DC's Legends of Tomorrow: 13 best episodes ranked from worst to best

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has always been the neglected child of the Arrowverse, largely ignored compared to flagship shows like The Flash. However, those who did watch it will know that it was often able to approach topics in ways the other shows couldn’t, due to their more serious tones.

While there have been some weak episodes across the show’s run, 43 out of 110 episodes have a rating of 8.0 or higher on IMDb. It’s one of my favorite shows in the DC CW line because it was willing to explore new angles of the comics in a way that made narrative sense without trying to hide from the weirder implications of time travel, magic, and more.

One of the great things about Legends of Tomorrow is that it relies on the principle that the solution to one problem should always be the start of the next one. For example, banishing a demon lets magic into the world. Choosing to rescue one person will make the one not chosen into a powerful enemy.

This philosophy has made it so that there are some incredibly powerful episodes, where the Legends’ choices catch up to them in ways both entertaining and heartbreaking. This is a show that frequently balances fun, ridiculous episodic plots with gut-wrenching season-long arcs, with each element adding to either the characters, the overall world of DC, or both.

Based on a combination of overall fan and critical sentiment, as well as some bias on my part, I have collected the top 13 episodes of Legends to remind everyone just how amazing a superhero show can be when it leans into the unusual, rather than trying to force it to fit the mold.

Season 2, Episode 9: Raiders of the Lost Art

Although this isn’t the highest-rated episode of Legends, it’s one of my personal favorites because of how much it honors the genres the show is built off of. In my opinion, art is one of the most important things out there, so I’m a huge fan of media that acknowledges that.

Instead of playing with standard alternate history questions of “What if X war ended differently?” this episode asks how the world would be different if George Lucas had quit the entertainment industry. The nerdier members of the team end up actually losing their powers because they wouldn’t have become heroes without the existence of franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

There’s a lot of good stuff going on in this episode. The heroes are working together pretty well for once, and the villains are showing why “let’s take fan-favorite villains from the other Arrowverse shows and throw them together” surprisingly wasn’t a bad idea. Overall, it’s just a really fun episode that stands out from the rest of early Legends for its commitment to a slightly ridiculous bit.

Season 4, Episode 8: Legends of To-Meow-Meow

While the first few seasons of Legends of Tomorrow showed the cast trying to keep the timeline intact, they mostly ignored that need by season four. However, Constantine as a character lives to be plagued by guilt, so when he changed the timeline, it was guaranteed to go horribly wrong.

The episode follows a rotating group, usually including Charlie, Zari, and Constantine, trying to save Constantine’s lover and keep Charlie’s powers without completely destroying the universe and/or killing off half of the team. While it's a bit of a filler episode, not doing much to progress the overall story, it’s a lot of fun to see different incarnations of the Legends pop up to teach Constantine that time travel doesn’t necessarily make things better.

As a whole, the episode helps develop Charlie and Constantine as characters, priming them to be more important members of the team moving forward. The path to get there is completely insane, but it’s fun, and the line about skipping the “annual crossover” is just meta enough to address their absence in the Elseworlds crossover without coming across as whining.

Season 5, Episode 4: Slay Anything

Legends of Tomorrow is the kind of show that will fully commit to a gimmick, and that’s what makes “Slay Anything” such a great episode. Parodying classic slasher films, the plot revolves around a serial killer named Freddy Meyers who comes back from the dead to finish off the survivors of his high school class. However, the Legends are there to save the day in the craziest way possible.

This episode is one of many really enjoyable episodes of this series that could easily go wrong in another show. It’s an inherently derivative concept, and adding Ava as the horror/true crime podcaster doesn’t bring much more than the Scream TV show. But the story really works because of how it utilizes Nora.

While Nora’s status as a fairy godmother wasn’t the best plot the show ever built, it is the perfect set-up for this episode, where Nora has the opportunity to reach out to a soul that was traumatized and tempted by darkness, just like she was. Ray’s desire to reform villains works well with her life experience to save the would-be killer and show how positivity can be applied in a practical sense.

Is it the best episode ever? Of course not. But especially for a slasher lover like me, it’s a lot of fun and easy to rewatch when you’re looking for something that captures how genre-bending Legends can be.

Season 1, Episode 15: "Destiny"

Season one did not show Legends of Tomorrow at its best, but that doesn’t mean it was all bad episodes. The penultimate episode of the season was great because it was arguably more of a season finale than its actual finale, showing the culmination of characters’ journeys and the major shift to the universe that would dominate the next season.

In “Destiny,” the Legends learned that everything they had done that season had been controlled by the Time Masters, in a similar vein to the MCU’s TVA. However, the characters showcased their rebelliousness by fighting back, even when it seemed impossible to win. This, in turn, gave them the strength to fight against Vandal Savage in the next episode.

This episode was full of great character moments, particularly for Rory and Snart. They showed their loyalty to each other as well as how much they had grown from their time on the Waverider through their willingness to sacrifice themselves. While there were some weak points, this episode proved the show’s potential for greatness.

Season 2, Episode 10: The Legion of Doom

Although the heroes are generally going to be the most sympathetic characters in a story, it can be a lot of fun to take one episode to focus on the villains, and “The Legion of Doom” did it well. The team of Arrrowverse supervillains routinely beat the Legends this season, so it helped to show how they did it and what cracks could be exploited in their alliance.

The episode followed the villains as they tried to get information from the man formerly known as Rip Hunter about the Spear of Destiny, but it was as much an excuse for some villainous comic relief as anything else. Merlyn and Darhk were constantly sniping at each other, but their bickering was nothing compared to the growing resentment both felt toward Thawne.

This episode provided a ton of information about the villains, their motivations, and the Spear of Destiny, but it was done with enough overdramatic villain-off-ing that it wasn’t boring. What could have been a necessary, but forgettable, episode for the season became one of the most memorable, because it showed the everyday team dynamics of the Legion of Doom.

In much of the Arrowverse, the villains exist as plot devices more than as characters. This episode fleshed them out, mocked their eccentricities, and made the audience root for them. There’s character growth, lore expansion, and a ton of meta jokes. What’s not to like?

Season 7, Episode 10: The Fixed Point

For any time travel show, it’s necessary to know how much time can be changed, and what has to stay the same. The idea of a “fixed point” is pretty standard, as completely rewriting all of time would make for a very confusing show moving forward. But having a pub where we watch time travelers fail to change fixed points in Final Destination style? That’s something only Legends of Tomorrow could pull off.

The team decides that the only way to get a proper confrontation with the big bad is by preventing World War One, which is incredibly on-brand for the Legends, given their “That’s so crazy, it just might work” attitude. After spending a lot of time watching others fail, the audience gets some amazing fight scenes from Sara, along with a former villain returning to the screen.

In addition to the main plot, Ava is working with Gwyn to save his love from dying in World War One, which provides a lot of sincerity to an otherwise goofy episode. Both from time-travel perspectives and internalized homophobia, this pairing does a great job of exploring the contradictions inherent when you've been trained that your love is wrong.

This episode does a lot right by the LGBT+ community, and that’s saying something for a show that was briefly defined by Sara bisexual-ing her way through history’s sexiest men and women. It’s beautiful to see Sara and Ava, whose genders were never part of their angst, but it’s just as important to see Gwyn struggle with his feelings and religion clashing. On top of all of that, Zari helping Spooner realize that being ace doesn’t mean she is broken is a bit of representation that, while a bit heavy-handed, is important.

There are certainly some weak spots in this episode, but that doesn’t take away from everything it does right. It’s a classic example of Legends mixing time travel insanity with emotional character beats, and it’s especially impressive that they can still pull that off this late in the show’s run.

Season 2, Episode 16: Doomworld

One thing Legends of Tomorrow has always been good at is creating exciting alternate universe episodes, and “Doomworld” is one of the best. Season two focused on the “Legion of Doom”—Eobard Thawne, Damien Darhk, and Malcolm Merlyn (and Leonard Snart)—working together to get the legendary Spear of Destiny and rewrite history. This episode shows exactly how bad the world would be if they won.

What we get from this episode is a lot of great character work on the part of the heroes and the villains, tied into a well-paced arc. For the Legends, the episode is about showing who they might have been in another world, what it takes to break them out of it, and how they react once they remember the truth. For the Legion, it’s about what you do when your dreams come true, yet aren’t exactly what you wanted them to be.

“Doomworld” is fun all the way through, and it feels like the culmination of the Arrowverse up to this point. It’s incredibly well executed, so the knowledge that Thawne’s dream will be undone is no hindrance to the enjoyment. This is the perfect example of how good an idea can be when everybody is committed to seeing it come to fruition.

Season 5, Episode 7: Mr. Parker's Cul-De-Sac

While the pairing of Ray Palmer and Nora Darhk might have felt a bit random when it was first introduced, it has consistently been one of the highlights of Legends of Tomorrow, so it’s no wonder that an episode primarily focused on them would be one of the show’s best.

While Constantine tries to find the Loom of Fate, Ray is planning to propose to Nora… until her crazy father comes back from the dead. For a while, Nora spins lies to try to live up to her father’s expectations, but she eventually comes clean, hoping he’ll just be happy that she has found a place where she belongs. This goes horribly wrong until Nora’s latest charge wishes for the whole cast to be transported into an episode of rip-off Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. 

While this might seem like a fun episode on the surface, it’s actually one of the most heartfelt in the show’s history, as the various character pairings work out some of their problems through children’s TV tropes. There were plenty of zany hijinks, but the episode was ultimately about how much the characters have changed since season 3, and it really worked.

It’s hard to believe that this episode’s Damien Darhk is the same man who killed Sara’s sister on Arrow, but that’s just another element of Legends at play here. Almost any villain can be redeemed because the Legends take the time to understand their motivations and show them other options. I wasn’t a huge fan of Ray and Nora leaving the show, but if it had to happen, this was a great way to do it.

Season 5, Episode 14: The One Where We're Trapped on TV

Once again, Legends of Tomorrow goes in a direction audiences could never have expected. After repeatedly losing to the Fates, Charlie chose to work with her sisters, on the condition that the Legends stay alive. While the rest of the world is turned into 1984, the team is scattered in TV shows where they can have their hearts’ desires.

This episode was full of tropes and gimmicks, with cheesy parodies of Friends, Downtown Abbey, and Star Trek showing just how many different genres work with the character dynamics in this show. However, it becomes a more powerful episode when several Legends actively choose to accept the traps built for them as a refuge from the grief and pain they face in reality.

This is most significant with Astra and Constantine, who are willing to repress their personalities and ignore the real world if only they can have a happy life with Natalie. Seeing how far Constantine will go to make up for his past sins is a huge moment for his character, and the fact that their show was so tempting makes it that much more powerful when they choose to leave it.

Beyond that, the rest of the cast shines in “The One Where We're Trapped on TV.” Tala Ashe does a brilliant job balancing the two versions of Zari, which is especially effective alongside Behrad’s resurrection. Charlie’s desperation to save the Legends is a surprisingly sympathetic motive for allowing the world to fall apart. Everyone has at least one moment to either ham it up or show their heart, resulting in an enjoyable episode for comedy and angst lovers alike.

Season 2, Episode 17: Aruba

Longtime fans of Legends of Tomorrow know that the Legends have a complicated relationship with the rigidity of time, but it wasn’t always that way. For the vast majority of the first two seasons, they were devoted to protecting the timeline, even when it made it hard to stop the villains. But “Aruba” is the first time they openly defied the established rules, spurred on by how disastrous the world was under the Legion of Doom in “Doomworld.”

The team returns to World War One when they originally lost the Spear of Destiny to the Legion. Their plan is to keep it from ever getting to the villains, but that requires interacting with their past selves, a major time travel no-no. As both heroes and villains end up rewriting the past and messing with time, they have to race against time, reality, and their enemies to decide the fate of the future.

One of the best scenes from this episode features Sara talking to her former self, which really highlights her complexities and why she is such a great captain. Her darkness is still close to the surface, especially after dealing with Damien Darhk so recently after Laurel’s death. It’s a great character exploration, while simultaneously helping increase the episode’s stakes and prepare for the chaos of season three.

The characters’ actions have massive repercussions for the timeline and their role in it, but they are most important because the characters themselves are changed. Sara moves forward, accepting her darkness along with her strength. Nate stops hiding from his feelings. And the villains’ fates end up having even more impact, both because of their choices and the horrible actions that they must be allowed to take.

This episode, perhaps more than any other, captures the original premise of superheroes and villains given access to time travel. While I will argue that there are better episodes for the series as a whole, this is certainly one of the best from the early seasons.

Season 3, Episode 11: Here I Go Again

A time loop episode is pretty much necessary in a show like this, but Legends deserves a lot of praise for going beyond the gimmick to help a guarded new character like Zari bond with the rest of the Legends.

Thus far in season 3, Zari had been pretty resentful of the others for having access to time travel, yet being unwilling to use it to help stop tyranny and oppression. While this was a reasonable perspective, it made it hard for her to work as part of the team. But after ignoring Sara’s orders results in the destruction of the Waverider on an infinite loop, Zari has to learn to work with her teammates to get back to normal.

While Zari is learning how to work with others, the audience is also getting to know the other characters better, which is a great way to handle this kind of episode. It can get boring when the same circumstances happen again and again, so learning that Mick is writing a romance novel or that Nate and Amaya are literally erasing their affair from their minds is a great way to develop the other characters as well.

Ultimately, stopping the time loop itself isn’t that interesting of a plot—we all know it’ll eventually turn out okay—but seeing how Zari approaches it and what new information the audience can learn along the way makes it a stand-out episode, not just for Legends of Tomorrow, but for the Arrowverse as a whole.

Season 3, Episode 8: Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4

My general rule with rankings like this is that crossovers don’t count, since they’re more their own thing than they are episodes of the show in question. However, I have to give an exemption for “Crisis on Earth X,” because it had such major implications for the future of Legends. If you feel like rewatching the best of Legends of Tomorrow, it’s really worth watching the full crossover event.

As a quick recap, the general arc of “Crisis on Earth X” is that a parallel Earth where the Nazis won is invading Earth-One, inconveniently arriving during Barry and Iris’s wedding. In the first two episodes, there was a lot of character work, including a focus on Stein wanting to leave the Legends to spend more time with his family. Jax has a lot of trouble coping with that since it means he loses his literal other half.

However, Nazi invaders take precedence, especially since it turns out that the leading invaders are Nazi versions of Supergirl and Oliver Queen. The Nazis take out pretty much all of the superheroes, and most of them wake up at a concentration camp on Earth-X. They end up allying with the Earth-X resistance fighters, including Leonard Snart AKA Citizen Cold.

While that reveal will have implications for later episodes of Legends, the most important part for fans of the Legends is that Stein and Jax have a chance to talk, sharing that they are family to each other. However, in their attempt to escape Earth-X, they have to separate and Stein gets shot multiple times.

As if that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, Jax is actually able to save Stein for a little while, but only by harming his own body in the process. Thanks to the “cure” for their connection, Stein is able to save Jax’s life, but only by accepting his own death. This was one of the most gutwrenching character deaths in the entire Arrowverse, and I cannot be told otherwise.

This crossover as a whole was amazing because it truly focused on all of the shows. The Legends tend to get sidelined for the mainstream Arrowverse heroes in other crossovers, but they absolutely got their due in this story. There were fun moments between Sara and Alex, amazing fight scenes, and plenty of character drama to go around. There’s a lot to love for fans of the other shows too, but I would be doing the writers a disservice by not counting it as some of the best storytelling on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Season 7, Episode 3: wvrdr_error_100 not found

Despite being one of the lesser-acknowledged series in the Arrowverse, Legends did make it to their 100th episode, which provided the opportunity to bring back fan-favorite characters and explore the legacy the show had built.

The basic premise of the episode is as zany as anything else in the show. When the now-human Gideon passes out from decision fatigue, Spooner and Astra have to enter her mind to get her back. But what could have just been a self-congratulatory clip show ended up being a penetrating exploration of what it means to be human, with each throwback scene being used to both add to the show’s lore and share the moral that Gideon took from it.

In some ways, it’s only fitting that Gideon would be at the heart of the episode, since she is the only character other than Sara who has been in every episode. She has been much more than an AI for years, and getting to see not only how she views the team but also how she approaches the world itself was a delight.

There’s plenty to love when it comes to nostalgia, from the previous seasons’ logos showing up in the intro to the sheer number of returning faces. The fact that this episode was directed by Caity Lotz certainly helps. But ultimately, showing how a computer that learned to love copes with grief and uncertainty made this episode the best that Legends ever had.