Monday, April 4, 2016

Legends of Tomorrow - Left Behind


Picking up immediately after the events of the previous episode, "Left Behind" opens with Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), Kendra (Ciara Renée), and Sara (Caity Lotz) marooned in 1958. After waiting for the ship and then attempting to create a time beacon to call their friends back, eventually the threesome must give up hope of rescue and carve out new lives for themselves in the past. For Sara this means returning to the League of Assassins decades before her birth. For Ray and Kendra it means settling in to a life together.

"Left Behind" wastes an opportunity by rushing through the events of the characters being trapped in the past. The scenes in the Waverider are completely unnecessary as the entire episode should have focused on Ray and Kendra's life together (especially since it wants us to feel Ray's pain at seeing the life he struggled to accept be ripped away in an instant when his friends return two years later). Sara's plotline isn't as interesting, but it does introduce an important character to the DC television universe in Ra's al Ghul's (Matt Nable) first daughter Talia (Milli Wilkinson). The episode also offers an alternative reason for Ra's distrust of Sara when she joins the league decades later.

As for events on the ship, the episode offers us the true identity of Chronos (who continues to bare less and less resemblance to his comic book counterpart). While the return of Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) offers new avenues for the crew to explore, the choice does seem a little too convenient. The next episode of the series will take the crew back into the future where I hope (but don't expect) we my get a glimpse of Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) father, who would be a welcome addition to the show.

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