DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: Lucha de Apuestas (Season 4 Episode 9)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 9, “Lucha de Apuestas,” tracks down a magical fugitive to the Mexican wrestling scene.
When you’re dealing with Legends of Tomorrow , any bad that it can do in any given episode is very often outweighed by how insane, wacky, or smart it is able to be as a sort of counter balance.
With “Lucha de Apuestas,” we have what is largely a fairly solid outing that is thoroughly enjoyable. This is despite the fact that — by the end of it — the episode feels like it has been reverse engineered in a way to facilitate a major break-up on the show.
If this episode truly has any faults to it, the break-up is largely where it begins and ends. There’s nothing inherently with wanting to split up a rather beloved relationship — in this case Sara and Ava — even for just a short time if it’s able to do something interesting with that.
At this point, Legends of Tomorrow has earned the trust that it can take this to some promising places in the future and that trust can make up for any bungling of the execution of this break-up. This is a show that knows what it’s doing and that can cover a multitude of sins.
As with anything, it’s the execution that matters. It’s not so much that a show does something and more the way in which it does it. In this case, the writers needed to illustrate that — at this point in their relationship — Ava wouldn’t implicitly trust Sara when she says there’s something wrong.
Beyond that, it feels out of keeping for Ava as a character to not really care that magical creatures are being experimented on. Ava is a lot of things, but unsympathetic has never been one of them. That rings false, not only for the amount of work that’s been put into that relationship, but also that character.
That break-up seems like it’s the big takeaway of the episode, but it shouldn’t because the rest of the episode is really quite enjoyable. Doing a luchador episode feels like something that can be so ridiculous it’s hard to imagine the show hasn’t already done one and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.
As always, Legends of Tomorrow is able to go silly, but also have a type of reverence for whatever it’s spending its time poking fun at. A lot of this is facilitated by Constantine, who is able to look at this sport with a childlike adoration that helps get the audience into an open mindset for what is, at its core, a morality play disguised as this ridiculous show of violence.
This isn’t always a show that delves into cultural or sociological relevance of the time it’s visiting, unlike something like Doctor Who or Timeless, but here it laudably doesn’t shy away from how important the luchador culture is to Mexican culture in general.
It doesn’t necessarily have to venture that route, but it’s an appreciated touch all the same.
Some Stray Thoughts:
- That dance between Sara and Ava was still very good.
- Are they trying to set up a relationship between Zari and Nate because…no?
- Let’s all appreciate one of the rare times that Mick is actually kind to someone.
- This entire episode would be worth it just to hear Gary scream: “Where’s my nipple?!”
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 8/7c 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.