DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 18 (Finale) Review: The Good, The Bad, and the Cuddly

DC's Legends of Tomorrow started off a little bumpy with its less than stellar first season, but the show turned around dramatically in its second season that was largely helped by the Legion of Doom that was made up of past Arrowverse villains.

This formula was continued with the third season by using Damien Darhk as one of the main antagonists, along with appearances by Gorilla Grodd by others like Gorilla Grodd, which all culminated in the release of an original villain with Mallus that has led to the final showdown in the third season finale titled "The Good, The Bad, and the Cuddly."

The season has been building up to the grand reveal of Mallus since near the beginning, with him using Nora Darhk as a vessel over the last many episodes.

We saw him finally be revealed at the tail end of the penultimate episode last week, which is exactly where the finale starts off.

The plan concocted last week was to have the six totem bearers fight Mallus as soon as he was unleashed, but we quickly see that it does not work at all. As a result, the Legends have to devise an escape plan.

As the Legends are running to the Waverider, Rip Hunter takes the main ship's time drive from on board and goes out to distract Mallus for the time being by sacrificing himself.

This was a noble act for the character that has messed up so many times before, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see him again at some point regardless.

With Rip's sacrifice hitting the Legends hard, leading Ray to even start drinking in his honor, they head off to the Wild West to hide out while they can figure out a plan, complete with an appearance from Jonah Hex.

While Sara is still working on that plan, the town is invaded by a group of Romans, Pirates, and Vikings that the Legends have faced off against already this season, with an ultimatum from Mallus to surrender the totems or perish.

While this is going on, Ray was left behind on the Waverider, with Sara specifically telling him not to do anything stupid involving Damien Darhk, who they have held captive.

In typical Ray fashion though, he does something stupid and frees Damien to go back with him in the jumpship to right before Mallus was freed the episode before.

Ray and Damien both try to knock out Nora, leaving Mallus unable to come out, but this doesn't work. In the end, Damien surprises Ray by shooting Nora with the same gun that he shot Nora with episodes ago to free her of the demon.

As a result though, this causes Mallus to transfer himself from Nora into Damien instead, where he then breaks free like before.

Ray gets Nora back to the Waverider and uses the same antidote he did on her before to save her, though nothing has really changed other than having Nora still alive instead of Damien.

I really do like the chemistry between Ray and Nora, which is no surprise since they are married in real life, so I hope to see more of this in the future.

During this time, Amaya and Nate go on a vision quest back to her original ancestors to see how the original totem bearers actually used it to trap Mallus before.

They realize that they don't fight Mallus with it, but have to create something by bringing them all together instead.

We do get a bit of Nate being high once again, which is as hilarious as ever, with him referencing Voltron multiple times in relation to them summoning something with the totems, along with calling the summoning sequence the "Care Bear Stare."

With Ray still gone at this point, Wally takes possession of the Water Totem, with Sara taking the Death Totem this time as well, so that they can try this sequence. They hold hands in a circle and attempt this, but it does not go well, leaving some weird alien flesh looking creature that Mick promptly burns away quickly.

Sara begins to doubt they were truly meant to be totem bearers, which is followed right away by Ava showing up with a few returning characters, Jax, Helen of Troy, and Kuasa.

These are not the same characters that they were when we last saw them though. Jax has lived his live for five years since leaving the Waverider, now married and with a daughter. I really liked that he mentioned that he named his daughter Martina, which is a nice tribute to Martin Stein.

Helen of Troy has lived for awhile on Themyscira with the Amazons, so she is now a fierce warrior that basically serves as the Arrowverse's version of Wonder Woman now.

Lastly, Kuasa is not the villain that we've seen across the Vixen animated series and Legends of Tomorrow, but rather an alternate version now that Amaya prevented Zambesi from being destroyed in 1992.

This version wears the Vixen outfit and they mention her and Mari both have shared the totem passed down from Amaya.

We get some nice moments after this, with Jonah Hex and Zari having some chemistry and Helen of Troy being taught how to shoot a gun.

We also get Ava asking Sara if she really meant what she said when she told her that she loved her last episode, which led to a nice moment as well.

These little character moments are what make Legends so good, and it works great here.

One thing I really liked is rather than them passing off the totems to who Sara thought were more worthy people, these characters being brought back were just a push to help, not take the totems.

After a big showdown between the armies that had most of them being taken down, Mallus brings them all back and shows up himself.

This leads to the six totem bearers to go separately and try summoning again, which leads to one of the single greatest moments in television history, a giant Beebo.

With them saving to think of something pure of heart, multiple of the Legends couldn't help but think of Beebo, which leads to a giant version of Beebo showing up to fight Mallus with the totem bearers inside.

The giant Beebo looks really good for a television budget, with a downright hilarious fight scene ensuing between Beebo and Mallus.

This is the kind of thing you never thought you'd see in any live action medium, but Legends of Tomorrow continues to deliver moments like this. There is no doubt this is the type of scene I'll be watching again and again.

It even ends with a giant cloud of blue smoke shaped like a heart.

The destruction of Mallus may have been a little quick and not overly personal, but the way it was done with Beebo more than made up for it.

Following the destruction of Mallus, Ava and the Time Bureau come to clean up all of the mess by returning the various soldiers to their respective times.

They are also taking Nora into custody, but before they do, Ray talks to her in private and hands her Damien's time stone, saving that she deserved a second chance.

This hopefully means we'll see more of her next season, as she was a really good addition to the cast this year.

The saddest scene of the episode came when Amaya decided she had to go back to Zambesi now. Nate takes her in the jumpship by himself, with the mind eraser in tow.

She decides to not erase her memory though, as she said that would take away the only part of him that she gets to keep.

This was a nice send off for the character that allows her to pop back up with relative ease in the future if they want.

The season also ends with a nice stinger too that has all of the remaining Legends in Aruba chilling out on the beach.

At this point, someone looking like Constantine comes up, who ends up being Gary in essentially cosplay.

The real Constantine comes up right behind him though and dumps a demon's head on the beach, revealing that their freeing Mallus not only freed him, but opened the way for others to come to this world too.

This was definitely a great cliffhanger that didn't write characters into a major corner like last year's with time being broken.

We knew they couldn't do a huge cliffhanger with Sara showing up on Arrow in the finale this season, so this worked well to get us hyped for a Justice League Dark like season four.

I'm really hoping we see characters like Zatanna, Deadman, and Etrigan show up, as they would be a perfect fit for the series.

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