We were certainly in for a wild ride with the latest episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “River of Time.†Was it a ride we enjoyed? That is a much harder question than it first appears.
Legends of Tomorrow has been doing okay, nothing earth-shattering, but it isn’t bad either. It does have some tremendous shoes to fill when the obvious comparisons to The Flash and Arrow surface. Unsurprisingly, Legends suffers some of the same problems that come about from time to time on the other CW properties. The only real problem is when it exacerbates those issues, especially in the latest episode.
Legends has been a fairly easy show to predict, and it even became more so after the legends made the most obvious wrong decisions. Savage is holed up in a cell on the Waverider and instead of focusing on getting to the Vanishing point, they each decide to have a chat with Savage since, at a certain point in time or another, each of them could use his “help.†Besides the fact that this never ever goes well, they are so obviously being played it’s frustrating. Only one character, Stein, actually plays Savage.
Since Rip is pushing the Waverider past its ability things start breaking, and Rip sends Jefferson down to fix the Time Drive. While he does fix it, he is zapped and hi cells are deteriorating rapidly. Stein learns that if he sends Jefferson back in time, specifically to 2016, all will be well. The only problem is that was the way Snart and Mick were going to leave after learning that Rip was in this all for himself.
While the rest of the crew didn’t really gain or lose anything from talking with Savage, one character certainly did. Ray is one of the brightest characters on the show, but he almost always makes decisions based on emotion. In this episode, he makes one of the the worst decisions ever, and surprisingly it turns out to be a moot point anyway.
Savage knows exactly how to taunt Ray, and that is with his love for Kendra. He so perfectly winds Ray up that Ray goes after Savage by opening the cell and practically begging Savage to walk out. To my surprise, the crew is able to quell this quick uprising, even though we have another big battle on our hands.
Big might be facetious because Carter is the most useless fighter ever, but his battle with Savage does allow them to recapture him. During the fight, in Savage’s arrogance, he taunts Kendra by saying Shiera. This breaks Carter out of his trance, only to be stabbed seconds later. However, this did enrage Kendra enough to strangely knock-out Savage. Not sure why she didn’t simply just Hawk out, but she did get the job done.
Sadly, the show takes a twist that was pretty obvious from the start, especially considering it can never be this easy.
They finally make it to the Vanishing Point and, after all that happened, the Time Masters let Savage go. It’s quite the turn that they should have been able to see, and Snart may have seen it as he relates the entire episode to an old heist that felt wrong and went very wrong. The Time Masters explain that he is necessary for the timeline, which seems counterintuitive considering he has been breaching time itself multiple times.
