DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: The Curse of the Earth Totem (Season 3 Episode 12)

Sara and Ava’s date is interrupted, Amaya becomes a pirate queen, and Gary gets pantsed on Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 12, “The Curse of the Earth Totem.”

After the high of Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 11, “Here I Go Again,” this outing is a bit of an uneven let-down. As usual, there are fun moments and a few surprises, but splitting the team up into three parts and also throwing in Rip and Wally disrupts the flow of what is largely a silly episode.

Okay, let’s talk pirates.

To start with the positive aspects, Legends really excels when it mixes up the team members in interesting ways and it is refreshing to see Amaya and Mick pairing up together for this adventure. Plus, when you add Mick Rory’s presence to a storyline it immediately becomes better and more interesting, thanks to Dominic Purcell’s performance.

Using this mission to focus on Amaya’s character growth is also nice and it is fun to hear Maisie Richardson-Sellers’ accent. She clearly seems to be relishing playing a pirate, which translates into an enjoyable performance.

Pirate stories are pretty much done-to-death at this point so it is a pleasant surprise to see the writers use this opportunity to subvert viewers’ expectations and turn the legendary Blackbeard into a cowardly figure. Unfortunately, most of the remaining treasure-seeking plot feels like nothing more than a stream of tired pirate cliches, which is disappointing.

Also, Nate and Ray’s outifts are so god-awful. Give it up to the Legends costume department, they actually manage to make Brandon Routh and Nick Zano marginally less attractive thanks to some really cheap looking fabric and two terrible wigs.

Moving on . . .

Sara and Ava finally go on a date and though I did not come into the episode expecting to enjoy this storyline, it works okay.  It is nice hearing a little more background on them both and now I’m hoping the team eventually goes back in time to witness Sara’s Peter Pan play disaster.

Story and character-wise it also feels true that their work responsibilities would become an obstacle to any kind of ‘normal’ dating experience. However, Sara ditching Ava at the restaurant when she could easily tell her the Waverider is in trouble makes me side-eye the show a little.

I understand the choice to include it because it is the catalyst for Sara and Ava’s spat later, which ultimately leads to a silly action sequence and a nice bit of character development. I’m just not clear on why Sara or Ava would be keeping things from one another in the first place. Luckily, they resolve their issues fairly quickly and we leave them in a good place for now.

The most surprising bit of this episode is how enjoyable Rip and Wally West’s drunken night out ends up being. I am not a fan of The Flash but Wally’s tiny man-bun aside, I am now looking forward to seeing him interact with the Legends.

Rip putting his long coat back on is a nice moment for the character and the show. Plus, Rip-and-Wally-Karaoke-Night needs to be a recurring feature from now on. Maybe Sara can accompany them with a little tap dance.

Also, poor Gary. He never gets any respect. The Legends should be careful – this is how villains are made . . . To be honest, that might be more fun than watching the team go up against Damian Dahrk for the millionth time.

Unfortunately, Ray is now directly caught up in Damian and Nora Dahrk’s web. This is the direct result of Ray catching a bad case of plot-induced stupidity. While not the worst example of plot-first writing in the Arrowverse, it is supremely disappointing the writers’ couldn’t come up with a more believable scenario for his capture.

Is it believable Ray feels bad for shooting and likely causing Nora’s death? Absolutely.

Would he then go off to meet the Dahrks ALONE without help from the team or his suit? Eh, I don’t think so.

Ray may have a soft heart, but this mistake feels more like the actions of someone who is younger, more naive, and more rash than him. Not to mention it is very difficult to concentrate on the story or take the characters seriously in tense moments when they are wearing those awful, ridiculous wigs.

Until next time, I’ll live with the hope we’ll discover this is actually a brilliant ruse from the Legends to retrieve Amaya’s totem and defeat Damian.

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 Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.

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