Legends of Tomorrow has done a great job of traversing various times and locations all throughout history, but how would things go if they went back to a very similar era where they’ve already been? My feelings are a bit mixed on the Legends going to Liberty, Colorado 1874; yes, the wild west, once again. And, you can’t have the wild west without Jonah Hex.
“Outlaw Country,†would have been an outstanding episode on its own. We were given more of a backstory for the outlaw with a badly disfigured face, Jonah Hex, and why he is at odds with the murderous gang lead by Turnbull. Jonah’s story is unearthed a bit in this episode, upon what was already very briefly touched upon last time, but I still don’t feel they went far enough with a character as deep as himself. A lot of it sort of felt like an afterthought. However, he did prove to be a good plot device for furthering Sara’s storyline.
Sara always seemed to be the one to take over after Rip Hunter’s exit, but now she is finally proving that she is indeed worthy. The banter between Hex, who is “old school†(Misogynistic) and Sara being the alpha of the entire group of Legends led to some nice back and forth. The two are pretty much polar opposites when it comes down to it, but her ability to lead won him over onto her side, if only momentarily.
Sara led them to the resolution of saving America west of the Colorado from being run by Quentin Turnbull (Jeff Fahey). Turnbull found some all-powerful “alien†ore that can give him the means to take over part of the west. His motives fit in with that generally takes place in other aberrations, but his “power†was shooting bullets made of the ore that can make a sonic boom like impact. While cool, that was really all villainous he ever was. I enjoyed the way he was acted and the grudge match that Jonah and he had, but I would have loved for them to delve into that further versus chasing after some mysterious ore.
Nate continues to do Citizen Steel like things when he stops a train that was going to blow up the only route to the rest of civilization. There was an early scene where he took a bullet from Turnbull that actually penetrated the steel and Ray provides his usual words of wisdom. Since Ray is still without his suit, he has a unique perspective of having his powers one day, and then losing them the next. It’s another great moment where Ray explains what being a hero really is. It does help that Ray is soon to get his suit back, and he actually created an awesome suit for Nate that we see as the episode closes.
The other thread throughout this episode is Stein being affected by headaches that are allowing him to see bits and pieces of some supposed past memories. It appears that his insistence to interact with his younger self on various occasions is causing a time difference. It’s about time that their actions are causing an actual ripple effect. Too many times they mention not wanting to affect the future, and then do something that goes directly against their plan. It will be interesting to see where this goes, and if it has altered his actual future. With The Flash in your universe, nothing is for certain.
As for the overall feel of the episode, it was fantastic, although it really did have the “been there done that feel.†I would have preferred they butted these two episode up against one another and had it featured in back to back weeks. I understand why they didn’t, but it just feels so weird going back to a time period that was already done so well.
