Legends of Tomorrow has steadily improved in the back half of season two and it's really a shame that the season is about to come to a close. This Legion of Doom and The Spear of Destiny plot has made season 2 of Legends stand out among the Arrowverse this year and made it one of the best seasons the verse has produced. Unfortunately, I'm still in the midst of a crazy schedule, so I have to make these reviews short and sweet, but with the finale upon us, hopefully I'll have time to give that one the attention I'm sure it deserves. These two episodes gave us not just Tolkien feels, but Felicity Smoak the vigilante(R.I.P. and hopefully a bit of fan service never to return), the return of Snart and a whole world makeover.
Fellowship Of The Spear: I'll admit that at first, I wasn't digging this episode as much, I thought it was just going to be another stakes-are-high-but-not-really episode, but this episode really got the ball moving. The Spear is finally whole thanks to a far too easy heist at the beginning of the episode when Rip reveals he knows where the Legion is operating from (The Vanishing Point, where Snart perished last year) and where they can find the pieces of the spear.(Shoutout to Firestorm for transmuting the vault into Jellybeans, I love this ability and would love to see more of it and can only imagine it cost a heck of a lot less than using CGI for fire effects) Once the Spear is assembled, the team starts discussing what to do with it and they decide to destroy it. Mick uses his gun on it and it reveals a message(Similar to the One Ring, I believe. I'm not a LotR fan) in Latin, which the team takes to Nate, who had wanted to be left alone given his grandfather's death. The message leads to the realization that the only thing that can destroy the Spear is the blood of Christ, which I mean, of course it is.
Rip (and essentially the writers) explain that heading to the crucifixion is a huge no-no given that even the smallest change could effect everything. Nate has an idea though, that the team enlist the help of J.R.R. Tolkien, who had a theory that Sir Gawain didn’t retrieve the Holy Grail in Arthurian myth, but a vial of Christ’s blood. I like that Amaya was still struggling with the realization of what happens to her people and her granddaughter and it manifests itself in the whispers she hears from the spear. Mick says he hears his parents saying don't play with fire and I'd like to think he's telling the truth. Amaya did scare me for a moment when she was holding the spear suggesting they use it to erase the Legion rather than hunt for the blood of Christ with Tolkien on the battlefield. They manage to talk Amaya down and the team heads to find Tolkien, and they do and then cure him using the ship of his ailments and then use the spear as GPS locator that tracks the vial the blood which is subsequently destroyed in the fray later on.(I really enjoyed how the pace of this episode kept escalating and moved rather quickly) It turns out the team should have listened to Amaya, because Mick happened to tell hallucination Snart about the legends plan, and it turns out that Snart has been real this whole time. He was plucked from the timeline before he joined the team and was working Mick the whole time for the eventual double-cross. (I missed Wentworth and need to know how many goats do I need to sacrifice to get him back full time on legends next year)
I was disappointed in how quickly the team had turned on Mick and that Mick returned so quickly to the side of evil, but I can understand how it happened. Snart was Mick's one true friend and no matter how close the team got to Mick, they were never close enough to really trust him. It was pretty gripping to watch the battle happen all around the legends and the tragedy that went along with it, but honestly, it felt tacked on to me and could have not happened and the episode still could have worked. It felt as if the writers felt the need to include Tolkien because they wanted it to be fairly obvious the similarities between the Spear and One Ring. I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, but as the episode ended with the Legion using the Spear and I saw them all standing around I realized how much of sausage fest it was. Was it an intentional commentary that the Legion is all white males, or was it just an oversight?
B
Moment that slayed me: Mick's last words to Sara specifically before abandoning them. I think if Mick felt closest to anyone on that ship, it would be Sara and not just because she is Captain but because they were kindred spirits and I think he genuinely felt bad for betraying her.
Doomworld: Alternate reality episodes are always really tricky to pull of and though I wasn't the biggest fan of how easy it was for the legends to "wake up" I did enjoy spending time in the world that the Legion created. My biggest gripe is that I can't believe for a second that the man who was cold enough to drive an arrow into Laurel just to get back at Oliver, would ever really consider keeping the legends alive. Even then, the alt-legends are really not all that interesting or creative. It was good to see Sara back in black, but it wasn't like it was groundbreaking new territory that the team charted. Sara and Amaya work for Darhk and hunt down vigilantes and heroes for him, thus leading to the moment that has become very divisive among fans, Sara snaps vigilante Felicity's neck. I won't comment either way on the debacle other than I thought it was a good use of cameo because it provided a bit of shock value for an otherwise predictable episode. Ray is a janitor, Nate lives in his mom's basement, Mick isn't satisfied by his partnership with Snart and Jax is working as some type of an enforcer while Stein is being used to build a reactor for Thawne. (Rip is making Cakes) Malcolm, Damian and Snart want a crack at the Spear because there are things hey still wish to change despite the fact that Damian is Mayor and Malcolm has his family and it takes them far too long to realize that Thawne has been playing them.
We find out that Thawne is building a reactor to destroy the Spear and lock in this version of reality, so everyone has decided to kill Thawne. They head to the site of the reactor and a fray ensues and Mick ends up holding the Spear. It's the only true suspense moment of the episode as Mick has been the wildcard on the team for so long, and he decides to break ties with Snart as he is no longer anyone's dog. Its a heroic moment that gets cut short as Snart freezes and shatters Amaya, just moments after she shares her belief in Mick. Sara vows to kill them all, but not before Thawne wakes back up and destroys the Spear and lets us know that "we're done here". The Legends vow to fight Thawne, but Thawne says he doesn't want to kill them, he wants to watch them to suffer (successfully delivering his evil monologue whereas Damian failed earlier). Thawne lets them leave, warning that he can kill them in a blink of an eye. Sara tells the team they have to travel back in time and stop the legion from getting the spear in the first place, they just have to find the wave rider to do so, (cut to Rip preparing the ship following his pep-talk form his cyber lover Gideon)I will say that the episode moved rather quickly and while it wasn't the strongest episode, it was fun one and I can't wait to see how the legends work their way out of this one.
B
Moment that Slayed Me:In a season peppered with great banter between our villains, one for my favorite moments was when Damian gets chastised by Snart for doing his evil villain monologue that allows Sara and Amaya to escape and Malcolm pseudo defends him.
What were your thoughts on these episodes? Sound off Below!
The season two finale of Legends of Tomorrow, "Aruba" airs at a special time, 7pm CST on 4/4/17 on the CW!
About the Author - Winston Mize
I always have the most trouble coming up with a blurb to describe me. Which is really weird for someone who wants to make a career out of writing. If you think I'm awkward online, it's just because you haven't met me in person. I'd like to think I have other interests outside of TV, and maybe I do, but TV is the one that gets me most excited. I live a pretty boring life so TV's the way I get my fix, and I'd love to chat about it with you. I'm also always looking to guest on podcasts and become a podcasting sensation, so if you've got the opportunity, I'm in there like swimwear. You can check me out with different previews of various shows or read my reviews of iZombie, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legends Of Tomorrow here on the site. If you're a fan of One Tree Hill you can check out my podcast about as well by checking out our twitter page @OnlyOthPod.
