RIP Arrowverse, This Insane Moment Will Always Be Your Best Scene

Legends of Tomorrow began as the fifth series in the Arrowverse (before Super Girl was retroactively added to the franchise). Spinning off Arrow And Flash the series started when Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) recruited a team of superheroes (all of whom had previously appeared on Arrow, Flashor both) to accompany him on time travel to defeat Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), an immortal supervillain who conquered the world and killed Hunter’s wife and child in the future. During its first season, the series received mixed to negative reviews. While the production value and most of the cast were highly praised, audiences were highly critical of Savage’s characterization and his nemesis Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) and Hawk Girl (Ciara Rene).

The show’s detractors also pointed to the team’s ineffective nature, failing repeatedly in both specific missions and their overall goal of protecting the story from change. Moving forward, the series took those criticisms to heart. Savage and the Hawks were written out of the series, although Crump and Hentschel briefly returned years later. Since its second season, the show has focused on the team now led by Sarah Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz), fighting to protect history from time-traveling enemies. He turned a previous weakness into a strength, further emphasizing the bumbling nature of the team, itself often changing history both intentionally and not, as a source of humor and fully embraced its comedy status by the third season.

Who is Grodd?

Like his comic book counterpart, Grodd is best known as an adversary of the Flash and was introduced in the Scarlet Speedster series. Prior to the events of the series, Grodd was a test subject at STAR Labs, where he was experimented on by Harrison Wells (Tom Kavanagh) and U.S. Army General Wade Eiling (Clancy Brown). But when Wells discovered the inhuman nature of Eiling’s experiments, which were intended to explore the possibility of creating psychic abilities, he shut them down. When the particle accelerator exploded, Grodd was exposed to dark matter, which mixed with the chemicals Eiling and company had already exposed him to, which increased his intelligence and gave him telepathic superpowers, after which Grodd escaped from the STAR lab and took refuge in the sewers under Central City . . Sometime after that, he was recruited by Wells, who was actually Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin) time-traveling Nemesis. After Team Flash discovered his true identity, Thawne sent Grodd to fight them as a distraction in the first of several encounters between the team and the gorilla.

Grodd first encountered the Legends when he was transported back in time to the Vietnam War, causing a drastic change in history. During their battle, Grodd jumped onto the team’s time machine, the Waverider, before Professor Martin Stein (Victor Garber) activated a time jump, causing Grodd to fall towards the burning forest. Saved by Damien DarhkNeal McDonough), who recruited Grodd into the service of the demon Mallus. Mallus needed to make changes to the timeline in order to break out of the interdimensional prison that held him, and he sent Grodd to make one such change by assassinating Obama in 1979.

Grodd vs. Obama

Grodd briefly chases Obama around his university campus before beginning to choke him. Then the Legends intervene with Ray Palmer / The Atom (Brandon Ruth) quoting a catchphrase from Flash when he tells Obama, “Run, Barry, run!”, using the nickname the future president currently went by. Ray uses a shrink beam to shrink Grodd, who is then captured by the Legends. It’s a surprisingly ridiculous scene, showcasing the light-hearted, self-righteous humor that made legends so nice.

However, Obama’s involvement in this episode does not end with his rescue. Sarah later returns to college to get his help with a leadership dilemma she was facing. Realizing that Mallus’ escape would doom his daughter Nora (Courtney Ford), Dark offered to work with the Legends to defeat the demon. Sarah didn’t want to work with him, nor hand him over as a prisoner to the Hunter’s Time Bureau, given that Dark had killed her sister, Laurel/Black Canary (Katie Cassidy). With all the time travel and superhero craziness in mind, Obama reassures Sarah that such an unprecedented situation requires the “unorthodox approach” that the Legends specialize in. In response, Sarah says “I miss you so much” before erasing Obama’s memory. of the whole experience, stating out loud how many Obama supporters felt in 2018 when the episode first aired.

This conversation makes Sara realize that a temporary alliance with Dark is necessary. This graph once again illustrates what has been done legends so special. Showcasing Grodd and Obama in the same episode is more than any other similar series would even dare to try, but the fact that their meeting serves as a way to give Sarah the outside perspective she needs and not just a joke , shows how the series coped. delivering outrageous humor without losing focus on the development of its protagonists. An entire storyline that could have been incredibly cheesy and/or offensive is also tastefully and lovingly dedicated to the former president.