DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: Welcome to the Jungle (Season 3 Episode 7) 

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 7, “Welcome to the Jungle,” takes our time travelers to the Vietnam War where the team must save the world from a giant gorilla named Grodd. Along the way, Amaya channels some attitude, Mick deals with his Daddy Issues, and Jax saves the President of the United States all on his own.

Oh, did I mention the giant gorilla is telepathic? Yikes.

One Nation Under Grodd

Truthfully, this is not an episode I’m likely to watch again. Mostly because I’m not interested in either the Vietnam War or giant, telepathic gorillas. However, Legends of Tomorrow continues to excel at balancing storylines among the entire cast.

Amaya, Mick, and Jax may get most of the focus here, but there are a few nice moments for every character.

The development Amaya, Mick, and Jax experience in “Welcome to the Jungle” is clearly going to be important for their characters moving forward. However, these arcs are fairly predictable.

In fact, the only surprising moment for me involves the sudden appearance of Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, and Madame Currie. And this is in an episode with a talking gorilla!

Amaya is struggling with the knowledge her granddaughter, Kuasa, is working with Team Darhk. Thanks to Grodd’s sad backstory, Amaya comes to believe she can save Kuasa because, like Grodd, her granddaughter became evil due to her circumstances. She was not born bad.

It is nice to see Amaya reach this conclusion on her own. She didn’t need a pep talk, or a lecture from another character, to get her there. Ray attempting to be supportive of her and Amaya admitting he is right later on, are great moments showing the strength of their friendship. Interactions like this make it easy being invested in the team and their relationships with one another.

Legends of Tomorrow is good at offering viewers lots of different team-ups between characters. In this episode, Nate and Mick pair off and end up running into Mick’s father. This pairing did not work as well as Amaya and Ray.

Full disclosure, I don’t find Nate a compelling character. His interactions with Mick in, “Welcome to the Jungle,” are fine, I guess? Mick’s development is pretty internalized, and I think he would end up making the same choices here with or without Nate’s presence.

The Arrowverse has way, way too many characters with Daddy Issues. However, Mick dealing with his father angst brings welcome emotional stakes to this episode.

It is good to see Mick’s continuing character evolution play out. There is a nice glimpse of Mick’s vulnerable side, as he realizes the damage caused by his father’s war-time experiences may have affected their relationship.  Mick’s speech at the end, when he stops his father from killing Grodd’s men and the Legends, is also a powerful moment.

Back on the Waverider, Stein is unable to come up with a plan to separate Firestorm despite enlisting the help of Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, and Madame Currie. This leads to a few funny moments, including pie thievery and Sir Isaac Newton saving Professor Stein with a frying pan. Give Madame Currie all the pie she can eat, Jax!

Missing pie is the least of Jax’s worries, though. Facing the possibility of no longer being Firestorm, Jax decides he needs to be more independent. He does so by striking out on his own to help the team after they get into trouble.

Again, it is nice to see a character struggle with an issue and deal with it on their own. Jax saves the President of the United States from a land mine using his brain, instead of Firestorm. Is it weird to feel proud of a fictional television character? Because I am super proud of Jax.

This is also a great episode for the team as a whole. Sara is stuck in a medically induced coma and we get to see how well everyone works together without her leadership.

There are a few hiccups along the way, but it is very satisfying to see how far this group has come since Rip first disappeared on Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Episode 1.

Random Thoughts:

• Opening an episode with a cute pig is always a plus!
• The CGI for this show has been pretty bad recently, but Grodd is a huge improvement. Maybe they used up all their money on him?
• Someone needs to give Mick’s Dad a lozenge. Or a cup of hot tea.
• Ray’s headband really works for him. More headbands for Ray.
• Sir Isaac Newton popping up to clobber a Grodd influenced Sara was A+.
• I’m intrigued by Zari and Ray realizing how unusual it is so many team members have run into younger versions of themselves and their family members.

What did you think of this episode of Legends of Tomorrow? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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