Legends of Tomorrow season 6, episode 4 review: Bay of Squids

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 6 places the focus on the crew’s mission to find Sara and yields some compelling results.

The Legends of Tomorrow prevented a nuclear crisis by playing football, singing and recruiting an alien with tentacles on its back and teeth in its stomach. That‘s how utterly ridiculous The CW’s veteran superhero series has gotten, but you already knew that.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow does have a knack for curveballing you with the unexpected but its latest season has taken that to extreme lengths with the inclusion of some pretty mind-boggling aliens sending the show further into that rabbit hole of madness – a rabbit hole that it is extremely comfortable in these days.

The crew’s attempts to find their captain, Sara Lance, took them right into the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis this week, where they came face-to-face with Kayla. You know, Gary’s ex-fiancée with the teeth-branding abdomen and the alien single-handedly responsible for taking Sara in the season 5 finale. How did that work out for the Legends? Here’s all that went down in “Bay of Squids”.

Messing history up for the better in Legends of Tomorrow season 6

That’s always been the Legends of Tomorrow’s mantra. It acknowledges that they mess things up but it also acknowledges that they try to do so for the better. That has been a running theme throughout the show’s inception (and certainly since it became more self-aware) and it’s why “Bay of Squids” succeeds as the season’s finest hour yet.

The Legends mess up here. No, they royally mess up, setting the stage for World War III because they couldn’t work together after Mick landed them in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis and actually started following orders when we all know he works best doing his own thing. It’s all so typically Legends that it’s hard to imagine it working on any other show. Here though, it works like a dream.

There’s a rare genius to what Legends of Tomorrow does that you won’t find in any other series, but you will find plenty of it in this episode. Rory being right all along, Behrad masquerading as Che Guevara, Nate (with the help of Zari) playing football with nuclear launch command keys; Legends went all out to highlight just how close the crew actually came to messing things up forever this time and it made for an absolute blast to watch.

The stakes felt high, the fallout immense and because of all that, the main plot of the season was able to take a backseat this week (even if it was the driving force of the episode’s narrative). It all came together in one crazy, off-the-wall and completely bonkers showing that somehow felt like it was the plot of a complete and well-rounded two-hour movie.

It also set up some interesting dynamics moving forward as the whole team is without the Waverider while Mick must help Kayla find her ship so that she can help him find Sara. It’s all very complicated but no doubt Legends of Tomorrow will find a way to simplify it with even more wacky obstacles moving forward.

Honestly, if you’re not spending your Sunday nights watching this gem, why not?

Legendary Leftovers

• I have no problem confirming that this was easily the best episode of Legends of Tomorrow season 6 so far. That’s not a criticism of anything that came before it, but “Bay of Squids” manages to infuse real stakes into its mission-of-the-week, making it every bit as important as the central narrative.
• As expected, Mick came through for the team multiple times tonight. That’s just another example of the odd genius behind the way Heat Wave is written and how Dominic Purcell portrays him.
• Nate also shined tonight as the episode finally saw Legends utilize him properly for the first time in years, allowing his historian roots to shine through.
• The fact that I was giggling through the football sequence and crying only seconds later when Nate and Zari thought they were going to die is just an example of how oddly wonderful this show is.
• I really appreciate Nate and Zari’s friendship. It did, at one point, seem like they were going down the romance route but wouldn’t that be a little strange since Zari 1.0. is technically still alive? I don’t know, but his friendship with Zari 2.0. is really nice. Nick Zano and Tala Ashe have wonderful on-screen chemistry.
• In quite the rarity, Sara wasn’t in this episode at all. After her meeting with Bishop in the previous episode, we can only imagine what awaits the captain of the Waverider when we see her next.
• The things that Legends of Tomorrow gets away with just wouldn’t work on any other show – not in the Arrowverse or otherwise. It’s just that unique and it really works for it.

What did you think of the latest episode of Legends of Tomorrow season 6? Let us know in the comments below!