[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers]
Director: Ben Hernandez Bray
Writers: Ray Utarnachitt & Morgan Faust
Starring: Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz & Maisie Richardson-Sellers
Summary
Zari is caught in a time loop that always ends in the Waverider blowing up.
Positives
The mission that the team only talks about actually sounds kind of fun. An 8-track tape of “Waterloo Sunset” was found at the battle of Waterloo as an anachronism. Like with Beebo, that kind of insane nonsense is the direction this show needs to go.
Negatives
It’s hard not to compare this with Happy Death Day which was a recent tribute to Groundhog Day in the context of a slasher film. Having just seen a movie with this kind of premise that was really fun, kind of clever and had an insanely likeable lead character, this episode really falls short in comparison. There’s nothing to it. They honestly don’t really try comedy outside of Heatwave and some cringe-worthy reaction shots of Zari. The writers have someone mention death followed by the immediate explosion several times. That joke is lame once but they do it three or four times.
The episode mainly tries to give genuine development for the team which is a terrible idea. These people are two dimensional at best and the show just isn’t smart enough for this. A lot of the “arcs” are only here for this episode or have already been resolved. Nothing has moved forward or changed by the end of the episode but they act like Zari and the team have had these huge revelations about each other.
This is a full spoiler warning; I am going to give away the ending. It was all just a dream. I’m not even kidding; Gideon created this simulation for Zari. Hardly anything we see actually happens. This show and these writers think the Groundhog Day concept is too lame and silly for the show. They even make fun of it and call it clichéd. It takes balls for writers to call something cliché when they pull the most clichéd bullsh** possible. Your self aware humor doesn’t work if you immediately do something more lame than what you’re making fun of. It’s a time travel show; a concept like Groundhog Day is absolutely something they could have pulled off brilliantly.
Verdict
This is a terrible episode. It’s a concept that’s been done far more effectively in many other projects such as Groundhog Day, Happy Death Day and the Supernatural tribute to Groundhog Day. It wants to be a character piece but the characters are too underdeveloped and inconsistent. The small attempts at comedy fall flat on their face. It’s a complete waste of time
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