DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW - SEASON 5.3

REVIEW:  DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW - SEASON 5.3:  "Slay Anything"



I apologize for the late review, but it's been a rather busy week.  BUT, fear not, fellow time travellers, we are here to discuss the latest installment of our mirthful misfits of history and their latest crazy adventure.  Now, mind you, when last we left the crew, they had just managed to take down Bugsy Segal, and John had been determined to not only stop Astra from sending these famous demons from Hell to Earth, but to save HER as well.  Meanwhile, we FINALLY got to see a re-imagined Zari---and she's not what we thought.  So, we now see how she'll fit in with these kooky characters, as we take another trip on the Waverider to our next adventure...so, let the antics begin!


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We begin our tale at Iron Heights in 2004, as convicted serial killer Freddy Meyers is put to exectution by electrocution, while his mother watches.  She, of course, weeps as she watches her son fry for his many crimes.  We then see the coroner driving away Freddy's body, only to have the van taken over by some mysterious force, and it leads the van to crash into some water barrell barriers.  The driver is wounded, but is able to get out of the van and looks in the back, only to find Freddy's body gone.  As he's trying to figure out what happened, he's stabbed and left for dead.  Whomever killed him is now at large...and it's presumably a resurrected Freddy!

Nate is talking to Zari as she looks around the quarters of the ship, and he's trying to jog her memory, see if she remembers anything.  But it's useless, she has no clue.  This is not the same Zari we knew.  She wants off the ship, and she's especially going to tell her and Behrad's parents about what he's REALLY doing with his time.  Behrad wants to wipe her memory from any knowledge of the Waverider, but Nate stops him.  They end up locking her in this particular quarters of the ship, while they answer Sara's call to a meeting.  John, meanwhile, is bailing the ship to solve this issue with these "encores", and taking Gary with him to get some answers as to how to stop this mess.  Ray offers a solution:  Go back in time to when these encores were kids, and rehabilitate them before they go bad.  Sara feels that's a bad idea.

Sara and Ava go over their latest mission:  Freddy Meyers, who had been dubbed the "Prom Night Killer", is supposedly loose.  Ava knows about this from her podcast called "Stabcast".  He had killed some of his fellow classmates in 1989, and was executed in 2004.  They discover that he will strike at the reunion of the Class of 1989 as they hold their reunion in 2004.  So, off to Central City High School they go---which, coincidentally, is where Mick Rory went to school.  He was actually a classmate of Freddy's...and thought he was a loser.  Ava is exceptionally excited about this case, and she's nerding out.  As they arrive at the reunion, Ava spots the one survivor of the event - Tiffany Harper, and they need to go chat with her.  Mick, however, has one of his old classmates remember him, a woman with whom he's apparently familiar with, come and say hi to him, only for him to blow her off.  Ava and Sara go to talk to Tiffany, and get into the gym, so that they can find Freddy.  So, they pass off as old classmates, and get nametags, and go in.  They connect with Nate and Ray, who're in the parking lot scouting for Freddy.  They come across a dead security guard with this throat slashed...the first victim has been claimed.  Nora finally arrives back on the ship, having been done with her Fairy Godmother duties for the day, and ends up crashing, after complaining about all these kids wanting a pony.  Ray had something ELSE planned, but it wasn't gonna happen.

The class gathers by the stage, as one of the class members is about to introduce Tiffany to the stage.  There's a red blanket thing on the stage next to him.  She doesn't answer, and then the lights get killed.  Ava, Sara, and Mick prepare for anything, and then a lone spotlight shines on the cloth.  When the guy on stage pulls it away, it's Tiffany...she's been murdered.  Everyone panics, and starts looking for a way out.  Meanwhile, outside, Nate and Ray spot a masked Freddy, and go after him, but Freddy now has magical powers, and uses them to seal off the school from the inside, keeping Ray and Nate out, while the rest of the team is locked inside the gym with Freddy.  

We jump back to present day UK, where we see John at an old house in North Cumberland County.  Gary is supposed to be meeting him, and arrives late.  John said he used to live here with some mates awhile back, and he enters, only to find it a diaster area.  A complete mess, because someone's been doing A LOT of partying.  John tells everyone to make their beat, and they do...and when he sees the one responsible---it's someone who looks like him.  John instantly sees that it's Charlie---who's obviously been living it up since leaving the ship a couple of episodes back.  

At Central City High in 2004, Ray and Nate are chatting with Ava and Sara, and trying to figure out HOW to get in.  Unfortunately, they can't...Freddy's powers are too strong.  So, Sara relents, and says that the only way to fix this is to fix Freddy---so Ray and Nate must head to 1989 and stop him before he starts.  So, the duo, with Nora in tow, head to 1989 to see what happens to set Freddy off on his murderious revenge tour.  We see the typical high school jocks picking on Freddy, who's rather geeky, and making fun of him.  Then, Tiffany comes up to him, and asks him to prom.  He happily accepts.  Nate and Ray see this, and feel that she's going to betray him and set him up, so they try to derail the young lad from going on this date, but it's no use.  

in 2004, Ava and Sara are romaing the halls of the school, who's lights are STILL out, looking to take down Freddy.  They come across another class member, who's looking to get out, but she is instatly grabbed by Freddy magically, and shoved into a locker.  He then uses his powers to 'push both Sara and Ava back, before squeezing the door on the locker the woman was in....squeezing the locker until the woman is killed inside, blood dripping from the door.  As they try to get up and go after him, he's gone.  

In 1989, our trio of heroes are trying to figure out how to stop Freddy from going on this date.  Nora says she can feel all the teenagers' wishes and wants, Suddenly, she's wisked away to none other than Freddy's house.  He's shocked to see her, but she is now his Fairy Godmother.  He's trying to get ready for prom, and his Mom interrupts, and he tells her he has a date.  She seems a tad disappointed, but she lets him finish getting ready.  When he asks for a wish from Nora, he wants a new suit, which she grants him.  He asks for a pony, but instead, she gives him a limo to come up to the prom to.  He gets out and greets Tiffany, who had agreed to meet him at the entrance.  The trio then head inside to keep an eye on him, with Nora having asked Ray to the prom, which he readily accepts.

Back on the Waverider, Zari is despearate to escape the ship, so she's trying to break the door down, but her brother stops her.  She sees that he took the totem, and feels that IF he had asked their parents, they would've given it to him.  They think he's some kind of hero anyway, and Behrad says that she has no idea what he's sacrificed and had to do to save the world---and can't tell anyone about it.  She's about to say something, when he stops her, and calls her selfish and self centered.  She takes offense to that, and he leaves again.

We see the gal Mick knew at the reunion come up to him, looking to bail the party in the wake of the attack, and Mick says he knows a place in the woodshop class, and he takes her there.  Just as Mick is removing wood from the covered up escape route, she is stabbed in the back by Freddy.  And she dies in Mick's arms.  Mick is pissed, but he's hoping they're fixing things in 1989.

Our heroes in '89 are watching Freddy and Tiffany dance, and we notice that the jocks are in the far corner, holding a rope that leads up to a huge net with garbage in it.  Tiffany occaisionally looks up.  Nate and Ray worry that this is where things go awry, but Nora points out that things should be okay...as Tiffany moves Freddy away from the trap point, and they continue dancing.  However, the jocks are NOT pleased about that, and decide to take matters into their own hands.  They head up to him, shove Tiffany out of the way, and push him down, with the head jock throwing punch on him.  He then yells at Tiffany for screwing up the prank.  Freddy asks if she was in on it.  At first, she said yes, but then changed her mind.  Freddy's had enough, and storms off.  The plan backfires, and it's here that Nora realizes that she hates prom.

Mick, now REALLY upset, is with Ava and Sara in the manhunt for Freddy.  He's ready to burn him alive.  When they ask Mick about the woman, he talks about how she was his prom date, but he ended up blowing her off...but they had kept in touch when he was in Juvenile Hall.  

Nora catches up with Freddy, who is ready to make EVERYONE pay for his humiliation.  All he wanted was for them to LIKE him, and this is what he got.  Nora tells him not to go down this path, and recalls her battling her own inner demons, and letting them consume her.  She urges him to be better than that, and NOT to give into them.  Besides, Nora said, he has one more wish.  Ray and Nate are in the gym when the lights go out.  We then turn to the stage to see a spotlight on Freddy, and the music hits.  He starts dancing, and we see Nora playing DJ over in the corner.  She uses her magic to create some sparks to get people into the mood, and everyone gets on the floor and goes to dance with him.  We see the jocks once again trying to ruin Freddy's night, but Nora uses her powers to turn the trash into more sparkle effects.  Tiffany comes over to dance with Freddy, and things seem to be looking up.  

Zari is upset she's trapped on the ship, and can't seem to get a wi-fi signal.  She goes to he computer on the desk, and somehow, a memory flashes up in her head about how to access a way out of there.  Gideon is curious about how Zari bypassed her security codes, and Zari replies that she's a businesswoman, and a badass...and promptly leaves.  

We see that things are looking up for Freddy, and he's doing alright.  Meanwhile, Zari has stumbled across the limo that Nora brought Freddy to the prom in, and she hops in, though she wonders WHY there's no chauffer.  Just then, Freddy, Tiffany, and their friends pile into the back with Zari, who thinks they recognize her, but they don't.  We then see Killer Freddy in the mask lurking about, ready to strike yet again. 

Back in 2004 once again, we see that Mick and the girls discover Freddy in the hallway.  Mick is fed up, and fires at him with his flamethrower gun.  However, the demon like Freddy redirects the fire and Mick, and he's signed alive.  But as Ava and Sara look up from the body of Mick, they see the scary mask melt off Freddy's face to reveal---Freddy's Mom!

With that revelation, we discover that it's Freddy's Mom now stalking the kids in the limo back in 1989.  Zari wonders why the limo hasn't taken off with them in it, and when she opens the window divider, we see Freddy's Mom slashing out with her knife, looking to finish the job on the kids.  At the same time, She recounts her talke to Ava and Sara in 2004...about how she hated that the girl from prom had taken Freddy away from her, and that no one was taking him from her, so she had to die.  She had committed all the murders, and Freddy protected her by taking the fall.  When he was executed, she had suffered a fatal heart attack, and died as well----but then SHE was resurrected.  At this point, Ava and Sara begin to fight her off, while in 1989, Zari is doing the same thing, as the kids run for cover.  Sara and Ava can only hold her off so long, even though Sara impaled her with an axe, it wasn't enough, as she used her demonic powers to hold them down, while she was ready to deliver the death  blow.  She explained to Freddy how she didn't want anyone else to take him away from her, and Freddy wasn't happy about this.  She is upset, and feels she needs to teach him a lesson as well.  She then goes in for the kill, and she gets blasted for her troubles by Behrad, knocking her down, and taking the fight out of her, thus rescuing his sister.  At that moment in 2004, she disappears.  

The police arrive, taking statements, and arresting Freddy's mom.  Nora comes to Freddy, and he wonders how he'll get through this.  She discusses her own dysfunctional family, and says that he can and will survivie.  She says HE gets to choose his life, not anyone else.  They hug, and our heroes head off.  

In the med bay on the ship, Zari has been healed by Gideon, when her brother walks in.  She impressed by what he did, and what he does.  She says their parents like him more, but he says they only worry because he's been in "business school" for the last five years.  He's more impressed with HER, because she became a successful businesswoman at the age of 19.  He asks how she managed to get out, and she says that when she got on the computer, she just knew how to hack into the system to escape.  She also says she's gonna stick around for awhile.  

The team heads back to the reunion in 2004, and start celebrating the victory.  Nora and Ray dance, as do Sara and Ava....who argue about who saved who.  Nora and Ray manage to see a grown up Freddy and Tiffany, who are still happily together.  The team then stars taking photos at the photo booth, when they wonder about Mick....who finally finds his old prom date, and they begin to hook up.

Heading back to 2020, where we're at John's pad in the UK, and Charlie says that Gary filled her in on what's up with John, and Astra's activities.  John says he used to crash here with some friends whom he dubbed the "Newcastle Crew", one of which, was a powerful witch.  But...she also turns out to be Astra's Godmother, and isn't sure that she is going to be too pleased with John.  There's a door with a symbol on it that leads to this woman, and Charlie says that if it was HER...and she had a chance to clean up her past, she'd take it by walking through the door.  John then cuts his hand, smears his blood on the symbol of the door, recites an incantation, and the door opens.  He walks through, and Charlie wishes him luck.  


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This was an episode that gave us just enough 80's movie geekdom, and kept it a little fun, but at the same time, pay homage to the slasher flick, which primarily consisted of a mixture of Friday the 13th and a little Halloween.  Also, since it harkened back to the 80's,a bit of high school rom-com thrown in as well.  A little Some Kind of Wonderful thrown in for good measure, as well as having the episode's title a rip off of the Cameron Crowe movie Say Anything.  

We get to know a little more about Mick in this episode---especially that he attended Central City High, and stood up his prom date...because he was busy being busted.  And when she initially got stabbed, we see that Mick DOES have a heart....sometimes.  So, it was cool that, after Freddy's Mom had been taken care of, and history was righted, he got to hook up with the girl.  

We find out that not only is Ava more super-geeky than we realized, she hosted a podcast called Stabcast.  Wonder WHEN she had the time to do THAT?  it was cute...as she and Sara have become something of a comical couple....but step it up when it comes time to kick ass.  Ava has gone from being completely serious, albeit awkward, to just comic relief awkward.  They've really taken her character in a little more lighthearted direction than before.  

This episode really gave Nora a chance to shine, using her Fairy Godmother abilities to good use.  But when it mattered MOST....and she needed to get through to him, when he was about to get revenge, she didn't need magic---just to let him know about her OWN inner demons, and show she fought them.  She restored his faith in himself, and helped guide him into the light.  I DID, however, like the dance sequence she did for him, as well as playing DJ.  And anytime her and Ray get to be together...warms my heart.  Nate was a bit of a tagalong on this adventure, but it was okay....he was happy to be there.

Speaking of Nate...it seems like he's desperately trying to get Zari to remember, but it's having no effect.  At least, not what HE'S saying or doing.  It turns out we got JUST a little smidgen that Zari had a flashback memory, when she hacked into the computer to get online, and managed to break past Gideon's security codes.  And now that she's seen her brother and the team in action...she gets why Behrad is doing what he's doing.  And her sticking around will only jog her memory more in the upcoming episodes.  

Finally, what's going on with John's quest to stop Astra from unleasing more of these "encores" and wanting to save her from herself, has taken on a personal edge for him.  He's determined to save Astra from herself at all costs.  Whomever this witch woman is, John is going to have to let her know about her Goddaughter.  And now that Charlie is back in the fold, I see her joining John on his quest, right along with Gary.  

And yeah...about damn time Charlie came back----chick's been off ship for mostly two whole episodes with no word, only to find out she's been impersonating Constantine, and living it up.  Time to get back to work and earn your keep, woman!

I enjoyed this episode for some of the nostalgia, and a chance to see some personal relationships reconnect--especially Ray and Nora, whom I adore.  Was cool that we peeled back another layer of Mick's story, more Ava/Sara banter and teamwork, plus, Zari's memory coming back.  

Thanks for checking in, and I apologize for the lateness of this review.  I will try to keep it on schedule from here on out.  I owe ya all THAT much!  So, if you'll do ME a solid, and subscribe to this here blog, tell all your friends about it, and leave me some comments, I'd sure as hell appreciate it!

Until then....Time Is On Our Side!