Back in time once again.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
One of the greatest strengths of legends of Tomorrow is that there’s no telling what approach the show will take in any given week. Recently we’ve seen everything from dystopian future action to Cold War espionage to a Star Trek-inspired space showdown. This week’s episode shook up the formula again as the team headed farther back in time to do battle with Vandal Savage in 1958. It wasn’t a perfect episode, but there’s a lot to be said for variety.
Not unlike “Star City 2046,” the setting alone was enough to set this episode apart. It was a lot of fun to see our heroes running around a quaint 1950’s suburban town and encountering the surreal underbelly beneath the charming exterior. At its best, “Night of the Hawks” played very much like a classic X-Files episode, with the various characters taking turns playing Mulder and Scully. There was even a real monster of the week in the form of Savage’s experimental hawk creatures.
The writers crammed in a number of fun pop culture references to go along with the 1950’s setting. There were the obligatory Back to the Future references, but the best one was the fact that Savage’s cover identity was Dr. Curtis Knox. Knox was also the name of a villain played by actor Dean Cain in Smallville – a villain who was basically Vandal Savage in all but name.
Most of the entertainment this week came from watching the various characters take in their surroundings and adjust to life in 1958. Whether it was Jax playing Marty McFly, Ray and Kendra pretending to be a happily married couple or Stein and Sara moonlighting at the psychiatric hospital, this episode reveled in putting the characters in uncomfortable positions. I was glad to see that the writers didn’t shy away from acknowledging the pervasive racism and sexism of the era. You do have to wonder why anyone thought it would be a good idea to send Jax of all people on a reconnaissance mission, but at least that premise gave Franz Drameh ample room to shine as his character butted heads with the town bullies and bonded with Snart.
Speaking of which, it was a little frustrating, if not entirely unexpected, that this episode didn’t reveal the outcome of Snart’s showdown with Rory last week. I still seriously doubt Snart killed his old partner as everyone else suspects, but the question of just where Rory is and what he’s up to is easily the most burning question on the show right now. But if nothing else, it was interesting to see the rest of the team’s react to Rory’s disappearance and both halves of Firestorm come to an understanding with Snart.
Here come the men in black.
This episode also did a far better job of utilizing Kendra. She’s been the weak link among the main cast so far, generally hanging back and rambling on about her failed barista career rather than taking an active role in the team’s missions. That’s to say nothing of the forced romance that’s sprung up between her and Ray. This was the first time the chemistry between Kendra and Ray felt genuine. Which I suppose is ironic considering that their whole job was to maintain a cover story. But placing their romance front and center allowed the characters to reach a more believable place.
In general, this episode was better than most about adding some romantic drama and sexual tension into the mix. Both Jax and Sara made some temporary love connections. Jax bonded with local cheerleader Betty (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days’ Melissa Roxburgh) and Sara with her colleague Nurse Carlisle (Bomb Girls’ Alie Liebert). Of the two, the latter was the more effective romance, mostly because it tapped into Sara’s reluctance to connect with others and Carlisle’s fear of attracting the wrong sort of attention. As for Jax and Betty, I wish the latter had been fleshed out a little more. With the way she practically threw herself at Jax in the diner and then happily returned to her boyfriend’s arms a day later, Betty’s motivations were never very clear.
As usual, Vandal Savage proved to be the show’s weak link. The idea of Savage masquerading as a humble, small-town psychiatrist and family man sounds great on paper. Few things are creepier than an immortal mass murderer playing the charming host at a dinner party. Unfortunately, Casper Crump wasn’t quite up to the challenge. His Savage continues to lack a certain menace in all but his most scenery-chewing moments. Crump’s thick accent was a bigger problem than usual this week. It was apparent Crump was attempting to mask it and make his character sold a little less exotic and a little more all-American, but the results were so wildly inconsistent that he would have been better off not trying at all.
The other problem was that Savage’s master plan never came together. Why was he injecting random townspeople with hawk serum? How does that help further his understanding of the meteorite that gave him his powers? Usually the team is trying to stop Savage from wreaking some imminent form of havoc on the world, but this time he seemed to be playing mad scientist just for the heck of it. That didn’t really help dissuade the notion that the show is just spinning its wheels lately. Too rarely does it feel like these time travel jaunts are actively contributing to Rip’s ongoing crusade to bring down Savage’s empire.
It didn’t help that this episode ended with Chronos once again showing up to attack the Waverider and spark the team’s next catastrophic time jump. At this point Chronos doesn’t qualify as a character; he’s just a walking, gun-toting catalyst for whenever the writers need an excuse to send the characters to a different point in time. At least the fact that now several team members are stranded in 1958 adds a new dimension to the conflict. But with this season half over, it would be nice to see the show develop a more firm overarching narrative than just, “Let’s go fight Vandal Savage in this time period now.”
It’s frustrating that this show is so frequently held back by its underwhelming antagonist, because otherwise it has a lot to offer. This episode made full use of the 1958 setting and the culture shock the various characters encountered. It even found more success than previous installments in trying to add romantic drama. But Crump’s underwhelming performance and the sense that the show’s plot is just spinning in circles prevented this episode from being all it could be.
