Legends of Tomorrow Review: Mortal Khanbat (Season 5 Episode 6)
The team heads to the seedy underworld of 90’s Hong Kong to face off against Genghis Khan on Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 Episode 6, “Mortal Khanbat.”
This episode returns to the theme of some of the earlier episodes of the season with doing its own particular riff on a subgenre. It’s done so fairly successfully so far and “Mortal Khanbat” seems to be no exception to that as it takes on a John Woo action film.
True to form, the episode is as insane and off-the-wall as it ever is. Directed brilliantly by Caity Lotz, the main action sequence in the diner perfectly captures the style that is so desperately needed for something like this.
The transition from normal Legends of Tomorrow shenanigans to Chinese gun action is so appropriately enhanced and bonkers that it really makes “Mortal Khanbat” work in ways it might not otherwise. It all melds together rather well but, separated from the excellent direction and action, some of it is a bit rushed.
Luckily, however, we have the bigger touches to the episode that is executed so sublimely that we overlook things like Charlie’s story not being there as strongly as we might like or the resolution to the Genghis Khan feeling a bit too pat. It could just feel like a standard episode if it weren’t for how good Lotz evidently is at fueling the episode.
The focus on Charlie during this episode is a bit necessary, especially if the season plans on drifting away from the concept of Encores, and even more so given the minimal amount that she has appeared on this season. The show needs to explain why Charlie hasn’t been around and it accomplishes that well enough with “Mortal Khanbat.”
It’s not stellar and Charlie’s entanglement with Behrad feels a bit forced, but it works as well as it needs to for the episode to work. The pairing of Behrad and Charlie is a bit hard to get a handle on mostly because it’s not clear yet how his character is going to ultimately go this season.
No one wants to get invested in a character that may get rebooted later in a time travel thing, which it’s not clear yet won’t happen to Behrad. It’s different than Zari, who we’re expecting to have some sort of merged identity with her old version and her new. We already liked and knew Zari; the same can’t be said for Behrad.
The Genghis Khan of the episode is contrasted really wonderfully by the Constantine (Matt Ryan) side of things, which could not be more different than the main plot, but still brings high dividends. Much of it relies on Ryan’s distinct ability to make a meal out of this material.
The imminent demise of Constantine — offset really well by Ray and Gary’s grounding presences throughout — is able to dig into his particular neuroses in a way that you’re only able to get with an episode like this. He is the one that dives headfirst into the dark and scary thing and, to him, death is the epitome of that.
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 Tuesdays 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.