“Blood Ties” Plot Summary:
Rip (Arthur Darvill) and Sara (Caity Lotz) attempt to weaken Savage (Casper Crump) through his bank account while Snart (Wentworth Miller), Rory (Dominic Purcell), and Jax (Franz Drameh) take the Waverider back to Central City to steal the Maximillian Emerald.
Superheroes have been dominating mainstream media for the last few years. Marvel and DC are saturating the markets, creating blockbuster films and original shows airing on Netflix and the networks. Barring some films from DC, everything has been a hit (with me at least.) But Legends of Tomorrow is crashing hard and burning brightly. The Flash and Arrow have carved out a pretty big spot for themselves on The CW and Legends of Tomorrow feels like a half-hearted attempt to ride the coattails of the other two shows success.
This week’s episode is more proof of that. The first two episodes, being parts one and two of the pilot, get a slight pass. They were settling in. But we’re on episode three and everything that was awful about last week is still awful this week, though I will admit there are one or two moments that are better than the rest.
We are still in 1975. The pacing of the story is inconsistent. Imagine the episode as a tree stump where you can see all the age lines. Each line represents a storyline or action in the show. The outer ring is the slowest moving ring which is our series arc. They have been in 1975 for three episodes with story beats repeating themselves. But if you look to the middle of the stump, the rings get smaller until it’s basically a blob. That is where everything else in “Blood Ties” sit, moving from zero to sixty and back again.
Rip (Darvill) and Sara (Lotz) find Savage (Crump), find his bank, show up, and are immediately engaged in a bloodbath fight. I know the nature of these shows is the fighting. They are superheroes defending the world from villains so it’s the natural course of things. But Legends of Tomorrow is missing something. I don’t know if it’s an emotional connection to the reason they are fighting or a crucial piece of story information that is falling through the cracks but the pacing is off in a big way.
The only character I like is Snart. I liked him on The Flash but that doesn’t mean much because I liked Ray Palmer on Arrow but he’s currently on my “Not Hot List.” Wentworth Miller has kept Snart consistent even as his storylines change. He’s kind of annoying and his one-liners are rough sometimes but there is something about this character that’s just awesome. He reminds me of an old time crook. He’s got manners and his own moral code.
I literally wrote in my notes “however, happy that they did not continue with ‘Oh no, don’t mess with the future!’” Minutes later, however, I had to add an addendum– “never mind.” Snart steals the Maximillian Emerald so that his father doesn’t try and steal it and go to jail. It turns out that his father goes to jail anyway and Snart’s crappy childhood stays exactly the same. But because of my affinity for Captain Cold, I actually didn’t mind this plot line. It was my favorite of the three, though Franz Drameh needs to get his act together, my God.
In a cruel twist of fate, the Time Master himself has his own mess with the future moment. He is the one that gives Savage his wife and son’s name. I won’t lie, I did gasp. But I’m still pissed about all this future ramifications stuff. Legends of Tomorrow isn’t doing it well, even though it’s the main basis of the show so it makes the two storylines in “Blood Ties,” which were actually decent and my favorite parts of the episode, less meaningful and weak because it’s already happened a couple times before.
“Blood Ties” did not change my overall opinions of Legends of Tomorrow. I enjoyed parts of the episode and like one character out of the seven or eight main players. There is a glimmer of hope in me that next week will build on the decent parts that came out of “Blood Ties.”
Rating: 3 out of 10
