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| Honestly, this says a lot about Damien Darhk(1). |
While the rest of the Arrowverse goes on
hiatus for a couple more weeks, Legends
of Tomorrow wraps its sophomore season in style.
'Doomworld' sees the Legion of Doom as
masters of creation. Damien Darhk rules Star City with a magical fist, Malcolm
Merlyn rules the League of Assassins and Thea is his doting daughter, and
Thawne runs STAR Labs and saves the world from time to time. Snart and Roary
are pulling crimes and getting away with it thanks to Snart having basically bought
Central City and its Police Department. The rest of the Legends have been
rewritten as the Legion's bitches. Sara and Amaya are Darhk's enforcers (we
open with a vigilante Felicity Smoak being killed by Sara and her mask added to
Darhk's collection,) Nate is a nobody conspiracy theorist, Ray is a STAR Labs
janitor and Jax is Stein's draconian supervisor on a project for Thawne to
create a nuclear furnace in which the Spear can be destroyed.
Nate realises that the world is wrong, but
goes to Thawne for help. Fortunately, Ray has retained a tinkering streak and
created a memory gun than restores their minds. They are able to restore most
of the Legends, but Stein is too frightened and alerts Thawne. A face turn from
Roary allows Amaya to seize the Spear, but Snart kills her with his cold gun
and Thawne dismisses both the Legends and the rebellious Legion as
inconsequential.
In 'Aruba', Rip and Gideon get the damaged Waverrider working, but it has been
shrunk using the ATOM suit. Ray recovers his suit and the remnants of the team
return to 1916 in an attempt to destroy the Spear before reality can be
changed(2). This involves them crossing paths with their past selves, and also
Thawne, who of course is still able to time travel himself. Thawne kills Ray
and destroys the Blood of Christ, leaving no choice but to try to use the
Spear. Both sets of Legends clash with the Legion and an army of Thawne's time remnants,
before Sara is able to activate the Spear. She has a spiritual heart to heart
with her late sister before Thawne takes the Spear from her, but this is enough
time to make one change to the original reality: Removing the power of the
Spear itself.
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| "Are we missing some people?" |
Without the Spear's power and seriously
messing with time, Thawne is torn apart by the Black Flash, and the Doomworld
versions of the Legends fade from existence. The original versions – Legends Classic
– return the other members of the Legion to their respective fates(3) and head
off into the wild, time-coloured yonder. Amaya chooses to continue to travel
with the team, destiny bedamned. Rip chooses to walk the Earth, like Kane in Kung Fu, leaving Sara in charge. Roary
suggests a break in Aruba, but a time quake caused by interacting with their
past selves knocks the Waverrider
into Los Angeles… in the middle of a dinosaur attack.
So, I guess the big takeaway is that Barry
Allen is no longer the most irresponsible time traveller in the Arrowverse.
Good for him. I have literally no more idea how or why the Legends' plan worked
this time out than last season, but I think the important thing is that I
didn't get suspicious of it until after
I'd watched the episode. Whereas even though it was some of the best of the
season, I was going 'oh, come on!' during the season 1 finale. All in all, this
has been a much better season, with Amaya and even Nate a vast improvement on
the Hawks, and just way more punching famous people in the face, messing with
history and generally having fun with the concept, instead of visiting a
succession of historical cul de sacs and failing repeatedly to be effective at
stopping Vandal Savage at all.
What awaits us in Season 3? Are the Legends
locked out of the main continuity, or will Star City become suddenly velociraptor
rich in episode 5.22 of Arrow? Will John
Diggle Jr. ever revert to Sara? Will I ever let that one go(4)? Well, at the
very least I guess we have some dino-punching, perhaps Amaya invoking her inner
T-rex again, and Roary growling at stuff. Man, when did I get to appreciate
Dominic Purcell so much?
(1) Although it's not as damning as the absence of any mention of his family in the new reality.
(2) I'm not sure why that 1916 still exists
when all of reality was rewritten, but okay.
(3) Death, redemption and death, and a
crappy apartment and a daughter who despises him, respectively.
(4) No.
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