Legends Of Tomorrow episode 15 review: Destiny

This review contains spoilers 

1.5: Destiny

With only one episode to go, Legends Of Tomorrow’s first season feels like its frantically trying to tie up loose ends at the moment. While this sounds on paper like it could be a bit naff, getting a few answers and clarifications around questionable plot points from earlier episodes is actually rather refreshing. This show has attempted lots of big ideas over the last few months, so taking a moment to pause and try to explain them is no bad thing.

Wasn’t Stein ‘roofying’ Jax massively out of character, way back in the pilot episode? Yes, but he actually had expressed permission from a future Jax beforehand (meaning we’ve now lost the source of the idea to a causal loop). Wasn’t it too easy for Mick to stop being Chronos after ‘lifetimes’ of conditioning? Yes, but he was only partially converted because he focused on his lust for revenge throughout the entire process. And hasn’t every single thing the gang has done this year only served to help Savage? Yep, and it takes a massive sci-fi concept to try and explain that…

Predetermination is a tough idea to sell in less than an hour of telly, but Legends Of Tomorrow makes a decent stab at it here. So, we know now that The Time Bastards have been manipulating events all along, leading The Waverider crew into situations that will only serve to enhance Savage’s chances of world domination. It would’ve been nice to hear the exact specifics of this plan, but as a vague explanation of why Rip Hunter’s team have failed to stop Savage despite multiple chances is more than most shows would give you in terms of addressing plot problems from previous episodes.

The strange thing is that the Oculus didn’t seem to work perfectly anyway. It showed Rip the death of Ray, which was then stopped by Mick, who in turn was saved by the heroic sacrifice of Leonard Snart. It seems odd to introduce a machine that apparently sees the 100% iron-clad future only to prove it wrong within the hour. Maybe that will become important next week.

The death of Mr Snart was handled very well, though, I thought. There’s been a chemistry between Wentworth Miller and Caity Lotz’s characters all year, and the fact that they addressed this before he met his death made the final scene itself all the more poignant. He’s had one hell of an arc since showing up in The Flash season 1, and laying his life on the line to save everyone else feels like a natural end to that. (Saying that, Miller has signed a new deal with The CW, so Leonard will obviously show up again someday, somehow, in some universe or other.)  

In terms of the overarching plot, it feels a bit weird that Rip Hunter is now admitting defeat concerning the death of his wife and child. He still has a time machine and The Time Masters have lost their control of the timeline, so what’s to stop Rip flying to London 2166 and putting a stop to this once and for all? Yes, we’ve just seen Vandal kill them again, but we’ve been watching that clip in the dramatic opening recaps all year so that doesn’t exactly mean much. 

So, Destiny was an interesting episode all in all. I enjoyed seeing the Legends line up to try and save each other from the Ocolus explosion (except Rip, who is happy to let literally anyone but himself have a go), and the scenes back in the modern day between Jax and Stein freshened up that relationship very nicely. Plus, Mick and Snart both got to show their softest sides, which has been a long time coming.

Going into the finale, a big question remains – will they actually kill Savage? It’s hard to tell. It’s easier to guess what season 2 will have in it, at this stage: aliens! That should be fun.

Read Rob’s review of the previous episode, River Of Time, here.