After a two-week hiatus following the darker-than-usual “Bad Blood,” Legends of Tomorrow has returned with “The Final Frame,” which combines the best of the show’s absurd premises with its oddly sincere emotional stakes. Sara (Caity Lotz), Mick (Dominic Purcell), Spooner (Lisseth Chavez), and Astra (Olivia Swann) – none exactly the most easy-going of the group – find another alien pod in Kansas City, presumably so they can make a Wizard of Oz reference later.
Inside, they find a peculiar alien “Puzzle Cube” that – much like a MotherBox from Zack Snyder’s Justice League – teleports them across the galaxy. Only instead of a rough alien wasteland, the quartet arrives in a bowling alley that is floating through the cosmos. In “The Final Frame,” the Legends must bowl for their survival.
Somehow, “The Final Frame” expands on this. And unlike other episodes of the show, it gradually builds to its biggest reveal. See, meanwhile, Nate (Nick Zano) and Zari 1.0 (Tala Ashe) are on a camping trip, spending a date together before Zari has to retreat inside the Air Totem. At first, this storyline appears disconnected from the intergalactic kidnapping, as the two deal with obnoxious “glamping” neighbors and confront their own odd relationship status. However, aboard the Waverider, Gideon is unable to contact and travel to Earth.
Then, Zari comments how there are no stars in the sky. Then, they get strange radio reports of how “the sun is missing” and “massive chasms have appeared in Alaska, Mexico, and Canada.” As the campers stumble upon one such gigantic crater, “The Final Frame” zooms out until we see three of them put closely together. The Earth has been turned into a bowling ball.
This outlandish premise sneakily results in one of the more tightly plotted episodes of Legends this season. Much of Season 6’s front half was split between time-hopping Legends and a stranded Sara (who appears especially frustrated here to have been kidnapped, “again!”). But in “The Final Frame,” the divided team unexpectedly converges upon the intergalactic bowling alley, even if they remain separated from one another. “The Final Frame” satisfyingly comes together, while also providing the setting for individual character development.
For instance, the doomsday symbolically hangs over Nate and Zari, who are quietly concerned about their romance's long-term challenges. If they are mostly content with a long-distance relationship, doesn’t that show it's not that important? Sometimes the broad comedy of their obnoxious materialistic neighbors distracts from the emotional focus, but Nate and Zari’s storyline addresses authentic concerns while adding a radical ground-level perspective of the bowling ball-converted Earth.
Similarly, this latest catastrophe gives a platform to Constantine’s (Matt Ryan) latest developments. After taking the blood magic potions in “Bad Blood,” the warlock is almost bursting with magical potential, Matt Ryan playing him like an unnervingly jittery and high-wired addict. When Behrad (Shayan Sobhian) notices the Earth has gone missing, Constantine sees an opening to wield his powerful magic to teleport them all to it, even if it seems more for the sake of doing anything at all with his renewed unhinged vigor.
In the meantime, Gary (Adam Tsekhman) tries to keep Ava (Jes Macallan) distracted from her fiancé, yet again, disappearing, through experimenting with her wedding dresses. Ava’s dress mutates from an elegant and simple white dress into one with lace, flowers, multiple veils, and miniature owls. Jes Macallan actually directed “The Final Frame” herself, and she clearly has lots of fun during Ava and Gary’s makeover montage. But she also brings this energy, plus a surprising amount of emotional weight, to the Legends trapped inside the bowling alley.
Sara is told by the alley’s creator, Buddy, that it was never intended to be a place of competition. But it became overrun by the Pin Killers – an arrogant bowling team that might be alien, but look like rockabilly “Jersey Shore” rejects – who take their opponents home planets as trophies. The Legends can only leave once they beat them in a match. Luckily, Spooner has a lot of experience and affection for bowling. Unluckily, both Mick and Astra do not, and the bitter attitude threatens to derail the team.
But like a good captain, Sara realizes how to make them work together. She turns off the scoreboard so they can forget about the (potentially apocalyptic) outcome and focus on a fun and positive environment. Spooner was angry at Mick for ignoring her advice and keeping his gloves on, but in a moment of understanding, Mick shows Spooner his burnt hands and comments how “my past is not for everyone to see.” By calming down, the team can open up.
Likewise, Astra – who, growing up in Hell, never learned how to bowl – is encouraged after hitting some of the pins instead of being criticized. When the game comes down to Astra needing to hit a strike, Sara suggests that she use the humiliating “granny-style” bowling technique of rolling it between her legs. Astra, always attached to her reputation, bristles at this. But “The Final Frame” shows it doesn’t matter what others think of you. Astra wins the game with this move. It doesn’t matter how embarrassing or “unique” your hobbies or playstyle might be, so long as you do it for the right reasons, and with the right people.
This may be the core theme of “The Final Frame.” Nate and Zari are reminded how unconventional their relationship is, Zari being directly told it shouldn’t work since “according to magazines” such long-term relationships never do. Ava is repeatedly worried about Sara seeing her in her wedding dress before the ceremony since it’s meant to be “bad luck.” But both these couples do not have to follow other people’s standards, instead playing by their own rules.
Constantine is the outlier here. His enhanced magic may bend the rules, but it demonstrates an addiction to being his old magical self. Instead of relinquishing reputation, like Astra, Constantine is constantly eager to prove just how powerful he is, often in dangerous ways. So far, the other Legends are oblivious to this, with Constantine’s magic mostly working out, but Buddy can sense his impending doom when the team reunite at the episode’s end.
Still, “The Final Frame” is not about such tragic consequences. Instead, the episode uses world-ending stakes for a playful and imaginative romp that focuses of character development, and shows the benefits of downplaying competition to highlight the joy of hanging out with friends.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sundays on the CW.