What I’m Watching: Legends of Tomorrow

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 4 “Abomination” (B)

This was an inarguably engaging episode – how could an hour about fighting zombies during the Civil War not be? That said, there was something that just didn’t add up for me in the pairing of Stein – who shall now be referred to as Marty despite his insistence that Ray not call him that – and his irrational fear of zombies with Jax experiencing the horrors of slavery. At first, Jax saying that black people were invisible in this time period reminded me of the same thing uttered by another time-traveling black man on “Timeless,” but then it got much more serious with the likes of a scene out of “12 Years a Slave.” I haven’t seen them, but I imagine that this was a lot like the “Dead Snow” movies about Nazi zombies, with Jax finding some comfort in the racist slave master refusing to arm his slaves and then getting his face eaten seconds later. Ultimately, despite the tonal inconsistencies, this was a fun episode, highlighted by Mick turning into a zombie and forcing Marty to confront his irrational fear of some very existent zombies. Ray questioning his purpose with no powers appears to have led to a cool (pun intended) partnership with Mick that should be fun, and Nate gets the hero of the hour award for bravely blowing himself up and ending up with zombie guys all over him. Sara has become a tremendous leader, earning the respect of a famed general and future U.S. President longer before women were perceived as being capable of that kind of leadership.