Heads clash in Legends of Tomorrow’s latest episode “Bay of Squids.” Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) reverses from being a nihilistic drunkard in “The Ex-Factor” to a determined General throwing around words like “en route” and “rendezvous” to locate the alien kidnapper of Sara Lance (Caity Lotz). The Legends barely have time to get dressed before Mick awakes them early - even as Gideon reminds Ava (Jes Macallan) time is relative in the temporal zone – and plunges them the alien’s recorded landing in 1962 Cuba.
Of course, Mick’s actions stumble into the Cuban Missile Crisis, inadvertently pushing the world closer to nuclear armageddon and sparking friction between him and Ava. What proceeds in “Bay of Squids” is classic Legends chaos, as subplots escalate into pronounced silliness in a highly entertaining episode of the show.
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Frustrated with Mick’s ill-conceived plan, Ava takes over to retrieve the squid-faced alien (called Kayla) while avoiding a Fallot-style nuclear wasteland. She relegates Mick and Spooner (Lisseth Chavez) to safeguard an ICBM warhead while she and Behrad (Shayan Sobhian) hope to delicately retrieve Kayla from the Cubans. Being Legends of Tomorrow, “delicate” plans rarely work out, and it results in Behrad donning a beret and being mistaken for Che Guevara, being led to meet Fidel Castro, and claiming he is Guevara’s cousin “Jay Guevara" instead. Mick and Spooner accidentally give the warhead to the Cubans, ready to assert their independent power. And for her part, Ava imitates a Russian scientist only to find Kayla ready for vivisection, and ends up cutting the “laughing gas” and letting Kayla escape into the base.
Meanwhile, Nate (Nick Zano) and Zari (Tala Ashe) are sent to the White House to talk down John F. Kennedy from heating up the Cold War. Earlier the two had an awkward moment as Nate saw the early morning makeup-less Zari and was reminded of the 1.0 version he lost, and Zari subsequently teased him about his “morning ‘steel’.” Now the two must put aside any residual feelings to fake their way through a DEFCON conference and ensure cooler heads prevail.
That Nate and Zari are simply invited into the top-secret Kennedy briefing with no credentials demonstrates the loose logic that flows through “Bay of Squids.” All the characters easily wander into highly classified situations with little difficultly. For a more serious show, this would be an issue, but Legends of Tomorrow plays this high-stakes situation with its amiable low-stakes bravado. Behrad’s meeting with Castro mostly exists so the two can eat cannabis gummies together and Behrad can sing Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train” in a futile effort to stop Mutually Assured Destruction.
Such hijinks are classic dumb Legends comedy, and while not quite as clever or outlandish as the show can become, the unrestricted randomness still largely lands. It helps the surrounding jokes and easy chemistry continues through “Bay of Squids” smaller moments, from Spooner lamp-shading why the Legends face time pressure when they have a time machine (“we don’t ask those questions,” Zari replies), to Mick’s annoyance at returning the warhead (“that defeats the purpose of stealing!”), to Nate’s dorky history-student enthusiasm at hanging out with the Kennedys. Nate and Zari’s pushing JFK to peace clashes with a gung-ho General, and climaxes with the two sides playing a literal game of Football with the “Nuclear Football” in the Oval Office. Only Legends of Tomorrow would treat historical events with such frivolity.
The best Legends episodes balance their silliness with sincere emotional moments, and “Bay of Squids” is slightly off the mark in this respect. Nate concluding the adventure saying that he sees Zari as “her own person” is a sweet moment, but feels unrelated to the Presidential huddle they were just in. Mick’s dynamic with Ava is better integrated, who is hurt but her frustrated assertion he is only good for killing and stealing. Nate and Mick have both been underrepresented in earlier Season 6 episodes, so “Bay of Squids” gives them both development while also progressing the Season’s overall plot.
Mick makes up for his initial screw-up and proves to Ava, and himself, the ability to negotiate with Kayla, promising her transport if she leads him back to Sara. The episode ends with Mick taking the Waverider alone with Kayla (with Ava’s blessing) to find Sara, who does not appear this episode. The other Legends will wait for him at Constantine’s (Matt Ryan) house, and while it is unclear how the Legends can get there from 1962 Cuba, it promises to be a pleasant “bonding experience” of them all hanging out under the same roof.
“Bay of Squids” isn’t the cleanest Legends of Tomorrow episode, with its stray subplots messily thrown together. It is less focused that, say, “the Ex-Factor” last week. But in a sense “Bay of Squids” is more representative of the unpredictable chaotic magic that makes Legends of Tomorrow so special, with the playful comedic detours around historical figures mainly functioning as a place for silly set-pieces. “Bay of Squids” is not the most elegant TV episode and may show its seams, but this is the exact kind of messiness that fans of the show have come to admire about the show, regardless of the cracks that appear.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sundays on the CW.
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