Legends of Tomorrow Review: Back to the Finale: Part 2 (Season 6 Episode 7)

Legends of Tomorrow  Season 6 Episode 7, “Back to the Finale: Part 2,” is the point of the season where — as the halfway point of the season — we are transitioning into a different mode as it closes and opens avenues of plot. Sometimes an episode like that can be clumsy and haphazard but it’s executed rather well here, albeit not flawlessly. 

There’s a bit of a disconnect throughout the episode that we often don’t experience on Legends of Tomorrow where we’re following characters at two different points on the timeline and one is trying to affect the other.

You practically go into the episode with the foreknowledge that any attempts to change the trajectory of Sara’s timeline during after getting kidnapped is going to ultimately end up being fruitless and that’s just something you have to rationalize away to enjoy the episode. 

If they were going to just hit redo on the last six episodes of the season, then so much of what has happened would be meaningless. As the episode points out, Spooner wouldn’t be around, retroactively making any investment in her completely moot. More than that, however, is we wouldn’t have had to watch Sara get killed for the umpteenth time. 

With the knowledge that what Behrad and the Legends are doing will be unsuccessful, it should take out a lot of the stakes and attachment to an episode like this, but it mostly still works. It ends up being yet another fantastic example of Legends of Tomorrow ‘s fine-tuned ability to its ensemble work. As it goes with any episode if this show, it’s the individual characters and how well they mesh together that makes this all work. 

There’s just enough zaniness mixed with a strong emotional core that you almost wind up forgetting that they’re on a fool’s errand. Each character has at least one moment that makes it all feel worth it to go through this plotline. 

The one thing that doesn’t really track is why Behrad is one that spearheads the mission to keep Sara from getting abducted by aliens. It’s less that it’s not believable that any of the Legends wouldn’t want to prevent Sara’s death and more the loose way that Behrad has been defined since his inclusion onto the team. 

The way they’ve written his character necessitates his being a figure that has been decently solidified on the team and comes out when appropriate. Similar to the way that Zari 1.0 feels like a fully fleshed-out character in every possible respect. The problem is that the audience has to assume or fill in the blanks with his time on the Waverider. 

This leads to some dots not always getting connected as far as his character is concerned. It doesn’t help matters that he spent a solid chunk of the previous season dead, preventing us from having a good foundation for his character. 

On the other side of the proverbial board, we have Sara’s continuing plotline with Bishop and this is where most of the forward momentum and powerful emotion comes into play. At its core, this is an examination of the vast number of times that Sara has died over the years and the effect that this has had on her and continues to have. 

She is a character that has constantly learned to grow and evolve and, by the show’s admission, each time she comes back it always progresses her forward on her path. Resurrection allows her to have a slightly different iteration of herself — sometimes in big ways or small. 

Now, however, we are at the point where Sara isn’t merely her anymore. There’s more to her in her clone body, which she would argue makes her lesser. The revelation that Bishop has spliced her DNA with an alien has big repercussions for her.

Sara’s always been someone that, after joining the League of Assassins, has considered herself a monster for varying reasons, but has incontrovertible proof that she is one finally. There’s some exciting room forward with that. The series has never denied that she has darker impulses lurking underneath but it’s always been a matter of what she’s willing to do with them. 

This is just a flip side of that same coin. Her alien side is now a literal manifestation of her darker side and all she has to do is not let that side out. That’s the same story it’s always been for Sara. 

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 Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.

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