Tuesday, March 06, 2018

My Review of Legends Of Tomorrow's 3x13: "No Country For Old Dads"


Written by Keto Shimizu & James Eagan
Directed by Viet Nguyen

Damien: "I'm so going to kick my ass."

There's something rather reassuring in the knowledge that even Damien Darhk can find himself rather hard to deal with as this episode decided to treat us to two versions of the guy and play daddy/daughter mission with himself and Nora. With Ray as their occasionally cheerful and rather useful hostage. Hell we even got a scene where Ray told Damien how to tie him up before he got himself gagged and left to get himself out of his bind.

I have to admit there was something rather amusing about seeing Damien and Nora talking about dating apps and the latter giving her father hell for underestimating her at times. Even though the character has arguably been overused by now, I genuinely found myself actually enjoying Damien this week, especially when he was determined to fight his younger self in order to save Nora, who needed a moment of selflessness in order to activate Amaya's totem.

For the majority of the episode though we had Ray and Nora forced into an alliance in order to get a scientist to hand over the secret to cold fusion for Damien's maniacal plans to work and taking out the obvious fact that Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford are married in real life, the two of them worked well together. Ray's charming self even rubbed off on Nora, much to Damien's chagrin but it wouldn't be the first time though.

Even though Damien is basically a dictator in waiting, I did like that the episode explored his genuine concern for Nora and that he expressed some regret in using her as a vehicle for Mallus. Of course the moment he does something delightfully mundane for Nora as to bring her a hot chocolate, that was the same moment when Mallus decided to take an even bigger grip on Nora.

I have been wondering in the last few weeks if we're going to get some form of redemption for Nora and Kuasa and this episode seemed to push the idea a little further. With Ray seeing the potential good in Nora and confiding in Nate about it, we also had Amaya and Zari meeting one of the former's ancestors who also hinted at Kuasa also being a future ally as well, even if she seemed more than keen to torture Ray at the start of the episode.

As for the rest of the episode, Wally finally joined Team Legends and despite some tension with other members (he really put his foot in it with Amaya), Sara seemed more than happy to have him on board while Ava got a promotion following Grodd making an appearance to kill Bennett off screen. However thanks to Rip being his usual secretive self, we now know there's something up with Ava and considering the title of an upcoming episode, I think I know what it is.

- That Upswipe company Ray worked for at the start of the season made a reappearance. I did laugh at Damien swiping past Cupid too.
- Wally proved himself by swiping the fire totem that Damien was trying to get repaired this week as well.
- Don't worry, Ava, I have yet to see Hamilton too. I feel your pain.
- Chronology: 1960s Berlin for most of the episode.

No Country For Old Dads was certainly the most Damien/Nora heavy episode going but it was also rather entertaining to boot. A good episode for Ray as well and a good way to add Wally into the team. Yeah, I think I rather liked this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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