Legends of Tomorrow Review: I Am Legends (Season 5 Episode 13)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 Episode 13, “I Am Legends,” gets trapped in a zombie outbreak as the team tries to make it back to the Waverider before their immortality wears off.
On a conceptual level, a zombie episode sounds like one of those obvious ideas that, of course, Legends of Tomorrow would do at some point and it would have their patented zaniness and it would be amazing. In execution, yes, the zaniness is absolutely there but, in typical fashion, it finds excellent and poignant space to move within that.
What we end up getting is this introspective exploration of death and our place within it; how do we deal with something that is so inevitable.
This idea is characterized in a lot of interesting ways throughout the episode but it is demonstrated really nicely through the zombies that emerge. You fight and you keep pushing ahead but eventually it — death — catches up to you and you lose because that is simply the way that goes.
The last third of this episode being really centered on Sara is crucial to this theme. This is a character that has died before and knows, via her new psychic powers, that she will die again by the end of the episode. This is very been-there-done-that for her and it really shows through the odd calm she exhibits.
She’s not eager to die again. She has things to live for, like her crew or Ava, but she’s not entirely resistant to the idea, either. She’s okay with dying again and that helps the audience be okay with it, as well, even if we all know that this isn’t a permanent death. She’s Sara Lance: dying is what she does best.
True, there is a definite sense of pointlessness because it’s very clear that all of the deaths during “I Am Legends” will likely be undone on the next episode but that’s also not the point. Legends of Tomorrow, if anything, has always done really well at the emotional fallout.
How can this seemingly silly thing, like a Fairy Godmother at the Salem Witch Trials, affect the characters on a profound level. It uses these wacky conceits to drive the characters forward and better get a sense of what makes them tick.
Similarly, it is the emotional impact that makes it worth it. This is most profound for Sara because she has gone down this road so many times. One more time shouldn’t make much of a difference but these are the things that weigh upon you. To know you died and to remember that you died will be a fascination exploration for the show to go down.
Less important, but still deeply enjoyable, on the B-plot you have Gary trapped on the Waverider with Astra and the Fates, which presents a different side to the death element.
There’s been so much talk this season about bringing characters back from the dead using the loom but this is the first time it’s really talked about what you do after that bit of impossible.
Death is still a constant of the universe and something everyone has to go through and watching the realization Astra comes to with that is utterly fascinating. You don’t have forever but you have some and ultimately that has to be enough.
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.