Legends Of Tomorrow wraps up its alien season while embracing its Whovian DNA
In which the Legends take shrooms, the enemy swarms, and the little flower boy gets a promotion
TV Reviews Legends of Tomorrow
This will not be the first time Doctor Who has been referenced in these recaps, and it’s unlikely to be the last. Links and comparisons between the two became inevitable and unavoidable the second The CW handed Arthur Darvill that long trenchcoat. This is a time travel show with goofy origins and a monster/mystery-of-the-week format; similarities to and echoes of the Who-universe aren’t exactly in short supply. But in “The Fungus Amongus,” the Whovian strands in the Legends DNA assert themselves most assiduously—for better and for worse. Mostly the former.
That’s not to say that this isn’t every inch a Legends finale. It is, most assuredly. Chaos abounds! There’s a somehow joyful period in which everyone waits for almost certain death! It’s got all the ingredients for a classic Legends finale: a threat looms with the fate of the entire planet/timeline at stake, it all comes down to a fight with a particularly absurd twist, someone says goodbye (two someones, in this case), and we end on a cliffhanger that sets up the new season. All those boxes are checked.
But at the same time, “The Fungus Amongus” also checks several (blue police) boxes on the list of Doctor Who classics. A powerful alien entity/guardian with an unexpected kindly streak saves all of humanity because… love, even though humans are terrible, check. Having to outsmart a nefarious villain by doing stuff that seems dumb (we’ll call that “pushing the great big threatening button”), check. Adorable aliens that lead to terrifying deaths, check. And of course, “just this once, everybody lives.”
When I pulled up that clip for this review, I wasn’t looking for the nanogenes. I just wanted to drop a link. And it’s not as though Doctor Who owns the concept of magical pretty firefly-looking floaties, nor is this the only time we’ve seen pretty magic floaties in this show.
In short, the finale of the most Whovian season of Legends to date is reminiscent of a handful of episodes from the “NuWho” era. Maybe it’s as simple as the fact that the shows share a genre; maybe it’s sometimes deliberate and sometimes just me forging connections where none exist. And for the most part, those similarities are all great.
Legends has an incredible knack for making things that might otherwise come off as saccharine somehow both sincere and ridiculous at once. This is a quality that Legends and Who share, but the latter is far more likely to tip over into the realm of unearned sentiment*. Legends avoids that pitfall by dialing up the absurdity. So season three ends with the Legends joining together to become a being of pure light and love, and that’s cheesy as hell, but the being of pure light and love also screams “BEEBO WANT CUDDLES” while kicking the shit out of a time-demon. That’s mostly what happens here—Sara and Behrad eating the weird John mushroom so that they can commune with him, for example.
That knack plays no small role in the show’s creative success, but “The Fungus Amongus” serves as a nice reminder that when it chooses to play things straight (heh, or not), it’s capable of reaching equally high heights. Which brings us back to the little flower boy.
This goofy-ass show earns its big emotional beats because even though it rarely takes itself seriously, it always takes the characters seriously. When Ray and Nora got impromptu-on-a-tight-schedule married, the ticking clock element was a lot less apocalyptic, but that celebration, too, was tied to death (John thinking he was about to die and advising Ray to “carpe his diem.”)
But it was also tied to the complex, evolving relationships within this family. Gary is the little flower boy, because he told Ray Palmer he wanted to be the little flower boy and Ray Palmer would never forget such a thing. Nate walks Ray down the aisle, because this show cherishes the bonds of friendship and the incredible intimacy that can be formed between two time-bros who just happen to love each other very much. The season that surrounds the wedding is pur chaos, but for a few minutes, Legends stops Legendsing, puts the train abomination aside, and bathes its heroes and its audience in warmth, love, and light.
It’s only fair that the Lance/Sharpe nuptials receive the same time and care. That they’re all (less Sara) likely to die in short order? That just makes it a proper Arrowverse wedding. It doesn’t cancel out all that loveliness.
I will always be your champion, your lover. I will always be your family, and I will listen to you even when the words are hard to hear, and I will let you in every when I’m afraid. And I will support you. I will fight for you. And above all, Ava Sharpe, I will love you.
But wait, there’s more:
My life before you was a perfect fabrication, and then you came into my world and everything just became a whirlwind. You brought chaos into my tidy, predictable existence, and you pretty much brought me to life. So I vow to you to live this life together. Co-captains forever, baby. I love you so, so, much, Sara Lance.
The chaos queen wrote her vows very carefully, weighing each word and promise. (“I will always be your family” means even more than usual when it’s being said to a woman still coping with the realization that the childhood she remembers is a fiction.) Director Sharpe, she of the many binders, wings hers, and she does so with Gary’s support. Then she asks Ray’s little flower boy to walk her down the aisle.
It’s gorgeous. It’s sincere. It’s one-hundred percent earned. And it’s the thing that saves the world—not just the love between Ava and Sara, but the love that this group of weirdos has for each other. “We are all connected,” stoned Sara opines (one of the best line readings in the history of this or any show, ever), and just like when they became Beebo, that connection changes everything. Their real superpower is the friends they made along the way—literally**.
Unfortunately, credited writers Keto Shimizu and James Eagan don’t manage the same feat, but given how little we’ve seen of Mick and Kayla, they come surprisingly close. Had the season devoted more time to that pairing, Kayla’s gradual thawing might have more impact, but as it stands, the handling of Mick’s exit is far more rushed than it should be. His evolution as a father is a marvelous arc, and as an end of that story, “The Fungus Amongus” is just about perfect. But not enough work went into the Mick/Kayla relationship to make their love connection compelling.
With one exception, pretty much everything else is great. There’s no “Thong Song” blaring, but the idea of everyone using everyone else’s powers because Spooner zaps them with fountain-juice is amazing. Worth it for Ava’s steel arm all by itself. Spooner’s storyline with her mother continues to be great—hope we see more of that dynamic next season. Zari is furious, and Tala Ashe deserves all the credit in the world for making this Zari’s grief assert itself so differently from Flannel Zari’s grief. And Bishop’s death — a very Who kind of death — is disgusting and perfect.
But, as much as I love a good “everybody lives” storyline, it’s not always a successful approach. And here’s where the not-so-great Who similarity comes into play: These grandly happy endings only resonate when they don’t happen all the time. I’d love to know the reason for John’s last-minute resurrection, a bizarre development that somehow managed to tip the inexplicably yet definitely comprehensible Fountain stuff back over the line of incomprehensibility. Matt Ryan and Ashe are both terrific in that scene, but it feels like someone slipped in a scene when the writers’ room wasn’t looking because they didn’t want Johnny C to die. Maybe it’ll improve on rewatch, but on first viewing, it knocked the whole episode down a letter grade. (Also, grades don’t matter.)
Still, the most interesting Doctor Who comparison arises after the flipping Waverider appears in the sky to blow up the version of the Waverider the Legends are flying. Are we headed for an Exile on Earth season, with an unusable TARDIS and a bunch of familar resources now taken away? I hope so—after this season, the Space Girl, her wifey, and their time-idiots could use a little distance from the rest of the galaxy.
* — Don’t come for me about this, I am a diehard Whovian but that doesn’t prevent me from acknowledging that it’s a show that loves its cheese a little too much sometimes.
** — The team is also grouped in a circle around Ava and Sara like a fairy ring of mushrooms, or like the cap of a mushroom surrounding the stem of a mushroom. Mushrooms!
Stray observations
- Honestly offended on Ray Palmer’s behalf that they didn’t call upon him when they needed a scientist. Yeah yeah pre-villain Bishop, and it was fun to see Raffi Barsoumian play with a different dynamic/hairstyle, but RAY PALMER.
- Speaking of Ray Palmer – Ava, you should know as well as anyone that you can absolutely pull off a dream wedding in hours because we all watched you and the rest of the Legends do that for Ray and Nora.
- Lovely sendoff scenes for both John Constantine and Mick Rory.
- I absolutely do not want the BBC to poach Keto Shimizu and make her the new Doctor Who showrunner, but… I also absolutely want that.
- Sara being immediately ready to chop Behrad’s arm off? That’s our co-captain
- Does Nate use his extremely helpful superpower in this episode? He did, albeit briefly. And then so did Ava! But just her arm! Which is both funny and thrifty!
- Episode MVP: It would be insane to give this to anyone but the wifeys, but Lisseth Chavez is once again excellent here.
- Why the fuck not?: “Hello! I’m alive! I’m… I’m… dying.” Forehead thunk.
- Line-reading of the
weekseason: “We are all connected!” - Episode title ranking: 1. Stressed Western. 2. Bored On Board Onboard. 3. This Is Gus. 4. There Will Be Brood. 5. The Fungus Amongus. 6. Meat: The Legends. 7. Ground Control To Sara Lance. 8. Back To The Finale: Pt. ii. 9. Bishop’s Gambit 10. Bay Of Squids. 11. Silence Of The Sonograms. 12. The Satanist’s Apprentice. 13. The Ex-Factor. 14. The Final Frame 15. Bad Blood.
- One last note: This is my last season (for now, at least) as your trusty Legends recapper. A change in my work situation means I have to step back from TV Club duties. Thank you so much for reading and commenting over the years; it has been an absolute pleasure. I will still be tweeting furiously about Legends (and other things), so please come say hi and tell me all about which Crazy Ex-Girlfriend song any given episode should be when the show comes back in October. And I’ll for sure be reading next season’s recaps, so look for me in the comments, trying to get you all out of the greys. Until then, just assume I’m hanging out in the totem with Flannel Zari.
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A little rushed, but gay love saved the day, so I’ll allow it.I’m really gonna miss your persepective, Aliison.
I’d love to know the reason for John’s last-minute resurrection, a bizarre development that somehow managed to tip the inexplicably yet definitely comprehensible Fountain stuff back over the line of incomprehensibilityJohn had bonded with the mushroom thanks to using Spooner’s blood, but Bishop poisoning him also poisoned the mushroom so both died… except not all the way. John was alive inside the mushroom and somehow both his and the Fountain’s life forces became intertwined (as did Spooner’s) but they were all still dying. Past-Bishop curing Spooner technically saved the Fountain, but the whole experience caused the Fountain to give up on humans, which is why Spooner couldn’t feel aliens or anything for a while. However the wedding convinced the Fountain that humans were still worth fighting for and as such it saved the day. Then John explained that while still in the mushroom (either before or after it was saved is unclear) he somehow made a deal with a demon again to give his soul coin back to hell and in return save his life. So as soon as the Fountain didn’t need to be leeching off his life force to survive, it kicked his ass right back to Earth since as a sentient being it again realized how unworthy Constantine is*. It’s comprehensible, just very complicated.*that being said, since Constantine teleports himself away at the end and doesn’t seem to be all jacked up on blood like he had been before, it seems like the Fountain might have thrown him a bone and given him some magic back. Mushrooms may not have hearts but maybe magic alien mushrooms have hearts of gold too.
Or it is just being practical. John doesn’t have a reason to look for it again if he has his magic back.
Or John included getting his magic back in the demon deal, which is the more on brand option.
it feels like someone slipped in a scene when the writers’ room wasn’t looking because they didn’t want Johnny C to die. Personally I’m glad. Dying because he tried to backstab the wrong guy is very on brand for Constantine as a character (in comics moreso than this show but still) but it’s not on brand for Legends as a show. Whenever people have died in the past it’s usually doing something heroically like Snart or Stein or Rip or Ray that one time before he wasn’t dead any more. Maybe I’m biased because I also didn’t want Johnny C to die but I feel like if a character’s leaving this show it should be on their own terms* or going out in a blaze of glory. Perhaps they should have gone the latter route as it’d be pretty apt to send the Hellblazer out in a blaze of glory, but this way’s alright too.*Though “on their own terms” is kind of nebulous since we know HBO Max is making their own Constantine show and I would not be shocked if Constantine leaving is less a writers’ choice and more of an order from the top that there can’t be two Constantines on peoples’ TVs and they have to protect the brand or some crap.
*Though “on their own terms” is kind of nebulous since we know HBO Max is making their own Constantine show and I would not be shocked if Constantine leaving is less a writers’ choice and more of an order from the top that there can’t be two Constantines on peoples’ TVs and they have to protect the brand or some crap.From all accounts, they no longer do this: – Batgirl movie on HBO Max is happening, while they’ve also just introduced Barbara Gordon in Titans- Whatever is going on with Green Lantern, be it movie or show, still allows CW to tease us with Diggle’s Lantern ring- The Flash show is apparently getting more and more seasons, while the movie is finally coming in 2022- Not to mention Superman is headlining his own successful show, while also getting multiple projects in the works for HBO MaxSo this definitely feels more like the writers’ choice. Constantine has had a good run in Legends. It must’ve been a bit frustrating for Matt Ryan to play a lighter version of the character, since he’s basically the biggest Hellblazer geek in the world haha.
WB/HBO/DC definitely feels like there are tiers and levels to their characters as though each has their own agent. There can be only one Wonder Woman at a time (per Wonder Woman’s contract). Movies, HBO, and CW can all have their own version of Batman – but at different ages! (per Batman’s rep at CAA) … etc. So you can tease that out.
I still have a hard time believing the Flash movie exists. I feel like even after I get a ticket I’ll expect a message about how they’re sorry and the movie’s delayed to pop up on-screen.But other than that I suppose you’re probably right.
Oh, don’t worry, even if the film can’t be projected it’ll be OK – they’ve promised they’ll give us all a message telling us which castle it’s being stored in, and there’s no reason not to think it’ll be there when we arrive…
Etrigan the demon sez:”For a movie about the fastest man alive, its taking its bloody sweet time to arrive.”
Green Lantern is the weird one, given they specifically could not mention anything about it with Diggle and had to tiptoe around it with vague allusions. And then the whole Snyder thing, where okay they had plans for John Stewart, but at the same time they told him ZSJL wasn’t “canon” anyway.
It must’ve been a bit frustrating for Matt Ryan to play a lighter version of the character, since he’s basically the biggest Hellblazer geek in the world haha.By all accounts he liked what they’d done with the character during his Legends run, but Matt Ryan was adamant that John Constantine not get the happy ending, and it had to be because John fucked it up, somehow.
Yeah, he wouldn’t have agreed to it had he really hate their Constantine, but I just figure a teeny, tiny part of his inner geek must be a bit frustrated at not being able to do a more definitive Constantine. I hope he’s got closure with the role, though, he did an amazing job.
It feels appropriate for Constantine – a character not just from another show, but originally from outside the entire Arrowverse, not to mention a very long and celebrated history in the comics – to NOT die on Legends. It feels like a recognition that maybe he wasn’t their character to kill! [likewise, having him leave back where he started – with a demon holding the chip to his soul – was over-neat, hurried wrap-up in the context of the episode, but feels appropriate in the ‘giving him back to the universe as they found him’ context]
Next season Matt Ryan will be back on Legends playing a different character.
It seemed to me like someone high up in production or at DC didn’t want “Constantine is dead” to be Arrowverse continuity for some reason, and demanded it reversed…
Maybe I’m biased because I also didn’t want Johnny C to die but I feel like if a character’s leaving this show it should be on their own terms* or going out in a blaze of glory. Perhaps they should have gone the latter route as it’d be pretty apt to send the Hellblazer out in a blaze of glory, but this way’s alright too.I thought it was damn near perfect. When his back was against the wall, he did the “noble” thing and was using what was left of his essence to keep the magic mushroom thing alive. But once it was cured (but he was still dead and his essence was still linked to it) he immediately shifted into self-preservation bastard mode and sold his soul to hell (again) to be brought back to life (again).
So it was a perfectly Constantine way to go out with a grand sacrifice and then weasel his way back to life.
I was enjoying this episode well enough… right up until the last 10 minutes or so. Fighting off ravenous aliens was neat, and the show thankfully justified why they couldn’t contact the rest of the Justice League (since they’re still in 1925, though I supposed Gideon COULD have contacted STAR Labs), but then Bishop shows back up out of nowhere. Bishop may be an alien, but he’s still just a dude with a gun. I do wonder why the aliens didn’t super speed through the easily broken wooden door or the walls.Odd that there wasn’t even a hand wave as to why the rest of the village wasn’t awoken with all the commotion. Whether Bishop put them to sleep or the aliens ate them or whatever. But, once again, Legends ends in a way that should really, really affect the other Arrowverse shows in a major way, but won’t. With the Fountain revived, not only should the Invasion crossover not have happened, but so should 70% of the plots in Supergirl and Superman & Lois. It’s possible J’onn can talk with the Fountain and that’s why they backed down (or simply left before Clark crashed), but if not, why would the Fountain allow Martians, Kryptonians, Daxamites, or all the other aliens to arrive and live on Earth?Mick’s departure being just kinda thrown in there kind of fits since Mick himself barely did anything after Season 2.
None of those other alien invasions were successful, were they?My guess is that the Fountain always helps out against alien invasions, but usually in more subtle ways (like, during the Invasion! crossover, was it just luck that Oliver and the other captured heroes managed to figure out the Dominators trapped them in the Matrix, or was the Fountain nudging their minds towards escaping?) It had to take a more direct role here because it waited until the last minute.
Also notable that even when the fountain went full ‘wave of killing energy’, it didn’t kill Kayla or Gary (or Sara, for that matter). So it’s clearly not a completely xenophobic ‘no non-native species on this planet!’ kind of guardian…
So they erase Bishop’s mind because he’s important to the legends timeline and his role has to stay the same otherwise Ava isn’t born. However Scooters mother lives but the show itself on many occasions has said the legends can’t change their personal timeline. Sarah couldn’t kill young Damien Darhk because of his affect on her life by killing Laurel, John couldn’t kick his father in the nuts or the timeline problems when he broke up with his boyfriend to stop his death, and in this season because a show was cancelled Behrad’s timeline was messed up. He changed because of that show and became a different man. Yet somehow Scooters mother gets to live when she should have died according to the timeline. That’s a pretty event in Scooters life that never happens and yet they still send her to the future even though the show says the legends personal timeline can’t be changed.
Since Girl!Spooner was taken to the Fountain by Astra, just like in the original timeline (give or take Astra’s involvement), the timeline was still intact, at least from the girl’s perspective. She didn’t know her mom survived or what had really happened to cause them to be separated.
As a Doctor Who fan, one of my gripes with Waters of Mars is that the Doctor could have saved everyone by transporting them into the future, instead of playing God and trying to change the past. I mean, the base blew up. It was implied no bodies were found. The people didn’t have to die, just no longer be part of the time line. Pop them forward to one of the multiple planets that had human inhabitants, give them some psychic paper to give them an identity and easy peasy it’s done and dusted. The effect of their deaths was to remove their influence on the time line, so there was a logical, easy way to save them.Basically that’s what happened with Spooner. The BFM (Big Freaking Mushroom) wiped her memory and sent her back the the future. The time line didn’t change.
Yep, it felt like Adelaide was sacrificed just to teach the Doctor a lesson in hubris. Not to mention the fact that the Doctor altered history from the second he stepped on the Mars base, so the whole thing doesn’t stand up to any logic whatsoever, really. It still works as a character beat, but the Spooner resolution was actually more sensible from a plot perspective.
Yeah, it’s a classic stable time loop: Spooner goes back in time and saves her mother’s life, in the process sending her younger self into the future, where she’ll eventually go back in time and save her mother’s life.
Spooner’s timeline hasn’t changed in regards to the parts that have to happen, which is Spooner growing up apart from her mother. The fact that her mom was still alive in the past didn’t change what happened to present-day Spooner’s timeline after they were separated.
I did like the season and liked how the Fountain came back but Bishop was just the worst. Like his ship is never destroyed yet he gets out and just brings one gun to kill them all like that’s gonna work? Like he’s not the worst villain ever but he just didn’t do anything except upgrade Sarahs body and thats it. He wasn’t a strong villain at all this season and his personality didn’t make up for his weak plan, and motivation.
His demise by purple doe balls was poetic for his character.
Also how does Mick survive that explosion since it seemed pretty big since it blew up the room. It reminds me of Hawkeye and Ant man surviving the missiles that Thanos launches at the Avengers base even though they were closest and were both regular humans. Still think Endgame would have been better if they killed Hawkeye there to amp up the tension.
Scott Lang actually shrinks to survive the explosion. I’d never noticed that detail until it was pointed out in a slo-mo video; he’s miniaturizing as the shockwave hits him.Clint, OTOH… crazy luck, I guess? Same as how Rhodes’s super-armor was knocked out by the aftermath while unprotected Rocket is intact, albeit trapped. (and yet Rhodes has a backup set of armor nearby? Or did it reboot/repair itself by the time Scott embiggens to lift them free?)
But back on topic —- You got me, especially as how Mick goes and STARES DIRECTLY AT THE BOMB instead of at least a duck and cover roll when it’s about to blow.
“We are all connected,” stoned Sara opines (one of the best line readings in the history of this or any show, ever),In a whole show/arc/episode of gifts, Stoned Sara was a Gift. Tala Ashe deserves all the credit in the world for making this Zari’s grief assert itself so differently from Flannel Zari’s grief.yessssssssss-Rush-wedding is a nice in-universe explanation for all the old cast returns they couldn’t really do due to COVID.-I love Mick and Sara’s last scene together. Just taking a moment to drink and reflect and appreciate their Waverider time together. My BrOTP <3-Enjoyed the baby hatchling design. And their consumption of Bishop.
Sara/Caity Lotz has the best line reading/comic timing on this show.
Caity Lotz is everything. As long as the show has her as Sara I think it will be fine. I will miss Mick but I like the lineup a lot right now. Nate had a lot of good moments in this episode, I like him stepping up as Sara & Ava’s right hand guy providing whatever they need, including marrying them
I still need the Laurel 2 and or Nyssa cameo.
I hope they do a post-wedding party next season for non team members to attend and Nyssa and Laurel 2 and Jax and Charlie and Diggle and Leo Snart and Ray and Nora are there
I wonder if they’ll let Barry and Iris come, since their wedding was crashed by killer aliens even without them.
That would be perfect for the 100th episode which…have we heard anything on that in terms of guest stars? Hoping they got someone to come back. Legends, being that it shoots in out-of-the-way areas of Vancouver, may not have felt the need to pre-announce guests if they thought it wasn’t going to leak.
Thanks for all the coverage, Allison!This was good, but also sloppy, and I think that sums up my feelings towards the entire season. To its credit, I think Legends has dealt with COVID Year One(!) admirably, and I think it’s also done better than Flash and Arrow did six seasons in with regards to maintaining a certain level of consistency. So yes, I’m more confident in season 7 than any other Arrowverse series at this point.But again…sloppy. Mick takes a full blast as a cliffhanger last episode, and doesn’t even suffer any light burns. Kayla claims it’s important for the female to raise the eggs, despite abandoning them a few episodes prior. Sara’s cloned into a new body and gets powers, and it hasn’t really amounted to much for the rest of the season. Worst of all is Constantine – if last episode was an anti-climactic death, this was an equally anti-climactic resurrection and departure. I’m glad they didn’t kill him off, since the crew barely reacted at all, but that was some weird convoluted last-minute hand waving to offscreen shenanigans. And then John just magik’s himself away? The whole thing leaves me feeling indifferent, which might be worse than if they’d just left him dead last episode.
I don’t think Kayla abandoned her eggs, but more was planning to come back and get them once they birthed and killed Mick; that he gave birth so early and survived the process only happened due to Bishop’s machinations.
Yep, there are some plot things to quibble with, but those are much less fundamental issues than those that Arrow and The Flash face.
In Arrow and Flash’s defence they have to maintain 22 episode seasons with pretty mediocre writers. But Legends ripped up the Arrowverse formulas pretty quickly.
It’s insanely frustrating that the Flash gets a 22 episodes order for the usual season, but fills like over half of it with filler, while Legends usually needs at least a couple of more episodes for the plot and characters to breathe but is only given 15-16 episodes order.
One last note: This is my last season (for now, at least) as your trusty Legends recapper.Thanks for all your work and fun write-ups, Allison. You’ll be missed! So many of my favorite writers here are going away, hopefully for better gigs since you guys are too good for what’s become of AVC these days. It’s been… Legendary.For the episode itself: I knew that guy in the wedding from the trailer looks so much like Bishop! I even thought they were pulling a fast one with how that trailer was presented, that Bishop returning with the ship and the Legends looking up during the wedding were from two different scenes, and that Bishop ended up joining the Legends by the end of the season lol.Turns out they did an even better twist by bringing in young Bishop. I wish they figured out a way to have him join, though.
Yep, she’s been great. Going to miss her recaps.
If Bishop joined the team, he’d be the Lawful Evil character they need so the Legends can fill out an entire D&D alignment chart.
I absolutely do not want the BBC to poach Keto Shimizu and make her the new Doctor Who showrunner, but… I also absolutely want that. Modern Who has had only one non-British writer in 15 years (Sarah Dollard), and even she had come up through writing on other British all-ages fantasy shows. As much as they need new blood, they’re highly unlikely to give the show to an American.
They should totally hire her to replace Chibnall. Please, BBC.But yeah, no chance in hell of them hiring anyone outside of Britain to write for the show, let alone take the reigns.
Not only will they only hire a Briton, they’ll hire another person who’s a lifelong fan of the show (and more than likely someone who’s worked on it) rather than bringing in someone with anything even approaching a fresh perspective.But beyond that, they’ll also continue to refuse to separate the showrunner and head writer roles. That doesn’t matter quite as much with Chibnall since he’s terrible at both, but some of the damage could’ve been mitigated if he’d just been head writer and not showrunner. It’s been my long-held opinion that the show – as strong as it was – would’ve been much stronger with RTD serving exclusively as showrunner and someone else, like Moffat or Gattis, as the head writer.
Yep, they are. Because experience worked out so well last time.
They reportedly wouldn’t even talk to Joe Hill about writing an episode, because they were scared he’d get American cooties on the pages. They seem to be giving J. Michael Straczynski (you know, Babylon 5, Sensate, Thor, etc) the run-around over the showrunner post for the same reason (thanks for asking, we’ll be in touch if it turns out you’re literally the last human left on earth).
To be fair, I’m not sure JMS is the right fit for Doctor Who. I suppose (1) the BBC doesn’t want to hire Americans and pay them with British taxpayer money, and (2) wants to retain a certain intangible ‘Britishness’ to it.
Allison! You will be dearly missed and I do hope your successor continues the weekly WTFN moments of the week.Btw so so so glad Ray Palmer is returning to the Arrowverse this season!
Aren’t we going to see a lot of Arrowverse characters throughout the next season of Flash?
Yup. Given how Routh talked about how he was unhappy with how they ended his tenure on LoT it’s great to see the situation was rectified.
I’m hoping given how Routh and Courtney Ford are in Van right now, Legends got them to return in some capacity as well.
Ray Palmer comes in to save the team from the past!
“Brandon, honey, come here. We would never take you for granted. Now get your big butt back in that suit.”
Of all the scenes I did not expect a fricking Gary and Ava scene to dropkick me in the emotions. I cried, it was that good. Also glad they brought John back. You may not like the resurrection, but the death if left as is would have been significantly worse. Someone else always pays the price, often someone innocent who really doesn’t deserve it, when things go badly for Constantine is such a core feature to the character as much as the trenchcoat is.
I liked the Gary/Ava scene, but part of me still feels Gary’s development this year has been subtly fast-tracked/un-organic due to the whole alien retcon thing. Like he’s suddenly gotten a lot more respect from the others because he now has plot-relevant exposition. All that is to say, the Gary/Ava scene rings 90% true, but part of me would’ve liked to see it play out with pre-alien Gary.
I would say the same thing for pre-cloned Sara.
He managed to develop as a character this year pretty much by not being involved too much with any major fuckup (i think?) and not being very annoying.
Always found the character a bit much (although he had his moments) but this season he was a lot more tolerable. I guess because the writers had more reasons to include him due to the retcon
I’m torn about the resurrection of Constantine. On the one hand, the scene played well and I always like the prospect of Matt Ryan reprising the role. On the other hand, it worked so well to have him be, like, in some sort of soul-realm? Also weird that the rest of the team seemed to not know he was alive. I’m still not sold on Spooner, but maybe another season of development will help. The scene at the end between Mick and Sara was lovely, and I do hope Mick comes back at some point. Overall a strong finale, if not the show’s best.
Yep, I disagree with Allison a bit in that I feel like Doctor Who can get away with it sometimes because it’s filled with so much death and destruction—Legends would never produce anything as bleak and miserable as Midnight or The Caves of Androzani—so the everybody lives stuff feels like a contrast to the darker side of the show’s universe. It just feels straight up unearned and saccharine, here.
Yep, the whole context of “everybody lives” is “just this once”
– How did Mick survive that?
– Please let Behrad get high off of John’s corpse mushroom. (I know he won’t, but that would be so funny.)
– Did they tell us who Spooner’s dad was?
– Stick to your guns Zari. Don’t let John off of the hook.
– But will Bishop remember this move since it’s from his past?
– …..They do get high off of John!Corpse mushroom.
– *New Joosey accent* Hey, Sara. EAT. ME.
– It’s raining Zagarons, hallelujah.
– If Lita couldn’t be there to walk Ava down the aisle, then I guess Gary will do. Especially after what he said.
– Spatula (Spooner & Astra) hugging. That height difference.
– Mick walked Sara down the aisle. I saw a lot of people predicting that.
– Gary wearing a crushed velvet suit is so Gary.
– Nice song.
– Great vows.
– I would rank that #1 on Arrowverse weddings. (Olicity interruptions not allowed.)
– If Nate changed out his powers, shouldn’t he start internally bleeding? He’s a hemophiliac.
– It’s Hello Cthulhu.
– I’m glad that John and Zari’s relationship resolved itself as it did. Zari forgave him, but didn’t romanticize his shortcomings.
– Until we meet again, John, Mick.
– Now the question is was it them that stranded themselves in the past?
Alright, so due to the time difference I’m only through like 3/4 of the episode and not going to get into the details (first time in my writing career saying this, but GAWD DAMN this overly positive and sometimes teary show makes me say things!!1), as I need to go and make dinner n’shit, but…“And if there’s no objections…” *spaceship entering violently into scene*“Am I the villain…?”Just made me comfortable enough to pause the episode to go and start the sauce… Be it a hyperbole of the whole existence of this very series or reading your recaps/reviews… All I have to say is thanks for entertaining us fans & nerds over these seasons and I truely hope you have the best of luck in your next endeavours.Not too long til the next season drops and honestly, our space- and time traveling cats have dealt pretty well with the plague related work stoppages etc… considering I was just watching a few of my fave CBS (and equivalent… guess it doesn’t really matter if it’s terrestrial production or some schmancy Apple plus minus thing) comedy shows and seeing how the editing and overly intense ADR was really f*cking with dialogue and timing (looking at you Brooklyn 99 and AP Bio)…Still as solid, still kicking ethreal ass, still absolutely one of my most favourite silly sci-fi / comedy / troupe / whatever shows. High *hiveshipping* five to y’all!
And then *woosh* I get emotional over the wedding bitAnd then *woosh* I get emotional over the “babies” eating the baddieAnd then *woosh* I get emotional over the mushroom ConstantineAnd then *woosh*… You get my drift.I’ll leave the nitpicking of comic/reality to someone who’s more adept in picking the nits of that but honestly as far as one of “these” shows go, that was a pretty decent ending and wrapping up of characters (having a beer for my namesake Mick and a sip of ye olde magic potion for Consty etc).Can’t wait for real life Gideon being all meta and dark tbh!
Gideon might be the funniest as well as sexiest character on the show, so more of her next season has me with high hopes for it. Her goodbye to Ray was also one of the show’s most emotional moments for me. Basically I love her
Her little CGI tear got to me more than all the bromance stuff. Ray and Gideon was never really explored, but there is no way Ray didn’t consider a talking spaceship one of his closest friends.
I loved Ray & Nate’s friendship, but Gideon’s tear was when I lost it in that episode & never regained it
I can’t be the only one hoping they were forming another Beebo when the lights started forming around their group hug, can I? I thought it was a great finale. Loved that it took the time for quiet moments like Ava’s freakout and Gary calming her down, John and Zari at the end, and especially Sarah and Mick sharing a beer. I still don’t buy that he and Kayla are a grand romance. He’s leaving to be a father to his children, first and foremost. I hope Kayla does take him back to see Lita at some point, so she can meet her many, many siblings. Maybe once they’re old enough for transformation glasses.So, if they’re stuck in the past my guess would be that Matt Ryan can show up as Constantine’s grandfather or something next season. I still want him to be Charlie this time, but I probably won’t get that wish.
I like the Kayla-Rory relationship. It doesn’t feel like they’ve fallen in love – it feels like they each recognise the other as a capable protector for their children (who they also mostly like). [Kayla’s decision to throw her lot in with Rory felt less ‘oh, I adore him so much!’ and more ‘…you know what, he does seem like someone I want to ally with’]That feels on-brand for both characters, and frankly it feels more meaningful than making every relationship mushily the same.
This.
I thought it was significant that Mick talked about Kayla like he did about Snart. When he thought she was dead, it was you don’t leave a teammate behind. When he left it was about finding a new partner in crime. On the other hand, she’s got a lot of Garima’s characteristics, so no wonder he’s into her.
One thing I don’t like, though, is that if we lose Mick we presumably lose Lita too. I don’t actually have any reason for Lita to be on the show – which means she probably shouln’t be – but I thought her actor did a really good job with so little material, in making her seem like a fun character to have around.You know, with Mick and John both gone, if they drop Gary back to the supporting cast, and replace Nate with Lita, we could get an all-female core cast…[personally, I’d prefer they go back to their arrowverse roots – add Black Siren to replace Mick as the sarcastic borderline-evil one, and thrown in Nora as a confused but enthusiastic person from the future (or even time-remnant Nora?)][I also kind of wish they were stuck in the future rather than the past. In the past, I’ve said I wished they stayed in a time period longer than one episode… but Rural Texas in 1921 is kind of low down the list of places I’d like to spend an entire season…]
I would love Lita to join her Aunt Ava’s team, maybe as the new Captain Cold, who young Lita once dressed as for trick or treating
She’s a mom now so it really doesn’t make any sense for her to join the Legends.
Astra’s the new sarcastic borderline-evil teammate, and now that Constantine and Mick are gone, her role on the team makes a bit more sense.
Well it would do, if Astra were actually borderline-evil! Now that she’s among the Legends, she’s become, at worst, a bit grumpy…
As much as I adore Ray and Nora together, I wish we had Nora solo this season. She could have had some really good stuff with Astra and Spooner digging into the little-girl-lost trauma they all share.
As a set 1921 rural Texas is pretty damn cheap. even though it still looks like Canada. Given the pace of the show I doubt they will be stuck in the past for long.
I loved how worried Astra was when Spooner was in a coma & them sitting together at the wedding. Them becoming BFFs was my favorite thing this season & almost makes up for the loss of the Ray-Nate bromance. Saying goodbye to Mick AND Constantine in the same episode is a lot. I liked that Mick got a farewell from his fellow OG Legend Sara, who he has always respected & John got to say goodbye to Zari, whose love really should have been enough.
I like the idea of Astra-Spooner, but I thought it was rushed – I don’t really know either of them individually, let alone as a… [what’s the feminine equivalent of bromance? oh right, ‘friendship’] friendship. It makes sense logically that the two new girls in class would bond with one another, but it means they’re both kind of blank slates a bit still.Then again, I hated how they rushed/railroaded Ava-Sara, and they’ve turned out brilliantly, so…
The Astra-Spooner friendship did happen fast but I buy it. Apparently the actress really became friends on set & the writers noticed & started writing to it, which I think helps, the chemistry feels real. And what we do know about them–both having mother issues and feeling very alienated and alone and like weirdos–makes sense they would get each other & see something of themselves in the other.
It does make sense, I just don’t think we’ve seen enough of it developing on screen (compared to, say, the years of gradual Ray-Nate); sort of feels like they’re just trying to copy their (originally accidental) success with Ray-Nate. It probably doesn’t help that this season has felt quite disjointed to me, temporally. Partly it’s that this friendship seems particularly to have emerged in the second half of the season, but it’s felt as though most of this half has taken place over a very short span of time – these last four episodes in particular are basically one continuous chain of events, so it feels weird to me for them to have gone from ‘cordial new acquaintances’ to ‘best friends forever’ over the course of them!
I liked how one of the showrunners described it, since neither Spooner nor Astra has ever had a friend before, suddenly having one is very intense for both of them, almost like a teenager falling in love for the first time. In that way it is very distinct from the more mature Ray and Nate, both PhDs. This season has felt very disjointed and weird at times which I tend to think is due to filming during COVID.
Yeah, I think it was paced appropriately for a one season arc. It landed pretty well all in all.
Just a couple of gal pals!
When Astra hugged Spooners little ass it was a consecutive episode where i ‘awwwwd’ for them.
I loved Astra hugging Spooner after their victory in the bowling episode & Spooner’s feet dangling in the air because she is so tiny
A classic big guy/little guy friendship!
Thanks for all the great reviews Allison! Always hard to say goodbye to a Legend, but I hope your next adventure is a fun one.
I’ve inexplicably had “Songbird” stuck in my head all week, so maybe Stoned Sara is right and we really *are* all connected and I’m vibing with the Legends writers room somehow? I’ll try to get you guys some season 7 spoilers.I kinda wish I could take this episode and send it back in time to myself in 2014 when I was cursing out Arrow for cheaply killing off my favorite character. When I think about everything that’s happened since then—she’s alive! and a timeship captain! and she even got the girl!—honestly, it warms my tiny shriveled heart. Yeah, this episode was rough in parts—like the rest of the season—but the good parts were so good and those vows so damn sweet that I can forgive the off note or two. And even if I disagree with the decision to bring Constantine back, I’m kinda glad to know he’s out lurking somewhere in the multiverse, even if we never see him again (though with Matt Ryan sticking around, who knows).
Speaking of Sara being wonderful, I really appreciate not one but two moments of Sara being the grownup friend this episode.You tell her that there’s no option but to slowly sacrifice yourself to keep an alien mushroom alive? She nods, sincerely commiserates with your impending death, and then moves the topic on to practical matters.Infected with a toxin in your arm that will kill you within minutes? She picks up a damn axe to perform a field-amputation within seconds.So many protagonists – particularly ‘superheroes’ – are whiny children whose go-to approach is to deny reality until reality gives them a break. Not because they have a plan, but because they know they have plot armour that will make everything work out. “No, you’re not going to die! We’re going to find another way!”… “no, of course we won’t amputate, we’ll just cure that venom with the power of hope! I never give up!”… whereas Sara is an adult. She knows John wouldn’t be telling her that plan if he thought there was another way, and he knows more about it than she does, so she doesn’t waste his time and insult his intelligence by telling him she’ll fix it for him. She knows from experience how deadly that venom is, and doesn’t offer anyone the false hope of there being another solution. Sure, in both cases the universe throws her a bone anyway, but she didn’t just expect it to, and was prepared for the worst. That’s what’s genuinely badass about her, not the taekwondo – and it’s what sets her apart from so many other TV characters, particularly in the Arrowverse. No wonder she’s the (co-)captain.
I have found both The Flash and Supergirl to often have this form of hyper-aggressive optimism, where believing everything won’t turn out okay is treated like a moral failing.
Its the Arrowverse template which Legends ripped up along time ago.
Arrow was on a steep downhill trajectory from the moment they did that to Sara in the opening episode of that season no less.
That’s the point I stopped watching Arrow. [I did eventually start again for some of the later seasons, but I’m not sure it was worth it]It was just such a bone-headed writing decision, and from what I’ve read of the episode summaries there was never any good reason for it, and they undid it anyway…
I’m not gonna wax poetic about this show due to my always doing that in these reviews; instead, I’m gonna wax poetic about Allison Shoemaker.At first, Oliver’s reviews were my quintessential reviews for this show and this site – everyone else feels so serious all the damn time, but Oliver appeared to have fun with the show and with the reviews. His review for “Here I Go Again” is one of the best things I’ve read on this site.Then, you came along and blew it out the water.I would wait on your reviews with bated breath because I knew I would be leaving this site utterly satisfied with witty writing, notes I happened to overlook in my viewing of the show, and an absolute appreciation for the material presented. In fact, I wouldn’t go to any other place on any of these godforsaken sites until I read your review first.I’m gonna miss your reviews here, but I do follow you on Twitter and have been enjoying your tweets. I look forward to seeing what you do next.Raise your glass for an absolute Legend, folks.
Seconded! Allison, I’ll miss your reviews a lot! Once a legend, always a legend.
The amount of times I loudly proclaimed ‘’this is fucking stupid’’ with a massive grin on my face. Watched a youtube vid called ‘’How legends made jumping the shark into an art form’’. It couldn’t have been more right.Absolutely ridiculous episode with all types of shenanigans and i loved it.
Thank you for telling us about that video! I just watched it and thought it was a nice take on the show.
Allison, you’ve been the best. Watching Legends isn’t going to be the same without having your reviews to look forward to.You rock.
Got Wicked Witch of the West vibes from Bishop first entering the sky on a black cloud of nastiness, then later “I’m melting!” via Mick & Kayla’s brood.
So Sara is definitely a clone. No real problem with that, but one would think that the writers would have had a reason for it. You would have thought that at least a part of an episode would have everyone coming to grips with losing the old Sara and accepting the new. The Legends seemed to take 5 seconds to move on.
I’m grateful that they spoiled Gideon’s appearance next season in Comic-Con because that cliffhanger would’ve left me worried for the next, uh, five weeks. I would have liked one last appearance of Mick and Kayla riding off in her spaceship with their many, many kids but I guess the episode budget reached its limits. Seeing Mick toasting with Sara makes up for that.Favorite part, besides Sara and Ava finally exchanging vows, would be Spooner temporarily swapping powers between Legends.
Overall, a lovely finale that thankfully brought Constantine back from the fungal dead. Looking forward to Matt Ryan’s new character, which I imagine will be vastly different from the damned sorcerer.
Forgot to mention, thank you for the reviews Allison! Looking forward to your thoughts as well on season 7, whether here or on Twitter.
Thanks for all your great work here & elsewhere! You’ve been a stellar part of the AV Club. Hope the change in your work situation means good things for you and yours.
I’m surprised the Fountain still wanted to help humanity, considering how many people love to eat mushrooms. Even if they’re not all sentient like the original, the show implied that all mushrooms are, at the very least, alien offspring. It made me think of the whole Popplers situation on Futurama.Thanks for all the reviews, Allison! Good luck on whatever comes next!
That’s a bummer you won’t be recapping season seven, Allison.
As soon as steeled up Nate gets knocked down by a Zaguron scout he reverts to normal. He had a great idea this episode though.The vision of John looked like Planetary’s Elijah Snow.
Gary Green may be an even better wingman than The Owl House’s Hooty.
While I wasn’t sold on their pairing back when it started out of loyalty
to Nyssa al Ghul, everything about Avalance has been chef’s kiss
perfect this year.
Exterminating humanity centuries before he was conceived would certainly paradox Bishop out of existence. After trying to artificially engineer the perfect human-alien hybrids, he was killed by ones bred from lust.
Let’s hope getting stranded works out better for them than the first
season episode. Will they spend the entire season in one time period, or
will this just be a brief introductory arc?
With Arrow, Black Lightning, & Supergirl over, this could be a prime opportunity for The Waverider
to pick up some adrift superheroes. Lately it’s been focused on
inventing its own large cast, however, rather than picking up spares
from other series like it was designed to do. They didn’t even the few characters with supersuits in them for an episode this year!
While I was disappointed there wasn’t a stronger degree of interconnectivity Post-Crisis. especially where time travel should make
that easier, season six didn’t need it. Although this season was made
during turbulent times, it doesn’t feel like it skipped a beat. It
outclassed Batwoman & The Flash so hard that it should officially become the Beeboverse’s flagship series!
In honor Thangar not even being referenced, I finally customized Hawkgirl!https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2021/09/06/lot-remains-legendary-in-season-six/
Hate to see you go, Allison. Thanks for everything.This finale definitely felt like they had to reach a couple of places to make everything work, some things were a little rushed/contrived, but well, the emotional payoff was right. More importantly Sara and Ava’s wedding was just the sweetest dang thing
So, this is how it’s going to be, now? The Sara Lance we’ve been following for eight years dies off screen on some alien planet, and the love of her life marries a photocopy of her, and we’re supposed to be okay with that?Fuck that. After all the time and effort this show has put into arguing that Ava Sharpe is a unique individual, different from all the other clone Avas, why should we treat the Sarah clone as indistinguishable from the real Sara? We know that souls exist in the Arrowverse. Unless Bishop somehow put Sara’s soul and consciousness into Clone Sarah’s body, then it’s not her. But there’s no evidence he did that, so that means the real Sara Lance is dead and Ava married a fake. That’s a disservice to Sara and Ava, both. People could say “Well, it’s not the original Ava either, because she died in Crisis,” but at least with Crisis we can assume that when Oliver was remaking the universe, he brought back the original versions of all the Earth-1 people. But Sara died in this universe and no one brought her back. I know it’s just a goofy TV show and this sort of thing shouldn’t bother me that much, but Sara is my favorite character in the entire Arrowverse, and her relationship with Ava is my favorite pairing*, so it really fucking does.What’s really galling is it seemed like they were setting up Sara returning somehow, and then never followed through. What was the point of Sarah having sudden, unexplained cravings for milkshakes in that one episode, if it wasn’t leading to a revelation that Bishop had actually programmed her to be a sleeper agent or something? And just to rub salt in the wound, John gets a contrived, pulled-from-the-ass resurrection, but not Sara? All they had to do was write an episode where they somehow get the body of a dead Sarah clone, revive her with a Lazarus Pit, and have John (or Astra) put Sara’s soul into it. He’s done it before. Or, hell, maybe use Gideon’s meat printer to make a Sara body that has no mind, and put Sara’s soul into that. I’ve already come up with two ideas, and that was just off the top of my head.There are still moments and episodes from this season that I like, but this whole thing has really soured the season as a whole for me, in retrospect. I’ll probably still watch next season, but right now I’m not really looking forward to it.*Though Clark and Lois may edge them out over time, especially after this.
Am I the only one who read Matt Ryan will be in season 7, but just playing a different character? The comments sound like many people think he is gone gone.https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/legends-of-tomorrow-matt-ryan-new-role-1234987787/
I’ve enjoyed your reviews, Allison, and especially your seeing the references to Doctor Who. I’m a huge Whovian fan and always appreciate when someone else sees the influences. In fact, I only started watching LOT because of Duvall who I enjoyed so much on Doctor Who. I’ll miss you but good luck for whatever you have going on next. I knew Constantine would be back but I thought it would be because of magic or alien wizardry. Never crossed my mind that when ‘gone’ from Earth he would return to Hell and would be able to strike a deal. Clever, very clever writing.When “Huddle!” was shouted in the house and they all gathered close to Sara and Ava, I jumped up off my chair, did a little dance and shouted “Beebo moment!” Sure enough!! My favorite part of the episode.I have a favor to ask. I was a regular commenter at the ODeck when it still existed but I’m probably in the greys here so I haven’t bothered commenting. Could you fix that, please? Thank you.
Without Mick. What’s the point?
but it feels like someone slipped in a scene when the writers’ room wasn’t looking because they didn’t want Johnny C to die. Maybe it’ll improve on rewatch, but on first viewing, it knocked the whole episode down a letter grade. (Also, grades don’t matter.) I’m rather glad the show has moved beyond the CW formula of offing outgoing cast members (especially when they have a reason to exit) and trying to force one shock death per season. Both Mick and John survived! I am stunned.I’d love to know the reason for John’s last-minute resurrection, a bizarre development that somehow managed to tip the inexplicably yet definitely comprehensible Fountain stuff back over the line of incomprehensibility. He sold his sold to a demon in hell to regain his power and in doing so was “corrupted” and booted from the Fountain, which was all according to his plan.
Because he’s John Constantine and always has a plan.As a fan of Hellblazer and Constantine, I rather like how they managed to walk the line with the character on the show, keeping him as the outsider and straight man while maintaining as much of the bastard as possible. He felt fairly true to the source material, moreso than many other Legends and even other Arrowverse characters.
I never bought Constantine being dead (re:bmy comments last week). He can’t die that easy, per the classic Dangerous Habits storyline him dying would trigger a war in Hell so the Triumvirate (long story) has no choice but to keep him alive. (and yes I know they worked padt that in the comics). That being said I thought the manner of his death would have been the perfect chance to bring in Swamp Thing from that sadly canceled show (never had a chance, canceled before first episode had even sunk in). And I really wanted to see Manny from the Constantine show again.I absolutely think he had to go from Legends. Him being on the ship for a time was fine (Constantine took part in the original Crisis way back when e.g.) but it’s not his path. Trying to cram him into a peg for this show could only work for so long. It did for a time but time to move on.About my only real annoyance with his exit was the idea that he could be duped by someone like Bishop. Evil genius or not…Speaking of evil “genius”, come on, you are in a spaceship that has weapons so you land it, get out, and walk with a gun to fight a team of people? Even without the alien pods hatching, even with some super high tech rifle…. there was no way he was gonna defeat the enttimeliness.I did feel bad for young Bishop not getting a chance to be a better person. I know, timeline… like that has ever stopped the Legends in the past from screwing with the timeline.
I love John but I was fine with him dying. Him dying and not staying with the Legends also is fine since he has real evil work to do. Damn I hope he is on the HBO Max (or movie can’t remember which) Justice League Dark.I didn’t care for this season. Don’t get me wrong the show is still fun but I’m not a fan of Sara being a clone along with Eva Clone. Was happy Nate got some time with OG Zari. But yes, we need and fucking want Ray! I hope Nora is with Ray in the Flash cross over next year.I hope that was Snart who blew up the ship “these legends all suck!”
I genuinely enjoyed it. It was kind of scattered all over the place and I 100% miss Allison’s take on all the episodes. Was it the best season finale? No. Was it a Legends finale, yes.
I was actually tearing up a bit when Spoons hugged Astra.
Allison, your recaps have been wonderful and you will certainly be missed next season. Glad that these reviews somehow haven’t been randomly dropped yet.
I’d love to know the reason for John’s last-minute resurrection, a bizarre development that somehow managed to tip the inexplicably yet definitely comprehensible Fountain stuff back over the line of incomprehensibility.They zipped past it pretty quickly, but it made sense to me, and I think it was perfect for John Constantine.
He was dead, and was using his essence (that was linked to the Fountain) to feed it and keep it alive for a little while. Once the Fountain was cured, he was still dead and still linked to the Fountain (which it didn’t care for, since John’s a bastard) and John used some of its power to call Hell and made a deal to sell his soul (again) to be resurrected (again).
It’s extremely on-brand for John Constantine to make the grand sacrifice of his essence and soul to feed a magic space-mushroom to save the planet and then, the moment it’s no longer needed, turn full self-preservation bastard and weasel out of it by selling his soul to hell in exchange for yet another resurrection.
It shows how comfortable Legends is with itself that it can, with a straight face, pull off “the power of love is what will save us”. And Sara and Ava’s wedding was perfect, it hit me emotionally in a way that Barry and Iris’s renewal-of-vows over on The Flash totally failed to do, despite following a similar template – complete with a character singing! (Maybe Shayan Sobhian is just a better singer than Jordan Fisher… or maybe I actually care about Behrad, whereas Bart Allen means precisely nothing to me. Whatever.)This season’s been a little up and down – it’s generally been better in its standalone episodes, “classic Legends romps” like the bowling alley one seem to be what fits it best. As you say, Allison – embracing its Whovian DNA. Not that I didn’t enjoy Bishop as an antagonist, sometimes you need your villain to be just that much of an annoying, petty douchebag. But it’s telling that he’s squarely Sara’s big bad in a way that other villains weren’t quite so localised to one character. It might well be what the show needed from its COVID season – leaning into the more intimate character pairings, like Astra-Spooner and Zari-Constantine, in lieu of big team moments. Plenty of those too, though.Supergirl’s delayed airing means it’s not finishing out its final season until partway through Legends and the other shows’ new ones, so I’m properly catching up after delaying my annual Arrowverse binge. Maybe this season my comments won’t be quite so belated!