canonized like that.
– Lemme just say I love the new intro visuals, because I can actually tell who’s who rather than the random jumbled assortment of colors last season’s intro had. Though I do wish they had edited out Matt Ryan’s portrait until he actually showed up.
– I’m a little surprised the Bullet Blondes thing has spread so far so quickly. It’s only been about a day in-universe.
– I’m also surprised the writers don’t take advantage of the COVID stuff and have Zari talk with her other self. I wonder if that Zari’s been paying attention to what’s going on?- Did Nate ever get a chance to tell Behrad and Gary that he was faking the interrogation before the apology at the end? The episode at that point was leaning into Nate Becoming the Mask, so for all they knew, Nate really did pound the guy to pieces.
– I can only imagine how long it would take to get that train backed up and back on the correct track.- Is Constatine’s refrigerator available for purchase anywhere, and can it be reprogrammed for other drinks as well as food?- I’m curious as to where the production staff got all those bottles of whiskey, and what the supplier was thinking when the order came in.
– Legends has shown that they’re not going to take any situation completely seriously after Season 2. Expecting them to now is foolhardy.
– I really, really hope this situation isn’t solved with a reality warping device AGAIN.
– Batwoman corner: I will appreciate that this season seems a lot more focused now that Kate’s gone. I don’t know if the show will keep this up once the main plot gets under way, but for now it’s good. Not sure how I feel about Killer Croc being a legacy character, especially since the kid goes from regular human to full on Croc in, like, a week. If it spreads that quickly, how the fuck has here been only one Croc? Also, fun fact, Nu!Croc’s dad is played by Michael Bell, aka Duke in the 80’s G.I. Joe cartoon, Drew/Chas in the original Rugrats, and Quackerjack in Darkwing Duck/Ducktales 2017. As for the Ruby Rose controversy, I don’t think it will be enough to sink the show completely, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dries is dropped after Season 3.
The props department for the show has made much weirder stuff than a bunch of fake whiskey bottles, so I’m sure it was just a Tuesday for them.As for Batwoman, the rot seems like it’s much higher up than Dries considering all the other stories of toxic behavior behind the scenes at the CWDC shows. Greg Berlanti doesn’t run a very tight ship it seems when it comes to expecting good behavior from his producers.
The producer guy already left the company before Rose went off, so Dries will likely be made the scapegoat.
Batwoman – I’m not really liking the rich birth-mother story arc. But it’s early, and the show has a strong cast – they’ve shown they can act through just about anything. As for the Ruby Rose allegations, Wow. If Dougrey Scott really is that big a prick, then maybe he’s off the show permanently. The whole situation just makes one question how one show … Legends, let’s say … can be in production in a relatively happy environment, while Batwoman, in season one, was a production shit-show. It’s amazing BW season one was as good as it was (depending on your tastes, some argue it sucked, but like I said: strong acting – I’d give it an overall – though chaotic – B). So WB and the CW have all these plates spinning in the same Arrowverse, and some are toxic while others hum along smoothly? Is that just business as usual? You would think Berlanti et al would smooth things out. Unless they’re stretched too thin. Or unless it really is this chaotic over all the shows and some are just better about putting on a happy face about it. Or it means all shows’ season ones are fucking nutty, and it takes a year or two to knock out the kinks (literal kinks). Or it means WB is like the Catholic Church in that they move around their toxic assholes from job to job rather than deal with their b.s.Or some of all of the above.
I can’t say for sure about Legends, but when Supernatural was in production EVERYONE who was on the show said it was a wonderful atmosphere and they loved it. They also credited that to the Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki saying that the two stars were what kept the set a happy place.Maybe Caity and some of the other cast are using their clout to keep the production happy and safe?
When cast members move into directing positions, that would seem to indicate a positive working environment.
Supergirl had their own issues (ugh). Arrow had overwork issues … it feels like Batwoman specifically doubled down on the Arrow production things that did NOT work.
Even without the allegations, I doubt Jacob would have come back regardless.
Because they have done something similar in the past, I believe Zari and Ava’s group of out-there suspects, such as time pirates, doppelgangers, clones and time itself were an ode to Allison’s regular “Why the fuck not?” stray observation.“Why the hell not” and “why the fuck not” seem thematically similar to me.
Well, Legends has already referenced AVClub in “Swamp Thaaaang”.
“the production design is as lazy as the action staging”
“Why the fuck not?”
https://www.avclub.com/last-night-s-legends-of-tomorrow-referenced-the-a-v-cl-1830408047ETA: Okay, now I’m going to have to go back to review the episode the review was recapping because considering how this one ended, it could be meta and WTFN?https://www.avclub.com/legends-of-tomorrow-hits-a-new-low-with-a-nonsensical-t-1798187476
I like Ava dismissing Damien Darhk as a suspect, because “he loves us too much”. It’s true, I’m pretty sure Ray is his best friend through a process of elimination. And I guess Sara never told anyone he obliterated his own soul at his daughter’s wedding.
Isn’t next week the 100th episode?
It is, and it looks rather promising to put it lightly.
From the promo alone I already know they’re using Hawkman better than they ever did when he was in the show
From the promo alone I already know they’re using Hawkman better than they ever did when he was in the showI mean they did rehab Vandal Savage to an extent, so anything is possible with this show (as if the Giant Beebo wasn’t enough proof. Praise Beebo.).
Ray can rehab anybody.
Yup, and they’re bringing everyone back! I am curious how they were able to pull it off with Covid restrictions and travel to Canada but it looks like they got a two-for-one with Ray and the Flash crossover event.
Victor Garber, while not on any other DC show, is in Vancouver filming Family Law, so that also helped. I believe restrictions have eased up enough that anyone coming to Canada doesn’t have to isolate for 14 days as long as the COVID pre-flight PCR test comes back negative. The producers mention this probably would’ve been a deal-breaker last year.
Vaccinations and less restrictions for vaxxed Americans. Btw if you know anyone who’s eligible and still holding out on their shots, do everything you can to convince them otherwise.
Thank god no one I know well is holding out. I found out about one person at work who I honestly don’t think I could pick out of a lineup simply because her emails started bouncing.
Lord, look up the title for next week’s episode too. I thought the ap was glitching.
I’m two episodes behind but man wouldn’t Ray have been perfect for a 1920’s caper! He looks like he was from the 20s’!
Yes, he would‘ve been great. Nora also has a very vintage look about her. I’ve really missed the time travel/problem solving aspect of the show. People shit on season one, but Ray, Sara and Kendra getting stuck in the 1940’s was good.
I watched this after catching up on Stargirl and Supergirl from Tuesday night and let me tell you, that was a wonderful evening of television. There were so many throw away bits that I lost track. Nate’s little nod after Eva told him her safe word (Nick Zano was on fire the entire episode!), Zari 2.0 finding her inner Flannel Zari with the whipped cream, Behrad eats gummie and knows things (c’mon, they had to have been referencing that!), and so much more. While the overall story wasn’t as good as the best episodes, the gags were up there with some of them.
I’m worried about what happens to Behrad when he runs out of weed in 1920-whatever. I guess he can probably find some jazz cigarettes around NYC when they get there, but it will probably be skunky as hell.
Is he not already out? When he was talking about fixing the car Ava made a comment, something like “is this sober Behrad?” And he responded “hey I know things.”
Hmmm you may be right. I took that as him saying he knew things stoned and could work while high (I know some people like this. They don’t operate heavy equipment and they are definitely not me, but they exist). But maybe they were indicating he was sober for the first time in a while.
Of all the ways the Arrowverse shows have written out characters for a week in order to prep for directing or for crossovers, leaving Sara to lounge in her marital bed is by far the best excuse ever. “Core competency” indeed.Was it just me or did it seem like there was supposed to be more with the woman on the train (the one flirting with Nate-as-Hoover with the missing purse). I totally thought she was being setup as the kidnapper, especially with some throwaway line from Nate that Hoover arrested a woman shortly before the events of the episode. That and how she gives Nate her card which I thought would be a Chekov’s gun. I still find Astra a bit off-putting – I know she’s supposed to be insecure over her ability to control her powers and add value to the team, but it often comes off like she doesn’t care or gives up too easily. Pairing her with Spooner helps balance her character immensely.
I think that has to do with her being a former demon/damned soul. She literally grew up in Hell. She has to learn to care again and her powers did come easily to her before she came back to earth. John floundered and then simply turned to a quick fix when he lost his powers. Astra, at least, isn’t going that way. I understand why Astra is the way she is AND her friendship with Spooner is making her a better person.
I like that they have let Astra stay kind of mean. My biggest complaint with Nora is that they hand-waved away decades of trauma and just turned her into Ray’s nice girlfriend in season 5. Astra has been through/done a lot for her entire life, it makes sense that it leaves a mark. And after the disappointment of John, it makes sense her defences are up around everyone.
I liked trying to figure out what Gideon was saying. Very good work on Pemberton’s part.
Freaking out over killing Hoover is a bit hypocritical given nobody worried about the timestream when they atomized Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.
“Core competency” is two safe words!
Um, gunsel doesn’t mean what you think it means. While I appreciate you making the same mistake the Hayes office did, I feel the need to point out that a gunsel is a rent boy (or whatever the current term is), not a hired gun.Sarah and Ava should be on their honeymoon, which made it nice that they got the honeymoon suite.I am intrigued by Nate having to deal with the line between reverence for history and reverence for the, often evil, people who made history. It’s something I’ve been thinking about myself lately. I have become very interested in Chinese history, but damn, emperors are all evil! It’s hard to reconcile sometimes. If that’s his arc this season, I will be very interested. And it’s always nice when the show remembers he’s a historian, not just a bro.
Gunsel didn’t originally mean a gunman, but enough people THOUGHT it meant a gunman, that eventually, that became its new meaning.
As much as I’m enjoying this season (especially as compared to what felt like everyone running out of gas at the end of last year), I get the feeling the people on the show — from the writers to the costumers to the props and sound people — really don’t understand how 1925 worked, so this falls in line with that.
-Ava…why did you pick a safe word you definitely use in regular life.-Mama Spooner meeting the computer is adorable. Mama Spooner talking to Astra, who could desperately use a parental figure, is even better.-Stoned!Zari is fun. Grossed-out-by-time-moms!Zari is fun. BrOTP Zari+Ava are also fun.-I was second-guessing the decision to make Hoover look like a badass during the fight; I should have known to expect something like a robot.
the recaps are deader this season. are you seriously criticising LOT for mocking the bad crossover?
For being the show’s 99th episode, I thought they were firing on all cylinders. It feels like a great ramp-up to 100. Return characters foreshadowed with whisky bottles! A, B, & C plots felt vital. No one felt left out. Quips on point and plentiful. And Nate! Great Nate lead, especially after last season’s “Nate Episode” was the kinda ho-hum Kennedy/Oval Office ep.
I just care about the 100th episode at this point. That preview looked stellar, and I’m very interested to see in what capacity they bring back all these former crew members.
The Hawk dude was more interesting in the preview than his entire tenure on the show.
Not my fav episode, i found it quite lackluster to be honest but next weeks preview quickly got me excited again. But it highlighted one of my problems with the show for the past couple of seasons. I love the ladies on this show, even newbie Astra and Spooner who i find adorable together but the guys have been i dunno how to put it. Gary, Behrad and Nate are far from my faves. Gary i dislike when he is used this much, small doses please. Behrad is okay and he is funny in his own right but i feel i should like or relate to him more especially being into weed myself but i just dont. Nate has never really gotten my interest, he ruined what was an amazing budding friendship between Mick and Amaya way back in season 2 and i have never really liked him outside his bromance with Ray,
Gary and Behrad aren’t characters so much as they are plot devices and tropes stuck together. Which is fine when they are guest stars, but they both need more character work now that they are part of the main cast.Nate has never been my favourite either for all the reasons you mention, but I’m glad that they are taking him back to his more serious, less bro-y season 2 characterisation. In fact, this whole season feels a lot more like season 2/3 in the best way.All these actors are charming and talented, I’m glad the writers are giving them solid material.
Did…did they give us a shout out with “why the hell not?!” O_O
How long will they be stuck in the past?
“A black girl, a brown girl, and a computer walk into a bar.” I want to know the rest of the story! Hopefully next episode…Spooner is not useless. She is Astra’s best friend, Gideon’s new confidant, and possibly my main crush on the show right now, non-Sara Lance division
If you don’t clean your vacuums after multiple uses in a pet-filled household, you will get Hoover hairballs.
I loved this episode. It was deeply weird, crammed with 1920s shout-outs, and it highlighted more mystery and time travel-based elements regarding the other Waverider.
Nate is the MVP for sure, and not just because he gets the main storyline. It’s good to see the return of the history major who’s trying to set things right with Hoover cosplay. They may have laid it on a tad thick with Behrad’s protestations against imitating the FBI director’s bigotry. But I can also appreciate it as a build-up to Nate’s talk with the discriminated Russian train worker, which was all the more impactful on him.
I just realized something about all the old cast members coming back for episode 100: they can do a proper flashback to how Behrad joined the team in the Zari 2.o timeline. We know that for the most part he just took Zari 1.0’s place within the stories, but that doesn’t really work for her original introduction in the dystopian future, that had to have been totally different.That was always something I wanted to see in a Legends comic, because *obviously* they couldn’t do a story with Stein, Jax, etc on the show anymore.
Did they…ever untie that poor Russian guy?
Splitting up the cast like this just proved how much this show is chock full of ringers at this point. Nate brought comedy and pathos to imitating Hoover, while Ava and Zari’s plot was absolutely great in just a few tight scenes.
Splitting up the cast like this just proved how much this show is chock full of ringers at this point. Nate brought comedy and pathos to imitating Hoover, while Ava and Zari’s plot was absolutely great in just a few tight scenes.
Ava’s a flesh-and-blood human clone, not an automaton. As seen last season, all of the Avas that Bishop created have free will, albeit coloured by certain personality types “baked in”. (Our Ava is a “bossy Ava”, for example).
I enjoyed (not sure if that’s the right word) this episode pointing out Hoover’s bigotry and how he (and society) targeted certain groups of people at this time. And how Astra and Spooner pointed out how the two of them, as people of color, would have trouble in this period.I want Legends to be fun , but it sometimes bothers me when they go back in time and don’t acknowledge that a lot of members of their cast would have trouble fitting in in a lot of America’s (or the world’s) past.