Legends of Tomorrow: Bad Blood

July 18, 2021 9:29 PM - Season 6, Episode 10

Gus-Gus' growing pains become a pain for the Waverider crew. John's worthiness is measured. Mick's pregnancy causes him to open up to Lita.
posted by sardonyx (4 comments total)

I'm going to start with the bad and the indifferent plots and work my way down to the good.

The indifferent: Sara and Ava are pretty much sidelined. I guess this is COVID-19 related to prevent too many actors working together in the same scenes. Ava's reaction to Mick in the med bay is pretty good.

Gus-Gus growing up. This was a waste: a waste of time, a waste of special effects (the 0.1 second shot of steely Nate and Gary in his alien form--which I again I have to wonder if this is COVID-19 related as well), the waste of an opportunity to have Zari 1.0 back on screen. Sure, we got Lullaby Trio singing bedtime songs, but that's pretty slim pickings.

Mick and Lita discussing pregnancy and consent and safe sex and responsibility and parenthood and moral codes was, in contrast, well worth the time, even if it didn't really advance the story.

The Constantine story, however, was sharp and so on the button for what makes a good Hellblazer story: John thinking he's smart enough to outsmart his adversaries (and being wrong in that belief); John facing his personal history and demons (his speech to Spooner about why he needed magic); John's original plan blowing up in his face, causing him to turn to some truly desperate Hail Mary of an idea that is only going to cause further trouble down the line; John suckering his friends into his seemingly simple scheme of the day, only for them to wind up in danger of being killed; John having issues with religion but not being above using people's religious beliefs against them; John evilly manipulating his friend to do his bidding, in this case, mind controlling Spooner.

I really wish we could have spent more time on this plot, as I thought there were issues that were glossed over pretty quickly, including the deal with Fernando. John seemed pretty casual about that, and he really should know better and done a more thorough job of getting the details straight and locked in.

I really liked Spooner in this one. It feels like she is finally coming into her own as a more complex character than she was when originally introduced.

Despite the good elements, overall this felt like a really disjointed episode, flipping back and forth between the slapstick stuff on the Waverider and the more serious story in Spain. I know the show likely doesn't want to alienate the viewers who like its campy qualities by doing an entirely "dark" episode, but tonally the juxtapositions hurt both the humorous and the serious story lines.
posted by sardonyx at 9:50 PM on July 18, 2021

Were we supposed to know what exactly John was 'juicing' with? Or just that it was dangerous/bad since it was what Crowley used and was obtained by a vampire?
posted by oh yeah! at 5:07 AM on July 19, 2021

I don't think we're supposed to really know anything beyond what was said (which was something about blood) and the fact that John declared it nasty stuff. Demon blood might be a guess, although I don't think it's usually associated with magical powers.
posted by sardonyx at 5:35 AM on July 19, 2021

If they were gonna get rid of Gussie that fast, why bother bringing it onto the Waverider in the first place? Agree that this was not the greatest writing decision ever, though Shayan Sobhian can strum and lullaby for me any time.

I was surprised they picked the Spanish Civil War... even more surprised that the homework they did on it was pretty solid. It was just. One hell of a tangled mess, that war.

John's rationalization for trying to take the kid's magic was... pretty self-serving. I get that the dude is desperate, but I hope that comes back to haunt him. (It's Hellblazer-in-Legends; it probably will.) I very much appreciated Spooner calling him on needing to be special.
posted by humbug at 12:35 PM on July 19, 2021