After almost five seasons, it’s still amazing when a show can shock and surprise the viewers on a regular basis. Legends of Tomorrow does this every week, and “The One Where We’re Trapped On TV” highlights how silly and wonderful this show can be. After all, what other show on network TV can have a pitch-perfect Star Trek and Friends parodies and still make you tear up at the end of it?
Now why tears after such a wildly goofy episode? Because not only did we finally get Behrad back but a couple familiar faces made their returns.
“Trapped on TV” starts off with a new world created by the Fates. Gary is a crazy person (Not much has changed there) but we also get to see the return of Mona! Mona works a 9 to 5 wage slave job in a dystopian world where everyone worships the fates. Luckily TV still exists in this world and that’s where we find out what has been happening to our amnesiac Legends.
- Sara and Ava are on a Star Trek rip-off called “Star Trip”. By far the funniest part of this episode was the PERFECT impressions that Caity Lotz and Jes MacAllan do of Captain Kirk and Spock. They are able to nail the tone of their characters from Kirk’s cockiness to Spock’s logic. Star Trip is a show I would watch every single week and re-watch on whatever streaming system it’d be on.
- Constantine and Astra are on a Downton Abbey rip-off called “Highcastle Abbey.” John is the head butler while Astra is lady of the house with her mom back alive by her side. This does lead to a beautiful moment at the end of the episode when John offers to stay inside the Highcastle show so Astra can stay with her mother. Instead , Astra goes to help John and the Legends. Character Growth, thy name is Astra!!!
- And finally, Zari, Behrad and Nate are in a Friends rip-off called “Ultimate Buds”. After Nate touches Zari’s totem, it zaps him and also brings back our old version of Zari to take control of Zari. As nice as it has been all season , seeing this version back feels like a breath of fresh air. She notices that everything is messed up and eventually joins everyone back together only to be stuck at Mr. Parker’s Cul-De-Sac.
It was clever and inspiring the method they used to have the Legends memories come back to them. Clever as when hearing Zari’s inspiration speech, Mona gains control of the typewriter that controls the tv shows the Legends are in. Inspiring as one by one, each Legend is reminded of their past including Nate who finally remembers this version of Zari again.
Charlie’s not happy about this because the tv show plan was her idea to keep the Legends safe. The thing about that is, Legends of Tomorrow has never been about doing the safe thing. Sometimes, it’s not about the smart thing either but it’s always about doing the right thing. The right thing isn’t hiding aboard a starship and enjoying carefree adventures. As much as Ava wants that with Sara, Sara knows that isn’t real. Life is real.
“Ava, Life is beautiful and terrifying at the same time.”
Legends of Tomorrow is about supporting people you care about no matter what even if it hurts you to do so — like Constantine was going to for Astra.
Legends of Tomorrow is being rebellious in ways that shake your head and still put a smile on your face. Zari, Behrad and Nate end up back in the Friends world but this time speak to the camera to get the masses to reject the fates rule. All of these actions get each show “cancelled” and the Legends back to normal ready to walk back into the real world.
Charlie tries one last desperate attempt to get them not to go including splitting Zari into two different people — Old Zari and New Zari. PLEASE let this stay next season. Having two Zaris on the shows would be brilliant and would definitely let Tari Ashe flex her talent even more.
The Legends..well they are the Legends and don’t stay. Instead they go out ready to fight a world controlled by the Fates that they might have no shot at winning against.
Legends of Tomorrow is…silly, wacky, crazy and most importantly….inspiring.
LEGENDARY THOUGHTS
- In the Highcastle Abbey world, the sparks of a Astra/Behrad ship were starting. Could just be me but I sensed something.
- Mick being “Dhan” in Star Trip was 50% hilarious and 50% groan-worthy.
- Seriously, make a Star Trip show ASAP.
- “I like to play with the animals, not slaughter them.” Thank you Behrad.
- Jeff Winger would have been inspired by the speech Zari gives the rest of the Legends at the Cul-De-Sac.
- How this show gets away with some of the stuff it does, I’ll never know.
Legends of Tomorrow‘s season finale airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on The CW.