Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 7, Episode 10 - The Fixed Point

 For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

Tired of being chased around time by Evil Gideon and her team, the Legends embark on a mad plan to confront their dark doppelgangers by creating an huge paradox around a fixed point that will give them a home field advantage. This leads them to a bar for time-travelers and the revelation that their plan is doomed to fail and leaves Spooner and Zari awkwardly interacting as Ava advises Gwyn on his plan to save his lost love.


Influences

Doctor Who (the idea of fixed points in time and general tone), The Three Stooges (the slapstick of how the threats to the fixed point are fixed), The Marx Brothers (Gideon's joke about getting two beers and then asking Gary if he wants anything is from A Night At The Opera) and the trope of a bar located outside of normal time and space, perhaps most famously presented by Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.


Goofs


While the idea of the Time Wraiths redeeming rogue speedsters is a cool one, it does retroactively make all the kevetching about the Reverse-Flash dying when he is erased from reality in F805 completely pointless.


Performances

Tala Ashe and Lisseth Chavez do a fantastic job playing off each other as the two Legends with the least amount in common, forced to have a conversation for the first time in two seasons as their usual dialog partners are busy talking to each other.

Matt Ryan gets some nice moments selling Gwyn's faith and his internal conflict regarding what his heart wants and what his honor demands.

Jes Macallan also gets one powerful speech regarding Ava's belief in love, even though she's not sure she believes in God, like Gwyn.

Nick Zano and Caity Lotz also get some great moments playing the two most senior Legends, looking back on their journeys and how they got to this point.


Artistry

The comedic timing of this episode is fantastic, as is the blocking of the many slapstick fixes.

Setting the Legends against the background of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is a brilliant conceit on the part of the writers, given that the real world event was so chaotic and zany (apart from the deaths) it played out like a Legends of Tomorrow episode in real life.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

This episode was directed by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who played Vixen and Charlie in earlier seasons.

Spooner Cruz is the first confirmed asexual hero in the Arrowverse.

Matt Letscher's appearance was meant to be a surprise, but was leaked on-line before the episode aired.


Technobabble/Arcana

Fixed points are moments in time that are so pivotal to history that no time travel is allowed on or near it, by edict of the Time Masters. However, unbeknownst to Gideon, some force protects fixed points from being influenced by time travelers and resets the day after each attempt to alter it is thwarted.

Astra uses her magic to change Gwyn's time machine into a cassette tape copy of ELO's "Time" concept album. (This was Behrad's idea.)

The live fed on the monitors in The Fixed Point is taken from archival film taken by bystanders pieced together to form a view of the whole motorcade. The film updates each time an attempt becomes history itself. 

Gideon uses the CR-055 superconductor from Gwyn's time machine to build an anti-time manipulator.

The anti-time manipulator only has enough power to cover one person, one time, if time is stopped in its vicinity. 

Rather than destroying the rogue speedsters they capture, the Time Wraiths now reeducate them and put them to work policing Fixed Points. This may be a new policy brought about by the kinder, gentler, more social Speed Force that took the form of Barry Allen's mother in The Flash season 7.

The wrist-mounted device which Eobard Thawne wears keeps him anchored to a single day in time. It also gives him the power to stop time at any point during that day. However, once the day is over, he goes back to the start of the day and keeps reliving the same day over and over.


Dialogue Triumphs

Gideon: Time is killing people? I don't even understand how time can have this power. But I suppose I've never questioned what made a fixed point fixed. Who knew time travel could be this complicated? I don't know how you've wrapped your human brains around it all these years. (pause) Oh, wait. Yes, I do. I need a drink.

(Gideon and Gary approach the bar.)
Gideon:
Two stouts, please. (To Gary) Anything for you? 

(Nate is describing his plan to Sara.)
Nate: Three assassins fan out.
Sara: I follow the guy with the grenade.
Nate: Then here, I untie the dog that's tied to the lamp pole...
Sara: ... And it knocks off the steak from the table at the corner café?
Nate: Exactly, and then I use that...
Sara: ... As a distraction to steal the bike?
Nate: Yeah, you got it. How do you know this?
Sara: He's doing it right now. 
(Sara gestures to a monitor.)
Nate:
Okay, well, whatever, because my plan has a second steak that I will slip into the assassin's pocket... and that's exactly what he's doing?! 

Gwyn: My sorry fate... it isn't just a solve for the paradox, you see. It's what I deserve... For loving Alun in the first place.
Ava: (sighs) Gwyn... there's nothing wrong with you loving another man.
Gwyn: Now, that might be easy for you to say, Miss Sharp.
Ava: But it's true. It's true. Listen, I'm so, so sorry that you have had to live your life hiding who you really are. But I... I promise you that there are places where you can feel safe to be yourself where people will accept you...
Gwyn: It is not about the people. It doesn't matter if I'm accepted by others, you see. I will never be accepted by God. You see, my love for Alun, it, uh... it goes against who God wants me to be. (sighs) It may be my divine mission to save Alun, but it must also be my divine punishment to live without him. And that's the plan, okay?

(Sara is dejected after repeated failures to break the fixed point.)
Nate: 
Sara, we got this far.
Sara: Yeah, and where are we? Seriously, where are we? Running for our lives with no home, with no plan? I feel like I used to always know what the next move was, and now it's like... I don't know. Nothing... nothing's working.
Nate: Look, we got this far because of you. And if it weren't for you, we'd still be in Odessa making headlines while the FBI shuts down our circus.
Sara: Would have been a good circus.
Nate: Would have been a great circus.
Sara: Yeah.
Nate: But you know what? It's not all on you. Yeah, I mean, you may be indestructible, but don't mean you got to go it alone.

Ava: Look, I understand that you have a deep faith in God. I do, and I don't know what that feels like, okay? But I do know that if... if there is a God, he or she or they... or whatever pronoun they prefer... would... would want you to experience love, you know, and to feel acceptance loving whoever it is you choose, Gwyn, because love is love is love is love is love is love is love.
Gwyn: That was profoundly beautiful, Miss Sharpe. I didn't know you're a poet.
Ava: No, I'm not actually. That... that last part is Lin-Manuel Miranda
Gwyn: I don't know him.
Ava: What I'm trying to say is that you deserve love, Gwyn. You are a good man, okay? Now that you have the Legends behind you, I promise you we will do whatever it takes to make sure that you can be with Alun.
Gwyn: It moves me to know that. What moves me even more is... your unrelenting belief that there is a way.
Ava: Always. 

(Sara recognizes the man in the top hat as Eobard Thawne.)
Sara:
Thawne?
Thawne: Big twist, I know. Who would have thought me of all people would be here protecting the timeline? How the hell are you not frozen?
Sara: (laughs) I'm sorry. I can't take you seriously in that hat. You look like a railroad villain.
Thawne: Ah, yeah, well, can a railroad villain do this?
(Thawne charges Sara and the two begin to fight.)


Continuity

Gideon's plan is to try and alter the Fixed Point centered around June 28, 1914 and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria - an event in which two different assassins tried to kill the Archduke, only to have their efforts thwarted by dumb luck. Eventually, luck led to the Archduke being evacuated past the café where Gavrilo Princip was waiting, having given up on the plan, only to find himself with a perfect opportunity to finish the job. The Archduke's death is widely credited with starting World War I.

Nate notes the assassination attempts were a famous fiasco, so he drew a flew chart to try and explain it to the other Legends. Unfortunately, Nate is a terrible artist, and his diagram only confuses everyone more.

The plan is to grab the three assassins at the Cosic Tavern, where they met on the morning of the assassination before moving out along the parade route.

The Legends are spotted by a mysterious man identified as the Time Authority, who recognizes them as time-travelers and guides them into a hidden space in the Cosid Tavern. This leads them to The Fixed Point - a bar between time zones, which the Time Authority runs as a watering hole for those who want to try and avert  World War I and those who want to gamble on the fixers.

Gideon notes that she knew nothing about this Fixed Point or that there are apparently several taverns like it scattered through time.

The Time Authority explains that, usually, those who try to change fixed poinst get killed in the process. It is believed that Time itself protects the Fixed points.

Ava agrees too help Gwyn plot out a way to prevent the death of his friend, Alun.

Constantine had a collection of toy soldiers in the attic of the Hell mansion.

As they are discussing how to save Alun, Ava realizes that if Alun doesn't die, Gwyn will never be inspired to discover time travel. 

Alun says he has accounted for that and said that he intends to save Alun but make sure his past self doesn't find out, even though this means he will die alone.

Gideon starts drinking heavily at the implications of Time being sentient and protecting itself, as this makes her life's work as a time-ship AI completely pointless.

Astra and Behrad check out the gaming tables together, leaving Spooner and Zari to try and make small-talk together. Unfortunately, Zari can't think of anything Spooner likes but guns and Spooner can't think of anything Zari can talk about but makeup.

Nate and Sara are recognized (and mocked) by a group of young time-travelers.

Sara's first attempt is thwarted after she runs into a ladder, Three Stooges style.

Gwyn says he believes that it is his fate to live without Alun as punishment for being attracted to men.

Zari and Spooner bond over their mutual hatred of macho men and their both being abducted by time-travelers they later befriended.

Zari and Spooner both admit to finding the other one intimidating. 

Sara makes multiple attempts to change the past, getting a little further each time.

Sara's attempts including swapping the grenade with an apple (which gets her blown up), getting hit by a car after blocking one assassin's throwing knife, Sara trying to shoot the assassin only to find the gun she took from a different assassin isn't loaded, trying to poison the assassin only to have the poison dust blow back into her mouth, accidentally swallowing a poison dart while using a blowgun, being hit by a ricochet bullet and being shot by the Archduke's bodyguards after stopping the assassin with a gun, but being left holding the murder weapon.

Spooner realizes she is asexual after Zari suggests they play Smash/Marry/Kill and Spooner says she isn't really excited by Nate, Gwyn, Gary, Sara, Ava or Astra.

When Spooner asks Astra what her type is, besides broody wizards, she nods toward a man in a top hat who suddenly vanishes before Spooner can look at him. However, something about where he was standing set off her sixth sense, which she now calls "bad guy radar."

Watching the video of the feed, the man in the top hat only appears for a single frame. This leads the Legends to conclude that he's responsible for fixing the Fixed Point and has the power to freeze time.

Gideon knows how to build a device that can make someone immune to time manipulation, but they have to take apart Gwyn's time machine to get the parts they need.

Ava doesn't subscribe to any system of faith, but refuses to believe that any God would make Gwyn fall in love only so he could suffer.

Ava has become a hugger.

The young time travelers who made fun of the Legends give them their last ticket to try and change the timeline and a set of coms.

Sara discovers that the man in the top hat is Eobard Thawne - specifically, the time remnant that was apparently killed in 217.

Thawne explains that he was rehabilitated by the Time Wraiths and given a chance to make amends for his crimes.

Thawne agrees to help the Legends out, given the threat posed by Evil Gideon, by letting the Archduke die 40 minutes early on the first attempt. That will give the Legends enough time, hopefully, to steal the Waverider containing Evil Gideon. However, he insists that Sara promise that she will replace him if he dies fighting the Legends, as he can't hold back once the timeline is set to reset.

Gideon and Gwyn stay behind in The Fixed Point, as the other Legends go into the past one more time and set a trap for the Waverider.


Location

Sarajevo - June 28, 1914
A bar called The Fixed Point, which exists outside time.


The Bottom Line

A fantastic episode, heart-felt and hilarious in equal measure.

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