DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow is back, and this time it’s got psychotic robo-doppelgängers
The seventh season of Legends Of Tomorrow enters its final stretch by tossing us into the Twilight Zone.
TV Reviews Legends of Tomorrow
After a long, cold December where nothing of note happened at all, DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow is finally back and all’s right with the world! (At least during its 8/7c time slot.) Wait a tick—Nate’s more jacked than usual, Sara’s smoldering gaze doesn’t go all squishy at the first sight of Ava, Gary’s gone full-Necrian, Astra’s working a maroon dye job that can be spotted from orbit… what the H is going on here?
That’s right, those unreasonably violent robo-Legends doppelgangers from last year’s cliffhanger are back, and this time… they’re running this piece. Armed to the teeth, jaws clenched so hard it would make Kirk Douglas flinch, and ready to undo all the good our beloved Legends have done to the timeline this past season, Robo-Sara Lance leads her hard-assed brigade towards glory. (Note: The “Robo-” prefix is getting abused like you wouldn’t believe this week, just forewarning you.)
Naturally, the only glory these time-hopping marauders want to see is “Destiny Restored,” a rallying cry they share with each other every time they reset one of our O.G. Legends’ benevolent changes to the timeline. Sometimes that means sacrificing a lot of people to achieve their goals. Most times it means sacrificing even more than that. Which brings us to this week’s midseason premiere, where these Robo-Legends are put to the test rectifying the Real Legends’ biggest change to the timeline yet. Of course that means destroying all the lives saved during the averted Chernobyl crisis a couple episodes back.
Only things are not all the way kosher in Robo-Legends land. Robo-Sara may be captain of the rogue Waverider but Mean Gideon is still the ship’s central AI, privy to all sorts of temporal secrets and strategies that would leave the Robo-Legends adrift were she to suffer a shut-down. That means Mean Gideon is calling the shots and she has Dr. Ava Sharpe to make sure her plans go off without a hitch. This chafes Robo-Sara’s programming something awful. Strife is building, and soon something’s gotta give. (Robo-Sara and -Ava exchange such angry glances but you can still totally tell that the only thing they wanna do is smooch. There are still absolutes in this universe!)
That’s the sinister premise of “Paranoid Android”, a shifty-eyed hour away from our beloved Legends that explores the power structures at play within the mysterious Rogue Waverider that destroyed the “real” Waverider last season and establishes exactly what kind of adversaries our flesh-and-blood Legends will be up against for the duration of this seventh season. It’s a wild and refreshingly comic book-y turn of events, filled with intrigue and betrayals and a surprisingly grim, Serling-esque twist at the end that’s meant to elicit a chill and succeeds in doing so.
The eponymous androids of the episode, of course, are the Robo-Legends, only don’t tell them that: Mean Gideon has the lot believing that they’re the human (or alien, or demonic) time-saving heroes and the Legends we’ve grown old with over the years are the robotic phonies hellbent on destroying the 20th century. It’s a carefully calibrated lie—these robots bleed, feel pain, and are programmed with the entire life histories of the Legends themselves—but it’s a lie that Mean Gideon and Dr. Sharpe are having difficulty keeping under wraps.
Hence the paranoia, which is suffered most by Robo-Sara after Robo-Zari and Robo-Astra make a miraculous recovery after being, erm, shot to death in their Bishop-slaughtering raid last episode. (How Robo-Spooner and Robo-Behrad compete for Most Vengeful is one of the better recurring gags of the episode.) “They were lucky,” Dr. Sharpe tells Robo-Sara in her lab, while not-so artfully trying to obscure a gigantic computer chip with the name “Zari” printed on it in big, black letters.
Robo-Sara begins to pick up on Dr. Sharpe’s uneasiness over her inquiries, and Mean Gideon’s default line whenever she questions any given mission (“time is like concrete”) is wearing thin. Later, Dr. Sharpe gives Robo-Spooner and Robo-Behrad “Destiny Restoration Devices” to use in their no-kill operation at Chernobyl but Robo-Sara soon discovers that the energy weapons are designed to irradiate its targets, killing them just as dead as the impending nuclear fallout. Why would she lie?
Making matters worse: Mean Gideon’s mission for the Robo-Legends involves threatening the children of General Kalashnik (Ego Mikitas), the (fictional) presiding authority over the Chernobyl facility who is then coerced into conducting a “fake news broadcast” to lure the surviving citizens of Pripyat back to their homes just in time for the nuclear power plant to go critical. Sure, mayhem is all well and good when it comes to saving the timeline, but threatening to kill kids? Robo-Sara doesn’t like that one bit. (Another constant in the universe: Sara Lance is a bonafide hero, no matter her programming.)
The Chernobyl mission is a success for the Robo-Legends, a strangely shocking story beat that is horrifying to ponder but is also Legends Of Tomorrow’s all-business strategy to cement Mean Gideon as the ultimate foe of the series. (It’s working.) Their victory is assured, but Robo- or otherwise these are still Legends we’re dealing with here; Robo-Sara ends up catching a bullet in her shoulder thanks to Greg’s insatiable lust for human flesh, which means she gets to spend some time in surgery deep in the confines of Dr. Sharpe’s mysterious laboratory.
Caity Lotz is ever the MVP of Legends Of Tomorrow, but this season she’s taken a backseat so that newer cast members can have their chance to shine. It’s wonderful that Legends is the type of show that shares the spotlight, but it’s just as wonderful to see Lotz get a chance to flex her formidable dramatic chops once again. “Paranoid Android” is filled with expert close-ups of Lotz evaluating an ever-changing situation with her crystal blue eyes, tossing baleful glances at Dr. Sharpe and kicking serious ass all over the timeline decked out in her Legendary White Canary uniform. When Dr. Sharpe operates on Robo-Sara, the camera is fixed on her reactions so when the revelation that she is not really a human being comes it hits that much harder. (As for the other Robo-Legends, they take the news in stride, presumably because of episode time-constraints.)
Robo-Sara’s epiphany comes late in the episode, but it’s incredibly effective. She confides in Robo-Zari and they attempt to turn the tables on Mean Gideon, but in the meantime there’s still the matter of her next mission, which is to eradicate the mission’s sole remaining anachronism: A Soviet physicist named Dr. Irina Petrov (Stefanie von Pfetten), who has more to offer humanity than what Mean Gideon lets on. There’s a rescue. Some subterfuge. And then comes betrayal, and it hits like a megaton bomb.
Mean Gideon has reprogrammed Robo-Zari once again, and the Robo-Legends are maniacs anyway. So it is Robo-Sara, not Mean Gidoeon, who is going to need some fixing. The next time we see her, she’s supposed to be coming to Dr. Petrov’s rescue. Instead she kills Petrov in a fashion that makes her murderous crew roar with delight. With the good doctor’s blood running down her cheeks, Robo-Sara is once again a part of this deadly mission. Her destiny, restored.
Stray Observations
- Episode’s MVP: As established in the recap, it’s Sara. Caity Lotz, may you captain the Waverider for seven more seasons at least.
- Robo-Spooner and Robo-Behrad’s stiff-lipped competition with each other might have hit its greatest peak when they tried to out-lift their Destiny Restoration Devices.
- Robo-Sara; “Time is like cement.” General Kalashnik: “In what way? That it is hard and heavy, or that you cannot stretch it?” Ahahaha… yeah. Legends!
- Robo-Steel: “20 bucks says captain takes the target out with her thigh-strangling move.” Robo-Astra: “Oh, I love that move.”
- Robo-Zari calles Mean Gildeon “Gidget,” which rules.
- What makes Robo-Zari buy into Mean Gideon’s rhetoric? Turns out it’s just a bit of solid, provable reasoning: “Every time the Legends try to fix history, they screw it up even worse.” Hard to argue against that.
- Look, I don’t know if this week’s version of Citizen Steel was supposed to be making fun of James Gunn’s upcoming Peacemaker series for HBO Max, but Nate’s doing a weird Brad-Pitt-in-Inglorious Basterds thing with his jaw and he beats people up to a hard rock soundtrack (Airbourne’s “Born To Kill”). Plus, the episode’s stinger is a hilarious G.I. Joe-esque PSA about bullying where the kids he’s supposed to be helping mock him and compare him to John Cena. “And That’s… Stuff You Should Know!”
- Welcome back, group! What did you think of “Paranoid Android”? Do you think it’s one of the season’s best episodes, as I clearly do? How did you like Nate’s new gun show? Can we keep Robo-Spooner? Let’s go nuts in the comments below.
68 Comments
It’s like every character was a hilarious parody of gritty 90s Image Comic characters. Idk if the real Legends will be scared of their robot counterparts or laugh too much at how angsty they can make their voices.
I thought the ridiculousness of the robots was a bit too much for me. Robo-Spooner and Robo-Behrad in particular did nothing for me. It seemed odd that most of the Robo-Legends were exaggerated versions of their normal selves (Sara, Zari, Astra, Nate) while Behrad was just totally different. Would have worked better if they still had Mick.
How could you possibly make an amped-up parody version of Nick? You’d have to go the opposite direction and make Robo-Mick a dapper gentleman.
A dapper gentleman who writes aggro-revenge porn fantasy stories in secret as “Robert Gold.”
I’m amazed I haven’t seen anyone mention that Nick Zano was clearly doing an impression of Mick’s voice.
-Ooh are we doing Blade Runner tonight?-I love the alt-credits as much as I hate alt-Spooner’s mullet!-Lotz and Zano are having so much fun chewing scenery as Robo!Sara and Robo!Nate and I’m here for it.-“Star-spangled idiot” makes a comeback!-Robo!Zari seems to be based on Flannel!Zari more than Fancy!Zari, which is interesting. Maybe Fancy!Zari cyborgs wouldn’t stick around without the Legends’ human qualities.(Robo-Sara and -Ava exchange such angry glances but you can still totally tell that the only thing they wanna do is smooch. There are still absolutes in this universe!)was a fun reminder of their belligerent sexual tension for the half-season it took them to warm up to each other. also Legends really came out of Crisis on Earth-X with “Beebo, the God of War,” “Daddy Darhkest,” “Here I Go Again,” and “Curse of the Earth Totem” consecutively. I can only bow down.
-Mean!Gideon is scary as hell. I wonder if Our Heroes can borrow any of Rip Hunter’s secret hacks that Bishop didn’t quite have time to program out of her?
I love the alt-credits as much as I hate alt-Spooner’s mullet!That was an amazing terrible mullet.
they really did the Arrowverse wig tradition proud
Haven’t seen the episode yet, but I’m already laughing from the photos of Nate’s arms and facial expression. Getting Dolph Lundgen He-Man vibes.
I mean, Dolph is a pretty smart, muscular guy so… it tracks.But can Nate sing and dance and play drums?
(h/t, as always, to Bricken, who first introduced many of us to this gem)
Love Astra’s hair.Does Zari have a stomach tattoo? (Yes, and an arm tattoo, and a nose ring.)This seems so 80’s rogue cop.Is Ava an avatar for Gideon?What is Zari holding?You know, having part of your arm removed without anesthesia would kind of hurt.Irina’s newspaper has the price in Kroner. That’s a detail I would have thought that they would miss.I thought that they were going to have the androids become “good guys”, but they flipped it.Why can’t Zari be the captain?Love the PSA. The more you know.
Zari is holding a stress ball. It’s a reference to the title ‘Paranoid Android’. Upon being updated, it seems she gained some degree of self awareness that something is different about herself, but she can’t exactly tell what. She squeezes the stress ball when she gets nervous thinking about what was done to her brain.
This just reminds me that Kiefer Sutherland ended up getting a real tattoo for 24 because he didn’t want to have to have it keep being reapplied in make-up anymore.
– As fun as it was to see the Robo Legends, their constant grittiness got weary after a while, especially Behrad, Spooner, Gary, and Astra, who were the most one-note. – No mention of the new intro, which had an off-model version of “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” as the theme?- The gritty Legends trying to film the ad was pretty amusing, especially when Gary kept getting the boom mic on camera. – I found it amusing that Robo Sara and Rob Nate were wearing their superhero costumes all the time, considering that the true versions only wear them for the posters and crossovers. – The PSA was one of the funnier parodies of them. Especially when the kids started whacking Nate with the bat.- Batwoman corner: So, how is it this is a world with freaking Batman but he apparently never made a backup Batcave anywhere? Seriously? The Jerome stuff I could take more seriously if he actually came into power in a completely believable way. I just cannot get invested in this whole plot. Evil!Mary, however, is a delight, and her scenes with Alice were great. Pamela Isley is fine, but what is with her shoulder-less jacket? I hear it’s from the Arkham games, but it seems wildly impractical. Is it an actual thing? How does it stay up?- And, uh, Superman & Lois corner too, because apparently we’re not doing recaps of that show anymore?: The scenes focusing on the Kents and the Cushings were great, though I am a bit nervous about the might-be-forced drama between Sarah and Jordan. I also wonder why they replaced Teagan with Chrissy when they seem to be the same personality essentially, though Clark’s “WTF?” reaction when Jonathan listened to her instead of him was great. The only negative was Anderson, who I’m already groaning about what he’ll do in the future. – Finally, Naomi corner because not even io9 is covering it for some reason: You can tell right off that this isn’t taking place on Earth Prime because if it was, Naomi would definitely be more of a Supergirl fangirl than Superman. I have to say, I LOVE the cinematography. I love it when shows and movies go from close ups to wide angle sweeping shots. My only issue is a bit too much shaky cam during the talking scenes. As for the characters, Naomi and her family make a great first impression, largely by starting out being happy and sane. No forced drama or pre-series conflict. Naomi herself is really likeable, and obvipusly her parents are hiding something, but I hope it doesn’t result in them doing permanent emotional damage and brraking them up. I am guessing that since Superman isn’t a public figure in this series that “Superman” is not actually him, but someone else acting like him. I dunno if they will actually being in Superman at some point, but I would love it if they got Brandon Routh back to play him.
The scenes focusing on the Kents and the Cushings were great, though I am a bit nervous about the might-be-forced drama between Sarah and Jordan. I also wonder why they replaced Teagan with Chrissy when they seem to be the same personalityBased on how awkward Sarah’s responses were when she came back from camp, I assume she had a summer fling which wouldn’t be a stretch. The Teagan switch was a bit odd, I thought it was meant to be the same girl. For what it’s worth the showrunner has said Teagan’s storyline involving her past in Central City was dropped, though he didn’t say why.
Me thinks teegan was going to lead to a Flash crossover but pandemic issues once again squashed that. :/
– I found it amusing that Robo Sara and Rob Nate Apt typo since I can’t unsee Robo Nate channeling Rob McElhenney’s jacked Mac here.
In regards to the Batwoman episode, it sort of flip-flopped in having a rogue of the week to finally having a season-long villain. I THOUGHT they would use Marquis as the main villain but the character development seemed too rushed and it doesn’t look like they are going that route. It’s in the air though if it will be Poison Mary or Poison Ivy/Montoya.
Yea, I’m legit shocked they got rid of Marquis so quickly and wonder what bullshit Wayne Enterprises is going to go through next.
Batwoman – Forget a second batcave. What about a second entrance to the first one. Assuming that the batmobile is also stored down there there has to another door somewhere.
The showrunner explained the Teagan thing away as these are teenagers who have flings for a month or two and then move on to someone else. And while I’m sure the real reason is something else, I can accept that given how minor of a character Teagan was.
I’m not sure I came out of the Naomi pilot knowing much more than I went in with. Two different mysterious dudes around town that know too much about her- I guess one is good and one is bad?- and 3 goddamn love interests already. And Superman in-universe seems to be a conspiracy theory who is also a comics character? but if I hadn’t heard the promo stuff about a girl finding out she has Superman powers, I’d just think she had supersight or something.
I enjoyed Naomi. I think you’re right that it’s not in the same universe as Superman and Lois although they deliberately kept it kind of vague. They referred to him as a comic book hero (which doesn’t necessarily rule out him being in that reality) and the witnesses kept referring to the incident as a “stunt” which implies it’s not real. Not sure if that means that there’s no publicly known superheroes or not.
It wasn’t vague at all. They made it very clear that Superman is considered fictional in this universe. A character said that in the very first scene at the party.
I totally missed that comment. I guess they weren’t being as coy as I thought.
I think you mean Tegan was replaced with Candice. Chrissy is the newspaper editor.
Lois’ drama with Natalie seemed a little like the writers just needed to start the new season with a relationship that needed repairing. Whenever these alt-timeline things come up in fantasy/sci-fi no one ever does the simple thing as should have been done here:“No, Natalie. I’m not your mom. But think of me like an aunt, and your mom and me … well, think of us like we were twin sisters. In a way, we were – though I never met her. It’s nice to finally meet you.”Boom. Drama solved.I get the whole thing was a way to mention Lucy Lane and call back to Lois’ loss of her pregnancy. So, yeah, there’s trauma there. So I guess Lois shutting Nat out emotionally works well enough – in theory. Lois seems a little too mature and well rounded to act this way even with her past.(Seriously, Lois and Clark are two of the best, most well-adjusted parents on TV!) And then Natalie’s reaction seemed a little off too: she just built her own multiverse-hopping space ship!! Out of the spare parts in dad’s garage. And she found her dad. And she avoided Earth exploding. Feel your power, girl!! Still, this week’s primary emotional issues are seemingly resolved, Tulloch acted the fuck out of her scenes, and I’d still say the ep was at least a B. -Also, just write Sarah’s little sister off the show already.-Also, all the kids are only 15? So they were 14 last season? Jeez. I mean they do look young enough for high school. Though I thought they were at least sophomores. But still … they’re all going to be in high school for another 3 seasons?! The twins both gonna graduate at 17? I guess … they ARE gifted. Good parenting too.
“how is it this is a world with freaking Batman but he apparently never made a backup Batcave anywhere?”There is a Batmobile in the Batcave that they drive out of there, and when Batwoman is done driving around the city she drives back into the Batcave. So obviously there is another entrance/exit in the Batcave. Are they telling us that Batwoman and Luke can’t walk into the Batcave through the exit where the Batmobile drives out of it? There’s probably some keycard to open/close it but the two of them would have that.
Those stills look goofy as heck. Imagine the ones they didn’t pick out.
There were times I thought this episode was tipping its hand too early, only for the ending to be darker and grimmer than what I had anticipated (minus the nice and goofy PSA parody tag). Maybe there was an opportunity to play with audience expectations more along the way (could these guys actually be the real Legends after all this time?) but in the end the most obvious answer is they’re the robots so let’s just dive into that existential horror, which Caity Lotz nailed during the surgery scene. And man, Caity Lotz looks fantastic back in her old costume ^^.I thought for sure Dr. Sharpe was going to turn out to be a clone and not a robot, but I guess she’s the robot that fixes the other robots? Sure. Also wasn’t clear why Robo-Sara and Robo-Zari thought they could scheme without Mean-Gideon overhearing them, unless it’s just some nuance of this Evil Waverider that she can’t listen in that we’re supposed to hand wave?Kudos to Nate’s prop arms, when I saw the early production pics I couldn’t tell if they were real prosthetics or CG – the answer is prosthetics, but they’re painted and matched remarkably well given how goofy they look.
Just want to share this, particularly the second slide(though the stunt training in the first one is dope too):“What happened to our show”“What happened to my career”…just got me rolling.Side note, Caity is letting go of her Vancouver apartment, and people are taking it as a sign that the future of the show might be in flux. Between CW looking to be sold and the show always being the underdog, I’m a bit worried.
Links don’t work – you have to write them out now.
Sorry, but the IG post shows up on my end. Problem is probably on your end?
I’m taking it as she sold the apartment to move into another place in Vancouver. She looks to be in a serious relationship right now.
Hopefully!
Hopefully!
She finished filming on Season 7, so she moved back to Los Angeles. This is apparently pretty typical for people who film in Vancouver but aren’t based there, they’ll rent an apartment during the shoot, then move back between seasons or projects. Hope that helps put your mind at ease!
Thing is, from her post she’s had that apartment for years. Her post reads like a goodbye to all the years there.
how does she jump-kick that high. the fight scene that ends with Robo!Sara doing something horrible to two mooks’ arms turned out really well too.
Hey I’ve checked out after the finale with the Magical Creatures Amusement Park, is it worth catching up?
Yes. I think all three seasons (well, 2.5) since then have been better than that season.
I suppose it would be too dark and too clever by half to reveal that this robo-squad has actually been fixing the majority of the Legends’ screwups (just in a different sequence) as a brutal-but-necessary cleanup crew. It would be a clever explanation for why the Legends have only suffered/inflicted any kind of genuine, permanent temporal consequences twice (with the Vandal Savage stuff having created the timeline where FlannelZari comes from, and her hack having created the timeline where FancyZari and AliveBehrad come from.)Of course, fixing those two would risk a straight-up paradox, since the robo-legends include Zari and Behrad (and Ava, actually.) It’d make for an interesting climax, though. A two-parter could reveal just how the Gideons are able to keep records of timelines that have already been changed, and how Mean Gideon is so dedicated to the “original” timeline that she’s willing to finish up her mission by crossing the proverbial streams. The pre-climax nadir could be Nice Gideon’s admission that she’s been hiding this robo-squad’s activities from the Legends all along, because she couldn’t figure out a way to let them keep all their do-gooder screwups intact without doing catastrophic damage, and the robots weren’t attacking the Legends directly “before” (relative to the real Legends’ timeline.)
Bonus points if one of Mean Gideon’s final monologues includes a mention of how her next target, after risking the paradox, is all those darn timeline-wrecking speedsters.
I bet you called some of it. All you would need is two lines of dialogue:Sara: “How many missions of ours did you repair?”Mean Gideon: “Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight … … thousand.”
This week, in a very special Sara Was The Best: Sara is/was so awesome that even an evil robot duplicate of her that’s programmed to think she’s human can figure out when something fishy is going on.
The more murderous Legends were a fun variation of the version we saw a few seasons ago, who killed magical creatures after Zari and John changed time. Overall this was really strong, and I’m loving Mean Gideon as the Big Bad of the season (and possibly the last one of the show).
Greg’s lust for human flesh? I mean it’s robo-Gary but it’s acceptable to screw up his name I guess.
You mean you missed that vey brief Succession cross-over cameo scene?
Forget that. No mention of Gideon in bed with Gary in next week’s promo!
they’ve been non-humans-trying-to-learn-to-be-human-with-benefits for a while now, it was bound to come out any moment!
I guessed it was the curse of auto-correct. Though I’m ambivalent as to whether or not AV Club writers write their reviews from their phones.
nice rubber arms bruh
Apparently Nick Zano specifically mentioned John Cena’s arms after being told about the storyline so they molded his arms with John Cena’s specific measurements and I just want our Nate to see Robo!Nate’s arms and get them for himself somehow, it’s ridiculous! IDK if the end of the episode was already in the script or they added it later to do a shoutout to Cena. My friend reminded me that Robo!Sara got shot in the same spot Sara would have been if Felicity hadn’t jumped in front of her in Arrow S2.
My friend reminded me that Robo!Sara got shot in the same spot Sara would have been if Felicity hadn’t jumped in front of her in Arrow S2.awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
I don’t know why this is all I can think of
A couple of typos made it through, which I’m not gonna worry about. But one point of order — the Legends don’t have any demonic crew per se, do they? Astra is a human who got trapped in Hell, escaped, and is now a sorceress-in-training.Second-most unsettling costume change for the Robo-Legends, behind Nate’s arms-that-came-off-another-action-figure, had to be Spooner’s mullet. (Either the mullet or the bangs. It ain’t a great wig, is what I’m saying.) On the other hand, Astra looked fantastic in that maroon dye-job and black lipstick.
Okay, let me just say I loved this episode so much and I have a few observations about each character.- Robo-Spooner and Robo-Behrad’s constant competing was hilarious. I love when Robo-Behrad said ‘can you make me a better shot?’ Followed immediately by Robo-Spooner saying ‘can you make me a better shot than B?’ Also I love Robo-Spooner’s mullet. It should be counted as it’s own character.- I just feel bad for Robo-Gary honestly. The team clearly doesn’t see him as an equal because he’s an alien. Nate basically just treats him like a dog, patting him on the head, throwing food at him, calling him ‘dumb,’ like wow. Just goes to show how awesome the real Legends are for making Gary feel welcome as he is. I do like the running gag of Robo-Gary wanting to eat everyone, though.- Robo-Astra is so creepy to me. It’s implied by Dr. Ava’s ‘intelligence work’ comment that Robo-Astra isn’t some idiot like the others, but we know so little about her as opposed to Robo-Sara and Robo-Zari who are obviously able to more deeply contemplate the changes to themselves.- Robo-Nate is like the bully frat boy to Nate’s frat himbo. It’s so weird to see how much he insults the other Legends, calling Robo-Spooner a dumbass and constantly making fun of Robo-Gary. It really made me realize just how much I love the Legends kindness towards each other. – Robo-Zari is SO CREEPY and I loved it. Tala really acted the hell out of this episode, because the constant lingering stares and lurking really gave me chills. From the beginning, I felt like we really didn’t know what was going on in Zari’s head. The whole time I was wondering if she was genuinely good, like Robo-Sara, or just an opportunist. Anyone else notice how Robo-Zari squeezes a stress ball after receiving her update, a sign that she’s actually aware of something being wrong and does not necessarily feel fully safe around the team? Remember that she’s still squeezing that stress ball even after being updated again? I think we haven’t seen the last of Robo-Zari’s shady behavior. And btw, did anyone else notice that when Robo-Zari looks through everyone’s CPUs and sees pictures of ‘Zari Tarazi,’ she’s actually looking at pictures of Zari Tomaz? Maybe that explains who Robo-Zari has more in common with Zari 1.0 than Zari 2.0. Oh and also, did anyone else notice that Robo-Zari has a dragon tattoo on the back of her arm? I love the subtle details!- Robo-Sara is so interesting because she almost seems to have a soul which gets taken away entirely in the end. This reminds me of Arrow season 3 when Sara comes out of the Lazarus Pit without a soil. In other words, Robo-Sara is essentially Sara’s worse nightmare: the soulless killing machine that Sara used to worry she really was deep down. – Finally, Clone Dr. Ava (because YES SHE IS A CLONE) is so creepy. I still don’t understand why she’s allied with Evil Gideon after Evil Gideon threw her into the temporal zone, but I guess ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ logic stands here. All the blood on Dr. Ava’s stuff was so freaky, wasn’t expecting that. I love that she pretends to be a robot so that the egotistical Evil Legends don’t turn against her, thinking that she might somehow be superior. Overall, I loved the setup of this episode. It’s funny, it’s also so much darker than expected, and it set up really interesting character interactions. Considering that Sara and Zari rarely actually interact, it was really cool to see their robot counterparts form an alliance. Robo-Spooner and Robo-Behrad’s competitions were so great, I loved that dynamic. I also love that Robo-Sara called Robo-Nate her right-hand man. (Can we get done official confirmation that Nate is the captain’s first mate?! PLEASE?!) I love that all the Evil Legends are not exactly evil, but more like a bunch of Duck Dynasty rejects. As Robo-Sara notes, they don’t ALL have personalities. I love the superhero costumes, the PSA, and the theme music. These guys REALLY think highly of themselves, don’t they? And of course, I loved all the murder-betting. It just drive home the fact that the team is evil, and they love being evil.
Seems like Astra’s the one Mean Gideon had to do the least tinkering with to get into ruthless enforcer mode. Makes sense.Makes you wonder: if Mick were still on the team, would anyone be able to tell him and Robo-Mick apart?
Finally, Clone Dr. Ava (because YES SHE IS A CLONE) is so creepy. I still don’t understand why she’s allied with Evil Gideon after Evil Gideon threw her into the temporal zoneWasn’t she a robot too? She told the others that they were all robots and then Sara forced her to admit that she was as well. Even if she’s not a robot, I HIGHLY doubt it was the same Ava clone that Gideon killed a few episodes back. If it was I feel like that would’ve been brought up.
I think the best part of the ep was when all the gritty, dark, robot-dopplegangers were watching Assassin Sara and were completely shocked and grossed out at how she killed the russian scientist.
I loved this episode. It was all kinds of fun and clever. One of my favs I think.
Wait a minute, “I thought we’re evil robots all along” was the twist in that MCU movie last year?
So this is what Westworld would be if it weren’t a pretentious slog!
Anybody that complains about Teela’s Sara’s hairdo gets killed by boring bo staff instead of thigh-strangled!
Since robo-Sara & robo-Nate wore their supersuits, I’m disappointed robo-Zari didn’t wear hers from “Crisis On Earth-X!” Seriously, bring back that outfit! Why doesn’t robo-Nate wear his finned helmet either?
I appreciate robo-Zari selling out robo-Sara to become even smarter.
I’m also dismayed by the lack of Beeboverse reviews this week. My thoughts on Superman & Lois, Naomi, & Batwoman are collected here:
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2022/01/13/bombogenesis-brings-back-the-beeboverse/
Right now when I was wondering if they’d ever wear their superhero costumes again…
They weren’t wearing them in season 6, were they?
Kinda missing Captain Pantsuit… though Doctor Sharpe is def creepy and fun.
Weird, this wait felt longer than the wait between seasons 6 and 7.
This fucking show man.
I am so glad I decided to catch up on this before dipping into Peacemaker. I LOLed at “Are you John Cena?”
And I’m with Jarrod — Caity Lotz was outstanding in this week; and really this episode was another testament to this show’s ability to take a goofy-ass premise and drive it to some emotionally resonant places.
I actually laughed out loud when Spooner and Behrad tried to make their guns go higher. Very funny stuff.
My favorite running gag was that Nate clanked any time anyone touched him or he bumped into something.