It’s 1776 and General George Washington’s life is in danger and it’s up to the Legends to protect him and the American Revolution. Warning, spoilers ahead…
Usually Christmas-themed episodes occur between late November through December 25th. For Legends, the usual means being different and so far with this current season, no other DC property on the CW has had more positive momentum than this one. When you’re a time traveling show, the places and stories you can tell become endless. In “Turncoat”, it’s the American Revolution and George Washington. Even the mission was to protect Washington from the Legion of Doom, the real story or heart if you will was the Legends facing off against Evil Rip Hunter.
Evil Rip is exactly that. No longer is he concerned about protecting history and keeping it intact. No, he wants to rewrite it. It would be easy to say and dismiss Rip’s actions as being brainwashed by the Legion. While that maybe partially true, it’s not entirely. Rip is conscious of his former self. He is aware of his past failures when it comes to saving his family and his battles with the Time Lords. This “new” side of Rip probably always existed. Now, he has been fully unleashed and there is no telling whether or not he will ever revert back to that swashbuckling, trench coat wearing good guy that we first met. It’s great to see the writers give Arthur Darvill a new dimension to his character. Unlike the other members of the Legion, Rip is someone we care about and have seen the good and we’re vested in him.
As with every episode there is always a great sense of humor however in “Turncoat”, there was some dark moments. The worst of which was when Rip shot Sara who nearly died. With Sara down, Jax took over as captain of the Waverider. The moment almost got to Jax as he nearly shot Rip for what he did to Sara. It’s not who he is and he remembers who Rip once was. Once again it’s nice to see the writers give each legend their moment to shine and be front and center. It’s not an easy task when dealing with an ensemble like this. In the end, Sara is saved by Professor Stein who nearly has a panic attack of his own in doing so. Unfortunately for the team, they lost another artifact to the Legion. It shows that they may be Legends of Tomorrow but that does not make them perfect. This is why though they are easy to root for.
On a side note, the relationship between Nate and Amaya got consummated. The timing of it was arguably all wrong given they were in the middle of mission but as they say, the heart wants what the heart wants. Besides, the chemistry between them is perfect. That’s a credit to both Nick Zano and Maisie Richardson-Sellers. Their characters couldn’t be anymore different as Amaya is a from a different time period that didn’t celebrate women’s lib or free sexual expression. And Nate is more carefree and cavalier. By the end, it was decided that fraternization should be discouraged. While the two seemingly agreed, something tells me that their relationship has only just begun.
This latest episode continues to deliver on the action and the comedic moments to give Legends its undeniable charm. But, it also delivers some very dark moments as well. In many ways Legends might be the most human of all the Arrow-verse shows. I must say, this new darker and evil Rip Hunter is more interesting than the Legends version. That alone makes for some very good and very cool possibilities going forward.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
