White Knights succeeded in one particular aspect: proving that Legends of Tomorrow is a weak show even when Vandal Savage, a truly uninteresting, overcompensating and all around bad villain, doesn’t appear in the episode. For that, I commend the show. Beyond that, it’s difficult not to sigh in frustration at how remarkably poor this hour was.
What’s more frustrating is that White Knights had the occasional high point, only to be unceremoniously dragged down by the tripe that preceded and followed them. The team’s infiltration mission inside the Pentagon was fun, despite how short it was. Stein’s outburst towards Jax, undoubtedly the highlight of the episode, was long needed. Jax is yet to feel like a vaguely interesting character, and his constant arrogance does little to help him. A reality check delivered by his other half, along with a slight piece of development in the way of backstory (clichéd as it was), felt a long time coming, and Victor Garber was great here, and throughout, as he often is.
That’s about the extent of this episode’s real strengths. Granted, I enjoyed the interactions between Ray and Snart, and Ray’s feeble attempt to entice Vostok only for Snart to swoop in and succeed instead did provide a chuckle or two, but things went awry once the pair entered the labs. Ray’s refusal to allow Vostok to lose her life made some sense, given what happened to Anna, but Snart put it best: “Saving some commie broad ain’t on the agenda.” And while I’m all for not letting (supposedly) innocent people die - and as such, somewhat more likely to agree with Ray - Snart’s change of heart was so quick that you’d have thought Barry Allen had been involved. Furthermore, the fact that neither of them assumed her to be willingly working with Savage left a gaping hole in logic, particularly given that Snart’s first suggestion upon learning of her existence was to put two bullets in her head.
I mentioned in my review of last week’s episode that the so-called cure of “being better” presented to Sara was extremely thin, and I was glad to see that thrown out of the window here as she lost control once again. That is the most positive thing to say about her story here. Dragging her down with Kendra is not a smart move, show. This story was basically a repeat of last week’s involving Sara, just with added combat and far less entertainment value. Legends couldn’t make Kendra more boring if it tried. I really would prefer the show to just ignore some of the consequences for her if the only alternative is using recycled plot executed better on other characters in previous episodes. Either try harder, or stop trying. Even the battles between the two felt lazy and choreographed.
Rip’s story was watchable, but nothing especially noteworthy. The debacle involving him and the Time Masters isn’t the worst thing, and it keeps him chugging along. His consideration of Druce’s offer might have been a little more captivating had we not already seen this discussion take place between the team members in all three previous episodes, but didn’t immediately stick out as anything particularly bad. This isn't necessarily advisable going forward, but I'll take what I can get this week.
Based on tonight’s cliffhanger, next week will likely be Legends’ small-scale, rushed attempt at an homage to Prison Break. Whether they can pull it off or not is another matter. Frankly, I’ll settle for the episode just to pull the show out of the rut White Knights put it in.
Odds and ends:
- I was slightly biased in expecting Vostok to be evil, given that Stephanie Corneliussen’s role on Mr. Robot is all I know of her.
- Chronos was back for two minutes before being blown out of the sky by Soviet missiles. He won’t be missed.
- Ingestible translators? Really?
- “You said I’d get to use my gun.” Mick Rory is one of the more one-dimensional characters on TV right now, so just let him shoot his damn gun. It makes things far more entertaining.
- Referring to the telefax: “It’s like an email. On paper.” “Wow, that’s totally useless.”
- Wentworth Miller’s expression as he asked Ray if he was quoting Top Gun was the second best thing to come out of this episode. Also great: Snart pickpocketing two wallets.
What did you think of White Knights? Be sure to vote in our poll below and leave some thoughts in the comments!
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