Today’s episode of Legends of Tomorrow is poignant in many ways, and not exactly in all the good ones. Not the least of which is because this is the presumably last episode that will feature Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer and Courtney Ford as Nora Darhk. Their wedding last week was touching, beautiful even. Their departure? Not so much, and for many fans who are angry that the duo are leaving because of writing and not their own free will (as noted by both of them being “forced” out) this will not be a fitting end to the duo.
“Romeo V Juliet Dawn of Justness” is a very basic premise that gets muddled in all the wrong ways. Ray decides to heed the advice of Damien Darhk (which was good advice if you recall) and leave the Waverider in order to start his own true life with Nora. A noble sentiment, and just like all true heroes, he decided to do “one last mission” with the team.
The problem is that the show goes into the VERY tropey bit of Ray not being able to tell Nate about his departure. Which…I hated for numerous reasons. Not the least of which is that while Nate is his “bro” as witnessed in the last few seasons, you’d think he’d tell him FIRST and then have trouble telling Sara or even Mick, whom he has been on the ship with the most, about all of this because they’re his longest family on the Waverider.
But instead, they milk the whole “when is he going to tell him?” bit, and it led to some absolutely stupid and cheesy scenes that even Legends of Tomorrow can’t make cool. The reason this show works is that it toys with the superhero formula in the right way, BUT, there is a line that it can’t cross else it be too cheesy and just stupid. Case in point: GARY!!!!
Finding out that the Loom Of Fate was hidden by Charlie in the form of rings was clever, and giving it to an “old friend” in Shakespeare was cool. But everything that followed with Shakespeare having writers block and then making superhero stories, and other things was honestly…just sad. Granted, we got to see the Legends perform Shakespeare, but it couldn’t save things. And there were a LOT of plot holes in that.
Not to mention, the “final” scene with Ray was with Nate, and not an actual departure scene with Nora…and let’s be honest, they didn’t exactly state what they were going to do or where they were going to go in order to be “on their own”. Is he going to Palmer Tech? Start a new company? What?
And funnily enough, they actually had the perfect setup for two split stories locked within a montage. The “Book Club” segment was adorable, and the guys drinking and doing the bachelor party bit was fine until it wasn’t.
Finally, that Astra storyline didn’t really add up to much aside from adding another wrinkle to the Loom Of Fate storyline that honestly didn’t need to be there.
In the end, “Romeo V Juliet Dawn Of Justness” didn’t give two characters the ending they deserved, and that, on top of everything else going on with the world today, is a reason to be sad.
Todd Black
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!
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