A Tribute to “Tomorrow”: Part Two (Years Later)

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March 2, 2024 by Meghan J

Well, folks, it’s been two years since Legends of Tomorrow last graced our screens and I’ve had a few post-worthy ideas rattling around in my brain lately. Starting with: I ranked my top 5 favorite episodes way back in mid–Season 4, but never updated my ranking when all was said and done.

And I’m…still not going to! Ranking is hard, and Legends changed so much over its run that I think choosing a “best” episode would oversimplify things. So instead I’m going to give you my Entertainment Weekly–style “Quick Binge.” These are the definitive episodes of Legends of Tomorrow that best encapsulate why I love it, in airing order.

My Legends Episodes That Have Stood the Test of…haha…Time

All of Season 2

We’re off to a great start for narrowing things down!! Obviously watching the entirety of Season 2 is an unrealistic recommendation for anyone who might actually be considering a cherry-picking perusal of Legends, but this is my list of Legends’ best-ofs so there you go.

It’s funny because back at the end of Season 3, I compared the latter two seasons and praised Season 2’s best “packaged, episodic” outings while calling 3 “a more cohesive season.” And now, I think it’s Season 2 that benefits from being watched as a full, complete season more than any other.

My primary reasoning for this is that Season 2 was a unique slice of time where Legends was still a Superhero Show, before it morphed into “oddball found-family dramedy with a superhero/supernatural framework”—and was doing it well.

Also, anyone else notice that Loki Season 2 basically did Doomworld?! Those final two installments of Legends Season 2 will make absolutely no sense if you haven’t watched the rest of the season (or key moments of Arrow, for that matter). But if you have? They sure hold up, especially the finale.

And speaking of the finale, this feels a bit like a “you had to be there” moment, but its opening recap of all of Season 2, epically set to “Time Has Come Today,” was very cool. It was clear that Legends itself knew it’d come into its own that season and was flexing a bit, and I love that for them.

Season 3, Episode 9: “Beebo the God of War”

“Oh, Legends, sometimes I just don’t know what to make of you,” I wrote in my episode recap as soon as “Beebo”’s premise became fully apparent. “One week you’ve got a selfless old man’s emotional death so that his honorary son can live, the next week you’ve got Vikings worshiping Furby knockoffs.” Who’d have ever thought that the latter of those two would be not only the stronger episode but also a definitive example of how Legends could expertly handle the wacky, the clever/twisty, and the poignant all at once?

This episode had the huge undertaking of following up the, in hindsight, Arrowverse high point “Crisis on Earth-X” and the devastating death of a major character while staying true to its increasingly, but still-fledgling, offbeat/funny bent. It did it masterfully, and peripheral Arrowverse viewers started properly paying attention to Legends. There’s a reason Beebo essentially became the mascot of Legends—and before Giant Beebo, there was Beebo the God of War.

Season 3, Episode 11: “Here I Go Again” and Season 4, Episode 3: “Dancing Queen”

I’ve written loads about the both of these already; linked by their ABBA-lyric titles and sprinkled with hilarious self- (and ABBA-) referential in-jokes, they feel like spiritual companions. For anyone considering getting into Legends, I’d recommend watching them back to back for prime examples of the show’s highest quality.

About “Dancing Queen”: in my OG episode ranking, I mention two comedic bits that I’m “still not over,” but I’ve got to add a third. Ray, being hazed into dog-napping a royal Corgi, parks the van, “angrily” beeps the horn, and then tries to throw the door open and get out only to discover that his seatbelt’s still buckled. (Declan the Hot Punk wheezes with laughter.) Physical comedy gold by Brandon Routh.

Season 4, Episode 16 (finale): “Hey, World!”

So in my perusal of other Legends/Arrowverse critiques, I have noticed a few instances of people crapping on Season 4. This ranking of all the Arrowverse seasons (snaps for that Herculean effort, I could never) ranks it as Legends’ worst season (yes, 1 included). The primary argument seems to be that it just skews too cringe with the overuse of, to name a couple examples, werewolf Mona and demon-accessory Gary.

And to that, I have to say 1) Season 6 gets waaaaaay more cringe and 2) For shame!!!! The season that gave us “The Virgin Gary,” “Dancing Queen,” “Wet Hot American Bummer” (still a top-tier #Avalance episode), “Tender is the Nate,” “Séance and Sensibility,” and pulls it all together with the many payoffs of “Hey, World” deserves better!

In fairness, I’ll admit that it’s a season of high highs and low lows, but I personally think the highs were higher than Season 1 or 6’s. And if I’m being totally honest, if I’m having a rough day and need a dose of warm and fuzzy, shouldn’t-work-but-somehow-does Legends magic, the scene I come back to more than any other is that “Hey, World” ending: Nate’s conversation with Hank and that ridiculous yet earnest sing-along, followed by the one-two punch of the Behrad reveal.

Season 5, Episode 6: “Mr. Parker’s Cul-de-Sac”

-By this point Legends was pretty consistently funny, but 5.06 leans into the comedy more than most. Even in the labored “Mick’s-surprise-daughter” B-plot, New Zari has some hilarious line deliveries; and Sara’s “Come on, Ray, nobody gets laid after six courses!” might be one of the best-delivered comedic lines in the entire show.

-In the episode before this, when Ray and Gary thought John was dying, Gary cried his way through John’s “final” words. Then Ray confessed that he was planning to propose to Nora, and Gary, still sniveling, asked, “Can I be your flower boy?!” A throwaway, “Oh, Gary” joke. BUT THEN. During the “Mr. Parker” wedding, as Damien walks Nora down the aisle, there’s Gary standing on a balcony sprinkling flower petals over them, and it’s really lovely and sweet. Charming little details like this make Legends.

-There’s perhaps a different timeline out there where this episode, while still a delight, could’ve been written off as pure silliness. But it takes a big swing, one that I think pays off and cements the episode as a truly moving standout installment, with its chilling final moments, providing a surprising-yet-fitting ending for the Sara/Damien story.

Season 5, Episodes 14 and 15 (finale): “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV” and “Swan Thong”

Season 2 and Season 5 have the show’s strongest penultimate episode and season finale double-headers. (Doomworld and Loomworld. As it should be.) “Trapped on TV” has been universally, rightfully hailed as a series highlight (the meticulous attention given to the different TV show production styles has a real “Phil Collins didn’t have to go that hard on the Tarzan soundtrack” energy), and I think the finale is right there with it.

And this pair of episodes truly does hit different in the context of their release dates in late May and early June 2020, especially given that they were written and shot long before and yet somehow managed to feel like Legends’ attempt at an answer to our collective trauma. Similar to how the nihilism-defying Everything Everywhere All at Once unbelievably wrapped filming just before full U.S. pandemic lockdown.

Finally, “Trapped on TV”’s “Let’s see what’s streaming on Fate Plus!” line has aged beautifully.

Season 7, Episode 6: “Deus Ex Latrina”

If you’re in it for the long haul, I’d argue that Season 7 is another season worth watching in its entirety. For the most part, it maintains a consistently high standard of quality through, I’d say, its first ten episodes before disappointingly dropping off a bit for the final three. But “Deus Ex Latrina” in particular is an all-time favorite episode. Its laughably silly, gleefully triumphant final two minutes might be the most genuine shot of unexpected, wholesome joy that I experienced in the entire haze of low-grade depression that was my 2021.

Other Things I’ve Enjoyed!

Yes, 2022 canceled Legends, but it also gave us Moon Knight, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Stranger Things 4, Andor, and Spirited, so living in a world without Legends has actually not been half bad so far.

-I could write a whole blog post and then some about how much I love Moon Knight, and why. For all its positive on-screen happenings, 2022 did really twist the knife of Legends’ cancellation by also giving me and then sorta-sneakily-canceling my new favorite show. We’d been, I thought, all but guaranteed another Moon Knight season before Episode 6 had even dropped…but then it just never materialized. It’s fine. I’m fine.

–Andor has fully turned me into a card-carrying Star Wars fan, mostly by absolutely trashing my emotions. I have, on multiple occasions, teared up from simply thinking too hard about the “Remember this” scene from the finale. You had NO RIGHT, Tony Gilroy!

-I’ve mentioned how I appreciate the Arrowverse’s instances of grown men in a genuine, wholesome friendship “defying death for each other,” like Nate/Ray and Barry/Oliver; Stranger Things 4 gave us the same, but this time with a high school–age female friendship, which I am also very much here for.

-Another gem that 2022 gave us was Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. That first season delivered in spades on the space intrigue, murky ethics, and workplace banter that make good Trek. Episode 1.06, the one with the “First Servant”? Stunning, with a disturbing “they-went-there” twist that sticks with you long after you’ve watched. The show also gave Nurse Chapel the love she deserves and that the J.J. Abrams/Justin Lin movies didn’t, and served up some heady fan service.

I also found the first three episodes of Season 2 quite good, with the standout being 2.03’s brilliantly done, deeply emotional take on the classic “characters get time-traveled to present day” Trek episode archetype. But…the rest of Season 2 after that, I’m sorry to say, didn’t really do anything for me! We’ll see what Season 3 brings.

Semi-Coherent MCU Thoughts: The Next Chapter

Another thing that I’ve been hemming and hawing about documenting via this blog? The fact that the effusive praise I heaped on the MCU in my final post for maintaining its momentum and going in bold new directions while the Arrowverse was on its last leg…does not seem to have aged very well! In the ~two years since I wrote that, the MCU also seems to have lost steam and fast.

Moon Knight is one of my all-time favorite MCU titles, hard stop, and it’s my favorite thing in all of Phase Four. WandaVision and No Way Home are a strong
second and third, respectively. I also quite enjoyed Ms. Marvel, which (as I’m far from the first to note) was carried by Iman Vellani’s fantastic performance. After that, though, there’s a steep drop-off, in a phase with a lot of content.*

I will stand by all the things I said Phase Four was: “weird, different, experimental, emotionally relevant.” Phase Five, though…? It’s felt disparate and lackluster. I will say I thought Guardians 3 was a banger, but my opinion might be slightly skewed by 1) my delight at (spoilers) having successfully called that no Guardians were gonna die and 2) the fact that I love me some classic Florence.
Quantumania was rough. Secret Invasion…was a thing that happened. The Marvels FiNaLlY introduced the X-Men, and no one saw it. The upcoming Marvel movie I’m most excited for is, by a long shot, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.**

The phase-driven, connection-heavy, “all-leading-to-a-giant-Avengers-movie” MCU seems to have, at long, long last, done the thing that I said in that final post I was okay with things not doing: run its course. Overstayed its welcome. And while I admittedly stuck around longer than most, I’m fine letting it happen.

Because just like those scrappy Andor rebels, and—okay, this is maybe, for real, the final comparison—just like Legends: boy, was it special while it lasted.

*Exception to the drop-off: the Star-Lord T’Challa episode of What If? was phenomenal; unfortunately I found the rest of Season 1 forgettable. (I haven’t watched Season 2.)
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**That Fantastic Four cast announcement, featuring heavy hitters from Andor *and* Stranger Things 4, dropped as I was in the process of writing this and was admittedly a hype-reinvigorating masterstroke. (Although the movie’s not till Phase Six, so it does still feel like Phase Five is being left out to dry a bit.)
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