"The Getaway" – DC's Legends of Tomorrow S04E10 Review

In 1973, President Nixon starts telling the truth. Every truth. Because according to the creative team, Nixon was a big fat liar. And off we go on another Legends romp.

There was nothing wrong with "The Getaway". It had all the little things that made DC's Legends of Tomorrow what it is. Most of the characters get a funny line or two. Brandon Routh keeps doing... whatever the hell he's doing. Sometimes he's naïve, sometimes he's trying to become captain, sometimes he's a tech genius. Matt Ryan is still charmingly swarmy. Or swarmingly charming, as the case may be.

Courtney Ford returns after a four-episode absence. I can appreciate that it's hard to fit her into the ongoing plots. Why is she listed as a show star? Better agent, I guess. Ramona Young as Mona is okay. You wonder why they have Maisie-Richardson Sellers on the show. Her character Charlie is pretty much sidelined this week, after being sidelined last episode.

Overall, it still seems like they're setting up the back half of the season. Which is a little odd, because this is the back half of the season after a three-month hiatus. Neron has infiltrated the Time Bureau, Ramona has superpowers of a sort and joins the Legends, Sara and Ava have broken up and Ava may soon be hunting the Legends that she once admired, and before that she disdained and was kind of hostile to. The threat of the magical beings interfering in the timeline is still there, and it's a perfectly good excuse to string a story together. But it's not exactly compelling, is it? Aren't there any other threats to the timeline? Like the pirates and renegades and random stuff that just happened in seasons two and three?

So I wish they'd get on with it. "Getaway" seemed to be leading up to the getting on. But the creative team has feinted that way before. Which brings us to "Getaway".

Nixon starts telling the truth and the Legends are quickly on it. Thanks in part to Mick's obsession with Robert Redford and how he won't have a comeback because there was no All the President's Men, the team head to 1973. They abduct Nixon in DC, leave a shapeshifted Charlie in his place, and are forced to steal an RV and head to Florida because Nixon has to give a speech. The Legends are forced to steal an RV because Hank is on their trail, has commandeered Waverider with surprising ease, and Nate and Zari are working as Bureau agents to find out what Hank is really up to. They clue the Legends in that Hank is after them, which is why the Legends steal the RV.

There's subplots galore in this one. Nate goes with Hank to 1973 to commandeer a police car, put on state trooper hats, and drive after the Legends. There's also a brief bit where it's suggested Nate and Zari might become a romantic item. Because I guess Nate is no longer interested in Charlie, who looks like his vanished girlfriend. And... no, creative team, please don't have another romance on the team.

Nate and Hank bond, in part because Nate wants to bond with his father, and in part to keep Hank distracted because Zari has asked Gary (Adam Tsekhman) to help unravel the conspiracy. Gary is as incompetent as ever. Being incompetent kind of works for the Legends because at least they get the job done. Does anyone remember when Gary has actually successfully completed a mission on his own? Gary is no Fox Mulder, so he turns to Nora. Nora is a computer hacker as well as a sorceress, and they soon discover Hank is doing time travel/money-making stuff and is shipping the magical creatures he "borrows" off to a black site in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, the other Legends are having a road trip. Constantine discovers the cause of Nixon's truthfulness is a magical bug that serves the Egyptian Goddess Ma'At. The bug eats lies, leaving only truth behind. So every time someone lies, the bug flies into their mouth, eats their lies, and they start babbling the truth. Because it wouldn't be funny if they just shut the hell up.

Ramona fails to keep the bug captive in a jar, so of course it gets out and "infects" everyone. Ray rambles on about laying awake at night and dreaming he's the night. Constantine and Ray snipe at each other. Mick wants to grow hair like Fabio (best line of the night). Sara tells Ramona their current situation is all Ramona's fault, so Ramona rides off and ends up at a restaurant. Two Bureau agents come in and when they make snide remarks about Koname, Mona "hulks out" into her new Kaupe form (Sisa Grey) and tears apart the place. Sara and Constantine are following her, and Sara manages to get Mona to revert back to human by telling her she's really sorry for not listening to her, and that she was taking out her frustration over her relationship woes with Ava, and promises to be there for Mona. Mona cries and they hug. Awww..

Hank and Nate have captured Ray and Mick. Nate gets infected by the bug and rambles on about how he knows Hank is a stinkin' traitor. But he really just wants to bond with his father, and his father makes it hard to love him. Hank's heart grows three sizes that day, and he lets the Legends go because he figures if Nate trusts them, he should as well. Nixon, who the Legends keep drugging and finally memory-flashing, gets to Florida to tell some speech where he has to lie. So the timeline is back on track until next week.

Neron (Christian Keyes) has been wandering around TB HQ giving Nora headaches for some reason. At the end, Hank breaks their partnership so Neron kills him. Nora somehow breaks out of her cell during this, runs into Hank's office, and that's when Nate finds her standing over Hank's body. Nora blasts Nate and the other agents with a spell and escapes. And that's the end of "Getaway".

Like I said, a lot going on. "Getaway" is basically a runaround with the current subplots and storylines pasted on. It sets up the "Nate thinks Nora killed his father" subplot, at least until we get the inevitable "Nate and Nora are forced to work together and Nate realizes Nora is innocent" subplot. Other than that, it doesn't move anything forward. So there's a lot of motion, but no forward momentum. Maybe that's what we should expect in an 18 (?) episode season for episode #10. But it still seems a bit ploddy. Perhaps if the creative team has melded together last week's episode and this one. But it's an American near-full season, so they have to drag things out a bit to fill the season out. And "Getaway" is the kind of episode we have to pay for these kinds of shows. It's entertaining, because it would take a lot of work to make Legends not entertaining. But it's nothing special.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?