By: Jaclyn Cascio (@jaclynator)
This week, the Legends of Tomorrow tackled their midseason finale with “Beebo, the God of War.” How did the holiday episode in a Viking past go over? Read on for a review to find out!
For the festivities of the season, the Legends team dealt with a level 12 anachronism involving some famous Vikings and a very different North America. While Vikings and Christmas might not seem like the closest bedfellows, those who know their holiday origin stories can tell you that there couldn’t have been a more appropriate time to go to in honor of Christmas. Yule (or yule tide) was a Germanic festival associated with the Wild Hunt and Odin, later reformed into Christmastide. It would seem that the Legends of Tomorrow writers knew their history and paid homage to the traditions of ye olde Norse Christmas time in clever fashion. (As an added bonus, the Leif Erikson character was played by an actor named Thor!)
Those Vikings deciding to follow a fluffy blue doll was perhaps a little too off-the-wall to be enjoyed this week. I’m all for the weird and strange, but Beebo was just a little too far out there to be plausible, even for a show that regularly deals with the wild and wacky. When voiced and moved by tiny Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), it became at least a little more comical (but still incongruent with the feel of the episode overall). If nothing else, it was a successful distraction in the moment. But Beebo (with or without some Jingle All the Way fanaticism) wasn’t a hilarious hit for Legends of Tomorrow this week.
The heart of the episode should have been dealing with the loss of Martin Stein (Victor Garber) during the crossover event. Instead of honoring his sacrifice with the solemnity it deserved, Leo Snart (Wentworth Miller) tried to deal with the team’s pain with inappropriate puppet therapy. Striving for laughs, the timing wasn’t really right for the humor. (Honestly, the opposite-oriented Snart doppelganger with the crew might not be the best fit either – but that’s another issue altogether.) Never has the phrase “too soon” been so aptly applied in a television show. Another mishandling of the loss of Stein was the focus of the episode on a younger Martin Stein (Graeme McComb). The storyline was clearly some attempt at providing an emotional outlet for characters to process the death in the aftermath of their multiverse battle, but the timing once again didn’t exactly fit. Ruminating on the loss of Stein for some time would have felt more appropriate, allowing the team the opportunity to truly miss the grey-haired scientist. Given the chance to miss their teammate and then start to accept his absence would have made a sudden introduction of the character more impactful, ultimately tugging audience heart strings with some force. Unfortunately, the death of Martin Stein became an unfortunately handled focus for much of this week’s episode of Legends of Tomorrow.
Dealing with the loss of a team member this week wasn’t a total disaster, however. McComb as young Stein did a wonderful job of carrying himself and speaking like the older version of Stein. After letting young Stein go back to 1992, following a failed attempt at a “Back to the Future” loophole to revive the older version of the professor, Jax (Franz Drameh) decided to leave the ship and make his own adventures. Such a move was realistic, relatable, and natural. Sending Jax off with a final “family” holiday dinner on the Waverider and saying good-bye was the kind of heart-felt emotion Legends of Tomorrow does well, making it a pleasant send off for Jax and for the close of the first half of the season.
This week, Damien Dahrk (Neal McDonough) and his daughter Nora (Courtney Ford) made their way, as Norse gods, into the world of Vikings. The Dahrk family has a tie to the evil Mollus, but what the connection is has yet to be revealed. In truth, the major flaw that has emerged throughout the current season of Legends of Tomorrow, including “Beebo, the God of War,” is that Damien and his daughter seem to lack villainous motivation. Pretending to be Odin and changing history seems like the senseless chaos Loki would strive to produce, but Dahrk has always been portrayed as a man with a plan, so this episode left me frustratingly wondering, “What is his deal?!”
Trying to figure out what Damien Dahrk was attempting to accomplish was only overshadowed by Sara (Caity Lotz) coming face to face with the evil Mollus (voiced by John Noble) in an alternate dimension. Mollus is supposed to be a big bad, yet very little has been accomplished by the side of darkness. Constantly talked about as a threat, but doing nothing threatening to merit the accusations, one can only guess at what Mollus’ game might be! The only true revelation about the possible origins of Mollus and its nefarious purposes came with the cliffhanger ending this week – John Constantine (Matt Ryan) meeting Sara on the Waverider. If Mollus and Damien are all about magic, the science oriented team will clearly be out of their depth, and the chain-smoking magical dabbler might have the answers the team needs!
The mishandling of mourning for Stein was a blemish on the midseason finale of Legends of Tomorrow this week, along with an outlandish 90s toy and some villains with mysterious purposes. On the bright side, telling a Viking story in a holiday episode was a stroke of genius and the episode closing with a farewell to both parts of Firestorm while introducing Constantine into the mix were enjoyably smart ways to leave the season until 2018.
What did you think of “Beebo, the God of War?” Was it a satisfying midseason finale for Legends of Tomorrow?
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via The Nerd Machine
http://www.nerdhq.com/legends-of-tomorrow-beebo-the-god-of-war-review/
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