Previously on Legends of Tomorrow, Mick Rory, a.k.a. Heatwave, was revealed to be Chronos, the time-travelling bounty hunter close on the team’s trail. Now, after a hot and heavy fight with the Rogue in the bowels of Ra’s Al Ghul’s headquarters, the team manages to capture Rory and hold him into lower level of their ship, hoping to undo the brainwashing caused by the Time Masters. With the team travelling into the future year of 2147, the timeline is laid to bare for the heroes and villains of the group: a young boy named Perdegeton (say that three times fast!) will eventually become a dictator allowing for Vandal Savage to take control of the world. With the possible timelines, and the deaths resulting from them revealed, the team decides what to do with the “little Hitler,” and man does it take a while.
Before I jump further into the bits and pieces of the episode, I want to talk about the lesser elements, i.e. the melodrama. Legends of Tomorrow is at its best when there’s an equal combination of high flying adventure, great humor, and character interactions. The argument of “would you kill Hitler as a baby” is a well that’s drawn from quite a bit in popular entertainment, but this episode draws on that well to an infuriating degree. Scene after scene sees the group debating about whether they should kill “Perd,” whether they should take an alternative route, or if they should do nothing at all. It’s not only repetitive, it’s flat out boring and simply brings the overall mission of the series to a screeching halt. You have a character who’s a resurrected Egyptian god, a man who can shrink to sub atomic size, and an ice-hurling quip machine at your disposal CW, make use of them!
When the team begins exploring this new future a bit more, things get interesting as nifty ideas are thrown the audience’s way at a nice clip. Countries being owned by corporations is a fantastic angle, alongside the idea that Ray Palmer’s technology is essentially being used to create an army of deadly “robocops” that handle crime with an iron fist. Ray even has to deal with the fact that the employee of Palmer Industries whom he works with turns out to be his very own great-great-granddaughter, pointing toward Palmer having a daughter he never knew about. All these ideas unfortunately are pushed to the side to explore the idea of “Kid Hitler,” and the episode was definitely made worse for it when all was said and done.
While all this future chicanery is going on, Kendra is remembering her past life with Hawkman in the early 1900s. This seemed somewhat out of place to be sure among the rest of the futuristic happenings in the hour. Perhaps it was to better put on display Kendra’s feelings of betrayal in dating Ray, even when her Carter is dead? Whatever the reason, shortening the scenes or doing away with them entirely would have been the best route to take here. I was somewhat astonished by the fact that they ultimately led nowhere as these could have easily just been hinted at, as the audience knows Kendra’s deal already.
Meanwhile, back on “Team Kidnapping,” the gang manages to kidnap Perdegeton and hopes that in doing so they can stop the virus he’ll release which kills billions of people. Unfortunately, Gideon gives them the bad news that kidnapping the boy did nothing, causing Rip to whisk the boy away and attempt to kill him outside of the view of his teammates, but is unable to pull the trigger. The remaining team members are attacked on the Waverider by Savage and a veritable army of soldiers and “Atom Suits,” resulting in a nice little action scene. After a few beats, a Mexican standoff takes place with Savage threatening White Canary and Rip threatening Perdegeton. Ultimately, they perform an exchange and the team leaves, only to realize that they’ve mucked up the timeline even worse by interfering! Good grief.
The episode ends with a good old slugfest between Heatwave and Captain Cold, with Rory realizing in the process that he does want back on the team. Mick takes the opportunity to inform everyone that since he failed to kill them as Chronos, the Time Masters will unleash a group called “the Hunters” to kill them no matter what year they’re in. The team’s best defense in this scenario? To run. “Progeny” was an episode of several misfires and was one of the worst offerings of the season so far unfortunately. With a premise such as Legends, they need to find plots that work for the concept and have the audience rooting for the heroes, despising the villains, and not feel bored along the way. The show can do better than this and I’m hoping considering next week’s premise, it will.
Rating: ★★ Fair
Notes of Tomorrow
-They really wasted Jewel Staite here from Firefly fame. Surely they could have given her more to do here.
-The skybound Palmer fight with his futuristic Atom suits reminded me of the flight scenes from the first Iron Man. Good stuff.
-I feel like they forgot that Captain Cold’s gun freezes people and doesn’t just fire energy blasts, which is odd considering he’s named Captain Cold.
-Jackson: “If we’re going to the future, we’d better invite the nerd twins.”
-Snart: “We’re going to have to kill the little bastard.”
-Ray: “Well while you’re kidnapping Kid Hitler….”
-Sara: “Fine. Team Kidnapping.”
-Snart: “Are you telling me future Hitler is enrolled in a gymnastics class?”
-Ray: “I can’t believe it! I’m like the Wehrner Von Braun of robots!”
-Stein: “What a strange age for dating.”
-Stein: “He’s right, we have super powers!” (Favorite line of the series so far)
-Snart: “People say we should have a heart to heart.”
Mick: “We don’t have hearts.”
-Next week has gun slinging, wild west action, and Jonah Hex. Let’s hope for the best folks!
