Legends of Tomorrow 3x17 Guest Starring John Noble Review

Following last weeks thriller, ‘Guest Starring John Noble’ was all about setting things up for next weeks finale. Parts of the episode were really good, and then other parts were not so, which seems to sum this second half of Legends 3rd season in a nutshell.

First things first though; LEGENDS OF TOMORROW IS GETTING A 4TH SEASON. In all honesty this was never really in doubt. It’s a DC show, we all know how much The CW love their DC shows, in it’s 3rd season is performing well enough and The CW does have bigger problems to worry about. Still though it was nice for the news to be confirmed & give us all one less show to worry about at upfronts.

The promo for this episode made it seem as though Grodd trying to kill Obama was gonna be the main plotline of the episode. In actuality that was solved within the first 5 minutes. We got some decent enough one-liners, but I honestly thought the show could’ve done more with this storyline, and I suppose when you’re not at the business end of the season there would be more time.

But there’s not and we’re straight into what the episode is actually about; Damien teaming up with the Legends. Yes, he’s been conspiring for weeks to free Mallus from his captivity, with Nora ready and willing for Mallus to overcome her. The reality of losing Nora really hits home for Damien, and he realizes he can’t bear to lose her. So he pays a visit to the Legends. He wants to work with them to stop Mallus from breaking out of his time jail, and keep Nora alive.

Sara doesn’t buy his claims and wants to kill Damien. Rip wants to escort Damien off to the Time Bureau, whilst Ray thinks they should give Damien a chance and try to save Nora. Proving himself the MVP in Garry’s absence, Mick looks to Sara for orders. He is her Captain, the only one he’s going to listen to and her words are gospel. Despite herself, Sara reluctantly tells Mick to stand down and an uneasy alliance is formed.

Amidst all this Ava is having a bit of an understandable identity crisis following last weeks revelation. Nothing about her is real, the only thing she has to cling onto are rules and in the same respect, Sara is having a crisis herself. It’s taking all of her self restraint not to kill Damien for murdering her sister, and she’s questioning why exactly she doesn’t just kill him.

It’s a conundrum that leads Sara to seek advice from Obama who explains when she’s feeling is a perfectly understandable human reaction to pain. It still doesn’t exactly ease her though and in turning her attentions to Damien again, Sara admits she wants to kill him and will indeed put him back in the ground, once all this is over. Damien agrees and the uneasy alliance is confirmed.

Except of course it’s not. Whilst the Legends are coming back together to form a plan for how to take out Mallus, Damien sees Nora standing before him. She tells him that she’s trying to fight Mallus but it’s hard, and Damien urges his daughter not to give up. With Amaya refusing to let her village be massacred, it means that Mallus will finally be free from his prison as it’s the anachronism that will break time. With the team failing to find a get out of jail free card, Sara instead decides to just let Mallus be free so they can finally fight him physically.

Unfortunately after seeing Nora, Damien predictably double-crosses the Legends. At the beginning of the episode Ray had shrunk Grodd and put him in a jar to keep him quiet, and Damien has let him go to indeed massacre the village. That would keep Mallus in his prison, Amaya’s destiny coming true and most important Nora still Nora.

The fact the Legends didn’t have a back-up plan in case Damien did betray them again is mind-boggling. Even worse, keeping Grodd in a jar without any form of protection to make sure he stayed there is beyond logic.

The Legends attempt to fight Damien and he obviously trumps them again. Nate & Ray go off to help Amaya’s daughter, and Sara takes great joy in literally stabbing Damien in the back. He’s down, Nate uses the totem to keep Grodd at bay, time is broken, Mallus is free and Nora is down for the count.

Also in this episode, the Legends discover Amaya has left and Nate and Wally go after her. She wants to stop her village being massacred, and even though they’re supposed to be there to make sure that happens, Nate can’t go against Amaya’s wishes and instead helps her. We’re then forced to endure Nate trying to steal old Amaya’s totem and being confronted by her, to discover she’s erased her memory so she doesn’t remember him because that’s the only way she could go back to her people and fulfil her destiny.

I really don’t care. The show has repeatedly told us that Nate & Amaya are doomed. This constant back and forth of breaking up, being together, and reiterating the obstacles between them is beyond boring. Thankfully in this episode it doesn’t take up too much screen time, but it’s still too much screen time given it’s a rinse & repeat.

Lastly Ava after a bit of prompting from Sara does indeed confront Rip. She’s devastated to realize that she’s not the 1st, 2nd or eve 3rd Ava clone he’s used, she’s actually the 12th. Rip proclaims that Ava is special, but she’s really not believing that and it’s understandable. Rip though he doesn’t mean to comes off as being completely uncaring. He’s a bit stunned at first that Ava does know the truth, but doesn’t really make any attempts at apologizing for all the deceit. As far as he’s concerned her existence is for the greater good, and Rip has always had tunnel vision when it comes to his logic. I also have to mention the excellent use of John Noble here. Only Legends of Tomorrow could travel back to a 90’s film set, give John Noble a script and record what he says, to then trick Nora into coming to the ship. John Noble playing John Noble playing Mallus. Only Legends!

Next week we do unfortunately say goodbye to Legends as the season wraps up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I’m not ready for this season to end. Sure it hasn’t been perfect, no show is, but it has been far the most enjoyable show on TV at the moment and it’s loss even for a few months will be felt.