DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: Nip/Stuck (Season 4 Episode 14)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 14, “Nip/Stuck,” goes on a hunt for one of their own.
“Nip/Stuck” is one of those odd Legends of Tomorrow episodes in the sense that there is not an easily definable main plot.
Is it the Legends getting trapped in an avalanche at the Donner Pass? Perhaps it’s demonically possessed Ray and Constantine going back in time to meet Constantine’s ancestor? It could be Nora getting trapped in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers situation at the Time Bureau.
Okay, maybe not that last one.
In this season, in particular, there has been more of a diversification of the plotlines that run through any given episode. In the past, the story would mostly be relegated to whatever misadventure the Legends would get up to that week and that would be it.
Now, after almost four seasons, the show has been expanded enough with the added presence of the Time Bureau that the series can feature more than just the shenanigans on the Waverider.
This has been building for a while, too. With the inclusion of even just new Legends, the show doesn’t need to simply be time hijinx each episode.
It’s even appropriately brought up at one point by Sara to Mick, reminiscing over their first mission, and how they are the only two original crew members remaining.
This is the show coming to grips with how it has changed over the years. It started out so simple and has now blown itself out to such a degree that the first season of this show hardly feels recognizable now.
The show is so different at this point and doesn’t need to rely solely on the Legends to make each episode work.
Individually, each plotline of “Nip/Stuck” really works and is also some of the weirdest things the show has done in some time. This pretty much begins and ends with the section of the show involving the Time Bureau and Gary’s return. It’s wonderfully weird and off-putting; featuring more and more Time Agents turning into monotonous drones.
It’s rolled out rather effectively, starting with Ava and really playing with how we perceive the clone versions of herself. The way the paranoia and suspense reveal itself, with Mona essentially getting slotted into, to bring this back to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Donald Sutherland role.
The show has done a lot of really strange things, but the way this concludes itself just completely takes the cake.
Alternately, the stuff on the Waverider serves to cement one of the show’s most long-running themes.
This is a crew that is made up of colossal screwups, but they always play to their strengths, and, ultimately, that’s why they prevail. They don’t pretend to be something other than what they are. Normal people would conserve energy when trapped under snow but not them.
It’s success through utter idiocy and togetherness, and that’s how they make it out, now and always.
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.