Fail-Safe – With half the team holed up in a Gulag, a rescue mission is in order, especially when Valentina Vostok is forcing Martin Stein into giving her the vital formula to make an army of Soviet Firestorms. This causes Rip Hunter to give White Canary an unthinkable mission for the sake of the future.
You have to love it when actors are cool with cheeky nods to their prior roles. Not only does this episode see Wentworth Millar planning a prison break to rescue Dominic Purcell but they even get him to say, “This isn’t my first Prison Break”. It’s a glorious fan-servicing moment. Although the breakout itself isn’t so much the meat of the episode as are the ordeals of those on the inside. The show continues to rotate its odd couple combinations well as Ray Palmer and Mick Rory get locked in together; everything that follows is brilliant viewing as it finds the comedy in the early scenes and contrasting emotions in later events as they rub off on each other. Brandon Routh is utterly hilarious as he learns the hard way how different Russian prison is from Scout camp while Mick watches on unconcerned. It pledges Ray as the righteous “do gooder” while Mick is the crazy survivalist. Then as the torture kicks in, we see this flipped as crazy Ray gets the torturer to tenderize his meat instead of Mick’s (with the “your mother jokes” giving it a great hint of Bruce Willis in The Last Boy Scout). Then of course, Mick becoming honour bound to save Ray and return the favour. The reflective cell scene sums this all up well and especially effective in humanizing Mick. In their own way, they are both righteous men; they just differ in their definitions of what’s right. So far, the show has pledged Mick as primarily on board for the fun and violence. This utilizes the idea of honour amongst criminals and thieves to imply he can me more when required. It could be very interesting to see how far the show takes this with his character.
The whole Soviet Firestorm story proves to be a lot of fun. Firstly, it gives the episode some great stakes by the idea of the Russians (and thus Vandal Savage) getting their hands of Firestorm being irreversible timeline damage that, like in the 70s episodes, dooms the world a whole lot earlier. Then it gives us some great verbal showdowns between Martin Stein and Valentina Vostok. Vostok herself is by far the most enjoyable character of the episode and even goes full comic book villain in places. She seethes in delight at bending Stein to her will with that big juicy grin across her puffed-up lips. Although Stein gets one of the best moments of the episode, he slaps it right off her face with a few spoilers on the fate of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, “You are on the wrong side of history”. As the events play out in forms the best reinforcement yet of the bond between Stein and Jax as they ultimately come to appreciate each other more. The Jax solo scenes don’t work as well and feel like they’re just keeping him busy before moving him into position for the finale. It’s really the only shortcoming of the episode.
The White Canary “fail-safe” story is very effective on a number of levels. Firstly, it taps into the core mission of the show more than anything so far this series. The team is not just there to stop Vandal Savage; they are fighting for the future itself and the idea of having to make an immense sacrifice for the sake. Then combine that with White Canary/Sara’s ongoing battle of bloodlust verses humanity in a way that’s infinitely more effective than last episode’s spar session therapy with Kendra. Her moment of looking the sniper sights says it all; the assassin wants to pull the trigger but girl knows that she can’t. Snart is also utilized well in this mix as the unexpected voice of moral reason with simple and believable notions of never leaving a man behind. Plan A does get abandoned a little too quickly before switching to the failsafe but the payoff justifies it.
The opening Cisco cameo is a great little touch as it harks nicely to his Earth -2 counterpart as encountered recently on The Flash. The action is great as is the drama and comedy. Last episode was a slip but Fail-Safe sees the show regain its footing and next week looks like we’ll see it striding. The concluding tease is a great setup for the next episode as the team pulls an unexpected Back to the Future 2, landing in Star City 2046 and being greeted by a very unfamiliar face. Next week, we will have King Shark on The Flash, Vixen on Arrow and a one-armed goatee sporting Oliver Queen on Legends. Someone out there clearly thinks we’ve been good!