Legends of Tomorrow - Here I Go Again - Review

I think I was supposed to enjoy this episode. That’s what I said following this week’s installment of Legends. The show has been on fire lately, and maybe if I had more of a connection to the character at the center of the bottle episode this week, I’d have been more interested in what was happening. I know what you’re thinking, “That was the point of this episode, to get you to care about Zari” but for me, she’s barely registered since join the team, that I honestly wasn’t intrigued enough to pay attention to a bottle episode centered around her in a time loop. Couple that with the last-minute twist, and this episode really was a bag of “Meh”

Too Bad She Can’t Play the World’s Smallest Violin
I think I can start by acknowledging how great it is that Legends likes to honor and reference the films that inspire their episodes directly. It really is crazy to think that in three seasons we never really had a Hedgehog Groundhog Day inspired episode on a show that centers around traveling through time. It's incredibly smart to have a time loop episode play out on the Waverider for budget reasons of course, and while the stakes never quite feel as high as the show wants you to believe, it was interesting watching Zari struggle to repeatedly stop the ship form exploding within one hour of her fight with Sara. I will say, I share Zari's sentiment about everyone kissing Sara's ass and Sara's general attitude as captain. I hate that we didn't get to see the "Waterloo" mission,as I'm honestly sure that would've probably been more interesting than watching Ray fall repeatedly or seeing Sara's bad eyeliner for the umpteenth time. This episode did nothing to move forward the Mallus plot and normally that's a good thing for Legends, but this time it really just fell short. It did force Ray to tell Sara about Constantine's warning, so there is that.

The big part of the episode was really just giving Zari and viewers the chance to learn more about the team and how she fits in with them. Nate and Amaya still have feelings for each other, and Nate is an uber-nerd. Ray is super positive, Mick is masking his love for his newfound family in his erotic sci-fi fiction novel he is writing, and Sara feels like a mother who is annoyed with her children but loves them all the same. (and won't ask Ava out) It was nice in the sense of the how to see Zari come to care for her team, but as a viewer I never felt much for her. Even when she was sacrificing herself, I was extremely indifferent. All I'm wondering is if she;ll be around next season, or if her hacking skills would be more useful than her totem. Zri as a character doesn't fit much with the rest of the cast, and I'm not sure if it's due to the performance or due to the way the character is written. Zari went through a plethora of emotions in this episode and she got to be funny, sarcastic, and eventual overcome with grief and Ashe handled all of the emotions well. I think the big set back was that the loop was only for an hour, which meant that there really wasn't a lot the show could do in terms of loop-gags. There were some clever dialogue tricks and scene cuts to allude to loop repeats, but those could've been shown in favor of some of the things we actually saw.

The whole Gideon forced Zari into her own simulation after she spilled the time goo was a really dull twist and almost made me feel cheated that I spent so much time already disinterested even trying to care. Gideon needed Zari to stay so that she can not only save 2042, but also defeat Mallus, so she trapped Zari into her own creation in order to get her to care about the team so she wouldn't quit. She basically manipulated her into staying and Zari is not even remotely upset about that. #CheekyBot Zari then goes on to reveal the information she got while in the simulation that she acquired from Gideon's own knowledge in order to push the team to address it themselves. She tells Ray to come clean with Sara and tells Sara to ask Ava out. She tells Amaya and Nate not to flash themselves and just talk about their feelings and she encourages Mick to rewrite his story ending before going off to play the violin. The best part of the episode is Rip showing up in China and revealing himself to a meditating Wally West, claiming to need his help to save the world.

Overall Thoughts: I honestly want to have more to say, but I don't. I found it to be an average episode. There were lots of fun things! Mick does his laundry and sets booby traps that kill Nate! Sara swats Ray because she thinks he and Zari are bugs. Ray is trying to control Sara's temper for fear she is turning into Mallus. All of that was fun, but the twist-ending really just ruined the whole episode for me. The writers were attempting to use this plot to get us to care about Zari, much how Gideon was using the simulation as way to make Zari care for the Legends. While I'm glad it worked on Zari, it didn't quite work for me. For me Zari is all the plot device of Hawkgirl with a lot less importance. Legends comprises of a team of memorable personalities and so far Zari just isn't one. I'm glad the show got a chance to do a Groundhog day send up, I just wish for me it was at least somewhat as good as it's source material. C-

The next episode of Legends of Tomorrow, The Curse of the Earth Totem, airs 2/26 on The CW!

What were your thoughts on the episode? Did you warm up to Zari? Are you excited for Wally? Sound Off Below!