In Review: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: 3×17: “Guest Starring John Noble”

SEEING DOUBLE — With the timeline barely stable, the Legends must tackle two anachronisms at the same time to try and keep Mallus at bay.
by April 3, 2018
Spread the love

Synopsis: SEEING DOUBLE — With the timeline barely stable, the Legends must tackle two anachronisms at the same time to try and keep Mallus at bay. Sara (Caity Lotz) and Rip (guest star Arthur Darvill) team up to stop Grodd (guest star David Sobolov) from going after a particular target leaving Nate (Nick Zano) and Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) to stop Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) from changing her future. Meanwhile, the Legends think they have found a way to destroy Mallus, but they will have to create an uneasy alliance with one of their enemies. Brandon Routh, Dominic Purcell, and Tala Ashe also star.

Review: With “Guest Starring John Noble,” writers Keto Shimizu and James Eagan turned the bats**t dial-up to eleventy-one. The beauty of their script, however, was they didn’t sacrifice the characters in the process.

Before I deal with the ongoing story elements, though, I have to address the stand-alone points. First, I thought Shimizu and Eagan integrated the Arrow-verse version of Barack Obama very organically considering the overall context of the episode. He made a great sounding board for Sara. Quite apart from that, repurposing “Run, Barry, run” was sheer perfection. Additionally, the titular appearance by John Noble added much-needed levity to a story with existentially heavy themes at its core.

As for the ongoing storylines, I’ll deal with Nate and Amaya first. I’m genuinely and pleasantly surprised that Nate really isn’t Grandpa after all. I really appreciated how poignantly and maturely that reality was handled. At whatever point Nick Zano and Maisie Richardson-Sellers leave the show, I won’t feel cheated by these creative decisions.

Last, but by no means least, I have to discuss Damien Darhk. I may have been wrong about Nate and Amaya, but I’m not wrong about Damien. I’m all but certain that he will choose death to save Nora, and I love this development. It will be his punishment and his redemption. It in no way negates who he’s been or what he’s done. I have one structural quibble, though. With one episode remaining the writers aren’t going to be able to properly acknowledge Damien’s whole history. Neal McDonough deserves a more comprehensive script for his send off then I know he’s going to get.

Director

Ralph Hemecker

Writers

Keto Shimizu, James Eagan

8.8
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: 3x17:
  • Story
    8.5
  • Performances
    9.0
  • VFX
    9.0
Tags

by Dominic Walsh - Apr 3, 2018

by Nicholas Yanes - Apr 3, 2018

Raissa Devereux became a life-long genre fan at the age of four when she first saw The Wizard of Oz at a screening at Arizona State University. Years later, she graduated from A.S.U. as an English major, History minor, Whovian, and Trekkie. Now a Florida transplant, she loves the opportunity Sci-Fi Pulse has given her to further explore space travel, time travel, masked heroes, gothic castles, and good yarns.
    No Comment