Legends of Tomorrow S03E09 “Beebo The God Of War” REVIEW

Legends of Tomorrow S03E09 “Beebo The God Of War” REVIEW

0 comments 📅14 December 2017, 17:39

Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Wednesday
Writers:
Grainne Godfree & James Eagan
Director: Kevin Mock

Essential Plot Points:

  • It’s 1992 and Martin Stein, on Christmas Eve, is trying to get a Beebo doll for his daughter. When the store runs out, and only the display model remains, he pulls off an incredibly obtuse piece of physics to get it and…vanishes.
  • Appearing in the middle of a forest. Being charged by screaming barbarians.
  • Leo has decided to help the Legends grieve. Using a Stein hand puppet.
  • It doesn’t go well.
  • Thankfully therapy is interrupted by a Level 12 Anachronism. The Vikings never left America.
  • The Legends deploy, despite Leo’s concerns. They watch Leif Erikson and his sister debate whether or not to leave. This is the crux of it, the moment where everything changes.
  • And the anachronism is Professor Martin Stein.
  • Jefferson moves without thinking. He rescues Martin but Stein doesn’t want to leave without the Beebo.
  • Beebo, God of War. Worshipped by the Vikings.
  • Back on the Waverider, Martin explains what’s going on. The Beebo saved his life, the Vikings becoming convinced it was a god and had to be obeyed.
  • Leo reprograms the Waverider so it won’t produce beer anymore. He challenges Mick to go dry for 48 hours or admit he has a problem.
  • They plan the extraction although it’s deeply, deeply weird for the Legends to see him again. Jax is furious, and argues that this keeps happening and it’s their obligation to try and save him.
  • Ray argues that they don’t know if telling Stein will lead to him changing the future. Jax can’t argue with that.
  • Nate, Ray and Sara put their heads together. It’s Yule, local time, and that’s something they can use.
  • With Agent Sharpe in tow (And maybe being flirted with by Sara), they infiltrate the Erikson’s Yule feast.
  • Mick, disgusted at his lack of beer, finds and tries to steal mead from Beebo. He is instantly caught.
  • They throw Mick onto a pyre, which is instantly put out by Leo. Sharpe, thinking on her feet, calls it. It’s a sign! Beebo doesn’t want Mick dead!
  • It’s going great. Until Zari accidentally squeezes the Beebo.
  • Instant fight.
  • On the Waverider, Jax and X are playing Mortal Kombat. Stein arrives, asking to be returned home and X tells Jax to take this as his shot and warn his friend.
  • On the ground, a spirited game of Beeboball culminates in Mick incinerating the puppet. Leif declears Beebo a false god, it’s all fine and then Agent Sharpe references ‘Odin Day’.
  • And then Odin appears.
  • Well, Damien Darhk does.
  • Outnumbered, the Legends fall back.
  • Jax drops Stein off and gives him a letter to open on a specific day. Stein, very sweetly, spots exactly what’s gone on but takes the letter anyway.
  • On the Waverider, Mick is going cold turkey. Leo opens up about Mickey, Mick’s Earth-X equivalent. Mick just really REALLY wants a drink. They argue and Leo vows to leave once the mission is done.
  • Ava calls the Bureau and asks for help. It goes badly. She admits to Sara that the Bureau is in disarray following Rip being imprisoned. They’ve lost scores of agents and won’t commit anymore. Sara is furious, disgusted that her team are being thrown under the bus. Ava sympathizes but makes it clear they need to leave and she can’t help.
  • Sarah assembles the team and lays it out; backup is not coming. She wants them to stop Darhk, and she wants the team to leave. When they point out she can’t possibly win, Sara tells them she has a plan…
  • We see her walk in, try and kill Darhk, and fail.
  • We see Z’s version of the same plan. Sara goes in with back up, and it goes better but…still problems.
  • The only solution? They all go in. Together.
  • It goes as they planned. The Vikings prepare to rush in to aid their ‘god’ and Ray, voicing Beebo, slows them down. They take out Darhk’s daughter and all Hell breaks loose. Darhk escapes with his daughter and Sarah grabs him as he beams out.

  • She appears in a blue wasteland and is taunted by a disembodied voice. Mallus. He will soon be free and…
  • A hand reaches into the rift Darhk escaped through and yanks Sara through. Sharpe.
  • Later on the Waverider, Sara is given a clean bill of health. Sharpe makes sure she’s okay, and returns to debrief the Bureau.
  • The timeline is restored.
  • And Martin Stein still dies in 2017.
  • Jax is heartbroken, convinced Stein didn’t read the letter. He travels to 1992 to ask him directly, giving Lily a Beebo.
  • Stein read the letter. And he’s fine with dying when he does. He explains he’ll have had a fantastic life by then. He tells Jax his wish isn’t to prolong his life, but for Jax to life his.

  • Jax returns to the Waverider and explains that he;’ll never be able to move on if he stays. Sara is stunned but accepts the young man’s choice. He leaves, asking Sara not to tell the others until he’s gone.
  • She, of course, ignores him.
  • A distinctly Viking Christmas feast (complete with a roaring fire on the screen!) ensues. Mick and Leo make up and Jax gives a massively sweet speech to his family.
  • Back home, Sara walks him off the ship, they hug and Jax heads off to whatever is next for him.
  • And back on the Waverider, John Constantine is waiting for Sara. Turns out there’s something John needs. And the last time they met he DID save Sara’s soul…

Review:

There’s a rule in comedy; repeat until funny. This episode does that so much, and so well, that the central plot turns into one of the funniest things the Arrowverse has done in years. The recurrent contrast between tiny furry Beebo and the large, angry hairy Vikings is hilarious and the show milks it for all it’s worth. The ‘football’ game, Ray voicing Beebo, Mick’s hatred of puppets. It’s all great, inventive and wonderfully silly.

But there’s a heart to this as well. Graeme McComb gets his swan song as Stein the week after Victor Garber’s and it’s no less heart-breaking. The younger, proper Stein is if anything slightly more clear eyed than his older self. He knows what Jax is planning, realizes instantly that he’s probably dead and accepts it. His willingness to roll with it, to be at peace with the amazing life coming to him is as inspiring as it is sweet and his final scene with Jax is a real tear jerker. Martin Stein will leave a massive hole in the team.

And so will Jax. Franz Drameh impresses again here, the raw grief of the last episode replaced by numbed acceptance. His Jax is a good man in an awful situation and he makes the right choices, not the least of which is choosing to leave. We both do, and don’t want to see him again. We do because Jax is great. We don’t because this is a perfect send off for him.

Rounded out by a sweet Mick and Leo plot and some smart arc stuff (AS WELL AS JOHN FREAKING CONSTANTINE!) this episode is a joy. Happy Beebo Day everybody!

The Good:

  • The Stein Hand Puppet
  • TOYS ARE WE
  • The Viking Statue of Liberty!

  • The Viking-ized Legends look brilliant. Nate’s magnificent beard especially.
  • Mick’s look of total disgust at the fact he’s about to be burnt alive because of a toy is glorious.
  • BEEBO FOOTBALL
  • There is something relentlessly, gloriously silly about Beebo giggling as Vikings attack each other in his name.
  • The entire third act is just wonderful.

The Bad

  • Nothing. This is the best the show has been since it started.

And the Random:

  • Grainne Godfree wrote for The Tomorrow People before being hired as a story editor on The Flash. She became executive story editor on the show in the second season and co wrote ‘The Darkness and the Light’ with Ben Sokolowski, which introduced Doctor Light. She’s a consulting producer and writer on Legends of Tomorrow and her first solo outing, both in her career and for the show, was the deeply lovely ‘Moonshot’.
  • James Eagen has written for Ash Vs Evil Dead, Hellcats, Reaper and more.
  • Kevin Mock has directed for Legends of Tomorrow (Including ‘Moonshot’. We love ‘Moonshot’) along with Chuck, Hart of Dixie and more.

Best Lines:

  • ‘Working out some rage?’
    ‘NO. I JUST HATE PUPPETS.’
  • ‘BEEBO!BEEBO!BEEBO!’
  • ‘Two days…42 hours.’
    ’48.’
  • ‘Are you asking for my help?’
    ‘No!…Yes.’
  • ‘…We brought booze.’
    ‘HOORAY!’

  • ‘I’m not really the husband kind.’
  • ‘Something evil, but not too moustache twirly…’
  • ‘JESUS IS THE ONE TRUE GOD! WHICH DOESN’T MEAN SCIENCE OR EVOLUTION ISN’T REAL! ANYWAY, YOU NEED TO RETURN TO GREENLAND, WHICH WILL SOON BE MELTING THANKS TO GLOBAL WARMING! WHICH IS ALSO REAL!’
  • ‘It’s a Christmas miracle.’
    ‘…YASS.’
  • ‘Damn right, little brother.’

Click here for more of our Arrowverse coverage

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