Legends Of Tomorrow – “Aruba-Con” Review

Dominic Purcell (left) as Mick Rory, and Simon Merrells (right) as Caesar on Legends of Tomorrow. Photo courtesy of DC Legends TV.

Please Keep In Mind That This Article Contains Spoilers For “Aruba-Con” and Events That Occurred Prior

“Sometimes we screw stuff up for the better.”

The Legends are back, and man did they seriously screw up time. So badly that the season two cliffhanger lasted a whole four minutes…if that. Even if the super quick resolution to that twist was predictable, it doesn’t make it any less disappointing.  By resolving that huge scale anachronism so easily, the weight of the Legend’s screw up weakened.

The rampaging dinosaurs were immediately cleaned up by the introduction of Rip Hunter’s brand new Time Bureau (or the Men In Black/Blue), complete with their portal wrist watches and memory erasing flash guns.  It’s here that one of my biggest complaints of the premiere sets in: The Time Bureau.

Rip and the Time Bureau are mad.  They are mad at the Legends for completely screwing up time, mad enough to essentially fire them on the spot.  I mean, sure.  They can be mad, maybe more annoyed if anything.  But the Legends saved all of time and reality itself, something that isn’t a hidden fact.  They should be cut a little slack, but no mercy is shown at all throughout the entire Bureau.  It just doesn’t make any sense at all, especially when it comes to Rip Hunter himself, who the Legends have successfully helped twice, along with saving his very memories.  This was frustrating to watch, as it just felt like artificial plot they created to add tension that would break and and re-unite the Legends (something that wasn’t necessary to do in the first place).

Nick Zano as Nate Heywood (left), Brandon Routh (middle) as Ray Palmer/The Atom, and Caity Lotz (right) as Sara Lance/White Canary on Legends of Tomorrow. Photo courtesy of DC Legends TV.

As artificial as it was, seeing the Legends dissembled wasn’t all bad.  It provided us with some shake ups and interesting scenes.  Amara has now gone back to her time—having been coaxed into doing so by Rip Hunter, Steel is superhero-ing in Central City along with Kid Flash (a great connective scene), and Mick is doing exactly what you’d think he’d be doing. I did also enjoy the story that Jax is being given, and how he just doesn’t know how to fill his life after everything he has experienced.  It looks to add not only more depth to Jax, but also his relationship with Stein who now feels the need to make it up to him due to falsely bringing Jax onto the Waverider in the first place.  I think Sarah and Ray had the weaker of the stories when it came to them living their own lives.  Sarah’s job and situation was just rather cliché, while Ray could have and should have been doing far bigger and different things than a dating app. Failed business or not, Ray Palmer is still Ray Palmer.  

Now even though the launch of this new status quo was rocky, the whole idea of time displaced characters and events is a fantastic one.  It’s just pure fun, and the possibilities that it can present are endless. Seeing Julius Caesar in Aruba with Mick was amusing, but the show really struck gold later in the episode when Caesar acquired the history of Rome, and later went on to rule the known and unknown world before being stopped by the Legends.  It’s there that this new storytelling shtick really shines, and I can see the show really excelling down the line with how well those ideas can gel with this show and it’s characters.   

Another strong part of the episode was watching Mick Rory and Julius Caesar interact. The scenes made for some very funny and entertaining moments, along with some of the best lines of the episodes. It was a good choice by the writers to have Mick be the one to initially encounter Julius (although I could have done without the toga party).  It was a shame that when Mick was finally pulled into the Time Bureau with the Legends, he brought back the wrong Julius Caesar. That whole situation could have been solved by Mick simply saying: “Hey, that’s the wrong guy.”  Instead though, the writers felt the need to sacrifice logic for artificial drama, something that is seemingly becoming a trend when the Time Bureau is involved.

Dominic Purcell (top) as Mick Rory, and Simon Merrells (bottom) as Caesar on Legends of Tomorrow. Photo courtesy of DC Legends TV.

One thing doesn’t make sense though, and it’s something that I really hope doesn’t go unnoticed and is eventually delved into.  How did the Time Bureau not see the Julius Caesar anachronism? If they are so efficient, why is it that this was missed?  Even with the Time Bureau active, why are the Legends needed?  They are able to go right in and sweep up an issue in seconds (that is unless the plot requires you to get caught in a thinly constructed ambush). I’m hoping the answers to these questions are tied to the big bad Mallus—who was name dropped by Rip, and who doesn’t seem to be from the comics.

The premiere of DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow certainly started off rocky, and had more than a few poorly thought out plot decisions, but promises to be going in a compelling and entertaining direction with the introduction of the time anachronisms.  With Amara back in her time looking evil, and a big bad named Mallus that not even the Time Bureau can handle, there are plenty of things to keep viewers glued to their television every week.   

What were your thoughts on the episode? Feel free to comment below and let me know!

Bonus Note: I’m not usually impressed by the action sequences in Legends, but that shield running action scene was fantastic, and I’m still scratching my head at how they pulled it off convincingly.

You can catch new episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow when they air on The CW network every Tuesday at 9pm EST