DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: Terms of Service (Season 4 Episode 15)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 15, “Terms of Service,” goes on the offensive to take down Neron and his master plan.
It was a good plan, at least. In as much as a Legends of Tomorrow plan goes. Get some weapons, goofballs, and a plucky attitude and the Time Bureau is theirs again, right?
Note to self: when conceiving a plan, always account for the unknown variable. In this case, that amounts to good ole Gary.
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 14, “Nip/Stuck,” explored the sci-fi villain aspects that existed within Gary, and “Terms of Service” is taking a different tact altogether. This episode is more interested in Gary’s overall place as a member of this ensemble, or lack thereof, as the case may be.
Ever since his introduction in the previous season, Gary has been the source of easy laughs to defuse whatever nonsensical shenanigans the Legends are currently up to in that particular episode. He’s always filled that role rather nicely, but his presence has always decidedly been on the third tier as a character.
He’s the character that can get his nipple bitten off or memory wiped to oblivion, and you don’t really need him to do a whole lot more than that from a purely utilitarian perspective. That’s his role and he slides into it nicely.
The last couple of episodes have been building to address this status quo for him, but “Terms of Service” is the one that really brings it home.
Gary is the Kenny from South Park of this cast.
He’s the character that you can comically torment and not have it come off as mean-spirited or cruel. No one ever wants Gary to get sacrificed to a unicorn, but he’s the one that you can mine a laugh out of that way.
He’s the odd duck out of the group and that’s where his strength as a presence on this series comes from.
With a crew of misfits and losers, he should fit in but he’s — by design — mildly insufferable yet overall harmless. That’s why his turn to quasi antagonist works so well. It’s his moment to get what’s his, but he doesn’t actually want to hurt anyone.
Gary is a character that simply wants to feel like he belongs somewhere, and there’s hardly a more Legends of Tomorrow concept than that.
“Terms of Service” is chock full of characters making ultimately the wrong choice for what we can recognize for as the right reasons.
Constantine wants to make up for his mistake with Astra by choosing her over Ray, trusting the Triumverate demons of Hell.
It’s objectively a dumb decision for a multitude of reasons, but we understand why someone like him would make it. A man who hunts demons also being haunted by his personal demons might be trite, but Astra is certainly one of them.
It’s a character choice that’s emotionally consistent rather than narratively smart, and that’s always a good instinct to follow.
Nora wants to do something good with her powers for once, even if trusting the Fairy Godmother is the single dumbest choice you could make. Again, it makes sense for the character even if it should be abundantly obvious that Nora is getting massively manipulated.
No matter what, Legends of Tomorrow always values character over plot, and that’s why it’s certainly better than other shows with dragons that we could mention. This show understands that the plot is useless if it’s not grounded in the characters first.
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.