The Fellowship of the Spear – After stealing the 4th piece from the Legion, the Legends reform the Spear of Destiny. In a war entrenched 1916 France they seek a means to destroy the spear with the help of a certain future author. Mick’s hallucinations of Leonard Snart take a surprising turn.
A while ago I saw this episode name and assumed it was just a parody title. I’d never guessed the episode would go so far into Lord of the Rings territory but I’m so glad they did. You could argue that by featuring J. R. R. Tolkien himself and showing him draw story influence from encountering the Legends is repeating the earlier episode use of George Lucas. Yet the creed of the show rings true. If it’s that fun nobody cares and this definitely is. From making the fully assembled Spear of Destiny object of temptation, the early Council of Elrod like meeting and a few choice lines of mimicking dialogue the LOTR material fits effortlessly into this Legends story. Even the very nature of the Legends team is befitting of the Fellowship in being a mixture of character types brought together against an almighty evil. The idea of all this instilling memories for later inspiration within the original “R. R.” makes complete sense while being great entertainment.
Then there was the whole temptation of the spear aspect of the story which worked because the season has positioned several characters with reasons to change reality There’s Nate bringing his grandfather back, Sara to bringing Laurel back, Vixen to change her family future, Rip to return his family, Mick to bring Snart back, Stein to stop his daughter being a time abjuration etc. It constantly felt like one Legend would pull a Boromir but the continued uncertainty made that and engaging story.
The WW1 Somme setting is also well used. Vixen witnessing the devastation builds well on her fears after learning her planned future. Having to go into No Mans Lead makes a fitting substitute for Mordor too. The war time action is on much bigger scale the prior battles we’ve had this season in Camelot and the American Revolution. The show balances showing the grimmer side of war with the fantasy action including some great moments of Sara and Vixen kicking ass in nurse outfits.
Anyone that’s seen the trailer will know of a certain character’s return this episode. For me this was the episode’s weakness. For one it should have happened several episodes ago. It’s felt too obvious for a while. Ultimately that vastly signposted entrance took away a lot of its impact. It’s still great to have them back and we can reap the benefits of that for these last two episodes of the season.
The ending was an awesome cliff-hanger to anyone that hadn’t seen next week’s episode name (knowing really is a double edged sword) and sets up a great final season stretch. Although Tolkien would have been disappointed by the lack of dragons in the episode this is a wonderful adventure of an episode seamlessly blending history and science fiction. It’s an episode worth going out your front door for.