It’s planes and platitudes for the midseason finale of DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow
Astra takes control of the means of production in 1945 and initiates an unscheduled jump in social progress.
TV Reviews Legends of Tomorrow
It’s a problem that pops up whenever DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow travels back in time in America: What’s to be done with all this sexism and racism? Considering the complex diversity of its crew, the majority of which is populated by women, heading back to the 1920s, 1930s, or even the 1940s gins up all sorts of social shortcomings and societal roadblocks for the Legends. That they’ve been pinballing around time almost exclusively in these eras, stranded without a Waverider or even a reliable time machine (with respect to Dr. Gwyn Davies), only compounds their dilemma.
Legends touched on this here and there during their extended stay in 1925 Odessa, Texas, and later pointed out America’s social iniquity in Chicago during the same year (in-between doing the Charleston and bootlegging, natch). Last week’s traipse through 1986 (in Chernobyl, of all places) allowed a brief reprieve from such backwardness. Through it all Astra and Spooner have received the brunt of America’s, oh, let’s say uncharitable attitudes towards women of color, and this week Astra’s had her fill.
So it is that DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow closes out the first half of its seventh season, not with a stand-off with the rogue Gideon of the future (though she does make her presence known before the credits roll, in surprisingly bloody fashion) but with a social lesson in what it takes to work around the short-sightedness of domineering white men in the year 1945—or, failing that, taking over their means of production entirely.
One thing Legends has made clear is that clearly-defined boundaries of tolerance and equity are essential if it’s to tell its stories effectively, leaning into the racial and sexist issues that pop up whenever this crew goes back in time instead of away from them. That makes sense, considering the ranks in this cadre of time-hoppers are predominantly made up of people of color and, to a smaller extent, people with varying sexual orientations. (Still working out what Gary’s all about on the latter front, but this particular pursuit of knowledge has been fun.) It’s done as such with far more gusto than other Arrowverse series such as The Flash and about as much as Supergirl, but it continues to lack the grounded nuance of Black Lighting. (I’m not caught up on Batwoman; how’s that doing?)
Subtlety, as we’ve long known, isn’t Legends game. However, this is a primetime CW series, so articulating the lack of social progress with more heinous racial epithets and other forms of wanton cruelty aren’t going to be baked into the narrative. (Nor should it, though leaving such things up to our imaginations doesn’t exactly make things more digestible.) That leaves the show painting with broad strokes, and sometimes that means Legends has to make its point even it it has to veer into gentle but resolute After-School Special territory.
This week, the Legends find themselves crashlanded in 1945 Seattle (thanks to Bishop’s expertly-timed toilet escape last week) and they need to find parts to fix Dr. Davies’ time device. (This particular plot point is beginning to become A Thing.) Sara, Ava, Astra, Spooner, and Gideon discover that they can volunteer at the McDougle-Jemison Factory, a fictional assembly plant that makes airplanes for the war effort. (That’s World War II, just don’t tell Dr. Davies that.)
Sara, Ava, Spooner, and Astra are supposed to be putting together parts for Davies’ frustratingly fragile time machine, but the only way to do that successfully is to use discretion—and Astra, being a former denizen of Hell and all, ain’t the best at discretion. Getting tossed into custodial work by their bigoted boss, Mr. E. Staples, it’s no small wonder that Astra begins to chafe at her current situation. (Sara comes by and offers a plan-B mulligan, but Astra decides to stay the course after some encouragement from an upbeat Spooner.) Two prejudiced strikes later and Astra has frozen Staples into place, a statue of stunted authority, pointing at nothing, oppressing nobody.
Staples’ impromptu recess presents an opportunity, not just in the sense that it allows the crew to get its time-machine parts welded together (by Spooner, which sadly takes place offscreen) but to make an unscheduled leap in social progress, as well. (But… the timeline! I cried, into the void.)
It’s here where Astra takes control of the factory and integrates it (“We can do better than efficient,” she says), knowing full well how things went down back in the days of her present temporal pit-stop. Her decisions come after some firm-but-fair push-back from Kimleigh Smith’s Abby, who centers Astra with a bit of tempered, period-specific patience. “I push the same mop as you,” she tells Astra. “Slow and steady progress […] is sustainable progress.”
Astra’s take on incremental social growth is more cynical (not to mention dramatic, given her former Hellacious residency): “You don’t stick a knife in a man’s back nine inches and then pull it out only six inches and call it progress. It’s torture.” At the intersection of these ideas does come compromise: Abby will rally the remaining volunteers to complete the construction of the factory’s plane (most, if not all, of the white volunteers quit in protest), but Astra has to make sure Abby and the rest of the women she’ll be leaving behind are able to keep their jobs.
A deus ex Roosevelt late in the episode ensures that this will be the case. Here’s where things go nuts: Legends’ formula is one of chaos, and while it’s somewhat normal to expect things to work out to a morally foregone conclusion, this week’s largely sobering episode takes a dire turn. Astra’s revolutionary jump in progress brings the rogue Gideon down on the Legends, and she didn’t come alone.
Mean-Gideon’s Waverider is manned by a crew of leatherbound Legends (looking like they suddenly take their fashion cues from the Judges of Mega-City One). They apprehend Bishop (whose arc this week was to flummox Behrad’s lessons of ta’arof, which, naturally, is the heart of Persian etiquette and hospitality!) and summarily move in on our beleaguered crew. The shocker of this week’s episode is that it closes out on a bloodbath, with two rogue-Legends getting mowed down (with digital blood squibs!) and Bishop getting executed, just when he thought he’d made the leap into good-guydom.
Beyond its rousing speeches and surprise bloodbath ending (which, !!!) “A Woman’s Place is in the War Effort!” turns out to be yet another catch-up episode for DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, setting the stage for certain characters (or, to put a finer point on it, certain characters’ relationships) while others continue to spin their wheels with nowhere special to go. (Will Sara & Ava get their honeymoon? And what happens for them after that, if anything?) It feels like Legends has been stuck in gear all season, even though it’s cranked out a couple of all-timer episodes along the way. Maybe now that Dr. Davies’ time machine, powered by the late Bishop’s navigational thingamajig, has been fixed, Legends might finally be able to chart a more fascinating course.
Stray Observations
- Episode’s MVP: Astra, for begrudging the initial plan, staying true to who she was, and taking the reins of destiny by force. (Although… is she… getting sweet… on Behrad??!)
- Am I crazy, or s the McDougle-Jemison Factory the same location as the proto-Hall of Justice from Crisis?
- For that matter, weren’t the Justice Society Of America operating in the Arrowverse in 1945? (The Earth-Prime JSA, not the Stargirl JSA.) I’m really surprised they didn’t even merit a mention from the Legends’ resident Hair-storian, Nate Heywood. Legends!
- And speaking of Nate, he says he’s just gonna be commuting from the Totem every morning and that he’s still going to be a Legend. Hrm.
- Astra, after getting stuck on janitor duty: “I am getting really sick of this century.”
- The rules of ta’arof (Nate, take notes): make your guest feel at home; if you’re a guest, you must deny the offering of your host at least three times before accepting it; if a guest compliments something a host has, the host must give it to them (one example this week is Zari’s 2040s future phone); also… no drinking?!
- Astra, to Spooner: “I hate you.” Spooner, to Astra: “I hate you, too.”
- Mr. E Staples. Mystery staples?
- Sara, concerning the frozen Staples: “You know, he’s kinda giving me a creepy John Travolta vibe.”
- Gideon is 100% human and 100% computer: mathematically confusing, metaphorically accurate.
- How is Behrad taller than Astra??
- Bishop’s navigational doo-dad is comprised of Zari’s phone, a pair of tongs, a colander, a Speak & Spell, and maybe also Gideon’s brain? (It reads her horny thoughts about Gary and how his pants accentuate his butt.)
- So how did this midseason finale work for you, group? Is Nate still destined for the cast chopping-block? How did you like Gary eyeballing Bishop when he was complimenting Gideon? Are we getting an eighth season, or is this… gonna be it for the Legends? Let’s cool out in the comments below.
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(Still working out what Gary’s all about on the latter front, but this particular pursuit of knowledge has been fun.)He’s a literal shapeshifting alien whose known partners include a male human warlock and a female AI in human form. Dude’s pan!-Are they giving Sara whoosh sounds Xena-style?-Astra stepping in when Bishop looks like he’s about to touch Gideon for no damn reason. Am I crazy, or s the McDougle-Jemison Factory the same location as the proto-Hall of Justice from Crisis?! I thought I recognized the set, but couldn’t place it.-I’m glad they clarified we’re keeping Nate.-POOR GWYN learning about the War to End All Wars.-Ugh, racist scumbag.-Hahahaha I love that B and Fancy!Zari are teaching Nate and have Bishop there as a permanent what-not-to-do.-Aww, B and Astra.-Gwyn is correctly mad about the gross toilet thing.-B anti-slut-shaming Gideon <3-HAHAHAHA FANCY!Z DOES SEE THE JOHN RESEMBLANCE!-Really seeing the drawbacks of the open-air time machine with the stormtroopers trying to kill the Legends. Also unpleasantly reminded of Dr. Stein’s death, which makes more sense if it really is part of the Crisis set.-EVIL CLONE LEGENDS????????????????????
This season reminds me so much of the final season of Agents of SHIELD, which (spoilers) also stranded its heroes throughout the 20th century. Ready to move on.I miss the Waverider, and I REALLY miss a big action set piece (we only got a quick taste of that here).
What, no observation on how a big chunk of the story was practically lifted from 9 to 5?
I was going to say! Mr. E. Staples is a sexist-egotistical-lying-hypocritical-bigot!
He has a few flaws, but who doesn’t?
It belatedly occurs to me that I related strongly to Astra & a lot of this is because she grew up in hell & perhaps my childhood was also not the best Astra & Spooner are rising as one of the show’s best pairings if not the best, and Astra & Behrad still could maybe have some potential I am fascinated by the cast’s heights, Ava is so tall but Astra is even taller, but Behrad is the tallest—and yet Sara is the boss of them all & yet so wee
Whether or not Astra/Behrad ultimately works, I like that it’s a slow burn they’ve been teasing since season 5. Possibly something the writers are keeping in pocket? In contrast Constantine/Zari 2.0 was a rapid escalation but I get the point was both of those would treat it as a whirlwind affair.
I don’t mind the Astra-Behrad thing being a slow burn, but I do think it has lost some possible momentum that it had after their engagement in the episode where they were trapped on TV. I think it could still work though even if its most interesting aspect might be that Zari 2.0 objects to it as she thinks Astra is a bad girl & wrong for Behrad. (I wonder what Spooner thinks about it…)
I don’t understand why the reviewer is perplexed by Behrad being taller than Astra. Astra is a woman, and women are typically shorter than men. Specifically, Astra is apparently 5’10, which is certainly much taller than the average American woman (5’3)… but it’s also only an inch taller than the average American man, and actually exactly the average of non-hispanic white men. Pick a random man, and there’s almost even odds that he’ll be taller than Astra.[virtually everyone on the show is, obviously, much taller than average humans, because they’re celebrities – particularly the men (female celebrities can be small and cute, but any male on the CW must be way above average to allowed though the gate…). Nick and Gary are both 6’0, and Behrad is 6’3. (i.e. Behrad is the same height as Muhammad Ali, or current heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk…). Even Spooner is allegedly 5’4, so above average for a woman. You describe Sara as ‘so wee’, but she’s 5’5, two inches above average! (i.e. the height of UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, former strawweight champion Joana Jedrzeczyk or former bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey)][still, you do have a point. Why does Behrad, the largest Legend, not simply eat the others?]
I believe the average female height is 5’4″
Wikipedia says in the US it’s 5 feet 3.5 inches, so *shrug*
– “most, if not all, of the white volunteers quit in protest” Actually, no, not all. There’s still about a dozen or so white women left (which gets paired down even more when most of the extras disappear 3/4 of the way through) after the big revolt. Two of them, as the others stomp out, actually give each other the “WTF is her deal?” face.- Yes, that is indeed the hanger used as the Hall of Justice in Invasion/Crisis. I really, really wish Legends had just gone all the way and made their landing point Central City. But then they would probably have to justify not leaving a message somehow for Barry to appear and just speedster them all back to 2021. Do post offices actually do that whole “Do not deliver until 40 years from now” thing from the movies?- I know there are some Chicago PD fans annoyed that Rojas just disappeared without a single line of dialog, but I’m really glad Legends got Lisseth Chavez, as Spooner has been a delight and has been a perfect straight woman this season.
– Influencer!Zari being the only one to notice Gwyn looks like John is not only funny, but a real nice touch. Speaking of which, I thought whenever the two Zaris switched, the other re-appears in the same spot. Why did Influencer!Zari not appear when Flannel!Zari went back into the Totem?
– I get that the Legends can’t actually stay that long, but it seems… off that all that time and energy was put into building just a single plane. One that was seemingly 70% complete before the Legends even got there.
– I am kinda sad that Bishop was killed so quickly. He had potential as a fun temporary Legend, but they probably didn’t want to think of ways to keep him busy since the cast is already large enough.
– “(I’m not caught up on Batwoman; how’s that doing?)“ Euuuuuuargh. I’ll make this my Batwoman corner. Everything this season has done with Wayne Enterprises makes me wanna bash my head into the wall. Ryan is the CEO of one of the biggest conglomerates in the world, one which has not just technology engineering as a specialty, but virtually every science imaginable. Why the fuck would she need to strike a deal with Jada (other than the meta reasons) to make a cure for Mary? Just use your own damn workers! Fuck, you don’t even need a cover story, just say it’s for the police to help corral Batman’s trophies! And don’t even get me started on Marquis taking over Wayne Enterprises just like that without approval from the board or the OK by the government (which would likely take a year minimum). This is why most Batman series have Lucius doing stuff other than being Mission Control. That all being said, the scenes with Mary and Alice were nice. It was even one of the few times where Alice didn’t irritate the hell out of me. Nicole Kang was great as always, but I have to say, the Poison Mary costume at the end looks a LOT cornier on-screen than in the promo image revealed last week. I do question something else, too. If Metropolis and Gotham are so close that you can drive from one to the other in a couple of hours, why would Kate take a plane there in the S2 opener? Then again, there are flights from San Diego to Los Angeles, but it still seems like a waste of jet fuel.
But then they would probably have to justify not leaving a message somehow for Barry to appear and just speedster them all back to 2021.Remind me, has Barry been able to speed people through time who are not also speedsters themselves? I thought whenever the two Zaris switched, the other re-appears in the same spot.I think both can co-exist in the totem (since they communed back in season 5), but only 1 can be out without causing ripples in space-time. It doesn’t have to be an instant in/out swap.
Barry brought back Cold before he became a Legend. Wanna say during Season 4?
I actually just watched that episode. It was after he became a Legend. Barry picked him up from 1890s Russia (the Waverider was in the background). It was also season 3. Barry needed to help him break into Argus to grab a power source to help stop Savitar.
as Spooner has been a delight and has been a perfect straight woman this season.I know what you mean, but given the number of people shipping her with Astra I still find this comment hilarious.
Batwoman: Yeah, I’m not a fan of pointy supervillain costume shoulders. No doubt there are costume fans out there who are like “Yes! C-lassic!!” I think the promo photo, while I agree – was great, was shot from a low angle so the shoulders were de-emphasized. The thing with Wayne Enterprises, since the show started with the premise that it was a skeleton of it’s former self, I can kinda/sorta buy what’s going on here. It’s still a huge suspension of disbelief, agreed. What’s more obvious with the show’s construct of the whole place: one week a Fortune top-tier company … another week – a place running on fumes that no one is paying much attention too, is that they never established a consistent framing of Wayne because they don’t want to lose the freedom to screw around with it. They could have 100,000 share holders, or, they could have 6… depends on what the plot needs. Is that annoying? Can be.Marquis is basically the Joker now. Which is okay so far. It’ll be interesting to see how he goes with it. Every take on the Joker, tbh, has been successful (surprisingly) to one degree or another over the years. You kinda had to hold your breath and pray when Gotham took a swing at the character – and low and behold… they did good. The Joker is now an actor’s equivalent chance to play Iago and Falstaff mashed together. So the show knows Marquis needs to bring-it. If the Joker ran around 12 years ago (or thereabouts) Joy-Buzzering people – kids! – and turning them into mini-Jokers … the show should bring those other victims onto the scene.
Marquis Jett is James Gordon Jr. Perhaps Marquis is also Owlman (Thomas Wayne Jr.). Why bother naming your son Marquis if you’re just going to pronounce it Marcus?
It’s to mess up the people who write the closed captions.
Didn’t Gotham have a bunch of Joker wannabes?
They had the Jerome & Jeremiah twins. Both played well by Cameron Monaghan
Trying to recontectualize Jada Jet’s actions as non-villainous is laughable. Surely there were better ways to convince Ryan not to talk with her son rather than tank Wayne Enterprise stock, thereby endangering so many livelihoods. Plausible deniability doesn’t make her an ethical person. She could’ve cut out the cryo-stasis completely & had him committed to Arkham if she really cared about people not getting hurt. Ryan covering for her doesn’t seem organic & justifiably pisses off Sophie.
Ryan could have the contract voided for duress plus have Marquis arrested for murdering a security guard & assaulting Luke. How does Luke not already have any backdoor contingencies to work around Marquis instantly revoking their building access?I thought the whole point of Poison Ivy’s vines yoinking Mary was to use her as a means of freeing her, yet nothing Mary has done since has been to benefit Pamela Isely?
Not to mention the little murder Marquis commited on camera.More annoying was Ryan going after Mary with the only antidote that she literally sold a company for with no plan. Like Barry going after a mind controlling meta not once BUT TWICE with no plan when the stakes are meant to be extremely high.
“- I get that the Legends can’t actually stay that long, but it seems… off that all that time and energy was put into building just a single plane. One that was seemingly 70% complete before the Legends even got there.”That plane was finished during the show. The plane at the end was built from scratch in 48 hours.
I’m just fed-up with this season’s mission to turn Ryan into season one Kate. She was introduced as having a very different background and life, but no, they have to give her a rich, problematic but not completely evil parent and a psycho sibling. Because heaven forbid they just adapt the show to the new reality.
Ava getting stuck in an I Love Lucy situation was pretty great. I thought this episode was really solid all around, it handled the issues deftly.
As soon as you saw the conveyor belt and heard the instructions to put a washer on each bolt, you knew exactly what was coming. Did not disappoint.
At the scene where Astra and Abby are debating change and Abby counters with the “slow and steady is sustainable” argument, I thought “Oh wow, this is fairly left-of-centre for a CW show, that’s different!” Sure enough by the end of the episode Astra’s way works out and the lesson is “Push for change fast, hard, and never stop being yourself.” Never change, Legends!I’ve generally found this season engaging for just letting the Legends be time travellers with less emphasis on trying to constantly one-up themselves in terms of random wackiness. This was my favourite Astra-focused episode where she’s not paired off with Spooner, channeling her snark and frustration with society norms into being a capable factory manager is good character development. Kind of inevitable the “World War…II?” joke would come up given the circumstances, but Doctor Who still does the best variation on this (in the Christmas special at the end of Peter Capaldi’s run).Ah com’on, don’t make Bishop sympathetic!This question came up over on The Flash, but why is the hanger floor constantly wet and why can’t the production crew mop it up? I guess less important here since it’s a working factory floor, but more jarring on Flash where the set is used for the Hall of Justice
The wet Hall-of-Justice floor makes it look scuzzy – like the roof leaks. But, maybe that’s the point.
Well, the Flash’s Moral Of the Week this week was “it’s OK to want to do good and save the lives of your loved ones… but there’s no point doing that if you don’t Be True to Yourself and always do what YOU want to do at every fucking moment, the rest of humanity be damned!”… so yeah, the “just never stop being yourself” model of social activism is exactly on brand.[and yes, being yourself can be good, sometimes. But it’s awfully convenient how it lets you feel good about heroically bringing about change, while also meaning you never have to make any sacrifices or alter your way of life in the slightest…]
Kind of inevitable the “World War…II?” joke
It’s well worn I know, but it’s always been my favorite time travel joke in media. “TWO? They had a SECOND one!? And THAT was the name they came up with?”
A friend and I were riffing on possible other sequel names one night. My favorite, and the only one I remember, was Son of the War to End All Wars.
I always call it like Grampa Simpson does
I was convinced Nate was going the way of Martin Stein during those final minutes.Can not wait for Legends v Legends: Dawn of WTFN in 2022!
Pretty sure Legends will get another season unless they decide to shutter all the CW projects but I don’t think they’ve reached that point yet.
Yeah CW is usually pretty good at announcing in advance when shows will end, so I expect all the shows will get another year. Also, given they’ve chosen to greenlight a Beebo Christmas special of all things, I assume someone in programming enjoys what Legends is doing and would let the show run to its natural end at this point.
Although to be fair, “Beebo Christmas Special” does also kind of sound like the sort of thing you’d commission as a send-off to a departing cult show/universe…
Does anyone on this show do the -slightest- historical research? It would be impossible for this company to lose its “DoD contract” because there was no Department of Defense. It’s still the War Department.
On top of that, if they’re turning out just one plane every couple of days, they’re not going to be building aircraft for very long. Ford alone was producing 500 bombers a month. (Though they, like every other contractor, were running 24-hour shifts, which this episode portrays as an aberration.) I realize it’s probably not easy to come by WW2 planes in Vancouver, but I couldn’t imagine why Mrs. Roosevelt and a colonel (and wouldn’t the First Lady rate a general?) would be inspecting a very ordinary patrol boat.
And, my gosh, that’s the best they could do for Mrs. Roosevelt? One of the most recognizable and easy to imitate women of the 20th century should be easier to cast and portray. (The joke voiceover at the end of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” had more gravitas.)
I did appreciate, though, the walkout by the white workers, since that did seem like something that could have happened. (I hasten to add that I’m not defending the attitudes of the war years.)
The portrayal of 1925 was pretty egregious, but this one made those episodes look like a documentary.
Ford produced five hundred bombers a month, but they also had much larger factories employing hundreds of people. This one had a few dozen people, and from what we saw, doesn’t seem to have room to work on more than one plane at a time.The existence of super-large factories doesn’t preclude the existence of smaller factories.
I was a huge fan and proponent of “Bishop joins the Legends” since last season, so I’m fucking devastated. I hope the show finds a way to still make that happen. Regardless, it was quite an impactful choice, even if it wasn’t totally unpredictable with how Behrad outright saying he was Legends material.Man, I’m so saddened by his death that I can’t even think about the other parts of the episode. Loved him saluting Sara and Sara reciprocating it.
They’ve done the legwork to grow this version of Bishop so I assume it won’t be wasted. And his death didn’t happen on camera, did it? Maybe they swapped a robot in…
Hopefully! It could also be a swerve, doing the work to make him likable only to snatch him away. I think the robot fakeout scenario wouldn’t work, since even though they didn’t show him get shot, the Legends did see the whole thing.
As much as I’d like that, the robo-Legends said Bishop was dead and they are the only entity capable of creating a clone Bishop. OTOH, “no body, no death” has been my go to, so he could return again.
My only gripe with this show is the lack of DCU characters, beyond who is on the team and that’s starting to dwindle. A number of the characters don’t even exist in the books. Yes, they totally messed up the JSA, yes Sgt Rock was barely a cameo, but how about bringing in more DCU characters for guest shots. Beyond Hex! Stop creating new characters and use the vast library of unused DC characters that are out there.
I was wondering if Asthrad was going to be the “new” ship after Gareon but now I’d rather ship her with Abby. Abbystra? Astrabby? Heh heh.Edited to add: OK, I guess more people might prefer to see Esperastra/Spoonstra be a thing.
I like Behstra as the couple name myself. I do like Spooner and Astra together, but I see them more as best friends personally.
Esperastra? You mean we’re not going with “Splogue”!? Damnit, now I have to take down those posters…
In addition to not having the money to bring in actors to play the Justice League, the Legends probably didn’t want Nate to have to deal with seeing Amaya again. The romance didn’t end happily for Nate and Amaya wouldn’t know what was coming, so not unearthing that particular can of worms made sense.I’m starting to wonder if they aren’t going to expand their diversity and make Behrad Ace. He hasn’t had any romances, so it wouldn’t be a retcon and I think it fits with the very uncertain nature of his possible romance with Astra.
Whenever Sara and Ava are about to ride into the (bourbon) sunset, guess they’re gonna settle down somewhere to do… well, whatever retired Legends do.
Maybe finally some hobbies? Book club?
Something they can do each on their own, just for once?
They’ve been together like 24/7 nonstop. (Being abducted by aliens or disappearing from the timeline doesn’t count.)
Must be exhausting. Certainly would annoy me.
If Sara leaves early they haven’t got any original Legends left…
Except (the voice of / now corporeal) Gideon…
Some Ava(s) might stay around, though.
“Where are we gonna live, your place or mine?” is quite an issue if one’s a totem.
Not sure about the hole commuting idea as a happy ending.
Although the combination of a teleportation totem and a magic key to a pocket universe would make it the best commute EVER.
Too bad the Bullet Blondes didn’t rob some jewellery store.
(No, I’m not missing the 1920ies.)
It’s just, I mean – they don’t have wedding rings, do they?
Just to clarify, Abby is the lady who ran the recruitment for the Rosies, and then quit when Astra put the integration order. Kimleigh Smith’s character isn’t named, which is pretty sad considering how significant her role was.
I’m fond of this episode myself, even if the thoughts of Mr. Staples getting unfrozen and Astra likely messing up the timeline was persistently lurking in the back of my mind.Never thought I’d be bummed to see Bishop die. Maybe his actor will continue on with the season and play a clone subservient to Mean-Gideon.I did like seeing Christine Willes (Dead Like Me) as Eleanor Roosevelt even if she didn’t exactly look like the former First Lady.
“For that matter, weren’t the Justice Society Of America operating in the Arrowverse in 1945? (The Earth-Prime JSA, not the Stargirl JSA.) I’m really surprised they didn’t even merit a mention from the Legends’ resident Hair-storian, Nate Heywood. Legends!”
I had it in my head that since Crisis, the Earth-Prime JSA never existed (much like what happened to them in the Crisis comics), but I guess there’s really no basis for that. And it would really mess up Amaya’s whole deal and possibly also Nate’s origin story (it’s been so long since I’ve watched Season 2 that I can’t even remember how he got his powers or took the Commander Steel codename).
I don’t remember the details either, but Commander Steel being a hero and vanishing played a part, iirc. Then again, maybe he was just a regular government secret agent in this timeline…
I believe in their first appearance, the JSA were in the European Theater fighting World War II. There was no reason to run into them on the homefront.
Legends are messing so much with the timeline this season, that I am pretty much sure that sooner or later a Reset Button is coming.
I did LOL when they didn’t want to spoil Davies about WWII, when at the same time they allow themselves to frak up the timeline in every possible way cause they want to… help people. Ok, realism was never a real thing for the Legends series, but they have really overdone it this year.
Who can blame evil Gideon? not me..
I can’t blame Evil Gideon, but I also can’t really say that it has any kind of a point. It exists in a ridiculous universe where there are no rules and nothing makes any sense. “Protecting the timeline” is nonsense. It’s an epistemological impossibility at a minimum, and that completely undersells how fucked everything is.Today, a change in the timeline starts having effects right away. Tomorrow, a change in the timeline doesn’t cement for months, or maybe ever. Today, nobody remembers the change. Tomorrow, somebody remembers some other change. What in the actual fuck.Gideon should have gone full Deadpool ages ago. Simulation Theory is pretty terrifying, but it’s got nothing on Fictional Universe Theory.
“You dropped a toilet on my time machine.
I don’t have to talk to you.”
So I was all set for Gwyn Davies to be against installing a guidance system for the time machine — what happened to his iron conviction that God inspired him to build the time machine in order to take him where God needed him to be? Maybe he’s decided that God is acting through Sarah Lance (or is Sarah Lance, because yeah, that tracks) so following her around satisfies the obligations of his holy quest… but that’s a little facile.I know it’s great fun when the gang all gets along, but I also think faith should be allowed to be faith even when it causes friction. It comes off a bit condescending to have inconvenient principles just snowed over by charisma and a brief conversation about shared tragedies. A God you believe in only when your new friends don’t disagree isn’t much of a God.
For anyone interested, the plane used in the show was a Canso PBY-5A, rescued from the bottom of a lake in the Canadian Arctic by some farmers in Alberta. A rather cool story, actually:https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/keith-gerein-from-combat-to-casting-call-alberta-heritage-airplanes-80-year-journey-comes-full-circle
That is very cool!
Laughed way harder than i should have at what looks like Bishop’s death. I prefer when he was used in small bursts like this episode which were usually pretty funny but now he seems dead. Legends doubles will only up the hijinks im sure and another Ava is still out there.
Evil Sara might be the show’s scariest possible villain. Is Astra the team’s most morally ambiguous character now? I can kind of imagine a line about there being an evil version of her kind of like what Sara once said about Mick. “Evil Astra … so, regular Astra. But, still.”