Legends of Tomorrow S04E05 "Tagumo Attacks!!!" Review

After weeks of build-up, Nora Darhk returns to the Legends once Ray determines that she is the best shot of saving Constantine. It's not surprising that the chemistry is charged between these two, but it's a fascinating arc that the writers have embarked on to seemingly redeem the character. It's still too early to tell if she will eventually be incorporated into the Legends as a series regular or simply be a recurring magical consultant of sorts depending on how things are resolved with Nora's trial with the Time Bureau. We'd be more upset that Constatine's well-being was messed with for the sake of a quickly wrapped up plot thread for the sake of another character, but this particular plot point is still interesting enough for us to hold off on a verdict for now.

The weakest story of the week is the filler plot of Ava joining Nate's family for Thanksgiving. Regardless of the intriguing tease at the end of Hank having potentially ominous plans for the 'fugitives' and to execute something known as 'Project Hades' overall this story seemed a bit excessive in screen time that would be better spent on the stronger stories. Gary in particular seems like a wholly unnecessary character that is given too much from the writers when there are plenty of other characters that already offer comedic value to the various stories and adventures.

The destination of the week is Tokyo in the 1950s where the main Legends of this adventure investigate a giant Octopus creature that has manifested on a film set. The director is later revealed to have inadvertently created the Tagumo (the name of the creature) by use of a magical book that had manifested the imagination of the director. Sara and Charlie are only able to partially shrink it and then Mick uses his own imagination to create a heroine named Garima that is able to fight and defeat the Tagumo. Though there are some fun and wacky aspects to this adventure, it's a bit patronising to incorporate a back story involving the horrific trauma of living through the atomic bombing in World War II only for the Legends, none of whom are Japanese, be the ones to save the day. The atomic bombing is an enormously sensitive topic for Japanese people and it's entirely in poor taste to use it for dramatic effect when the Japanese people are not even the ones to be the heroes of this adventure. This is not the first time that the writers of this show have misfired in incorporating Japanese historical destinations for the adventure of the week. In the future, it would be better to either leave it alone or get actual Japanese writers to give the story and attached history the respect it is due.

"Legends of Tomorrow" airs on Mondays on the CW at 9/8c.