A question I asked myself right before I typed this was: How can I describe this episode of Legends of Tomorrow? So many words come to mind when I think of this season 2 finale: wild, funny, shocking, touching are among the words many would say. However, I think the word that best describes “Aruba” and season 2 as a whole would be – SATISFYING.
Not only was the episode lead to a satisfying conclusion to the Legion of Doom but we also had a lot of satisfying character moments from Mick to Rip to Sara Lance (More on Sara in a bit, but can we finally acknowledge that she is one of the best characters in the Arrowverse? Because she is.) So lets get down to it and start with a tiny man in a tiny ship shall we?
TINY SHIP, BIG MESS
So we start the episode exactly how we ended “Doomworld” with tiny Rip inside the tiny Waverider. Rip and Gideon get the ship working and connect back with the remaining Legends team. Here we see a very wounded team – Nate and Mick are taking Amaya’s death hard. Here is just the first example of Sara showing how much of a leader she has become. Sara rallies the troops and once the tiny Waverider finds them , Sara reveals her plan once again of going back to 1916 to stop the Legion from taking the spear from themselves.
But first , they need to get the Waverider back to normal-size. Here it leads to a very rushed rescue mission to get Ray’s Atom suit. It does however give us a fun moment of Mick braining Darhk alongside the head. He deserves that much at least for what he did to Felicity in the last episode.
So far, so good. So off to 1916 where everything will go swimmingly right? I mean, things can’t get any worse, can they?
*Narrator : Things get worse.*
DOUBLE THE LEGENDS, DOUBLE YOUR FUN!
So in 1916, the Doomworld Legends are retrieving the Jesus Blood from the battlefield. (to try to keep things easier to follow – Doomworld Legends and WW1 Legends is how we will separate the two). DW Ray has the vial in his hands when Thawne shows up from the Doomworld and rips out Ray’s heart “Temple of Doom” style. Freaked me out when I was 5, freaks me out 26 years later. Thawne goes running back to his rats in the Legion as the DW Legends end up getting mixed up with the WW1 Legends group.
Now I’m not going to lie. Here’s where things start getting very timey-wimey confusing. Not just for all of us but each Legends team as well. DW Nate, Rip and Mick run into WW1 Sara on the WW1 Waverider and some verbal gymnastics ensue as they BS their way through the ship. DW Nate sees Amaya and gets emotional once again. I’ve not been the biggest Nate/Amaya shipper but much credit to Nick Zano for how he played DW Nate in this episode. Nate had lost his love and was as broken as anyone in that situation would be.
Unfortunately as always is the case in these situations, the past team finds out about the future team. One quick knockout to DW Sara and Jax and the two teams are face to face on the WW1 Waverider. We get some comedy from the Rips and Micks but the important scene here is between the two Saras and the two Nates.
I love this scene because it highlights how much of a leader Sara has become this season. I have no doubt that at the beginning of this show, Sara would have taken the spear and changed everything. Now though after maturing on the Waverider, she knows that messing with what is set in fate is wrong. The Spear is too dangerous to use willy nilly and they decide to not use it. Meanwhile, DW Nate tells WW1 Nate to tell Amaya that he loves her. We all have things we would tell our past selves like “You should have took that job, why didn’t you call that number or eating 40 raw eggs was a bad idea”. So it was nice to see it actually happen for once.
So once again the Legends are going to go back in time when the Legion of Doom shoots down the Waverider and it’s up to the DW Legends to get the WW1 Legends to the other Waverider.
Things get rough and casualties for both sides start to add up as DW Nate and Mick fall to Cold and Darhk while Merlyn takes out DW Jax before he gets taken out as well. Meanwhile DW Sara battles Damien and things finally look up as Sara takes him out again.
BAD-ASS, THY NAME IS SARA LANCE
You know, how on tv whenever people say “Things are looking good/up”, something ba always happens? Well leave to old Ray Palmer to jinx the Legends as suddenly Thawne shows up with a whole mess of Thawnes. It felt like being at a douche-bag convention or at a Republican congress meeting. Anyway, Thawne and his Flashes strike down all the Legends except for DW Sara and Rip. DW Sara has the spear but doesn’t know if she can command it. In a touching moment that brings back my shipper feels, Rip tells Sara that he believes in her and she is stronger than she knows. As Sara says the words to command the spear, she is suddenly transported to a apartment where Laurel is there. MY RIP AND SARA FEELS. Okay moving on.
This scene was short but also lovely for fans of the Lance family. I have always been of the belief that Katie Cassidy always does her best work as Laurel alongside Caity Lotz’s Sara and this scene was a example of it. As they both ran down all the bad things that happened to Sara, this also highlighted how strong Sara Lance truly is. As Laurel tells her, she doesn’t have to be pure of heart, she just has to be strong.
Because if there is anyone that has the right to use the spear and strong enough to it is Sara Lance. She’s seen her life wrecked multiple times, from the Gambit to joining the league of assassins. Her parents separating to her own sister’s death. Hell to her own death! But no, she doesn’t change any of it because she is a hero. She is a Legend. The temptation would be too much for most people but Sara shows the strength of a hero by refusing to do any of that. She has survived all of those things and came out stronger and tougher for it all.
As Sara returns to the battlefield, Thawne snatches up the Spear. However, when he tries to use it, he finds that Sara has depowered the spear. Thought you were suppose to be smart, Eobard?? It gets even sweeter when the Black Flash catches Thawne’s ass and kills Thawne from existence. Proud to say I let out a cheer at this.
FAREWELL (FOR NOW)
So The Legion get put back into their respective times (Darhk goes back to being a poor man’s Don Johnson in the late 80’s with his mind wiped) . Snart gets the same from Mick in 2014 Central City as he tells Snart about how he sacrifices himself not for a bunch of geeks but a bunch of friends. I hope someday we can get to see the old, good Captain Cold back.
It looks like Amaya is going to go back to 1941 but instead decides her present is not back then but with Nate on the Waverider. Aww those kids might make it after all. Sadly though, not all of the team is sticking around.
Rip is trying his best to sneak out by Sara catches him. Rip tells her how well the team has performed without him, which is true. However , like Sara, I am sad to see Rip go. His arc from bad to good was highly enjoyable and Arthur Darvill always raises the level of whatever show he’s on. It was touching to see the official passing of the mantle of Captain from Rip to Sara here (though we all now who’s been the Captain all season long). Rip gets permission to take the jumpship and leaves. Will we ever see the former Captain Hunter again? If I was a betting man, I would say yes.
So all is well that ends well as the Waverider is about to go to 2017 Aruba as Mick suggested the whole episode to travel. However, all that time aberration causing comes back to bite them as the ship hits another time storm and lands in 2017 Los Angeles. Not to awful, right? Well, the dinosaurs mixed in with the futuristic bulidings might suggest that the Legends made a bigger mess than they expected.
QUICK THOUGHTS
- How weird was that open that was basically a rip-off of Supernatural’s music recaps for season finales? I mean, they even used the same song Supernatural used once!!
- Still sad we never got that Sara/Snart confrontation. Eh maybe season 3.
- Malcolm Merlyn gets sent back to his apartment off screen. HAHA.
- Would have loved a full episode of the adventures of tiny Rip Hunter and the Waverider.
So Season 2 is in the books and what a wild, wonderful, wacky season it was. Very much a improvement from Season 1. I will talk more about season 2 and give my thoughts on what might happen in season 3 in a upcoming post in a few weeks. So to everyone who has read these reviews this season, Thank You Very Much. You aren’t just heroes, you’re Legends.
