Legends of Tomorrow season 2, episode 8, “The Chicago Way,” brought the Legends face to face with the Legion of Doom in 1920s Chicago.
The newly minted duo of Eobard Thawne and Damien Darhk visited Chicago in the 1920s to team up with legendary gangster Al Capone. But they were not alone, as the duo became a trio with the inclusion of one Malcolm Merlyn. I haven’t been shy about how I feel about Malcolm Merlyn — he’s been far too overused on Arrow with little purpose. In being overused, he lost the scary factor he had in season 1.
But he didn’t appear in Arrow‘s fifth season until 5×08, which was also the 100th episode. And even in that episode, he was part of a hallucination. So when he showed up in Legends of Tomorrow as part of the Legion of Doom, I was less annoyed than I expected to be. It just goes to show that sparing is the best use of that character.
So, what did the Legion of Doom want? The amulet that Sara took from Darhk in 1987. The trio of baddies lured the Legends to the 1920s so they could get the amulet. Nate, naturally, was excited to be in the era of Elliot Ness and Al Capone and engaged in some surrogate sibling rivalry with Ray. Those two dorks are hilarious together.
After the Legion nearly drowns Elliot Ness prior to him getting the ledger that would eventually lead to Capone’s arrest on tax evasion, the Legends try to make sure history remains in tact. That is part of the trap, however, as Sara and Stein are captured.
In an excellent scene (because anything between Sara and Malcolm is going to be excellent considering, you know, he murdered her by proxy) Malcolm shows up and offers Sara a deal: if she gives up the amulet, Eobard will change history so she never got on the Queen’s Gambit and could live a normal life (unknowingly offering her the dream she voluntarily left in the 100th episode of Arrow).
Sara refuses, which touches Stein. He admits to having a daughter that was the result of him speaking with his past self. At first, Sara is angry and a bit betrayed since it was Stein who helped her move past trying to revive Laurel (little does she know what happened in the final moments of Arrow‘s mid-season finale). She eventually comes around, though, and at the end of the episode promises to protect Stein’s daughter since she’s part of the family they’ve created on the Waverider.
With Sara not giving up the amulet, though, Stein is taken to Eobard Thawne, who uses the device he used to steal Harrison Wells’ body to take Stein’s form. At least this time the effect isn’t fatal, as it was for the original Wells. The team is then allowed to leave with relative ease because they unknowingly have Thawne with them.
In order to rescue Sara and Stein, we get a team-up that I can’t get enough of: Mick and Amaya. Mick takes charge when none of the good guy plans seem to be working, and has the team act like criminals. And Amaya becomes the Bonnie to his Clyde, which I adore.
But there’s a twist: Mick is seeing hallucinations of Leonard Snart. His late friend is encouraging him to stop being a part of a team of heroes; it’s not like him. It’ll only get him killed, like Leonard himself.
I assume this is Mick’s subconscious dealing with his grief. Mick, lest we forget, has been through hell since the Time Masters forced him to become Chronos. He was even willing to be the one to die to stop the Time Lords, but Leonard made the sacrifice instead. Mick’s tried to find another partner, first Ray (who seems to have paired off with Nate) and now Amaya, and he probably feels some guilt at “replacing” Leonard.
Mick, for the brutish facade he puts up, has been through a lot and doesn’t seem like he’s taken time to process or grieve properly. When we shove our emotions aside, they find a way to make us face them eventually. And it makes sense Mick would see Leonard as a representation of that.
Amaya, for her part, also lost her partner and is looking for revenge and that’s something Mick understands. It makes a weird sort of sense, then, that the two would gravitate toward each other. I’m endlessly fascinated by these two and definitely hope we’ll be seeing more of them paired up.
Aboard the Waverider, Thawne wreaks havoc as he looks for the amulet. He lets aboard the other villains and gangsters. Malcolm and Sara, in my other favorite scene, end up in a fight. (You know I was cheering for her to take him out.) She does get a knife to his throat eventually but ends up making a deal: the amulet for Stein.
Thawne reveals that the amulet they took from the Legends pairs with another to create a compass. This compass will lead them to the Spear of Destiny, the spear that stabbed Jesus on the cross. The spear, according to Thawne, can rewrite reality.
Yeah, that’s not something we want in the villains’ hands.
But to find it, they’ll first need to find Rip Hunter. Who turns out to be in 1967, directing a film and speaking in an American accent. Huh? (Not going to lie, I was enjoying the season without Rip. However, I do think it’ll be interesting to see how he fits back into the team now that Sara has been the captain and earned everyone’s respect as such.)
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