LEGENDS OF TOMORROW 4.05 Review: “Tagumo Attacks”

This post contains spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow.
Check out last week's review here.

You can’t have a kaiju episode without acknowledging legendary director Ishiro Honda. Thankfully, the team behind Legends of Tomorrow couldn’t be more aware of that fact, and gave us a whole episode around him. “Tagumo Attacks” is brimming with liberties around Honda’s story, but that doesn’t make it any less of a love letter to his memory. Besides, who doesn’t want a story with a giant squid?

Most of the Legends head to 1951 to figure out what’s plaguing Japan. While they’re tasked with that, Ray has to find Nora to try to save John’s life. We spend most of our time in the fifties, so let’s cover the latter really quick. The quintessential Good Guy™ finds Nora hiding in plain sight and brings her back to the Waverider to heal their broken warlock. Of course, he does this only after he snaps the phone of some perv trying to take a picture of Nora’s cleavage in half. Say what you will of the team’s most earnest member, he knows how to make an entrance at a Renaissance Festival.

Ray’s plan is pretty smart on the face of things, but it overlooks the fact that Nora gets her powers from her father. Since his sacrifice, Nora has lived in fear of using those powers, and isn’t sure she can let go of that in order to save Constantine’s life. Though Ray thinks he’s found a way around it, John reminds her that there’s no half way in or half way out. She can’t do it for Ray, and she can’t do it for him. If Nora makes the choice, it has to be for herself, and that’s exactly what she does. It seems Darhk’s daughter really is trying to turn over a new leaf. If saving Constantine isn’t proof enough, she also makes the decision to turn herself in to the Time Bureau. No more running for her!

With all of that going down in the med bay, Sara, Zari, Mick and Charlie try to solve Japan’s little (big) monster problem. After Ishiro is cagey with his footage, the Legends steal it to see just what’s going on. Seeing the giant squid for themselves results in them trying to find the monster and get it out of Japan before it causes any real damage, but the kaiju isn’t their magical problem. It is, instead, the book of Brigid, a Celtic goddess who gifted the book to mortals to bring their creations to life. The creations can’t go away until their story is complete, but Ishiro wrote Tagumo’s story to get him out of a dark place.

This version of Ishiro Honda survived Hiroshima. The director shares a heartbreaking tale of looking around for the rest of his countrymen only to realize that he was breathing them in. There’s more, but that’s a monologue that’s worth watching. Tagumo was born out of that despair, and Ishiro is unable to change the ending of his tale and stop the very monster he created. If only there was another artist in their midst.

“Tagumo Attacks” revives the Mick-as-a-writer storyline, and thank god for that. Mick Rory doesn’t seem like the type who would contain multitudes, but there’s a lot going on under that gruff exterior. He might be cranky, but we’ve seen him display the capability for deep love and, surprisingly, writing. It’s not Zari’s cleverness or Sara’s brawn that stops Tagumo. Mick’s character Irima comes to life to take on the monster (helpfully shrunken down a touch earlier in the episode). The Godzilla director catches the epic battle on film, but thankfully stops the camera before Mick and his three breasted warrior, uh… celebrate their victory. Listen, though contains multitudes, the guy’s still Heat Wave.

While the Legends deal with witches and kaiju, Nate and Ava have a much more daunting task: Thanksgiving with the Heywoods. Lucky for Nate, he doesn’t have to survive the torture long. He abandons Ava with his family to return to the Time Bureau to save Gary and his new lady friend, Mona, from all of the magical fugitives. Turns out those fugitives are only acting out because they’re starving (and maybe because they were tranquilized and locked up). By the end, Thanksgiving is saved and the Bureau has a new magical creature specialist! Good thing, too. If Gary zapped that poor girl’s memory one more time her brain might’ve leaked out her ears!

This all leads to the reveal that Mr. Heywood is up to something shady with the creatures. Looks like a Tannen never changes his stripes. Poor Nate was finally connecting with his father, but at least he’ll have something to distract him when he finally meets Charlie! It couldn’t have come at a better time, because it looks like he’ll be back on the Waverider sooner rather than later. He’s going to have to save all of his friends from getting fired in next week’s episode.

You know what to do if you had thoughts on this week’s show!