DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode Review/Recap: Freakshow

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DC's Legends of Tomorrow followed up its very enjoyable second season with a fantastic premiere that set up some events of the season, while also leaving some aspects under wraps.

The second episode picks up just after that premiere with yet another fun episode titled "Freakshow."

During the previous episode, the team happened to steal a device from Rip's Time Bureau that allows them to see the various anachronisms that they are tracking, along with a ratings scale the Time Bureau came up with. The Legends decide to take on an easy one that the Time Bureau wouldn't notice. One of the funniest moments of the episode has one of them recommending they go back to the Titanic, in which Stein is very against it, saying he wouldn't set foot on that ship and that the person who designed it should be shot.

This is hilarious because Victor Garber that plays Stein was in Titanic as the guy who designed the ship.

After this, they decide to take on a level one anachronism, which takes them back to the times of P.T. Barnum and his circus in 1870 Wisconsin.

While on the ship, we see that Ray has invented a new way to use his shrinking technology in the form of a shrink ray, which he refuses to call it. This fits in, as when they get to 1870, they discover that P.T. Barnum, played by Billy Zane, somehow has found a sabretooth tiger. This is obviously an anachronism, so Ray, Nate, and Jax go to try and shrink the animal and put it aboard the Waverider. However, Ray can't get his shrink ray working and ends up enlarging the creature instead, with it being set loose.

Having a wild animal on the loose leads to Sara taking a ship back to 1942 in Zambesi to bring Amaya back, who left between season two and three. Throughout the episode, we also get flashbacks to explain what happened to Amaya that forced her to leave. The first scene has her baking at home to try and surprise Nate by making him doughnuts for his birthday, which he said his mother always got him. After explaining that she just always bought them, he goes to buy some, but when he returns, she is gone.

A later scene explains that she saw a report on television for her granddaughter Mari as Vixen in Detroit, which led to her leaving. She goes to see Mari herself and sees that she still exists.

After talking to Rip, she learns that she's still there, but will eventually disappear once time sets into place, leading to her going back to 1942 to make sure Mari comes to be born.

But as we saw at the tail end of last week's episode, something isn't quite right with Amaya.

Sara certainly didn't tell Nate that she was recruiting Amaya to come back for this mission, which sends him off drinking with Ray and Jax. He ends up "steeling up" around P.T. Barnum and bragging about how Ray can shrink and how Jax can turn into a guy that shoots fire. This leads Barnum to kidnapping Ray and Jax, forcing them to be part of his band of freaks in the circus. However, they obviously don't have any powers without their suit and Stein respectively, so Barnum instead just puts them in a giant suit and says they are conjoined twins.

Sometime in this period, Amaya and Sara manage to capture the sabretooth tiger by shrinking it and putting it on a cage in the Waverider for Mick to watch. Nate and Amaya are also captured at some point here, which leads to Barnum making a nice nod by calling Nate "Man of Steel" and saying that he needs to remember that one.

Mick is afraid of clowns, but Stein gets him to go help him save the rest of the team.

In this sequence, Stein ends up dressing as a clown and Mick overcomes his fears to help out and Firestorm is able to be formed.

Amaya also is forced to user her powers to save Nate, though she once again loses control like we saw at the end of last week and almost kills Barnum until Nate is able to stop her and get her out of that state.

While all of this is going on, Sara is aboard the Waverider fighting off Agent Sharpe, who comes aboard the ship with one of the devices the Time Bureau uses to travel between places. She was tipped off due to an agent named Gary that was tailing the Legends, who Sara found watching them at the circus and then held captive on the Waverider. This scene has a great fight between the two, who still have a lot of chemistry with one another, an even includes a funny moment where they take a water break and eventuallly have to once again capture the escaped sabretooth tiger that has regrown in size.

In this part, Sharpe slips up and says she can't believe that Rip believes they can actually help with a threat before cutting herself off, and leaves them be.

Sara tells the Legends about this ominous threat, which they all completely laugh off as nothing based on the past enemies they've already had to face.

At this point, Amaya is staying on the Waverider until she can get her powers under control again.

The very end of the episode is very interesting, as we see the rebirth of a character that was part of the Vixen animated series' second season.

This character in particular is Kuasa, who is Amaya's other granddaughter and sister to Mari and seems to be resurrected by some follower of the teased villain named Mallus.

Freakshow did what Legends of Tomorrow does best and that's provide a wild and crazy hour of fun.

Kuasa is now introduced as a physical villain besides the Time Bureau, but we still have no idea who Mallus is or what he wants, so hopefully we get more information on that soon.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 1 Review: 'The Virgin Gary' (more); DC Universe Streaming App Trailer Teases Ultimate DC Experience (more); DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 18 (Finale) Review: The Good, The Bad, and the Cuddly (more); DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 17 Review: Guest Starring John Noble (more).

And here are some more related articles: Legends of Tomorrow Co-Showrunner Teases Heartbreak and A Departure In The Finale (more); DC's Legends of Tomorrow EP Says Finale Pulls Out All The Stops (more); DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 16 Review: I, Ava (more).

A few more: Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Episode 11 Review: Here I Go Again (more); Catherine Tate And Maise Richardson-Sellers No Longer Coming To Armageddon Expo Wellington, NZ (more).

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