Legends of Tomorrow: Legends of To-Meow-Meow
December 10, 2018 7:05 PM - Season 4, Episode 8 - Subscribe
Constantine breaks the cardinal Legend rule of not changing the past, so he, Charlie, and Zari try to deal with the ramifications without telling the rest of the Legends. Even though Zari encourages them to just restore the original timeline, Constantine and Charlie are determined to find another way, but only continue to make things worse.
I had to pause this episode to recover from laughter like eight times. It was amazing.
posted by mordax at 11:35 PM on December 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by mordax at 11:35 PM on December 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
AV Club - Everything’s bonkers on the giddy fall finale of Legends Of Tomo-- Sorry, Sirens Of Space-Time
Den of Geek - Legends of Tomorrow tries to do too much and ends up with too little on the season's first real misfire.
EW recap: Reality bites
posted by oh yeah! at 4:38 AM on December 11, 2018
Den of Geek - Legends of Tomorrow tries to do too much and ends up with too little on the season's first real misfire.
EW recap: Reality bites
posted by oh yeah! at 4:38 AM on December 11, 2018
I really enjoyed the Blue Fairy fist bump scene.
Excited to see how Neron plays out.
posted by Query at 9:05 AM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
Excited to see how Neron plays out.
posted by Query at 9:05 AM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
That was the absolute tightest hour of TV I've ever watched. There was so much stuff packed into this episode that it was beyond excessive, or even imaginable, if I'm being truly honest. If asked to come up with the most ridiculous group of story arcs and plots that I could squeeze into a coherent narrative, there is no way I'd be able to come up with something even close to that. I still don't know how they fit in as much as they did.
The 1970s and 1980s TV spoofs were not just dead bang on, but hilarious. The little personal interactions between the characters (including Mick and Ava at the end) were perfectly touching. They were able to accomplish all of this while still moving the main story forward and teaching the newer members of the crew very valuable lessons that they needed to learn. Plus they did this while giving viewers quite an unexpected and completely enjoyable ride.
It's such a shame that the awards shows don't really recognize genre television, because this was as Emmy-worthy an episode as I've seen, from the acting to the costuming to the writing to the puppetty props, all the way down the production process. Yes, it was silly and stupid and over-the-top, but it was perfectly silly and stupid and over-the-top, and it did so while incorporating the real pathos and drama of John's attempt to save his love.
Also, what was with that cat? It had the freakiest eyes I've seen on an animal in a long, long time. Maybe there really is magic happening here.
posted by sardonyx at 12:54 PM on December 11, 2018 [6 favorites]
The 1970s and 1980s TV spoofs were not just dead bang on, but hilarious. The little personal interactions between the characters (including Mick and Ava at the end) were perfectly touching. They were able to accomplish all of this while still moving the main story forward and teaching the newer members of the crew very valuable lessons that they needed to learn. Plus they did this while giving viewers quite an unexpected and completely enjoyable ride.
It's such a shame that the awards shows don't really recognize genre television, because this was as Emmy-worthy an episode as I've seen, from the acting to the costuming to the writing to the puppetty props, all the way down the production process. Yes, it was silly and stupid and over-the-top, but it was perfectly silly and stupid and over-the-top, and it did so while incorporating the real pathos and drama of John's attempt to save his love.
Also, what was with that cat? It had the freakiest eyes I've seen on an animal in a long, long time. Maybe there really is magic happening here.
posted by sardonyx at 12:54 PM on December 11, 2018 [6 favorites]
Also, I guess it's now accepted canon that any Legends member can understand any other Legends teammate that has been turned into an animal. Good to know.
posted by sardonyx at 12:57 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 12:57 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
And they got to cameo Elseworlds:
"You have messages from Barry Allen, Oliver Queen and Kara Zor-El."
"That's a hard No."
posted by Karmakaze at 2:29 PM on December 11, 2018 [4 favorites]
"You have messages from Barry Allen, Oliver Queen and Kara Zor-El."
"That's a hard No."
posted by Karmakaze at 2:29 PM on December 11, 2018 [4 favorites]
That was the most glorious hour of television I have ever seen!
posted by plastic_animals at 3:30 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by plastic_animals at 3:30 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
"That's a hard No.
No, it was even more beautifully meta than that!:
Gideon: You missed calls from Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, and Kara Zor-El.
Ray: Sounds like the annual crossover.
Nate: Yeah, that's gonna be a hard pass. [offscreen] Did I tell you Oliver still owes me money?
(And re-listening, Gideon's delivery of Oliver's name is hilarious, so rude)
posted by oh yeah! at 4:50 PM on December 11, 2018 [7 favorites]
No, it was even more beautifully meta than that!:
Gideon: You missed calls from Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, and Kara Zor-El.
Ray: Sounds like the annual crossover.
Nate: Yeah, that's gonna be a hard pass. [offscreen] Did I tell you Oliver still owes me money?
(And re-listening, Gideon's delivery of Oliver's name is hilarious, so rude)
posted by oh yeah! at 4:50 PM on December 11, 2018 [7 favorites]
There was also a shot about "bet they're going to swap costumes" (that was really hard to catch and required a second careful listening).
posted by sardonyx at 4:52 PM on December 11, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 4:52 PM on December 11, 2018 [4 favorites]
That was so great!
Although I had this one quibble, if being on the Jumpship still made Zari turned into a cat because of timeline influences, shouldn't it have also cause Charlie to disappear? Presumably without John they would still get the call about the queen going crazy in London and find Charlie there only to have her escape them, but then she would never be Amaya and somehow be on the Jumpship, right? Previously they've handwaved it as if you're in the time stream, you can be unaffected by such timeline changes, but now it's a little inconsistent (and also, the team was in the Waverider, which was also in the time stream, so they should've been unaffected too).
Anyways, still so much fun! I loved all the different continuities, and that they still manage to progress the characters and have key moments done well.
The reveal of Neron at the end should come with a warning for tryptophobic people though, yikes! (luckily I'm not)
posted by numaner at 5:49 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Although I had this one quibble, if being on the Jumpship still made Zari turned into a cat because of timeline influences, shouldn't it have also cause Charlie to disappear? Presumably without John they would still get the call about the queen going crazy in London and find Charlie there only to have her escape them, but then she would never be Amaya and somehow be on the Jumpship, right? Previously they've handwaved it as if you're in the time stream, you can be unaffected by such timeline changes, but now it's a little inconsistent (and also, the team was in the Waverider, which was also in the time stream, so they should've been unaffected too).
Anyways, still so much fun! I loved all the different continuities, and that they still manage to progress the characters and have key moments done well.
The reveal of Neron at the end should come with a warning for tryptophobic people though, yikes! (luckily I'm not)
posted by numaner at 5:49 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
I haven't finished watching this yet but I gotta say: I hope the cat stays. I'm not always a fan of this whole "lets learn some history while we are ostensibly entertained" shtick but I'd be more willing to let it slide if that motherforking cat was the co-star of each episode going forward. Please do not screw this up for me.
posted by some loser at 6:08 PM on December 11, 2018
posted by some loser at 6:08 PM on December 11, 2018
From writer James Eagan's twitter - a snippet of cat-Zari being taught to do her drive-the-ship trick. (And check out his tweet of the whiteboard of possible episode titles before they settled on 'Legends of To-Meow-Meow')
posted by oh yeah! at 6:14 PM on December 11, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by oh yeah! at 6:14 PM on December 11, 2018 [8 favorites]
Did I hear someone say "timey-wimey"? :)
posted by Mogur at 4:01 AM on December 12, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Mogur at 4:01 AM on December 12, 2018 [3 favorites]
The Custodians of the Chronology and Sirens of Space-Time spoofs were so fucking great.
I can see why one of the reviewers hated the issues with the characters suddenly becoming all killer-happy. But (a) the focus on character development was on Charlie and Constantine, not Sara/Ray/Mick/Ava, etc., and while (b) it's a bit cartoony on purpose, I do think it is rather legit that if all they knew was that magical creatures murder their team, they might go in that direction.
Maybe nobody technically knows what Zari was "saying," but they can figure out what she would be saying if she could speak?
Mona, perhaps you are a bit too geeky to WANT to get turned into a cat in a crisis.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:14 AM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
I can see why one of the reviewers hated the issues with the characters suddenly becoming all killer-happy. But (a) the focus on character development was on Charlie and Constantine, not Sara/Ray/Mick/Ava, etc., and while (b) it's a bit cartoony on purpose, I do think it is rather legit that if all they knew was that magical creatures murder their team, they might go in that direction.
Maybe nobody technically knows what Zari was "saying," but they can figure out what she would be saying if she could speak?
Mona, perhaps you are a bit too geeky to WANT to get turned into a cat in a crisis.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:14 AM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm going with "as a wizard, John can speak with magical creatures at will" and "as a shapeshifter, Charlie has at least once *been* a cat and kept the memories"
Alternately, "as a shapeshifter, Charlie is just fucking with us and can't actually understand Zari but thought it would be funny to pretend".
posted by Mogur at 9:31 AM on December 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
Alternately, "as a shapeshifter, Charlie is just fucking with us and can't actually understand Zari but thought it would be funny to pretend".
posted by Mogur at 9:31 AM on December 12, 2018 [4 favorites]
Don't forget, though, we had Nate communicating with pig Ray. So that was the first instance and this episode cements the concept.
posted by sardonyx at 11:49 AM on December 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 11:49 AM on December 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
I forgot about pig Ray! You're right, talking to transmogrified partners is definitely canon. This is excellent, now they can do an all-animal episode with a horribly stressed Gary trying to supply all the dialog between them. :)
posted by Mogur at 2:37 PM on December 12, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Mogur at 2:37 PM on December 12, 2018 [3 favorites]
I feel certain the writers read the Fanfare thread from an earlier season where someone called the show "Cat People of Yesteryear."
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:51 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:51 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Mick and the Fairy Godmother running off to a life of crime was the best thing in the episode and maybe in the world.
posted by rue72 at 7:56 PM on June 1, 2019
posted by rue72 at 7:56 PM on June 1, 2019
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I love this show soooooooo much!
posted by oh yeah! at 7:14 PM on December 10, 2018 [8 favorites]