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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Legends Of Tomorrow Season 03 Episode 04: Phone Home

November 1st, 2017 by Todd Black Comments

Legends of Tomorrow can do some incredibly powerful dramatic episodes, but, they’re also amazing when they do tribute episodes of sorts, and “Phone Home” was definitely that. What could’ve been a typical Halloween-style episode, complete with monster, instead they did a fun character study about Ray Palmer, and wrapped it up in so much 80’s goodness and charm it was hard not to cry…for multiple reasons.

See, that’s the difference between recent episodes of Flash and this episode of LOT, this one had charm! Real emotion, and a heck of a lot of fun. Ray “died”, and they had to go save him. Ok, that’s good plot material. Ray’s younger self now has a alien pet. Classic. Oh, it’s a Dominator. Wait, what? And the government is willing to kill Ray to get it back. Huh? Oh, and the Dominator’s mother is on a rampage to try and find him. What…? Oh, and did we mention that Stein is stealing the time ship? WHAT?!?!?!

That’s what makes it fun. And there SO MUCH fun in this episode! Ray reminiscing about his life, talking about how and why he’s so cheerful, the references to the Delorean, Singing in the Rain, Billy Joel, Fiddler on the Roof, Aliens, and more! Oh, and…E.T.! I laughed so hard during that scene, it was amazing on so many levels.

But don’t get me wrong, there was a strong story here. Ray was facing the fact that an anachronism was ruining his life, and was going to get him killed. And then when his more experienced self met his young even more optimistic self, it clashed, and it was hard to watch as Ray had to give Ray some “tough love” of sorts, only to realize it wasn’t the right move.

The big twist for me though was the idea of a baby Dominator being the anachronism. That was awesome. I was expecting some alien monster, not a Dominator! And I’m glad, because they weren’t portrayed the best way in the “Invasion” crossover last year, but they came off as both terrifying and sympathetic here.

Which brings me to Zari, who had to start meshing with the team, and not surprisingly had to mesh with Ray for the purpose of the plot. It was interesting hearing just how much her future clashed with the past, including the FDA banning all candy.

I’d be remiss without mentioning the EPIC Halloween costume shot of everyone in their hero garbs. Including Sara in some new White Canary duds, and Zari…dressed as Isis!!! YEAH!!!!

But even more interesting than that was the Stein/Jax/Rory subplot. Stein has been stealing the jump ship, and Rory thought he was a rat to the Time Bureau, when instead, he was making sure he didn’t miss the birth of his granddaughter, which thankfully he didn’t. If you haven’t heard, Victor Garber (Stein) isn’t staying on the show. And so, the writers are giving him a proper bow out, and I look forward to seeing who becomes the new half of Firestorm.

From nearly start to finish, “Phone Home” was a perfect example of why Legends of Tomorrow is one of the best CW shows. It knows what it is, it knows what it can be, and it thrives at being fun in the best way possible. Thank you Legends of Tomorrow, thank you for another epic episode.

5 out of 5 Nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!