These days I don't really care to watch Legends on time, and that's partly because I'm nowhere near as invested in the show or the Arrowverse as I was, say 2 years ago. I waited a full week to watch this week's Legends, and I'm surprisingly upset that I did. A Halloween episode was a neat idea and it was executed very well.
Having a younger version of one of the characters is nothing new to the show, almost every character has had some sort of interaction with an older or younger version of themselves. This week it was a young Ray Palmer that the team found themselves trying to save. Young Ray was in the middle of an E.T. plot as he adopted a young Dominator as his pet. Of course, it just had to be a young cute (actually really terrifying looking) who likes chocolate and doesn't know where his home is. Just as this show did an amazing tribute to Indiana Jones episode last year, this episode was also a nice nod to E.T. Heck, we even got to see a flying bicycle sequence.
The plot provided a lot of good character pairings. Zari and Ray/Young Ray was an especially good pairing. I figured they were sort of setting the two of them up to be romantic partners, but I think it's even more clear now. And you know what? I think I'm okay with it. Brandon Routh has been a steady character in terms of likability, but he's starting to fade with him increasingly getting more and more goofy. However, Tala Ashe has been incredibly good these last few episodes, so I thinks he can bring something new out of Ray if they end up going that route.
Perhaps the best thing about this episode is that it has a lot of heart. Young Ray was serviceable, but it was seeing the Legends play off of him that pulled at the heart-strings for sure. All in all, it's a fun Halloween episode that builds the Legends characters even without having an actual villain to mess around with them for a week.
8.1/10
