Legends of Tomorrow "No Country for Old Dads" Review

‘No Country for Old Dads’ picked up the morning after ‘The Curse of the Earth Totem’ and had a slight improvement in quality.

For a brief catch up, Ray returned to the Bahamas to give Nora a cure after feeling guilty for shooting her. She repaid this by strangling Ray and holding him captive. The Darhk’s want Ray to figure out how they access the magic in the earth totem stolen from Amaya. No matter what Nora does it doesn’t want to work for her, and she’s not the most patient of ladies. After enduring much torture and with the threat of his mother being killed, Ray reveals to them they need a form of cold fusion. Following much deliberation, Ray and Nora head off to 1960’s East Germany to rescue the inventor of cold fusion before Damien can kill him.
This story-line takes up much of the episode. Earlier this season there was a Ray centered episode with homage to ‘E.T’ and it worked much better than this, probably because the Legends were more involved.

They realize Ray is missing at the beginning of the episode when they discover the dishes haven’t been watched, and spend much of the episode off screen, trying fruitlessly to find him, with us being told on screen of how badly that search is going and how worried Sara is for him. There’s also a minute subplot where Zari & Amaya team up to go to the between worlds to try and see if they can feel her totem’s energy. They discover there that Nora is corrupting her totem, making the between world a dark and scary place, and are informed my Amaya’s relative that time is what imprisons Mallus and the anachronisms the Darhk’s are causing throughout history are to push time to its breaking point and free Mallus.

That’s probably the only interested development the episode had, and answers a question I’d been wondering all season since the show has been at pains to tell us about the Darhk’s adventures, but never explain why.

Whilst in 1960’s East Germany, Ray and Nora strike up a bond of sorts. It’s mostly him doing her head in and Nora wanting to commit murder amid fun banter. We’re also given an in depth insight to Damien’s relationship with his daughter, as the two are constantly butting heads. Were it not for the fact they are the villains, I would’ve said the arguing and bonding was somewhat sweet since the actors bounce off each other well. But they are the villains, Damien is an extremely bad person, Nora is following suit, and I don’t understand why the show is trying to paint them as sympathetic.

By the episodes end Ray is back with the legends thanks to an assist from Wally, and Nate is questioning whether Ray has feelings for Nora. Many probably won’t be surprised by the show dangling a possible romantic connection between the characters, but I really hope they don’t go there. Legends of Tomorrow is already somewhat congested as it is, and villains slowly but surely being redeemed is a trope the Arrow-verse shows and its audience know too well.

Elsewhere in the episode, Wally joined up with the legends. Rip brought him to the ship and offered Sara & Ava apologies for his previous behavior. Wally instantly gets himself in Mick’s bad books by confiscating a pair of glasses that Mick has taken as a time-traveling souvenir. Nate explains to Wally on the ship they allow light to moderate theft, and Wally sheepishly hands the glasses back to an extremely unimpressed Mick. This exchange works so well due to the acting between their portrayers Dominc Purcell and Keiynan Lonsdale. Continuing to get off on the wrong foot with everyone, Wally offers to help Amaya & Zari get to the between world through meditation. Being introduced to each other for the first time, Amaya questions how exactly Wally knows Nate and he explains he was Nate’s wing man back home because a ‘basic bitch’ dumped him on his birthday. As we know very well, Amaya was said ‘basic bitch’ and this reveal leaves everyone feeling awkward, and Wally soon super speeding away.

I can understand this scene was probably supposed to be played for humor, what with Wally speeding away the climax, and Wally would probably be defensive of his friend. Using the term ‘basic bitch’ to describe a woman though, doesn’t sound like Wally at all. He has come from The Flash, but Legends of Tomorrow has a very different tone to that show. Three seasons in and after the horror that was the first season, I’d expect the writers to know by now when bringing a character in from another show, they have to be adjusted to fit with this shows tone. By the episodes end Wally was ready to go back to the Bureau with Rip, but after some words of assurance from Sara, decided to stay back on the ship with the Legends. I seriously hope his introductory period is now over and from next week he’ll be thrown into the action, because at this point in time bring him to Legends feels a bit pointless. He’s at the moment not doing anything he wouldn’t have been doing on The Flash, and there’s been no increase in screen time either.

Following on from the last episode, Ava has indeed spent the night on the ship with Sara. This gives us a hilariously awkward scene at the beginning of the episode, where Zari asks Sara if they can take the ship off on an adventure, and spots Ava’s presence too late. She tries to back track and here the comedy works well. Ava is on hand throughout the episode to comfort Sara as she worries about Ray, and Rip spots the two of them kissing. He doesn’t say anything and by episodes end, Ava is heading back off to the Time Bureau to take up the role of Director after their previous Director is killed by Grodd. After she leaves, Rip instructs Gideon to delete a file on Ava, claiming that Sara can never know the truth.

There are A LOT of theories about what Rip could possibly be hiding. Is she the daughter of a former leagues of assassins that Sara killed? Is she an anachronism created by Rip to stop Mallus? An artificial intelligence system? Maybe even Rip’s daughter?! (This last one does seem just a tad outlandish but stranger things have happened in the Arrow-verse). The writers have taken their time this season in developing Ava and some like myself have come to find her an enjoyable character, whilst others are still unsure. Wherever the story with Ava is supposed to be going I hope it’s nothing too tragic. Sara has gone through a tremendous amount of changes since her Arrow days, and deserves a bit of happiness. Having her relationship with Ava end due to unknown forces would be extremely cheap, even by the Arrow-verse standards.

And finally, the episode ended with the cliffhanger that Mallus may have possibly been freed and taken over Nora’s body. We only have 5 episodes to go until the season finishes and I’m honestly not ready for it.