By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
*Spoiler Alert
When DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are going from set-piece to set-piece (i.e. one time period to another), just what the second series is doing is to slowly reveal a greater plot. There’s a warning from the future which n body is in on, but it will come into play in later episodes. Without giving too much away, any side-effects from altering the natural course of the timeline (from another series) will take on a butterfly effect.
As much as I like the visit to Feudal Japan, I thought the trip to the Wild West (“The Magnificent Eight” from last season) was better. Both this and last week’s “Shogun” are tributes to Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai. The latter is more blatant, and the reason why I prefer it is because of Jonah Hex. He makes for a mean hombre. Steel, the new one, is only getting started. Nate Heywood makes for a good addition to the team but he has no clue in what he’s doing. Both he and Ray share similar insecurities. They do not have super abilities. That’s not until Ray injected Nate with the super serum to make him a super soldier. While some childish fun ensues to test Nate’s newly formed skin, just how well he wears it will eventually define who he is as Commander Steel.
This season has the same number of episodes as last, and I hope the time is not wasted to get all the heroes up to speed to this season’s biggest threat. None of that is really defined this episode and whatever that may be is being kept a secret by Stein and Jackson. As for what that is, I’m patiently waiting for episode titles to be released to suggest where this season’s direction is headed.
Could the agenda first started by Vandal Savage be continued? He did want to build a super soldier army to take over the world. Damien Darhk might have a comparable agenda, and I’m wondering if we might see his indoctrination into becoming a member of H.I.V.E. and eventually a leader. I am not ready to discount his appearance in one episode yet.
As for the rest of the shenanigans, this episode plays with, whether I should groan at all the bad Ninja movies Mick referenced or not (I saw all of the movies he referenced when I was kid) depends on repeated viewings. To see Vixen see through this tough guy’s charade made this episode all the more enticing. She’s also a reluctant member of this team. There was talk she would be taken back to her timeline but she would rather stay with them so find Rex’s killer.
When my Telus PVR box got bricked by the latest system update and through technical obsolescence (sadly the five-year-old device stopped functioning the morning of, prior to broadcast), I had to wait for this episode to repeat / go live on the web to view. The future is not friendly when this communications provider does not properly give options to accept the changes, but as long as I’m back into service sooner than later, I just have to go with the flow. Sadly, this latest episode does not keep the momentum going that the previous two had. It’s slowed a little, and hopefully the next few can get the race started again until the mid-season break interrupts it again.
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