DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow spins its wheels in a temporal watering hole
In "The Fixed Point," Sara Lance's destiny-fudging mission gets a case of the yips.
TV Reviews Legends of Tomorrow
After two midseason premieres of DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, one in which we finally met this season’s villains and one in which the Legends got their bearings and prepared for a showdown with said baddies, with but four episodes left you’d think it was time to get this show on the road.
At the beginning of “The Fixed Point” (an indirect Legends reunion episode of sorts directed by Maisie “Vixen” Richardson-Sellers), it certainly feels like Legends Of Tomorrow is moving like greased lighting. Dr. Gwyn Davies makes the assertion that the best way to get the attention of Mean Gideon and her Robo-Legends is to attack a specific fixed point in history, and that plan—stop the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand!—begins to take shape. The Legends plot a course for Sarajevo, 1914. They break out their period-specific duds. The infamous Black Hand are ready to execute their world-changing plot. Sara’s ready to kidney punch an assassin. A reckoning spanning all of time is upon us! And then the episode stalls.
It stalls for very creative reasons. “The Fixed Point” isn’t just articulating what the assassination of Franz Ferdinand is, which is an immutable point in the timeline and thus cannot be changed. “The Fixed Point” is also the name of the watering hole for all the amateur and professional time travelers who fancy themselves brave enough to stop the one incident in time that triggers the Great War and gives us… well, all this. (*gestures broadly*) Sara and her Legends are pulled aside by a time-weary bartender, given a number, and told to wait their turn at disrupting destiny. “Them’s the rules,” the bartender says. And there’s another rule of which the Legends should take heed: The Timeline always wins.
The Fixed Point, as a concept, is a clever one. (Gary describes it as “time-travel Cheers meets Thunderdome,” which is about right.) It’s an interesting looking place where Sara and the Legends can play trial and error with history in order to break it entirely, thereby triggering a visit by the rogue Waverider and bringing them one step closer to home. There are some fascinating time-goons and barflies haunting the place (including an antagonistic pack of Gen-Z travelers who irk Sara something awful) and it has a temporal movie projector which collates the ever-shifting archival footage from the patrons’ many, many attempts at disrupting Ferdinand’s public assassination. It’s wild sci-fi stuff and it’s a hoot. (With apologies to Archduke Ferdinand.)
Superficially it also has some connection to the broader DC Universe. It borrows a bit from Neil Gaiman’s The World’s End collection of stories from The Sandman, in which an inn outside of reality serves as a temporary haven for certain weary travelers, and it borrows quite a bit from the Oblivion Bar, an extradimensional dive in the DC Universe where magic users can hang out without us pesky normies lousing up the atmosphere. The Fixed Point is a new place for Legends where it honestly feels like anything can happen and virtually anybody could show up—and much, much later in the episode, somebody does. (We’ll get to him after a bit.)
While Sara breaks her back (and swallows darts, and inhales poison, and headshots herself with a ricochet bullet) trying to work a way around this fixed point in time, Ava Sharpe and Gwyn contrive a way to save Gwyn’s beloved Alun from his untimely death during the Great War. Ava, a strict Time Bureau evangelist if there ever was one, realizes that if they see this plan through—if Gwyn saves Alun from death—he will never have invented time travel. That means no Waverider, and that certainly means no Legends. But Dr. Gwyn has a plan: He’ll save Alun from death and keep his younger self unawares, go on to invent time travel and doom his younger self to the years of loneliness and anxiety and uncertainty he himself experienced. Dr. Gwyn Davies’ sacrifice to the timeline.
That plan makes a whole lot of sense, even if it is a cruel fate for Gwyn. Ava doesn’t like it—as a woman married to another woman she is especially sensitive to Gwyn’s morbid sense of martyrdom. “It’s what I deserve… for loving Alun in the first place,” Gwyn says. It doesn’t matter where Ava takes him and Alun to be happy, Gwyn won’t be able to reconcile his love for a man with his devout faith in God. Alun’s rescue may be his divine mission but, as he states underneath that wonderful Matt Ryan beard of his, it will also be his divine punishment. Ava doesn’t buy it. “Love is love is love is love is love.” (Her Lin-Manuel Miranda reference probably could have been cut—it’s really conspicuous even without the namedrop—if only to give Jes Macallan’s sterling performance during this scene a chance to shine on its own.)
Do Ava and Gwyn crack the Alun dilemma? Not this week. It’s a frustrating plot development to chew on (should Ava even have an opinion about Gwyn’s beliefs?), but at least it gets some time to breathe. As for Spooner, a Legend who has been conspicuously set in the background since this season’s premiere, a big character trait gets tossed into her lap this week. While there’s points to be awarded for not treating Spooner’s coming out as asexual like a big deal, shouldn’t it have merited more than a “how about that?” before we moved on with the episode? (At least Spooner finally had a moment with Zari, though the show’s continued mix-and-matching of Legends only serves to point out how overstuffed this cast actually is.)
Another fascinating thing that gets the short shrift this week: The Point is a blindspot for Gideon, who has zero idea that it even existed. “It’s always been a word-of-mouth kind of place,” the bartender tells her, which is all well and good… but does that mean Gideon doesn’t have infinite knowledge of the timeline after all? What other things might she not know? And what exactly is a pickleback? Oh, we’re getting distracted already. Existential crisis averted. “Carry on!” Gideon cries. (But… there’s so much story there! I wail, to nobody in particular.)
“The Fixed Point” runs into a real wall towards the final ten minutes of the episode when we discover that the reason time seems to be actively stymying Sara Lance’s attempts at changing history is because time isn’t against her at all: It’s a redeemed Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher), revived by the Time Wraiths and tasked with protecting this one specific point in time from all those pesky time travelers—Sara especially. The scenes with Letscher are fun, and his explanation for how he’s still around (cheating death, as we know, is old hat for the Reverse-Flash) is a crackling bit of writing. But it’s a whole lot of exposition to drop on us just as the episode careens towards the end credits. Will Thawne pop up next week to make sure Sara makes good on her dramatic pact? Looks like he’d better; Legends Of Tomorrow, ironically enough, just doesn’t seem to have enough time for him this week.
Stray Observations
- Episode’s MVP: Take a chance on Sara Lance. ‘Nuff said.
- Richardson-Sellers directs the heck out of this episode. The sequence of close-ups with the Legends in their 1914 gear doing their goofy thing set to a German (?) rendition of “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive was crackerjack.
- I paused the episode to gawk at Dr. Nate’s abstract history board, where the Archduke’s car turns into a hippopotamus, grenades look like balloons, and explosions look like sandwiches. It was marvelous.
- Speaking of the Archduke: I know Legends works with a budget, but Franz’s dollar store mustache made my eyes water. And not in a fun way!
- Astra transforms Gwyn’s time machine into a cassette of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Time”, a concept album about, according to Behrad/Wikipedia, “a time traveler torn between love and technology.” Such an odd, random, thing that never gets any play in the episode. (Literally!)
- Gwyn: “Ooh! Little soldiers!” Ava: “Found them in the attic; Constantine was a bit of a hoarder.” Gwyn: “Seems like a very peculiar fellow.” Legends!
- I think I spotted a Doctor Who trench coat in the bar at one point, as well as a McFly-esque down-stuffed vest. Any other Easter eggs I missed?
- Sara’s resilience in the face of death (she’s an alien-human hybrid immortal? Somebody help me with that in the comments) or her ability to “live, die, repeat” would have been a fine reference to the 2014 Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt actioner Edge Of Tomorrow, but Behrad had to make things squishy. (True story: Warner Bros. low-key rebranded the movie with its tagline, Live. Die. Repeat. for home release.)
- Behrad also references Crocodile Dundee with that “now that’s a knoife!” crack. Behrad’s newfound love is making him insufferable with the references, somebody please help.
- How did you like “The Fixed Point,” group? Will Sara’s pact with the Reverse-Flash doom her to time stewardship? Will Behrad and Astra smooch, or will they just awkwardly stand next to each other for the rest of the season? Where is Mick at this point?? Sound off in the comments below.
79 Comments
I might like to know a bit more about what being asexual means to Spooner, but of course I respect her preference. I like Astra & Behrad together both on paper & in practice & yet they are not really igniting. I feel they could though, it will likely be crazy hot if it happens.Every other relationship on the show of course suffers at this point because they will never be as perfect as Sara & Ava.
Spooner’s confession came out of left field for me, but I think it makes sense.Astra and B sound good, but it feels more like a puppy love kind of thing, and while the chemistry’s there, I don’t feel like it’s enough to light sparks or anything like that. Nobody will ever get on the Time Moms level. No one. Ever since the purgatory episode in Season 4(!) “The Eggplant, the Witch & the Wardrobe”, I feel like they reached their “We’re perfect no one’s close to us”.I feel like we need to talk about Fancy!Zari. She was about to speak about her type when Thawne had to mess it up. Theories? I think she’s bi.
Matt Letscher’s return as Reverse-Flash would’ve been a fun surprise had the promo pics not spoiled it. That kind of explains one of Thawne’s mysterious resurrections. Sara doesn’t mention his appearance in “Crisis On Earth-X!,” which hasn’t happened yet from Thawne’s perspective.
Man I’m so glad I missed those then as that was a proper jaw dropping oh hell yeah moment for me.
Same here, and I uttered a very loud “FUCK” when we got that reveal.
Love the show just hammering on Nate’s drawing ability.The music playing while the bartender is gathering up Sara and Nate is so familiar. I know I’ve heard it before.
It looks like Spooner doesn’t like Astra and Behrad.The writers are so good at bouncing two characters off of one another that it’s so strange when they bring them together and deliberately make it awkward.So the only person who can defeat Sara Lance is Sara Lance. It wasn’t the Fixed Point that got to her, but her being in her own head.Seeing the Legends line up to support Sara, I never realized how short Gideon is. She’s like only an inch or two taller than Spooner, and that might be the boots.Thought that Spooner was going to tell Zari that she liked her, but they went that direction. Good on them. I also like that Zari did FMK with both men and woman for Spooner.Feel that it would have been more Legendesque for Sara to tell the bartender, “No,” when he said she needed a ticket.Why do the Time Wraiths use technology? And where did they get it from?I sincerely hope when this season is done, the Legends come to realize how dangerous they are to the timeline.The song that I think is in the bar.
– I’m pretty sure I heard a weird cover of “Right Round”, but I wasn’t sure.- The Spooner thing came as a shock to me, but it also seems very natural, not like they’re forcing it or anything- Behrad and Astra are cute(does this mean my esperastra ship has sailed, or will we get a love triangle of sorts)- I actively ship Gideon and Gary, it was strange the first episode it happened, but after the Hell show last week I am rooting for it, which only makes me more concerned for the finale, since I know Amy Pemberton lives in LA and idk if she’s only here for a season, she’s been amazing and one of my favorite characters(but aren’t they all my favorites)
I think most of the cast live elsewhere and just travel to Vancouver for production.
Oh thank god then. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it if she left. I want Gideon to be around, even though I don’t know how it would work once the Legends get the Waverider back. Would she just go back as an AI? or would she just do her duties as a human?
For a while Katie Cassidy owned an apartment in Vancouver and several of the other actresses (Danielle Panabaker and Caity Lotz) lived with her when they were shooting, since their regular places were in LA.
But Caity Lotz seem to be letting go of an apartment she had for years in Vancouver recently. Maybe this is really the end for the show.
Spooner’s sexuality itself seems a natural development; the actual conversation, however, was agonisingly clunky – they may as well have turned around to talk directly to the camera about A Very Important Subject…
Yeah, to me it felt just like, “hey, we’ve got 4 eps left, so let’s make it as DIVERSE! as we can”…
I enjoyed the hell out of this episode. It was fun without overdoing the wacky, and had a lot of heart. Also—and I cannot stress this enough—it featured a fucking *DC Comics character*. Okay, granted that it was a previously established one, and he wasn’t wearing the suit, but just the same it was nice to have some acknowledgement that this show exists within the Arrowverse/DCU.
Yeah, good point there. I do miss the more overt DC stuff.This was my favorite episode in quite some time. The time stuff was actually interesting and creative.
-I love a good Legends planning montage. -“Who knew time travel could be this complicated? I don’t know how you’ve wrapped your human brains around it all these years.” *Gary making well-actually face* “I need a drink!” Love you Gidget.-Nate+Sara are such a great BrOTP.-Is that…a polka cover of “Right Round”???-The obvious Alun solution is to kidnap him from the timeline Spooner-style, so that past-Gwyn thinks he died and goes on to develop time travel, but now-Gwyn can move forward.-These asshole kids are totally the Legends’ descendants, right? (Her Lin-Manuel Miranda reference probably could have been cut—it’s really conspicuous even without the namedrop—if only to give Jes Macallan’s sterling performance during this scene a chance to shine on its own.)I didn’t know the Lin-Manuel Miranda quote and it felt really overwritten as it happened. I guess it’s relatable for Ava to have a hard time articulating acceptance to another gay person with 1910s-level internalized religious homophobia, since that’s a hard thing to respond to in a compassionate and useful way in any timeline.
I have thankfully never seen Hamilton and most Lin-Manuel ‘things’, so I didn’t know the reference, but to me Ava’s ‘love is love’ speech felt a bit natural, like you said, it’s probably hard to her to talk about religion and acceptance to someone who came from a different time and all that.
He said it in a speech at the Tony awards. It was right after the pulse nightclub shooting, where someone killed 49 people at a gay nightclub. It resonates because even in the face of tragedy, people still have a right to love.
Well put.
Ah I didn’t know that, that makes it fit more with what Ava was saying then.
I enjoyed that one. Didn’t expect Thawne to show up, but the whole “You have to promise to take my place!” seems like they’re setting up yet another ‘out’ for a member of the cast.
Who’s leaving next? Sarah or Nate?
Yeah now I’m kind of worried Caity Lotz is leaving at the end of the year, not helped by speculation after she posted about moving out of her Vancouver apartment.
Gwyn probably.
Gwyn staying is an interesting possibility – I can’t recall, did they say he has no further impact on the timeline now that he’s technically invented time travel by drawing up his schematics? This also feels like a victory lap for Matt Ryan in some ways, I could this being his final year.
Gwynn was supposed to die when he first activated his time machine, so yeah, he no longer has a role in the timeline that he needs to get back to.
Which also means that Gwynn can just get dropped off to live with Alan somewhen, if he wants.
Gwyn being doomed to eternally protect the existence of the war that took Alun from him in the first place seems like overkill, even for a “divine punishment”.
re: Victory Lap- That and maybe, just maybe, they’ll bring him on as Constantine in the HBO Max show. I honestly don’t see Legends making it past another season because of the CW sale either.
It’s wishful thinking about casting Matt Ryan again since I haven’t had any faith in Abrams post IX. But it really would go a long way to keep the GOAT Constantine as Constantine.
I don’t believe Sara will leave the team, because I don’t believe the show would break up Sara and Ava again
That’s a point against her becoming Time Oliver Queen (whatever his multiverse guarding persona was called, I can’t remember), but not against her leaving the show, since they could just have both of them leave. Actually, it’s not necessarily a point against her replacing Eobard, even, since Gideon will probably be able to fudge something together to make that bracelet work for two.
I really hope she doesn’t leave, but pretty much every episode seems to be setting up her and Ava leaving somehow, pointing out how desparately she needs a break from the Legends stuff.
Then again, the chances of there being another season at all seem remote at this point, so it’s kind of a moot point…
Or, they use the fact that we have androids that are already programmed to protect the timeline and a Sara android that found her own identity. Give that back to her and have her take over Thawne’s job. Heck, the entire team can have take over protecting various fixed points. Someone has to keep people from killing Hitler.
Nate is easy to write out by having him join OG Zari and not be able to commute. I don’t think the show works without Sara, so I think she will be kept on.
I think it’s something for them to do with the robot Legends
Yeah, the episode did technically spin its wheels, but I was having so much fun I didn’t care. The Fixed Point bar is one of the best new concepts the show has introduced in recent years. And THAWNEEEEEE!!! Didn’t realize they had brought Matt Letscher back. I was so ready to go for the big confrontation at the end, and then realized the episode was over. What a build! It feels like season finale time but there’s still a few episodes left, so curious how this will play out.Spooner being asexual is an interesting choice from the writers perspective in that it seemingly doubles down on the Astra/Spooner fan pairing not being a thing after last week’s episode already formally paired Astra with Behrad. I’m curious how much the writers had caught on to the ship, and whether this was in any way a not-so-subtle hint that the door was closed (part of me wishes the Supergirl writers had done this for Supercorp..) Also, it was nice for the writers to recognize that Spooner and Zari don’t get a lot of scenes together and tackled that head on. Gideon’s vindicated, fist-pumping “Yessss!!”fills me with joy and needs to be a meme. Gary recognizing what the alien was saying and getting riled up was a nice character bit.
Spooner & Astra to me feels akin to the Ray-Nate platonic best friend bromance, one of the best things the show has ever done, & I think is a worthy successor to that
I think the show is pretty good at telegraphing its pairings, and as full of chemistry Astra and Spooner are, yeah, their relationship to me really felt definitely platonic, specially contrasted to all the obvious hints of Behrad liking Astra since he met her.Now, Flannel Sari and Charlie? They so could have happened.
Wasn’t there a kiss that was cut? I remember something about one of the showrunners saying it was deleted, then just radio silence.I do kinda ship Fancy!Zari and Charlie, if only because of the bathroom scene where Fancy!Zari comes out all glammed and you can see Charlie basically salivating(which like same)
Ugh, that would have been so much better than Nate and Zari. [I’m OK with them as a couple, it was just so, so badly done in getting them there. (even worse than Sara and Ava)]
That was a missed chance of using Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” for a montage scene, but I guess they had to use their already tiny budget on the dollar store mustache for the Archduke. The Fixed Point is the hottest bar in the timeline! This episode had everything: Sara and Nate time-bro times! Zari and Spoons attempting to talk about topics! Spooner admitting a huge thing! Gidget plastering a big smooch on Gary! Ava and Gwyn feeling feels! Edge of Tomorrow reference! Eobard Freaking Thawne! Actual other time travelers! We are now getting the Waverider back and big-armed-Nate is back, can’t wait!
All it was missing was MTV’s Dan Cortez.
I enjoyed this overall, although the “love is love is love…” was unnecessary and should’ve been cut for being over the top. Thawne’s return was an absolute delight, especially *this* Thawne, who’s always been second to Tom Cavanaugh despite being great by himself. The history nerd in me loves the assassination of FranzF erdinand for the ripple effects, which are truly too numerous (and tragicomic) to consider.
For absolutely no reason, someone quotes the beginning of Company (“Bobby baby…”) — I think it’s Nate if my memory is right. Maybe it was a tribute if Sondheim died just before this was filmed?
Ah I thought that quote sounded familiar. It must have been a tribute.
oooo Sara’s not coming back if this show gets renewed will she?
There is always android Sara, who really deserves to have her original personality back and then save the timeline, she can even stop the change without killing, if she can figure out how to do that.
oooooooooh I like this theory.
Meat Spin ruined “You Spin Me Round” a long time ago.
As someone who watches both this and The Flash, it’s getting confusing as to why, if Letsher is still available to play Thawne, they have Cavenaugh do it as well? They literally just ended a story line on The Flash with ol Thawne and it was Cavenaugh the whole time. He was using a shape shifter thing in season 1, but they explain why he would need to ever use it again since team Flash knows who he really is. I get that Cavenaugh makes more sense to be in Flash because he is more ingrained to that show, but story wise it really makes no sense.
Because whoever’s in charge of the Flash will always take the least interesting way to approach the show.
I think once Crisis on Earth-X used Cavanagh, possibly as a way to save budget, they figured it was easier to just roll with that version of Thawne. Certainly after season 5 and the dagger storyline, from a casual audience perspective it would make less sense to keep swapping back and forth between the two actors. Legends is picking up directly from Thawne’s last appearance in season 2, so it made sense to get Letscher to return.
Bringing Letscher back on The Flash is an additional cost on top of whatever Cavagnagh is paid to be on retainer.
Matt Letscher and Caity Lotz had fun chemistry. I loved her telling him she couldn’t take him seriously in the top hat
It was a good tophat though!
Thawne looks like Cavanagh on The Flash because he likes messing with Barry. Barry’s barely spent time with Letscher Thawne, but he spent months being mentored by the kindly “Dr. Wells”, so putting that face on again lets Thawne stick it to his archenemy that much more.
That would make sense if they ya know, pointed that out instead of just ignoring that he is always wearing the disguise of a dead guy that the entire team is aware of.
I think the answer is in your question: he wasn’t available.
I’m only watching The Flash now if someone pays me to do it, so I’m okay with time cul-de-sacs. The Reverse-Flash making peace with his hatred with Barry Allen offscreen, however, feels all the way wrong!
I knew Lescher was coming back as Thawne in this episode, but for one reason or another I completely forgot about it as I was watching, so I let out a pleasant gasp when he turned around.
Caity Lotz posted a video on twitter of her practicing the stunt where she does a flip and kicks the knife. She is incredible. She is the best at the action scenes, the funniest cast member, her character’s tragic past is the most moving, her romance is the best one in the ArrowVerse, and Sara is the best leader on any of the super-teams. What else is there
And although it’s mostly a long way in the past now, she also has one of the best character arcs, in her development from antisocial killer hellbent on revenge at all costs to cuddly laid-back (but still badass) fun time-mom who gives pep-talks.
It would be really hard to argue for any one as Best Arrowverse Character…
She is by all rights The Most Interesting Person In The Arrowverse.
I actually meant to say “anyone ELSE”. She’s definitely the best.
Begs the question as to who is second best.
Mary Hamilton at least warrants some consideration here.
It’s disturbingly difficult to even think of a shortlist for that position, to be honest. Most of them would be Legends characters.
(maybe…. Darhk? Deathstroke? S2 Wells?)
Darhk for sure. McDonough chewed so much scenery you could do a bite mark tour of Vancouver.
Better than Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl?That’s a big ask there….
Also the hottest, and that’s saying something, since the cast of Legends(and the wider Arrowverse, in that regard) is a hot bunch of hotties.Seriously. Caity Lotz is an all-in-one package, and excels in all of them.
I thought this episode was fantastic. Definitely my favorite season in a few years now.
I’m more A- on this episode and trending full A. This was the “everybody has a super real conversation” episode. Like “digging-deep in character” real … realist were going to get this season – real… and not Flash-style pep-talks – faux-real. Nate being the team glue. Everybody’s drinking. Gideon is dressed like Mary Poppins. Gary understanding the crack the Alien Kid made and getting up to fight. Sara’s comedy with the poison powder & the blow-dart. Zari & Spooner connecting. The whole ep used most of the 9 really well. Astra & Behrad were deemphasized, but that was natural as they were focal last week. It was a little like the Bowling Alley episode … almost to the point where: couldn’t they have made the bar the same Bowling Alley? Would that have worked? Might have. But still, it was the Bowling Alley at the Edge of Tomorrow/Cheers/Thunderdome – Groundhogs Day episode. It all blended really well.I want “Take a Chance on Sara Lance” t-shirts to be a thing starting yesterday. “We would have been a great circus.”
I just got around to watching this, and I had to laugh at Thawne saying that changing time was folly considering the whole Armageddon arc over in Flash.
Is there a picture of Nate’s super professionally drawn diagram before the other legends laid out the plan on it?
Weird that Ava was absent from that (rather small) team meeting, she missed the opportunity for some binders.
But of course she had other stuff to do. -Look who’s directing next episode.
Watching Sara die has never been funnier. (Is that a bad thing to say?)
The “Love is love”-thing was too much for me. Thought about fast-forwarding after the 4th “is love” or so.
If Thawne dies (and stays dead) Robo-Sara can take his place.
And yes, the cast is somewhat overcrowded, was quite obvious in this episode.
Doesn’t mean I want to get rid of any of the legends…
Though, can’t shake off the feeling Sara is going to leave. With Ava, I assume.
Settling down in Star City. Or Vancouver. There’s that speculation about an apartment there…
Maybe: Corporeal Gideon stays. The ship’s AI is then going to be voiced by former Captain Lance.
Doctor Sharpe or some other Ava stays.
Prediction for the next episode: the robot legends will be the ones who take over Thrawne’s time stewardship.
Ding ding ding!
Ding ding ding!
My stupid DVR cut off the very end of the episode! What did I miss?
This is a fixed point in time, but all the others before it, upon which it ostensibly depends? Nah, those are fine to change. Also, all the ones after it, which are ostensibly being preserved thanks to its inviolability? Those are also fine to change.Well, not fine fine, but fine enough that the Time Wraiths aren’t going to use any of their arguably-infinite resources to give them extra-special protection.
Imagine my surprise when I was cruising Timeline X555B7 (for short,) where humanity’s oldest ancestors never even arose from the primordial goop, and then, suddenly, like a spliced bit of film, I’m watching a fully-developed human civilization descend into a Great War due to a political assassination. Then, just as suddenly, back to the human-free timeline. What a head trip. I suppose I was lucky to even see it, given that I might’ve been watching literally any other point in space within said timeline instead.On a separate note:
apologies to the reviewer, but both Gideon’s and his take is wrong. If Thawne was rescued, brainwashed, and then also give neat toys by Time Wraiths, then that’s basically “time itself” actively preventing people from screwing with it. It’s just using proxies, for whatever reason – possibly because Time Wraiths have discovered Netflix and prefer WFH managerial roles. These Time Wraiths are odd ducks. They only get to appear when somebody has fouled up time travel so badly that there is an active conflict between timelines, and yet now we’re being told that they share an interest in protecting “the” timeline, begging the same question that Mean Gideon has been aggressively begging this whole season (and that the Legends themselves more half-assedly beg on the regular.)
Just want to mention that the bartender was veteran Canadian character actor Timothy Webber, who has a stonking list of credits on IMDB. If you’ve ever watched a TV show filmed in Canada, he’s probably shown up on it at some point.
I may have missed it, but I kept looking for an Easter egg related to Quantum Leap, especially as this episode was similar to the series finale of that show. The episode in question, ‘Mirror Image’ featured a bar that catered to Leapers (aka time travelers who tried to change history).Even someone saying “Oh Boy” or seeing someone in the background leap in with the trademark blue lightning would have been a nice nod to that show.
Nate’s picture, for posterity:
This episode is so unaccurate historicaly. First a bomb that was tossed didint bounce of car archduke tossed it behind him and injuring some of his friends then they changed route to a hospital to visit em secondly driver didnt speak germany so he got confused and stoped there was no bread thet gavrilo was eating he didi it in confusion.