Legends of Tomorrow season 3, episode 7 review: Welcome to the Jungle

Reviewing the latest episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Legends of Tomorrow scores another win, and while it isn’t quite as much fun as the Old Hollywood trek of last week’s “Helen Hunt”,  and doesn’t make quite as much use of the time period, “Welcome to the Jungle” is another solid entry in a show that shows us each week that it is surer of itself and confident in the toy box it gets to play in. Plus, we get to spend a whole episode on Gorilla Grodd, which means that the rest of the episode could be garbage and it would still be overall a solid hour of television.

Still reeling from the showdown with Damien Darhk last episode, the team decides to get its groove back while Sara is healing up by tracking down an anomaly in 1967 Vietnam. While Martin and Jax stay behind to work on their plans to put all of Firestorm’s power into Jax so Dr. Stein can go home, the team inserts itself into 1967 where they learn that something is in the jungle, taking out American troops. The team splits up, with Nate and Mick seeking the monster with the help of Mick’s dad, a green beret who will grow into the abusive dad Mick remembers (and apparently allowed to burn alive). Zari, Ray, and Amaya find the help of a local who guides them through the jungle, and refers to the anachronism as a new god, helping to stop the fighting.

The boys and Mick’s dad come across a brainwashed soldier, referring to “Unduwe Moy,” the same name the guide gives to the new god. Meanwhile, the guide brings Ray and the girls to a camp of defecting Americans and Viet Cong, where they see the anachronism: Gorilla Grodd, who is brainwashing both sides to serve in his kingdom.

Mick and his dad get to have a heart to heart, and Jax confesses his fear of not being Firestorm anymore to an unconscious Sara. As the teams share information, Jax and Martin on the Waverider realize the situation is getting worse, and that left unchecked, Grodd’s interference will lead to World War Three. We quickly find out how, as Grodd’s cult, dedicated to enforcing Grodd’s will as a way to bring about world peace, plans to assassinate the President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, visiting Vietnam.

Zari, who is immediately sympathetic to Grodd’s plight as an imprisoned metahuman contained by A.R.G.U.S., and Amaya try to make peace with him by promising to remove him to a place where humanity can’t hurt him any more. Amaya wins him over by using her Totem to connect with him as a gorilla. At that moment, American military, including Mick and his dad, who have mutinied against Nate. Grodd is infuriated by the attack, and decides, having gleaned that the Legends are time travelers, to take the Waverider and destroy humanity in the past.

Meanwhile, Jax, seeking to prove himself as a hero without powers, goes out on his own to intercept LBJ and prevent him from falling into Grodd’s trap, only to see the President trapped in a minefield. And at Grodd’s former camp, Mick’s dad is preparing to execute prisoners, including Ray, Zari, and Nate. This leads to a standoff between Mick and his dad, in which Mick appeals to his father’s humanity enough to stop him from killing. Jax leads LBJ through a minefield, using his own wits.

On the Waverider, Dr. Stein prepares to rescue the team, only to find the ship under attack by Grodd, who telepathically manipulates Sara into attacking Stein, who is saved by a timely interference by Isaac Newton, after which Grodd is shaken loose into the timestream. At Grodd’s camp, Zari and the guide bond, as she resolves to be a leader and work for peace. Mick leaves his dad with a new understanding of his father’s struggle. Amaya realizes that Grodd wasn’t born a monster, and was made one. She resolves to try to redeem Kuasa. And while the group celebrates a victory with LBJ’s pie recipe (Jax’s reward for saving the President), Sara returns to full health and rejoins the team.

In the stinger, we learn that Grodd was in fact pulled to 2017 by Damien Darhk, who promises Grodd the power to time travel with a thought with a glowing yellow stone.

Overall, this was gonna be a good episode just by virtue of Gorilla Grodd. One of the most fun villains in any of the CW shows, the Legends roster squaring off with a giant gorilla was a joy to behold. While nothing about the particular stories jumped out as anything above average, the fun of Grodd makes up for it, and ensures that this week’s offering is an entertaining hour of television.

The one exception is the story-line we get for Mick. Too often this season, Dominic Purcell’s Mick Rory has been relegated to a string of one-liners in the background. While he isn’t the easiest Legend to build a story around, he’s definitely and noticeably gotten the short end of the stick this season in terms of substance. However, this week’s episode makes up for that, giving us a look into Mick’s head and giving the character a real moment of growth, not to mention the catharsis of getting to clock his abusive dad in the jaw.

The weak thread this week was definitely the Firestorm stuff. While I understand that Victor Garber is leaving, and the show needs to do the legwork to explain that naturally, we’ve spent way too many episodes dancing around this now. The Firestorm matrix is complicated, we have been made to understand. However, the plot of the duo not trusting each other enough, or hurting one anthers feelings, is very tired at this point. The show is in a position where it needs to pull the trigger on this one way or the other, and let us have that big moment of Stein’s departure, so we can move on to fresher storylines.

Notes from the Waverider

• At first we were doing Predator, now we met Mick’s dad, and were doing Apocalypse Now!”
• The guy portraying LBJ is doing a better than good impression of the man by way of Bryan Cranston’s recent portrayal.
• The guide pronounces the word “village” in a way that I’m 100% sure is not an accent but rather just insane.
• MIck’s Dad ( Dick Rory, of course) is really well cast, and its super fun to find out that the raspy growl is genetic.
• “One Nation, Under Grodd” had better be available as a T-shirt at some point.
• “Grodd will no longer need a Gorilla country, because he will have a Gorilla world.” Gorilla Grodd is the best.
• “If I die today because of a telepathic Gorilla, I’m going to be very upset.” Way to be high maintenance, Dr. Stein.
• “He’s gone full Kurtz.” “What’s that?” “It’s a movie reference. It’s a great movie. Terrible situation.”
• This show has really gone in on making the CGI for Gorilla Grodd look good, and it constantly impresses when the pull it out. They’ve also gotten a lot more confident in showing him fully. Remember in his first episode of the Flash, when we saw him like three times, and he was cloaked in shadow?
• When Newton hits Sara with the frying pan, the sound is an old-school cartoony ka-bong and that made me laugh pretty hard.
• Sara returns to the scene by throwing a ninja star into a pie, which is the most Sara Lance way to do pretty much anything.
• I’m sure there’s a good explanation for what Darhk is holding, but on its own its pretty much just an Infinity Stone, right?

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

Legends of Tomorrow returns on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 9:00 p.m. ET on the CW.