Welcome to Legends of Tomorrow, the preshow. Actually to be fair this episode does get me really excited for Legends of Tomorrow, big ensemble piece like this, kicking butt and taking names, if the show is like this episode then it's gonna be awesome. In this episode Felicity is finally able to get in contact with Ray who is tiny and being held captive by Damian Darhk, so the team gets together and breaks him out.
Really that's Legends of Tomorrow point is the best thing i can say about this episode, before i was anticipating that show, now i'm actively looking forward to it. Seeing the wide ranger of personalities all come together as a team with different fighting methods and skills for one similar goal. Also it's really nice to see Ray Palmer again because Brandon Routh is always a treat to have on screen, he's funny, he's optimistically charming and is a genius to boot, also they finally shrunk him down like they're supposed to do, hallelujah.
Also Mr Terrific is getting closer and closer to being on the team, yes i know that's not his name yet and i seriously doubt they'll ever actually get round to calling him that but i don't care, i'm going to refer to him as Mr Terrific because that's who he is and it's a fun name to say (Or type). Having him tag along with Team Arrow is a fun experiment to see how he works with them and i'd say it was a successful one, my hope is that they bring him onto the team sooner rather than later, after all this season so far has had excellent pacing so i'd hate to see them stagnate on this one feature.
Then there's Sara who really gets a lot crammed into this episode, firstly the conversation with her mother doesn't even get a whole scene and it's over the telephone, i get why they might want to do this to avoid repetition of the first time they brought Sara back and it's cheaper this way. I dunno maybe i'm just pissy about not seeing Alex Kingston on screen because it's Alex Kingston, that woman can do no wrong. But a bigger problem would be why they would bring her along on a mission so soon, she's just been brought back from the dead, not only would being dead for a year probably put you out of shape but i doubt she would be psychologically up to task and big shock(!) she has the same psycho-tendencies as Thea and likes to kill people. The first scene where this is brought up is pretty sloppy, she's beating the shit out of a security guard while the others just stand there...um...stop her? It's not even that it was a corrupt security officer or a criminal, this was an honest security guard working for a legit company and Sara's probably just given him brain damage and none of the others did anything to stop her, what the hell!?
I should also probably talk about Felicity seeing as this is a heavy Felicity centric episode, also the actress Emily Bett Rickards said on twitter this was her favourite episode and i can understand why. Felicity is given a lot to do in this episode, she still gets to be her neurotic and hilarious self but with a stronger emphasis on her determination to saving Ray, also exploring some more of her feelings including the guilt of not saving him, the stress of being with Oliver and remorse over not having an ordinary family. And unlike season three Felicity who just moped and cried all season this character actually has justification in her emotions and goes to extraneous lengths to fix her problems and in the end has a satisfying resolution to all of them without feeling forced or unrealistic. Her and Oliver do go through some relationship troubles but they talk about them and fix them like actual adults for a change, first thing in their relationship to feel genuine.
Speaking of Oliver, the fuck was wrong with him this episode!? Him inviting Felicity's mother to town is one thing, but then to invite her to dinner while they should be busy saving Ray!? I don't care if they have time to spare, all of their focus should be on saving Ray. This is a very awkward B-plot to have when all of Felicity's focus should be on Ray, granted it does lead to some funny scenes and lines of dialogue but it just doesn't fit right. Fact of the matter is these two plots that should belong in different episodes, a serious plot and a silly plot should not be dealt with by the exact same characters in the same episode, it's unfitting and the contrast between the two plots is dumb. Also Felicity's Mum and Captain Lance...ew, why? What the hell? And Ew.
Something about this season that i've been avoiding talking about is the flashbacks, why? Because they're pointless, in prior seasons the flashbacks were there to tie into the main plot either thematically or with a similar story structure or contrast in character growth. This season so far the flashbacks have been completely irrelevant to the main plot and seems to be their own story all together than is so short that we only get 2 flashbacks an episode. What happened in the flashbacks here? Oliver is to take a group up to the mountains, ends up killing one of the group who attacks him. Cool, that's maybe what, 10 minutes of screen time max? They haven't even set off for the fucking mountain yet, this plot line is so far irrelevant and being dragged out as shit, so unless a major plot point does happen or it ties in, in some significant way then i'm unlikely to talk about it.
Overall this episode was enjoyable, there was a lot of focus on the characters' personal arcs, some good, some bad, nothing terrible and with some very entertaining scenes in the process and a really strong performance from Rickards. 7/10.
-Danny
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