“Cousin Oliver” – For those who don’t know who that is, he was a character introduced during the Brady Bunch’s run to liven up the show. Instead, the character was so annoying it turned more people off of the show.
Now by no means does Legends of Tomorrow need to be livened up, it’s doing wonderful on it’s own. But sadly now as all CW/DC, Legends has their own “Cousin Oliver” in the form of GARY.
At first Gary was a fine comedy character, worthy of a laugh or two. However, these last few episodes have been so painful at times because every word that comes out of his mouth is so annoying. Don’t get me wrong, to have comedic relief is fine. Good at times even but when the character just doesn’t stop it becomes excruciating. For example, if it was just Sara and Ray investigating Ava’s origins – Sign me up for that adventure. Instead, I was pausing the episode to grimace after every one-liner by Gary. There’s such a thing as over-exposure. Gary is past that line now.
(It was so bad , I was begging for more Nate. NATE.)
Legends writers, just tone it down some. Please.
CLONE WARS
Alright so the big news part 1 is that Ava is one of many Ava clones out there in the 2213 Vancouver universe. (Also Vancouver is a clever nod, Legends. We see what you did there.). Sara, Ray and Gary go searching for Ava after she hasn’t been at work for a few days. Sara thinks it’s because of their break-up to which she is also taking hard as well. After a little investigative trash hunting, the trio heads to Fresno to visit Ava’s parents. Things go haywire when they are revealed to be actors just hired to pretend to be Ava’s parents. Not very good actors to be honest but that’s a tale for another day.
Ava greets them when they return to the Time Bureau and honestly she acts like the Ava we all know and love – All Business while holding her emotions in till they inevitable explode in a ball of passion.
So Sara and Ray do what they should have done in the first place – hacked Ava’s time courier to see if it has any clues to her whereabouts. Sara is the one getting shit done while Ray and Gary just stand around is always a pleasing sight. After a little investigating, 2213 Vancouver is spotted as the one question mark on her log so naturally that’s where to look.
That’s when it all comes out in the open. The trio are surrounded by Avas. Here a Ava, There a Ava..everywhere’s got a Ava. Sara and Gary are overwhelmed but for different reasons. Gary is a lusting fool over all these clones of his boss while Sara feels like she’s in a hell because have one, two, five exes around is ok but hundreds?? Not so much. It’s a big shock to them so imagine our Ava’s reaction when she sees a clone of herself being created.
If you said faint, you win!! Prize will be given to you in November 2213.
Ava goes through a real existence crisis here as what is she if she isn’t real? But as Sara points out to her in a speech that all but confirms that AVALANCE still love each other and will get back together soon -She’s a bad-ass human being, not a mindless clone. The Ava that we’ve been with the whole season is as human as they come. We seen her go through pain and happiness, love and hurt, all the emotions that make us human. So with this in her heart and knowing that Sara has her back, the two of them fight through a army of Ava clones to get back to the relative safety of the Waverider.
There, Gary gets his memory zapped of all that has happened by Ray (Though Ray, if you had zapped his entire memory of everything from the entire season….I wouldn’t have been mad. Just saying.) Now the only person left that can give Ava answers about her past is the person who recruited her into the Time Bureau : Rip Hunter.
I guess the Legends aren’t done with their old captain quite just yet and I’m very happy about that.
STRANGE ALLIES
The other big story of “I,Ava” is that Kuasa is killed after finally helping out grandmother Amaya by getting back her totem. I never really connected with Kuasa, she was a fine heavy for the Darhks but that’s all she ever felt like on here. This was a honorable death for her though she kind of throws Nate to the Darhk wolves to get that totem for her.
So this story starts when Nate and Wally find out Vixen in 2018 Detroit has been hurt. Amaya wants to go to visit her but knowing that visiting family will cause a big ripple in the time stream, the boys head off to check on her themselves.
(Also while Sara is gone, Amaya is acting captain of the ship. A very nice thing to see and hope to see more of Amaya in charge in the future.)
Now in Detroit, Kuasa is there to check on her sister and runs into SteelFlash. They end up forming a alliance to get the Darhks into their trap. Which is fine till Wally leaves to go check on Amaya. Then Nate gets his powers taken away for a bit thanks to Kuasa so stop me if you’ve heard this one.
Yep, Nate gets captured and is the property of the Darhks. This leads to my favorite part of the episode though so I’ll forgive everyone’s stupidity in this case.
See, daughter dearest Nora is pretty much all Mallus by now. You can hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes…which along with her face are possessed by Mallus. Damien hides his fear of this from her but when it’s just him and Nate, he lets out all of his feels to the tied-up Legend.
Damien Darhk may be a lot of things : Evil, snappy dresser, owner of the worst wig in CW history. These things are not the most important thing he is though. Being a father is. Damien is completely worried about what is happening to his baby girl. Sure he wanted to have power but now that he’s seeing what Mallus is doing to Nora, he’s got a lot of regrets. So many regrets that soon he’s not torturing Nate but bonding with him over his feelings. My love for this scene and seeing such a human side to Damien Darhk was a fun moment as Neal McDonough works that perfect line of getting laughs but also making you feel sorry for Damien. Excellent work by a very underrated actor.
So when Nora shows back up, Damien and Nate have a plan. Pretend torture!! This made me laugh harder than any horrible Gary one-liner of pain. Mallus/Nora sees through this charade and starts to beat-up “Dad” till Kuasa/Wally and Amaya show up. Here we get our normal fight sequence of Mallus kicking everyone’s ass until Kuasa finally helps the good guys out and proving that she is her own person, not a Mallus’s puppet…..Which is cool until Mallus/Nora kills her and she dies in her own granddaughter’s arms. Oh no.
Amaya takes this roughly because of her speech to Kuasa before the fight where she wanted her to act more like Mari (Vixen). No amount of kind words/ sensible facts from Nate is going to change her mind this time. She is heading straight toward 1922 to visit her family. Damn the consequences!!! Well except those consequences could damage time and space forever and free Mallus from the prison he is set in. Therefore, we will all be enslaved and die. So….maybe think this one a little bit more through Amaya?
So another fun episode of Legends of Tomorrow (If you ignore Gary) leading to the last two episodes of the season. Things are coming to a head with Mallus but something still feels off. I can’t escape a feeling in my gut that we aren’t done with the dying yet. Hope I’m wrong, fear I’m right.
QUICK THOUGHTS:
- The C-story is Zari training Mick on how to use his fire totem. If this story had more time , it could have been fun. But instead we got a few jokes about Ramadan and bacon and I forgot it a few minutes after the episode ended. Not anybody’s fault here but time constraints.
- “Do you know how hard it is to get a acting job in Fresno?!”
- Everyone ships AvaLance. Everyone.
- Whoever does the hair styles for the cast, I don’t know if they deserve a raise or a decrease in pay. For every glorious bit of hair like Nate and Sara’s , there is Wally’s hair which is….something.
- Though I shouldn’t talk about anyone’s hair – glass houses you know….
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Monday Nights at 8 pm on the CW.