The degree to which this episode captured the look, movement, and sounds of the old Warner Brother's Looney Tunes / Tiny Toons cartoons (excepting the gore) is weirdly stunning.
Successfully blending that much adorableness with that much carnage is something of a [weird] achievement in itself.
And Jack experiences yet another "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" experience...
There was definitely some rushed skimming and skipping across the story elements of this episode (and the one previous), and I sooo wish we could have seen all of those story-bits that simply didn't fit into the time remaining, but I still liked what we got, the wrap-up of the storyline and the resolution for all (well, okay, most) of our good-witch characters.
At the same time, I really do hope that show-creator Eliot Laurence someday goes back and writes the original book series he had in mind to begin with. I'd love to experience and digest the full detailed story as originally intended.
I suppose if the Camarilla are training that many assassins, they can't expect all of 'em to be any good at it, right?
Damn, Connor. Not like that, like Dick did to you.
Daaamn. Double cliff-hangers with a side of Cliff-shrapnel? Brutal.
Spoiler: The Candlemaker is truly evil. The Candlemaker is COVID.
Daaam. Dark.
The team (or at least Beth now) has to wonder about the limits or conditions of Eclypso's true real-world power if he's attacking them specifically with illusions and psychological warfare instead of just taking them out head-on.
I imagine it'd be awfully hard to sneak around dark alleys and rooftops with that bright blue-white bat-beacon on the chest, but otherwise, nice Batwing suit, there.
Any episode with this much extended Marshallness is like a fun bonus.
Mostly good, except for the wild technobabble overdrive, and...
At the end, couldn't Jane have hit that door button and then slipped out the door before it finished closing? At least tried? Sigh.
I'm half-expecting to find out that, either due to the ZIP released in the room being from the "denatured" batch or due to Jane's previous experience with ZIP (and ZIP poisoning) that she now has some degree of immunity to ZIP, and will end up having some sort of weird memory-lane finale experience before waking up to an all's-well end... maybe... as long as they don't make it some overly simple "just kidding!" sort of save...
Just one episode left to wrap it up, one way or another.
I think my only real gripe was the method and accomplishment of talking ~4 billion immersed Obsidian North users down from using the platform—not even by citing an immediate dangerous problem with the platform, but by arguing them out of the long-term escape at all—which was such a massive oversimplification of the situation (and the many various users' motivations for using such a platform) that was awfully hard to swallow.
But, otherwise, not a bad season-ender at all, especially given that this was originally intended to be season's fourth-to-last episode, but for the coronavirus-response production shutdowns. It will be interesting to see how this unplanned cliff-hanger's resolution is worked into the start of the next season...
So, they have a strict directive (Protocol 3) to not kill anyone.
However, in this case, due to the nature of the situation, shooting down (or even just wounding) a few soldiers would have resulted in the same number of deaths in the end (due to the final explosion) and a much higher chance of mission success (mandated by Protocol 1) without having to send back (and waste) more travelers to occupy the soldiers. No deadly force (and thus no direct Protocol 3 conflict) was even necessary; shooting the soldiers in the legs (sharpshooter?) would have sufficed.
Which seems to suggest that either (1) the writers were careless with such plot details or (2) something else (more complex/insidious?) is going on.
Lots of fun moments (and plenty of wacky) in this one, although I think my favorites may have been watching Sara with her new Matt Murdock look and Johnny Smith moments, and wondering if the Paragon of Destiny wasn't a bit of oblique foreshadowing of Sara's upcoming entanglement with Fate(s).
Interesting developments, fun stuff. Nice.
I think my only complaint is the usual sort of thing for this show: When Flash and Kid Flash blurred there way into the police station, why oh why did they stop to present themselves and confront Frida Novikov (Turtle 2) rather than just zip straight in and use the injection-gun on her before she could even register their presence? C'mon, guys. You have Speed. Use it. No, smarter than that.
I'm wondering if perhaps some good long talks between Windy Wendy and Blundering Lightning can help ground both of 'em a bit.
I think my only real plot-complaint with this one is that, after the airport lightning showdown—throwable lightning at twenty paces?—seeing Flash calmly walk out with Weather Witch in cuffs like nothing serious happened, I'd rather've seen Flash, somewhat scorched and tattered, lumber on out with an unconscious (and maybe cuffed) Weather Witch slung over his shoulder. Minor point, maybe. Just seems it'd feel more believable that way.
OTOH, Killer Frost's quick "I win, losers" moment with the holiday-lamenters was priceless.
While this season has significantly more rough edges that the previous two, I feel the episodes are gradually improving for the most part. Maybe they'll reach the level of last season at some point, maybe not. We'll see. However, I must say that I hate when the writing sacrifices any sense of brains that a character may have in order to force a more dramatic moment, as they did at the very end of this episode. Kurt's not stupid, but leading off with "I killed your daughter" without any context at all certainly was.
Okay, so this episode did have a few real causality/realism issues:
And, of course, there's the one we could apply to most episodes: When they've first determined that Ray has met and brought home a Dominator baby, and has been significantly altering his behavior for at least a couple of days, shouldn't they time-hop back a few days, look for the point at which Ray met the Dominator, and fix things as close to the source of the divergence as possible? Or would that make too much sense?
But, somehow, this being DC's Legends of Tomorrow, in the end, none of that really mattered all that much, and this was (IMO) one of this series's more fun and entertaining episodes. Go figure. Sometimes they really do screw things up for the better, or at least for the better entertainment of us viewers. :-)
There're so many amusing, cute, and LOLable moments in this one. I won't attempt to list them all (others already largely have anyway), but one will oddly stick with me and I will have to tell my huge-stage-musical-fan wife about*:
Sara Lance: Is that music?
Ray Palmer: Yeah, "Singin' in the Rain". Only the best musical ever.
Mick Rory: Not as good as "Fiddler on the Roof".
[Sara and Martin both look at Mick strangely]
Mick Rory: I love that show.
[Mick sees Sara and Martin looking at him]
Mick Rory: What?
Yeah, Mick. You keep us guessing. Little surprises like this are sooo worth it.
*Edit: She doesn't watch this show regularly (more of a The Flash fan), but she knows who the characters all are. And she did indeed find even my second-hand description of this scene utterly hilarious.
Just a few trailing thoughts after letting the finale sink in a bit...
I have to wonder if there's anything odd to "dying" within the ancient skeleton of a dragon, in the very place from which The Hand had intended to harvest "the substance", that we'll see affecting the path and nature of the somehow-rescued Devil of Hell's Kitchen when we see him next...
And who thinks that we'll see not only Matt coming back in whatever crazy way just happened, but probably Elektra and/or Gao, as well?
Did we just see a set-up pointing toward the Daughters of the Dragon coming soon? (Arm? Pfft. We can rebuild her. We have the technology... Danny's hospital resources, a little Stark tech... yeeaaah. Actually, it'd be pretty wild for Misty to get her bionic prosthetic arm and then sometime later happen to run into Deathlok— what? oh, what was I saying... right. Okay.)
At the end, Danny, crouching kinda-sorta Daredevil-like atop that building, watching, listening, or whatever he thought he was doing... Kind of a wonderful tribute to the fallen, even if there's no way Danny could be doing (or even really understand) what Matt did when he stood like that, listening to the beats and arrhythmias and myocardial infarctions of his city... but he's there, trying to honor and fulfill, somehow... Just don't fall off that ledge, kid, okay?
The music of the universe indeed.
Good choice.
"My cabbages!"
For viewers who haven't seen the original animated series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuQJDVIEnfs
Gotta say, I liked this take on Johanna Constantine. Wouldn't mind seeing more of her contributions.
And Matthew. Keep us going, here, Matthew.
i think my only plot objection is that, when they ran upstairs to help, Max and Darnell should've gone up, knowing the lunk they'd have to get through, while Felix made sure to copy that recording and Leslie made the call. But in the heat of such a moment...
Felix did show up surprisingly well upstairs, though.
Otherwise... daaamn.
And, dammit, Josh, look what you did. :cry:
This show is a perpetual study of how plans can so easily fracture, intersect, interact, and go completely and utterly wrong.
The lesson: Do not bring Compound V into contact with cancer cells.
Or the wonderful and wise Sun-Hee will come back and spank you. :cry:
Damn, but crazy ol' Bet Sykes has the craziest damn charmed life, must have the wiliest guardian angel on watch.
I think I especially liked...
"Who's Jack Bauer?" —Arlo Glass
[looks of dude? seriously?] —everyone else
Arlo don't know Jack. Yet.
Roe Saunders: "Is it that I look stupid?"
Carrie Wells: [holds that frozen smile]
I do enjoy these interestingly individual characters and their interactions.
Strike Team Jack, always a winning hand.
