Legends of Tomorrow: Phone Home
October 31, 2017 8:12 PM - Season 3, Episode 4 - Subscribe
The Legends learn that Ray Palmer will die because they broke time, so they race back to 1988 to try to save his life. Meanwhile, Stein begins working on a secret project on the ship, which makes Rory and Jax suspicious.
I liked this one too. About died when Mick held up the bullies at the end, but the whole thing was fun.
It never ceases to amaze me how much they turned this show around.
posted by mordax at 10:01 AM on November 1, 2017
It never ceases to amaze me how much they turned this show around.
posted by mordax at 10:01 AM on November 1, 2017
Ok this show is just balls to the wall fun now. I'm loving it.
Looks like they're setting up to write Stein out, but I don't mind Jax. He has that young naive confidence crossed with a maturity of recognizing when he has real responsibilities that works as part of the team.
I think making Rory-- sorry, Rip, less of a presence in the show starting last season really worked. I loved Rory, but Arthur Darvill just wasn't likeable as the leader. Not sure if he's written that way, but he was definitely acting it. Caity Lotz, on the other hand, can really pull off edgy and ethically ambiguous leader of a band of misfits, which is what the show really should be and is now.
posted by numaner at 4:41 PM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Looks like they're setting up to write Stein out, but I don't mind Jax. He has that young naive confidence crossed with a maturity of recognizing when he has real responsibilities that works as part of the team.
I think making Rory-- sorry, Rip, less of a presence in the show starting last season really worked. I loved Rory, but Arthur Darvill just wasn't likeable as the leader. Not sure if he's written that way, but he was definitely acting it. Caity Lotz, on the other hand, can really pull off edgy and ethically ambiguous leader of a band of misfits, which is what the show really should be and is now.
posted by numaner at 4:41 PM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
That was surprisingly adorable. That dance number, holy SHIT.
I do not miss Rip one bit.
I dearly loved Sara's giant head-thrown-back-eye-rolling at Ray's "team building." And Ray's convenient disappearance during the trust fall. And Sara's anger at being cocooned. And the ET moment that Zari engineered without having any idea what ET was.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:29 PM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I do not miss Rip one bit.
I dearly loved Sara's giant head-thrown-back-eye-rolling at Ray's "team building." And Ray's convenient disappearance during the trust fall. And Sara's anger at being cocooned. And the ET moment that Zari engineered without having any idea what ET was.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:29 PM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Not sure if he's written that way, but he was definitely acting it.
It was a couple of things, IMO:
* As written, Rip was The Worst.
This role has now been passed to Nate. S1 was made of fail, and a lot of it landed squarely on Darvill through no fault of his own.
* Rip was never properly one of them.
No matter how well S1 could have been written, he was never going to be their rightful leader. The Legends are all like, D-list supers. They don't know about time travel except from direct experience, they're not really suited to the missions. Also, they have legit superpowers, making them big blunt instruments in a bunch of scenarios that call for subtlety.
As posited, Rip was a trained Time Guy who took an oath to protect the timeline and had specific training to deal with stuff, and also no real powers. At best, he was always going to be too stuffy for the rest of them - his new Time Bureau is a natural extension of a divide that always existed between him and everybody else.
Sarah was always the best choice for leader of the Legends, and I'm glad they embraced that.
posted by mordax at 12:01 AM on November 2, 2017
It was a couple of things, IMO:
* As written, Rip was The Worst.
This role has now been passed to Nate. S1 was made of fail, and a lot of it landed squarely on Darvill through no fault of his own.
* Rip was never properly one of them.
No matter how well S1 could have been written, he was never going to be their rightful leader. The Legends are all like, D-list supers. They don't know about time travel except from direct experience, they're not really suited to the missions. Also, they have legit superpowers, making them big blunt instruments in a bunch of scenarios that call for subtlety.
As posited, Rip was a trained Time Guy who took an oath to protect the timeline and had specific training to deal with stuff, and also no real powers. At best, he was always going to be too stuffy for the rest of them - his new Time Bureau is a natural extension of a divide that always existed between him and everybody else.
Sarah was always the best choice for leader of the Legends, and I'm glad they embraced that.
posted by mordax at 12:01 AM on November 2, 2017
Rip was pretty much almost always an awful human being. Compared to that, Nate is just a frigging doofus moron. It drives me nuts how dumb Nate is, but compared to Rip he's awesome.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:17 AM on November 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:17 AM on November 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
I know they have a budget and stuff to consider but HOW THE HELL could Nate just stand there throwing records at the dominator when he can steel-up and just punch it!
posted by numaner at 10:09 PM on November 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by numaner at 10:09 PM on November 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
There's a Rip Hunter. There's a Booster Gold out there somewhere. There's a Skeets out there somewhere. The Skeets/Gideon dialogue is going to be hilarious.
posted by mikelieman at 6:22 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mikelieman at 6:22 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
It drives me nuts how dumb Nate is, but compared to Rip he's awesome.
He's nowhere near as bad because he's not deliberately dicking with everyone, but he's mostly not even funny, which is the real trouble for me. This episode was a step in the right direction there, at least - hopefully they'll keep giving him something hilarious to do going forward.
posted by mordax at 9:38 AM on November 3, 2017
He's nowhere near as bad because he's not deliberately dicking with everyone, but he's mostly not even funny, which is the real trouble for me. This episode was a step in the right direction there, at least - hopefully they'll keep giving him something hilarious to do going forward.
posted by mordax at 9:38 AM on November 3, 2017
Also, this is why I never warmed to Rip: he could've been just as much of a rat bastard, but they needed to make him funny to make it watchable.
posted by mordax at 9:39 AM on November 3, 2017
posted by mordax at 9:39 AM on November 3, 2017
I was really dreading this episode with the promised E.T. storyline. I'll admit I was wrong in my apprehension. That was a lot more fun that I expected it to be. I'll quibble about two of the female team members wearing overalls (one would have been fine, although the overalls that were picked were terrible), but other than that, I really enjoyed it.
Also, thanks to the writers for making use of Mick's ability to figure things out and scheme. He's more than just a big, dumb lug, and the character is better when the writers remember that. (Nate is just dumb.)
I can't believe they went with Ronnie as the name of Martin's grandson. That seems a bit forced, but I guess there is no point complaining about it.
posted by sardonyx at 1:24 PM on November 4, 2017
Also, thanks to the writers for making use of Mick's ability to figure things out and scheme. He's more than just a big, dumb lug, and the character is better when the writers remember that. (Nate is just dumb.)
I can't believe they went with Ronnie as the name of Martin's grandson. That seems a bit forced, but I guess there is no point complaining about it.
posted by sardonyx at 1:24 PM on November 4, 2017
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Jax is probably my least favorite character (I do wonder if I’d like him better if they hadn’t cast a Brit? He’s no Idris Elba when it comes to pulling off an American accent), so I was kinda hoping that he’d be written out along with Stein, but we’ll see.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:41 AM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]