DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: Tagumo Attacks!!! (Season 4 Episode 5)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 5, “Tagumo Attacks!!!” sees the team going after a giant octopus.
Legends of Tomorrow is one of those shows where, week-after-week, you’re waiting to see how it will try to outdo whatever insane shenanigans that it tried to pull the previous week. It’s not hard to imagine that the writers room here is less of a gathering of professionals and more like an intoxicated game of MadLibs.
This is also the type of show where that’s not a strike against it in any possible way. In fact, the series makes it work to its benefit.
Legends of Tomorrow isn’t just a random series of madness. Well, it is that in a way, but it’s also not. In some stroke of brilliance, this series manages to make its chaos seem controlled in a near elegant fashion.
In a particularly amusing way, “Tagumo Attacks!!!” solidifies the belief that many viewers have had that the writers come up with a single unifying idea for an episode, such as Ray Palmer getting chased by a giant rat, and reverse engineering an episode.
Whether or not that’s accurate (and boy I hope it is), the indication of that comes through very strongly when you have a fight between a giant octopus and Celtic-esque lady with a sword. It’s ridiculous and nonsensical, but like everything that Legends of Tomorrow does, it just simply works — even when it shouldn’t logically.
Ultimately, that is the type of show that Legends of Tomorrow is; it goes out in search of the most outlandish thing possible and then dares you to scoff at it.
That is perhaps the thing that this show will be most known for when it’s all said and done: A series with individuality that shouldn’t really work, but somehow fits together in a cohesive gear when it’s all put together.
Beyond this particularly inspired third act fight, however, “Tagumo Attacks!!!” doesn’t have a great deal going on in its side plots to truly love.
While it continues to be fun to see what Nate, Ava, and Gary get up to at the Time Bureau, there is a kind of sense of time filling that comes along with these scenes. That being said, it’s still great to see Ava stretch a bit with her role on the show and embrace a more comedic element to her character.
Similarly, the other side plot involving Ray and Nora Darhk trying to heal Constantine seems little more than arranging Nora to be useful on the show at a later date, perhaps to be utilized in the magical seasonal arc that is still unraveling.
There’s not a lot to be invested in there beyond the larger rehabilitation of Nora.
Thankfully, these separate plots do little to take away from how strong the storyline in Japan is — even detached from the silly enjoyable stuff with the giant squid — and, in particular, what the episode is trying to say about artistic expression and the way that’s so often tightly connected with one’s pain.
Some Stray Thoughts:
- I am distinctly disappointed at everyone involved for not making a single Cthulhu reference in this episode.
- “We’re gonna need a bigger time ship.” You’ve done more with less, Sara.
- My inner Godzilla fan was greatly amused by Mick offering up the “King of Monsters” idea.
What did you think of this episode of Legends of Tomorrow ? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Legends of Tomorrow airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.