Legends of Tomorrow "Pilot (Part 2)" Review

The second half of the Legends of Tomorrow pilot and I can already see where the show’s biggest strength is. With the team still in 1975, they infiltrate a terrorist auction house (No, really) where a massive fight breaks out and part of Ray’s suit falls off and is taken by the terrorists. Meanwhile they also learn that in order to kill Vandal Savage they need a special dagger that he just so happens to be in possession of.

So what is the show’s greatest strength? The team. Yeah I know that might sound obvious but really, what makes this show so entertaining is seeing the different combinations and missions that they all can go on. Seeing characters of different background interacting in new scenarios is what I feel will keep the show feeling fresh every episode. Unlike Arrow or Flash or even Supergirl where you can certainly see the formula play out, it’s not as obvious here. Yes, there is still a formula at play, but the personalities of the characters make it feel less repetitive. That plus the bigger in scope action scenes make it a very entertaining show to watch.

The first of the teams is Ray Palmer, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory all breaking into Savage’s house to get the dagger. Seeing Mick and Snart doing what they do best is entertaining, and much more plausible than they were in Flash where they somehow predicted everything down to the second. But also Snart and Palmer bonding over their intellect and how in another life they might have been colleagues, if not friends. I’m not saying they’re going to end up as besties but you can see a mutual respect being built between them, even if Ray can be rather clumsy.

Next is Martin, Jax and Sara all trying to retrieve the piece of Ray’s suit which involves stealing a device developed by Martin back in the 70s, so you get some good comedy of Martin interacting with his younger self and he thinks he’s an arrogant pompous douche while Jax and Sara actually get along with him quite well. But it’s not just for comedy’s sake, there is some actual development between Martin and Jax, seeing as they are a duo they would need to be there for each other a lot, and Martin starting to go through a midlife crisis by seeing how much of a douche he can be and Jax having to support him by telling him he’s not, it’s a nice little moment. Sadly, Sara doesn’t do much aside from kick some ass, be cool and be sexy, hopefully she’ll get more focus in the next episode as she’s the least developed out of the bunch.

Finally, is Kendra and Carter who I’ll be honest are my least favourite pairing, a lot of their story in this episode is almost a retread of what was established in the Flash/Arrow crossover episodes. Even more so there is a lot of retconning the established rules, they said it has to be one of these two to kill Savage, now apparently it has to be Kendra, and they need a dagger in order to do it? That wasn’t part of the deal! But oh, there’s more to their story than that. So Carter dies, I’ll be honest I didn’t see that coming. But to be even more honest I’m not all that upset; he was the least interesting character so he won’t be missed, but bravo Legends for killing off a major character this early. Though he’s also a character that constantly gets reincarnated so they could very easily bring him back at some point. Also how does this work? Will he be reincarnated in 1975 or go all the way back to 2016? Because if he gets reincarnated in ’75 then won’t there be two of him hanging around?

But to wrap this up, I very much enjoyed this episode, it was a lot of fun, we got some good team building exercises, it was weird that Rip Hunter kinda got sidelines for most of it but we’ve got a whole season left to go. 8/10.