When the Waverider is attacked by Cronos and and uncontrollably jumped into the time stream, Ray, Kendra, and Sara are left stranded in 1958 and have to face the real possibility that they may never get home again. Then, a bunch of stuff happens…
…and it was awesome.
All right, if you’ve read my reviews of this show so far, you know that I haven’t been a fan. I could go into my various gripes about the show… about how it doesn’t utilize its characters in smart or effective ways, about the forced and contrived romances, or about Rip being a fantastically incompetent commander, but that would be a waste of time. This episode, “Left Behind” was amazing… the first episode of this entire series that I loved from beginning to end.
I swear, it’s like the writers were listening to me the whole time.
Complaint #1. The romance. This Kendra/Ray romance has been getting pushed on us from the first episode after Hawkman died and it always felt… wrong. With this episode, it suddenly makes sense in a retrograde fashion, at least. Stranding Ray and Kendra together for two years was the perfect way to pair these two up. Hell, I wish that there hadn’t been a relationship between the two until this episode.
I liked how the relationship developed over the two years and I liked how flippant Kendra seemed to be when they were rescued. Everything worked about it and I usually don’t say that about television romances.
Complaint #2. The utilization of the team. Finally, Jax and Stein remembered they can form Firestorm! When the team fought Cronos at the end of the episode, they finally acted like a team! They played off each other’s powers and it was super-effective in taking him down. Damn inspiring too.
Complaint #3. Rip’s incompetency… all right, he’s still pretty darned incompetent.
The true jewel of the episode was the reveal that Cronos was, in fact, Heatwave. While I suspected it was the case when Snart was the only one he kidnapped, I didn’t suspect before that moment and that, to me, makes for good television. It was done intelligently and surprisingly.
There were a couple of hiccups. Sara became a cold blooded killer a little too conveniently for my taste and the whole thing about Hawkgirl’s powers vanishing for two years only to magically reappear in the middle of a fight was contrived, but overall this was a great episode and, yes… the best episode so far.
I haven’t been a fan of this show, but I want to be. I want the show to be good enough for my admiration and now, it looks like I have hope is just might be.
Jason Gaston 