Legends of Tomorrow Review: Rage Against the Machines (Season 7 Episode 11)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 7 Episode 11, “Rage Against the Machines,” converges to a climactic battle done only in the way that this team could.
If “The Fixed Point” was a celebration of the Doctor Who-esque show that Legends of Tomorrow has been lately, then Rage Against the Machines” is an ode to everything that the show does really well.
It is a madcap, nonsense-fueled menagerie of just pure shenanigans with solid doses of danger and earnestness thrown in. It is a collection of things that this show is extremely adept at.
“Rage Against the Machines” is ostensibly the conclusion to the ‘Evil Legends’ plot line and this demonstrates one of the ways that this show is special.
It can take one of the big climaxes of the season and have it just be a big, dumb farce, something that it’s done multiple times over the years.
Legends of Tomorrow has always been acutely aware of what its tone and, moreover, what it needs to be moment-to-moment.
It has extremely savvy writing, even if this episode comes away with solutions that feel just a bit too easy. The part of the episode that surrounds Eobard Thawne is a good example of that.
For one, it doesn’t make a lot of sense how the Evil Legends know on sight that he is a time traveller. It’s a bit hand-wavey because they need to get him out of the picture and it doesn’t work as well as it needs to.
Moreover, and this is very much a criticism of the last episode, Thawne’s ultimatum that Sara takes his place if he dies is as absurdly manufactured and transparent as it possibly could be.
Overall, it’s just not a good plot line. There’s not a whole lot that’s redemptive to it and it’s a no-win scenario for the show. Either, Sara does it and is effectively written out of the show or they go the route they went this episode.
Regardless of what they choose, it’s pretty cheap.
On a more positive note, the arc with Astra and Gideon this episode is as unsubtle as it could be and that is feature, not a bug.
This doesn’t always work but it takes subtext and just makes it fully text. There has been a kind of maternal/child aspect to Astra and Gideon’s relationship this season.
What “Rage Against the Machines” does is just fully invest into that, partly so that they can sucker punch us at the end. More than that, however, it’s so that we can feel the brunt of that dynamic.
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 Wednesdays 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.