Running "Out of Time" - Legends of Tomorrow S02E01

I think my visceral hatred of the Vandal Savage storyline, coupled with my intense dislike of what this show chose to do to the Hawkpeople, made me deeply unappreciative of Legends of Tomorrow's first season. I mean, I watched all of it out of a sense of obligation to keeping in touch with all aspects of a TV universe I knew would eventually connect a lot better. I love The Flash and remain loyal to Arrow despite season 4's shenanigans. And, I can admit that LoT had some fun moments last season (like the western episode).

Right away, the season premiere shows that LoT has improved tenfold, if only because that awful Vandal Savage storyline is finally over, and the albatrosses around the neck of this show were gone, since the Hawk people have exited for now.

But I have also come to realize that Legends of Tomorrow doesn't take itself seriously, so there really isn't any reason to do more with this show than sit back and enjoy the blatant goofiness. Look, this show is dumb. But it's supposed to be. These people are running around in time, kind of trying to save it, all the while have the time of their lives.

(spoilers for the season 2 premiere to follow)



Still, the season premiere had some huge pacing issues, and a few puzzling choices made by the writing team.

For example, the episode begins in Star City, where some dude bulls his way into Oliver Queen's mayoral office and right away lets Oliver know that he's the Green Arrow. Turns out this guy is a historian of sorts, who mysteriously knows that there have been some changes in time (which makes zero sense since like, whenever Barry Allen mucks with time, he's usually the only one who knows. well, him and other speedsters). Anyway, Nate Heywood, historian extraordinaire, tells Oliver that the Legends are in trouble.

Does Star City have a naval force we didn't know about? Because Oliver acquires a freaking submarine so he and Nate can deep dive into the Atlantic to find the sunken Waverider, Rip Hunter's ship. And seriously, where's the scene of Thea freaking out that the already absentee-mayor is going on a dive?

Anyway, Nate and Oliver get on board the Waverider and find Mick Rory, aka Heatwave, in stasis. From here on out, we get Mick's story on what happened to the Legends, while he proceeds to get drunk. Oliver really has no role to play here other than to listen and ask questions. There really wasn't any reason for him to be here. And eventually he leaves Nate on the Waverider as a new crew member. What even was the point of Oliver being there? I mean I get it, it was probably an attempt to tie Legends back to the wider world of the Berlantiverse, but come on.

Okay so what did happen to everyone? Well, Sarah gets seduced by the Queen of France while her teammates are trying to save Louis XIII from time assassins. This was actually a fun and well-done sequence. Captain Hunter is exasperated by his unruly team, who don't give a damn about using their tech while in the past (the bad guys did it first!), but they do manage to save Louis XIII. And since Sarah "prepped" the Queen for romance, Louis XIV can now be conceived.

It's true, though. 
After that, they discover that there's a new time anomaly: a bomb went off in New York in 1942, three years before the actual a-bomb was even invented. Off to the 40s they rush to save Albert Einstein from being abducted by Nazis, much to Dr. Stein's delight as he proceeds to fangurl over meeting Einstein in person.

But they didn't save time, because someone besides Einstein knows how to build a bomb: his ex-wife Mileva Maric.

Sarah, who secretly has an agenda to take out Damien Darhk and get justice for her sister's death, discovers that Damien has Mileva and is involved in the New York attack. After a well-choreographed fight scene to try to retrieve the bomb from Darhk (and failing at it), the Waverider has to go deep-diving to chase after Damien's submarine and prevent New York from getting nuked.

I don't really understand how a sleek ship from the future is incapable of running circles around a bulky 1940s Nazi sub, but okay. The only way to save New York is to put the Waverider in the way of the bomb when it's fired. Captain Hunter doesn't know if the ship will survive the impact, so he timescatters the team to save their lives, sending them to random (I guess?) points in history. The only one who can't be teleported is Rory, due to the injuries he received at the dock fight. So that's how he ends up in stasis at the bottom of the Atlantic for Oliver to find later. And Captain Hunter himself appears to have gone down with his ship.

Heatwave has been telling this story over beer bottles, but after Ollie leaves, Mick and Nate figure out "where" in time the other team members were scattered to. In a super rushed rescue montage, Ray gets rescued from being eaten by a T-Rex, Sarah gets rescued from being burned as a witch during the Salem witch trials (and she's totally unrepentant about "corrupting" the townswomen), and Martin and Jax get rescued from losing their heads at a medieval king's whims.

The team's back together and they have Nate now, but not even Gideon seems to know what happened to Captain Hunter.

And we get a final revelation at the end of the episode: Damien Darhk is now working with Reverse Flash (thanks Barry!). Wooo Legion of Doom incoming, folks!

Such sinister! So Doom! 
Sarah, as always, is a delight, but with the exit of Kendra last season, White Canary is the only chick around right now. Looks like with the Justice Society of America we'll be getting more ladies, so I'm looking forward to seeing them in action.

I still don't understand what the point was in having Oliver in this episode. And we didn't even get any mention of "Flashpoint." How do the Legends, who are actively tracking changes in time, completely miss Barry's screw-up? I mean, I'm sure it will come up at some point, because Reverse Flash is kicking around, but I'm disappointed it wasn't mentioned from the get-go.

Overall the pacing for this episode was way off, especially that rescue montage. However, there's a sense of this show trying to be light-hearted and goofy fun, so we'll see if the writing can keep me entertained.


Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.