NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Legends of Tomorrow”, including multiple major character deaths, are present in this review
Nothing is standing in the way of the Legends wielding the Loom of Fate at last, giving them a straight shot at reviving Behrad, restoring Astra’s broken family, and then destroying the Loom forever. There’s only a few episodes left in Legends of Tomorrow’s current season as well, even after the show managed to pretty much entirely avoid being affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, so there really isn’t much of a reason for the Legends to waste any more time… Except that’s exactly what they’re forced to do this week, yet again.
“I Am Legends” rehashes an old obstacle for Legends of Tomorrow, while leaving its characters forced to meander around some more. This episode may improve on last week’s especially disappointing offering, but it still represents Legends of Tomorrow continuing to drift away from its core appeal. I can at least respect the series for wanting to stay fresh, and not settling into the same tired groove of going to a new time period and fighting a new Encore-of-the-week with every passing episode. Despite that though, Legends of Tomorrow feels like it’s trying too hard to experiment lately. The series is developing a kitchen sink approach that can be great for its sense of whimsy and weirdness at times, but it’s now leading to an increasingly confused and uneven season that doesn’t seem totally sure how to end itself properly.
Regardless, the Legends nonetheless have twenty-four hours of precious immortality from Dionysus, thus allowing them to use the Loom of Fate without issue!… Or so it would initially appear. After Astra is forcibly roped along with Lachesis, she helps Lachesis and Atropos steal the Waverider, while Gary is stuck inside. This leaves Gary as the Legends’ only real hope of keeping the Loom Pieces away from the Fates, with even Gideon being taken offline in the meantime. The Legends, meanwhile, now no longer having a ride, have to hitchhike across London, since Constantine naturally doesn’t own a car, which is already a fairly funny idea on its own. Things get complicated however when Atropos uses some sort of weird magic spell to alter the fate of the London area, which is suddenly living in the realm of a zombie apocalypse. Yes, a zombie apocalypse. Seriously.
While this is suitably weird for Legends of Tomorrow, it creates another problem for the show’s storytelling; Legends of Tomorrow already did a zombie episode, specifically Season Two’s, “Abominations.” Even worse, that episode was far more fun and memorable than this episode is! Atropos turning London into a zombie hellscape is weird for the wrong reasons, especially when zombie apocalypse media has become incredibly over-exposed and tired over the past couple of years. Legends of Tomorrow may avoid being cliched here, and more on that in a moment, but now it instead feels disappointingly tired, like it’s not sure how to organically sustain its own weirdness anymore. Perhaps the show has just hit a bit of a creative rut though, one that it can hopefully pull itself out of before Season Five is over in a couple of weeks.
Fortunately, there are some good moments in this episode that help to alleviate the dull, tedious spots. The action is at least pretty good, and also carries the interesting added dimension of Constantine not being targeted by the zombies. This comes into play when Constantine and Zari have to sneak off to get a car for the rest of the team, from an old acquaintance of Constantine’s. The result is Constantine having to briefly stop Zari’s heart to carry her through a zombie horde, since she’s the only Legend that didn’t drink from Dionysus’ chalice, and thus, isn’t immortal like the rest of the team. Naturally, this is further development for a Constantine/Zari romance, something that I still don’t care about, and something that Legends of Tomorrow still feels like it pulled completely out of its ass. Even by the standards of The CW, what’s with all of these over-the-top love stories on Legends of Tomorrow lately? The show seems to shuffle its romantic arcs at the rate a normal person would change their socks!
Gary, meanwhile, gets electrocuted and sees Gideon manifest from his own sub-conscious, as his pet rabbit. This at least allows Gary to get the Loom Pieces away from the Fates for a while, but this move is still ultimately rendered pointless, when Astra catches Gary anyway. At the same time, the Legends escape military confinement, in another pointless obstacle, and eventually make it to a pub that serves as an old Time Bureau safe house. That safe house has Time Couriers, thankfully, but none of them are charged. This results in the Legends having to hold the fort, shortly after Sara confesses to Ava that she saw a vision of her imminent death, and what results is a pretty intense final battle with the zombies… One that sees every Legend but Charlie get overwhelmed and seemingly killed! Even Astra is eventually killed by Atropos for hesitating with Gary, before Gary himself is killed in turn. This leaves Charlie as the only current survivor of the Legends, and sure enough, she ends this episode by joining up with her sisters again. Oh dear!
Surely, Charlie appearing to re-align with Atropos and Lachesis is a ploy, one that will probably see her team eventually resurrected. I have to admit however, the twist of the Legends all being successfully killed by the Fates, save for Charlie, makes for a surprisingly shocking end to what’s otherwise a pretty unremarkable zombie episode, the second zombie episode that Legends of Tomorrow has done. “I Am Legends” is another episode with some fun ideas, but noticeably flawed execution. Again, this episode is at least better than last week’s, since it has more action and more consistent humour, but Legends of Tomorrow still feels like it’s losing itself in the lead-up to its Season Five climax. The zombie apocalypse obstacle is inexplicable and tired, the Constantine/Zari romance isn’t interesting nor effectively earned, and worst of all, the Legends’ immortality is ultimately completely pointless, since their timer runs out during the final zombie battle, rendering last week’s episode even more pointless in retrospect! Next week promises another radical re-invention for the series, so we’ll see how that goes, but once again, perhaps Legends of Tomorrow would benefit from going back to its usual time travel format for a bit, even though we’ll no doubt be waiting until next season to actually see that happen at this rate.