Great episode...with its flaws of course (2x01 SPOILERS)
What's not to love about LoT? Its 'Doctor Who meets the Justice League' essentially. It allows for wacky 'leave your brains behind' superhero adventures in the far future, the Wild West, Hill Valley-esq 50's Americana...ANY place or time you'd imagine! It can have ninjas one week, cowboys the next, zombies (per the latest trailer) and Ray Palmer fighting a gigantic robot.
Yet, the show has not always lived up to the potential of its awesome and open-ended premise. The Vandal Savage arc was not handled well at all and the Hawks were mostly a waste of space, I'm sorry to say. But the show's strength has always been its character dynamics, its tone, and the 'devil-may-care' creativity of the writers - and that's what Season 2 is clearly aiming to bank upon.
I liked the framing device of Nate Heywood and Oliver discovering the remains of the Waverider and reviving Mick Rory and the details of the 1942 mission to stop NYC getting nuked being told in typical 'how we got here' flashback fashion. Playing with chronology in a time-travel show is always fun. Plus it gave a credible reason to introduce Nate to the show and feature Oliver beyond him being shoe-horned as a random guest star.
As for the Legends themselves...well, they're what they always were. Mick is a character who evolved a lot last season, and I somehow feel that in the absence of Snart he actually shines (or rather burns!) brighter. I loved the argument between Sara and Ray - both of whom represent two very different superhero archetypes, despite originating from the same show. Stien and Jax are...well, Stien and Jax. Stien in particular has become one of my favorite characters on the show. And the 'role reversal' of sorts wherein none other than Albert Einstien thinks that Mick is smarter and the real 'brains' of the operation over Stien was simply hilarious!
A special shout-out to Neal McDonough as Damien Darkh is in order. Darkh in this episode was better than pretty much most of Season 4 of 'Arrow'. THIS is the kind of villain I'd hoped Darkh to be in Season 4 - a scheming mastermind and skilled fighter, not just a metahuman by any other name with a generic plot to 'destroy the world', and I'm really looking forward to more of Darkh, and more of the Reverse Flash as well! The Reverse-Flash taking down the crew of that Nazi U-Boat was simply mind-blowingly awesome!
No doubt, there are still flaws due to the fairly loose style of storytelling. Rip's "time scatter" safeguard actually makes little sense (if he feared the destruction of the ship, why strand the Legends in the distant past when he could just as easily send them all to 2016?). And changing the past in the last minute by having Einstien make that speech about his ex-wife essentially undoes all the events of the episode in a massive paradox that no one acknowledges.
But leaving all that aside for the time being...the Legends are back and brighter than ever, with an intriguing new premise (the mysterious fate of Rip Hunter), new cast members and the tantalizing opportunity VERY soon to meet the Justice Society of America!
Formerly sn939