Spoilers DC's Legends of Tomorrow - Season 2

[Christopher]

As they've cut down the number of episodes, they've cut down the the running time for those episodes so they are producing even less.

Fewer episodes isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it means there's less story filler, and more time and money to spend on each individual episode. Still, I do wish the running time hadn't dropped so much -- modern "hourlong" shows have 12-15 minutes' less content than '60s shows. I'm glad that Netflix original shows tend to run longer, and aren't locked into a fixed running time.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Fighting the Secret Service...real classy.

Did they have numeric keypad locks in 1942? That jumped out as a likely anachronism (considering Vixen was obviously familiar with it from her time). And why would Vixen assume that the JSA as she knew it was still up and running 45 years later?

I don't like this version of the JSA. Elitist snobs.

 

[Christopher]

Did they have numeric keypad locks in 1942? That jumped out as a likely anachronism (considering Vixen was obviously familiar with it from her time).

Yeah, that seems to date from the '60s. But it's a different universe with superpowers and magic, so...

And why would Vixen assume that the JSA as she knew it was still up and running 45 years later?

Why wouldn't she?

Anyway, it's good to get some explanation of why superheroes were considered a new thing just a few years ago. The JSA's activities were classified, and Nate only knew about them because of his family connection.

I liked Sara's improved approach to getting "revenge" on Darhk. I liked her '80s hair, too.

It's been, what, about a dozen years since we last saw young Martin? In college, he was a womanizer and a stoner, but now he's become even stiffer than present Martin. That seems like a pretty rapid change. Not impossible, but a bit surprising.

And now we have an Odd Couple of Doom. They still have to work their way up to a Legion. And the time bubble explains how they'll be able to bring in the other two baddies we know to be involved, and how they'll be able to operate as a team across time. I was wondering about that.

 

[The Old Mixer]

But it's a different universe with superpowers and magic, so...

I could use the same excuse for the possibility of her being a ninja, but I'll concede that speculation hasn't borne fruit.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Dolph Lundgren, Lance Henriksen and is that Jeff Fahey in the preview? What cult classic star is next in the Berlantiverse? I vote for Rutger Hauer. Maybe Christopher Lambert.

I could use the same excuse for the possibility of her being a ninja, but I'll concede that speculation hasn't borne fruit.

Ninja Fruit? Or should that be Fruit Ninja? C'mon, didn't you see the shuriken? She's been training Sara in the art of Ninjitsu!

 

[Greg Cox]

Fighting the Secret Service...real classy.

Did they have numeric keypad locks in 1942? That jumped out as a likely anachronism (considering Vixen was obviously familiar with it from her time). And why would Vixen assume that the JSA as she knew it was still up and running 45 years later?

What's more, she figured the JSA hadn't changed the pass code in forty-five years?

 

[Snaploud]

So, I assume the entire Damien Dahrk Arrow arc has been removed from history. Damien dropped out of the timeline, and he would have no intention of following through with his old plans anyway (after hearing about his future from Sara). In fact, Sara's sister may very well be alive right now as a result...not that I expect the writers to think that one through.

Also, why was Vixen so depressed at seeing an abandoned building? Is it really that inconceivable that the JSA changed buildings after more than four decades? The old building might have just been for storage. [Though, I do wonder why that old guy just happened to be in their dusty old training facility. Does he live in the attic, or does the JSA have teleportation technology?]

 

[sojourner]

"That old guy" had super powers and was probably notified the minute someone entered the proper key combination after 40 years. Plus, he lived in the area.

As to the time travel related stuff, don't try to make sense of it. The writers sure don't.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I was a little surprised they so clearly stated that Central City is in Missouri by fully showing Clarissa's driver license.

It not new. I got a role playing book when I was a teen in the early 90s with a DC USA city map. It was located there too. Fairly sure one episode of the 1990 Flash series alluded to it by mentioning either St Louis or Kansas City as nearby.

No the surprise is these shows have been intentionally vague about the location of their cities. Now they fully committed to this as its location. They could have shown something else if they want to avoid that.

 

[Christopher]

So, I assume the entire Damien Dahrk Arrow arc has been removed from history. Damien dropped out of the timeline, and he would have no intention of following through with his old plans anyway (after hearing about his future from Sara). In fact, Sara's sister may very well be alive right now as a result...not that I expect the writers to think that one through.

Nothing has been removed from history. These are still four separate shows with separate writing staffs and separate, if overlapping, audiences. So their storylines can influence each other to an extent, but not thoroughly hijack each other. Therefore, the "rules" of time travel will be rewritten in whatever way is necessary to preserve the respective integrity of the different shows. No one series will be allowed to wipe the other series' entire continuity out of existence. (Which is why "Flashpoint" only lasted one episode and, with one small exception, affected nothing outside of The Flash itself.) Presumably the intention of the season's arc is that Thawne, Darhk, and the others will try to undo the events that led to their failures, but the Legends will stop them from doing so.

[Though, I do wonder why that old guy just happened to be in their dusty old training facility. Does he live in the attic, or does the JSA have teleportation technology?]

Obsidian probably had some kind of alarm installed that alerted him to the entry.

No the surprise is these shows have been intentionally vague about the location of their cities. Now they fully committed to this as its location. They could have shown something else if they want to avoid that.

They've shown specifics about the cities' locations before, but that hasn't stopped them from contradicting those specifics later. "The Climb" in Arrow season 3 showed the Starling City Airport on the coast of Lake Superior, but most references have put it in the equivalent position to Seattle, and Tobias Church explicitly wanted to establish a presence in the city because of its coastal location. And Central City's supposed to be only 600 miles from Star, yet Missouri is thousands of miles from the West Coast. There's also the paradox that both cities are proximate to Iron Heights Prison. The geography in this universe has always been a mess.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I forgot to mention the Miami Vice opening with Darkh, I really like when they have touches like that, the rest of it seemed to be like "I hate the 80's".

 

[Dick Whitman]

Still not too happy with how the JSA is being used on this show. Though I do like Amaya the JSA main use is to be her motivation to join the Legends to avenge Rex. But if the actress who played the modern Vixen was available they never would have introduced the JSA like that. Hopefully we learn more about them.

 

[Guy Gardener]

So, I assume the entire Damien Dahrk Arrow arc has been removed from history. Damien dropped out of the timeline, and he would have no intention of following through with his old plans anyway (after hearing about his future from Sara). In fact, Sara's sister may very well be alive right now as a result...not that I expect the writers to think that one through.

Also, why was Vixen so depressed at seeing an abandoned building? Is it really that inconceivable that the JSA changed buildings after more than four decades? The old building might have just been for storage. [Though, I do wonder why that old guy just happened to be in their dusty old training facility. Does he live in the attic, or does the JSA have teleportation technology?]

Sarah is a Time Remnant?

Of course Martin getting Stabbed cross time infers that the Legends are still tethered to the history they are smashing.

 

[dahj]

What's more, she figured the JSA hadn't changed the pass code in forty-five years?

Hackers weren't a big deal in 1942. The code is probably the founding date of the JSA.

Hopefully we learn more about them.

They mentioned the time and place when they all bit the dust, Leipzig 1956.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was a destination for the Waverider at some point.

 

[DigificWriter]

It's over a day late, but here's my review of Compromises:
After a slight 'misstep' with Shogun, Legends has gotten itself back on track in the past two weeks with consecutively excellent episodes, which makes me happy since things are much better when all four of the Arrowverse series are firing on all cylinders.

I don't know exactly why, but I find Neal McDonough's Damien Darhk far less grating in his guest spots on Legends than I did on Arrow last season, and I like this partnership he's got going with Thawne a lot. I also like that Sara's solution to keeping the urge to kill him in check was to describe the end of his life to him.

The character dynamics this season are really starting to 'click' and fall into place, and we're seeing some really neat pairs start to form.

I love the dynamic between Stein and Sara, and watching him admit that his objections to her killing Darhk had more to do with his being worried about her as a person than it did with protecting history was really moving

Mick and Ray seems like the strangest pair, but they oddly fit together and their banter was a genuine highlight, and I like that they're not just rushing to give Ray a new replacement suit..

I'm also really enjoying the pairing of Amaya and Nate, both of whom are essentially 'outsiders' on the Waverider, and the way they were able to tie the two characters' arcs this episode to the JSA was really cool.

While we're on the subject of the JSA, I liked that we got a bit more history on them and an explanation as to how and why their activities/exploits weren't well-known, and seeing Obsidian again - albeit as an old man - was a nice touch. Speaking of, am I the only one who caught the New 52 Alan Scott homage they just casually snuck in there by having his reason for not going with the Legends be a "him"?

Circling back to Stein before I close out my review, I love the way that Victor Garber plays off of the actor the show chose to play his younger self, who, incidentally, I wasn't expecting to ever see again. I thought it was neat that they brought him back, though, and started to evolve him into the character of Stein as we're familiar with him, especially as it concerns his relationship with Clarissa.

All in all, I really enjoyed Compromises, and am happy that the show's gotten itself back on track. Here's hoping the trend continues next week.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Speaking of, am I the only one who caught the New 52 Alan Scott homage they just casually snuck in there by having his reason for not going with the Legends be a "him"?

Obsidian's been gay since the 1990s.

 

[DigificWriter]

Obsidian's been gay since the 1990s.

I did not know that, so thanks for the information.

I'll still see it as a New 52 Alan Scott homage, though, just because.

 

[Christopher]

Circling back to Stein before I close out my review, I love the way that Victor Garber plays off of the actor the show chose to play his younger self, who, incidentally, I wasn't expecting to ever see again.

Graeme McComb does a really good Victor Garber impression.

 

[Snaploud]

I don't understand the praise for Sara telling Damien his future. The core philosphical problem was whether or not killing Dahrk was worth messing with the future. Her solution (if we can call it that) was to give Dahrk enough information to mess with the future on his own terms.

 

[USS Firefly]

I also don't think it was smart from Sara to tell Damian his future.