It’s not so much that the Legends get weird anymore and more just that they’re weird all the time. This goofy, meta show is never afraid to puts its actors and characters in bizarre situations to see how things shake out. Spoilers follow for Legends of Tomorrow Season 7, Episode 8, “Paranoid Android.”
“Paranoid Android”
Sara (Caity Lotz) starts to realize her team is making questionable choices when it comes to the timeline. Trying to figure out who is behind everything, Sara discovers some harsh truths.
The last episode before Christmas break left us with a revelation: not only is Evil Gideon populating history with android doppelgangers of mistakenly-slain historical figures, she’s also built doppelgangers of the Legends themselves, modified to a sort of twisted version of perfection.
While so many comic book stories and movies are edgy and gritty these days, Legends is anything but that, and that gives it a bit of leeway to poke fun at that edginess. And so Evil Gideon has crafted a Legends team composed of Hardcore Hacker Zari, ultra-violent versions of Behrad and Spooner, and–most notably–a ridiculously buff version of Nate who wears his Citizen Steel gear full-time.
Muscles for Days
Nate alone is enough to make this episode worth the time. It’s some of the funniest make-up work yet on a show that frequently uses make-up to tell jokes. The whole cast owns their silly Darkest Timeline versions, but it’s down to Sara Lance to sort things out. Even as a supposedly evil android, Sara has such a deeply natural craving for the truth that it’s not long before she starts seeing cracks in Gideon’s plan and tries to set things right.
This episode doesn’t do a lot for the overall season plot, but it’s a fun way to peek at things from the villain’s perspective. They believe completely that they’re doing things for the betterment of the timeline and that the other Legends are the evil androids messing things up. It recasts the main characters in a different light than we usually see them in. Instead of plucky heroes trying to do things right and messing up, they’re a dire risk to the timeline, and this version of Gideon that Bishop helped to create doesn’t have the human connections to accept those mistakes, as we saw earlier this season.
It’s also a character study in just how elemental certain aspects are to various characters. Nate is basically unrecognizable after Evil Gideon’s adjustments, while characters like Sara and Zari retain much more of their personalities. Sara’s personality has to stay intact for her to keep being a leader to the team, and that makes her a weakness to this team of robotic Legends.
We’re still getting caught up with all of the CW shows after a bout with COVID, so please be patient as we get back in the groove with our reviews.
