First Thoughts on 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Season 2 (Episodes 9-17)

So, here we are at the first DC Television finale for this year in the latter half of DC's Legends of Tomorrow: season 2, and its fair to say that its a rather underwhelming one at that. Oh, Legends, you were going so well...
Just as the season started wrapping up its loose ends, Legends of Tomorrow went and explored a whole alternate reality concept - always fun, especially as the Legion of Doom have control over the reality - but sadly, nothing much is explored with it. Perhaps this is because Legends already has so many characters that it can't possibly hope to give this new world justice in one episode, or perhaps its because they reach a satisfying ending before the ending to Episode 16, meaning that we have a whole other episode to go before we get a satisfying resolution. While last season felt understandably padded at points, this season has mostly been all the better for its planning, but the finale felt both oddly-underdeveloped and also overlong.
The actual season finale itself - involving the Legends meeting a themselves in the middle of World War I - all felt a little over-complicated, and there was a sense of confusion throughout as to what they were actually doing, and which version of who was doing what. The constant "ah no, [someone] is dead - oh no, wait, they're right here" was quite repetitive and frustrating. It would've been nice if at least one character could remember the whole thing for the audience's sake. Not only that, but Malcolm Merlyn gets practically nothing to do in the end, resulting in a team vs. team showdown whereby Darhk and a past version of Captain Cold (yep, that announcement they made about the Legion of Doom nearly a year ago finally actually...happened) can't die or anything, and Eobard Thawne gets the same ending as in the first season of The Flash. It feels anti-climactic, and lacks any real moments to appreciate the team vs. team dynamic they could have explored, at least in an action sense.
Then, the final episode decides to awkwardly rework itself so as to set up a third. Now, I'm glad Legends has a third run ahead of it, and I'm sure they would have preferred to set this up early, but...it feels a little clunky the way the season reaches an end and then gets that end twisted so that it can continue. I'd place actual money that Episode 17 was meant to end more definitely before The CW recommissioned the series (a fact that was in doubt shortly before), and the way they try and continue it...feels a little lazy. Rip Hunter actually leaves the show, and after his role this season was played around with so much, I was much happier seeing him back in the series. His "you know all you need to Sara" felt very disingenuous, especially since the episode had to bend over backwards to make its resolution all about Sara in the first place. Rip is the main character of the show - if Legends has one - and I think they're missing a trick expanding his character. Perhaps Arthur Darvill wants to leave, or maybe Rip will return to help the Legends out in Season 3 after they've created a strange new version of Los Angeles 2017 with their time-travels - now with added buildings and dinosaurs. This strange epilogue did remind me a little of the Hour Man epilogue to Season 1, but that then got almost rebooted with this season - so why try the same trick again? Have the creative team actually decided on a plot for Season 3 yet?
I guess we'll have to see in a third season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Hopefully next season will end much better than this one.