NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Legends of Tomorrow”, including a major character death, are present in this review
After having to shake off some ring rust following its extended Winter hiatus, Legends of Tomorrow started to shine more in its latest episode, “The Getaway.” Setting out with another superb Fugitive hook, “The Getaway” involves the Legends traveling to 1973 to correct a rather eccentric timeline alteration, after former U.S. President, Richard Nixon derails world history by constantly being compelled to tell the truth. At the same time, Hank becomes increasingly desperate to shut down the Legends, taking over the Time Bureau as acting director while Ava is on personal leave, following her break-up with Sara.
Not only is the initial mystery strong, but the theme of truth-telling is incorporated very well throughout the episode. This occurs after the Legends are forced to flee with an unconscious Nixon in a stolen RV, after Time Bureau agents inevitably try to corner them in 1973, with Mona once again having to tag along, and Charlie left to pose as Nixon, so that no one realizes anything is wrong. Well, that, and the Legends simply forget to bring her along with them, in a pretty funny recurring joke. Perhaps Charlie is fortunate however, since Nixon happens to have swallowed a roach-like agent of the Egyptian goddess, Maat, which is the reason why he’s constantly compelled to tell the truth. Moreover, whenever the Legends lie, the bug becomes attracted to them, in turn forcing them to tell the truth as well!
There is a bit of narrative stretching to ensure that the roach gets loose enough to mine both the requisite amount of comedy and drama from this scenario, as great as it is. This unfortunately involves Mona once again having to be a giant liability, since she stupidly makes an escape hole upon the jar that the roach is captured in, while also dropping it so that it forces Ray to temporarily drive the RV erratically, which gets the attention of a cop, which gets the attention of Hank, who has commandeered the Waverider. So, almost every bit of resistance that the Legends face in this episode is completely Mona’s fault. That works to a degree, since it allows Sara to confront her own helplessness and uncertainty after Ava broke up with her, inevitably after the roach compels Sara to blow up at Mona for her mistakes later in the episode, but this also comes at the cost of making one wonder why the Legends would ever accept Mona among them. Mona seems to make everything worse all the time, and while she’s certainly eccentric enough, do the Legends really want someone this incompetent coming along on their missions with them?!
Fortunately, outside of the fun with the roach and the RV, Hank also brings Nate along to try and round up the Legends, while Zari stays on the Waverider to covertly send her team radio messages, diverting them around the Time Bureau’s forces. There’s a lot of sweet moments shared between Nate and Hank in this episode, with Nate using the guise of fishing for a security question’s answer to try and inquire about Hank’s past. Seeing the Heywood men grow closer while working together, despite working against the Legends, is something that’s realized incredibly well and with lots of emotional impact, and that’s awesome, especially considering that it doesn’t disturb the frequently hilarious scenes that occur in the RV. Inevitably, Hank discovers what Nate is up to with his security question, but this is rendered moot, when the roach gets into Nate, and makes him confront his father about his emotional difficulties, which just leads to Hank letting the Legends go. Just like that? That seems far too easy, especially considering how stubborn and unrelenting Hank has so often been throughout this season.
Meanwhile, back at the Time Bureau, Zari tasks Gary with trying to figure out Hank’s connection to the mysterious Fugitive-experimenting program. Gary quickly ends up in over his head, after failing to put together a conspiracy board (naturally), so he decides to ask Nora Darhk for help, simply because she’s reading one of Mick’s books. Again, the running gag of Mick being a surprisingly successful novelist in the Arrowverse still works well, especially considering the heightened comedic tone on Legends of Tomorrow, but why would Gary ask Nora of all people to help him get dirt on Hank? Sure, Nora ends up being very useful, but that’s certainly quite the Hail Mary! I suppose all’s well that ends well though, since Nora does help get the necessary intel about Hank’s secret Fugitive experimentation project, which has apparently been set up in Baltimore. Nate being delivered the news is nicely bittersweet too, since Nate did a great job of being loyal to the Legends, despite having to subsequently discover just who his father truly is.
Or so it would appear at first. It turns out that Neron, disguised as Desmond, has taken this opportunity to start wandering around the Time Bureau, pulling Hank’s strings. Nora senses Neron’s presence through a series of migraines, and after Hank confronts Neron about wanting to walk away from the Fugitive experimentation project, Neron begins sucking the life out of him! Nora struggles to break out of her prison, and eventually succeeds, but she’s too late. Nora merely finds Hank dead, conveniently leaning over him just as Nate and the Time Bureau agents also make this discovery, naturally believing that Nora is the one who actually killed Hank. Nora has no choice but to escape through a burst of magic that subdues all of the Time Bureau agents, and now I have to wonder if she’ll also end up in the company of the Legends again soon. It seems like the team is courting a lot of new faces this season, aren’t they?
The storytelling wasn’t completely airtight, and it did need to rely on a few unlikely contrivances to keep itself out of some narrative corners, but, “The Getaway” still manages to be a funny, emotional and satisfying episode of Legends of Tomorrow for the most part. It’s effectively tragic to see Nate lose his father right after fully reconciling with him, and right after Hank was ready to walk away from Neron’s operation, just as it was equally effective to see Maat’s magical truth-compelling roach pull all sorts of uncomfortable and hilarious truths out of the Legends, and Nixon for that matter. It also seems like Mona is fully joining the Legends at this point, after Sara has to talk her down from her Kaupe state, once some Time Bureau agents encounter her at a diner. I suppose that’s fine, but I really hope that Mona’s character becomes more useful soon. At least with Hank having been killed, terrible as that is, the Legends should hopefully be facing less bureaucratic resistance for the rest of this season, and that’s probably a good thing, considering that the Time Bureau is currently being overseen by a demon!