Legends of Tomorrow 2.09

...I actually don't want to put the title up there, because it's a giveaway to something I want to build up to.

Every science fiction show, if it lasts long enough, will eventually do an episode where the cast meets some historical figure, usually a writer. If it's a time travel show, that historical figure is more likely than not going to be H.G. Wells. Heck, Legends already met H.G. Wells last year. (Come to think of it, the way they hid Wells's identity until the reveal suddenly looks like foreshadowing.)

And that makes sense, right? I mean, H.G. Wells is pretty much the father of science fiction, so of course he'd get honors in every show ever. But the Arrowverse has gotten pop-culture overdosed in recent years (thanks Cisco) and it's not surprising that they did this eventually.



Okay, so the plot of the episode is this: the team knows that the Legion of Doom* is after the Spear of Destiny - or, as Sara Lance insists on calling it, the Holy Lance (nice little joke) - the lance that pierced the side of Christ during the crucifixion. Turns out Rip Hunter had it when the Waverider got hit by a nuke in 1942, and he's had it with him ever since. Except he's not Rip Hunter anymore. See, he to get out of being nuked in 1942, and as a result, he's now stranded in 1967 with no memory of his life as a time-traveler, and instead believes he's a film director. 

*While I am as amused by the Merlyn/Darhk evil double-act as much as the next fan (seriously, this show's actually allowed to have fun with the fact that Neil McDonough can perfectly imitate John Barrowman's mannerisms), I continue to wish we could see more of the Reverse-Flash.

Anyway, it turns out that Amnesia!Rip doesn't know that his "Spear of Destiny" prop is actually really part of the Spear, and his assistant (we'll call him George) throws the "prop" away. Nate, Ray, and Amaya track George down, but so do Merlyn and Darhk. Once they learn that the Spear was thrown away, they drag Nate, Ray, Amaya, and George to the landfill and make them go dumpster-diving for the ancient mystical artifact. And then they decide to crush them inside the dumpster.

The rest of the team shows up, there's a fight, Reverse-Flash finally makes an appearance and captures still-Amnesia!Rip, but the others get away to fight another day...

...and George goes on to write a movie where Our Heroes nearly get crushed to death in a trash compactor, and a couple where Our Heroes chase down religious artifacts.

Except.

Unlike the H.G. Wells gags in Doctor Who and Legends, where you had to wait until the end of the episode to learn that "Herbert" (in Who) or "George" (in Legends) were Kid H.G. Wells, here the episode tells you basically as soon as the character becomes relevant that "George" is, of course, George Lucas. And, this being a time-travel show, this instantly becomes relevant, because what I didn't mention during the recap above is that when Our Heroes first interfere in the timeline, George panics and decides to quit film school, meaning Star Wars and Indiana Jones are never made, and thus Ray is never inspired to be a scientist and Nate is never inspired to be a historian.

Now, having them be stupid for one episode is kinda fun and all, but...

...when they're in the trash compactor and the walls are closing in, Ray and Nate realize that they'll get their powers back if they can convince George - right there, on the spot - to go back to his original plan and get (back) into the movie-making business. This leads to an insanely awkward Clap Your Hands If You Believe moment, which for me was so bad that it almost ruined the episode. George says "okay, I wanna make movies," and suddenly Ray has his supersuit and Nate can steel up.

Also... did Merlyn finally level-grind? Oliver kicked his ass in Season 4 of Arrow. Then Sara kicked his ass in the previous episode. Here he's able to hold his own fairly well. (Although that may be because Sara doesn't fight him, and nobody else on Team Legends has League of Assassins training.) So there's that. (Sara is, of course, too busy losing to Darhk - that whole "Lazarus Pit bloodlust" thing hasn't been an issue for a while, the subtext (I think) being that her stint in the LoA in 1958-60 last season helped deal with it, somehow. But then at the end of Legends Season 1 she got hit with the twin blows of her honestly-not-boyfriend's death and her sister's death, and whatever focus she'd gained in the 50s isn't as effective as it used to be. Clearly she can keep it in check if she wants to - she doesn't go charging after Darhk when they're on the roof with Rip halfway through the episode - but seriously, girl needs a better plan than "punch him until he's dead," because while that seems to work on any other target, Darhk is simply a more skilled combatant than she is.)

And, again, I would literally watch a show that was nothing but Thawne, Merlyn, and Darhk just hanging out, trolling and killing redshirts, and generally being dicks to everything and everyone.

Highly entertaining, ten seconds of wall-banging stupidity notwithstanding. 9 out of 10.