Director: Michael Grossman
Writers: Chris Fedak and Sarah Nicole Jones
Starring: Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Arthur Darvill, Caity Lotz, Franz Drameh and Dominic Purcell
Summary:
In this episode the Legends meet up with iconic Golden Age heroes the Justice Society of America. After getting their collective ass kicked and dealing with some classic, old-fashioned American sexism and racism, things get worked out because Nate and his grandfather come face to face. The viewer gets to come face to face with the original Vixen (the grandmother of the Vixen we all know and love from her eponymous CW Seed series and guest spot on Arrow). The JSA sends the LOT back into the time stream without knowing they are heading into a trap set by Thawne and some Nazis. The Legends decide to head back to the forbidden year of 1942 to save the doomed team. Martin grapples with the fact that he may or may not be a good leader.
Positives
Vixen is pretty awesome. She should totally have her own show. Oh wait. Seriously, Maisie Richardson-Sellers is a great actor. What a great character. She and Ray have some automatic chemistry. Rumor is she will join the team before too long. That is going to be perfect addition to the team. Honestly, all the acting in this episode is high quality. Martin’s meltdown is spot on by Garber, Ray’s fanboy is fulfilled by Routh. Drameh has Jax all jacked up and ready to fight. Lotz has Sara’s heart of gold on display for all to see if they can just see around her asskickery and newfound leadership of the team. Seriously, for an episode that is about a team that does not work, there is a lot of this team coming together.
The action is really well choreographed. There are a lot of characters and they all move through these fight scenes with the smoothness of dancers on a stage. I can not imagine the work it took to make it flow like that. The work pays off because all of the fighting (between actual humans) looks real. Firestorm and Atom both look pretty amazing in action as does Stargirl’s staff and Obsidian’s black out.
Negatives
There is a giant super Nazi. Yep. Giant. Super. Nazi. Sounds cool right? Like a total monster villain? Totally true. Except, instead of hiring a big guy, they tried to make the normal sized person look like a monster. The effects are pretty bad and in a show about time travel, you must be doing something bad for something to look wrong. Hopefully, this is the last time we will see this guy, but I suspect that is not the case. Maybe they can divert the Waverider budget to roided up Nazi.
Because there are so many characters, several of them get left behind. Mick is here lighting things on fire, but his personality is missing. Doc Mid-Nite is mostly window dressing as well. He is such a cool character. Hopefully he will have time to shine in future episodes.
Verdict
I know this is all leading to some sort of four-part crossover event with all the CW shows and in order for this show not be the weight that drags that down, the team needs to pick up Vixen and leave the JSA in 1942. They can come back in the season finale, but let them be the vagabonds they truly are. Hopefully, next week, they will find Rip (maybe they should go check in with Jonah Hex) and get the band back together.
Easter Eggs
When Martin sings “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music he says, “Watch me for the changes and try to keep up.” Zing. That that. Martin Stein meets Marty McFly. Awesome.
Obsidian is in this episode. Is there a Jade to go with him? Does that mean that Alan Scott is somewhere around here? I sure hope so. Also, if there is an Alan Scott does that mean we will get to see Jay Garrick as well? What about the original Atom? Super cool.
