The Legends veer back and forth between serious and their usual comedic slapstick as they bounce around 1973 Florida. There’s a shift in membership, some changes in the supporting cast, and a conspicuous absence. We even literally get to see the title, “The Getaway,” during the course of the show.

In Orlando in 1973, President Nixon suddenly departs from the speech that gave us his best known and most imitated line. Aboard the Waverider, the team knows this isn’t right, and Sara gives orders to head out for the latest change in history. I do wonder why they never “fix” anything from the future. I guess Gideon is screening what they find out about to not change the team’s own time to come? At any rate, Ray and Charlie both voice some reservations about the mission, and Sara assures them she’s fine, even with the recent issue with Ava. This isn’t actually what either of them were talking about, which is a rare instance of Sara both misreading everything and making it all about her. To me, this is more proof she’s not, in fact, fine. The ramifications of this change to history are odd and far reaching, and give Rory an odd rallying cry. The man has a lot of unexpected interests.

 

Nate and Zari, continuing their dating deception, go see Hank, who is Acting Director because Ava is oddly not in this episode. I guess her fight with Sara really shook her up. Hank is gunning for the Legends for reasons that aren’t really made clear, and Zari, amusingly, gets flustered at being called “Babe” by Nate. She also recruits Gary to help them while she’s off “helping” Nate catch the Legends, and Gary is revealed to be a conspiracy nut. Somehow, that’s not surprising.

 

Aboard the Waverider, Mona is having flashbacks to Konane’s death in Mexico, and there’s a running joke about something in the ship’s bathroom. Weirdly, considering how big the ship is, they strongly imply there’s only one bathroom, which seems like bad design. They jump back to a day before Nixon’s changed speech and go to see the man himself at Walter Reed Hospital. Their plan goes off the rails even sooner than normal when the Time Bureau shows up both at the hospital and on the Waverider itself (they need better security on that ship). The team takes off, making their escape in a big RV with “The Get Away” painted on the side, drawing an ironic comment from Constantine. Hank has some amusing problems trying to get Gideon to listen to him.

 

The Acting Director isn’t best pleased that the team escaped and that Gideon isn’t responding to him. Mona brings some concerns to Sara, who is in no frame of mind to listen, both because of their plan being so screwed up and Ray not helping by starting a game of Punchbuggy, which is just so perfectly him somehow. Sara does her best to keep things on track, and there’s the start of a running gag about Charlie.

 

The team, trying to lay low, switches to some clothes they find in the RV except, once again, for Constantine. The warlock figures out what’s going on with the President, which sets off a series of running jokes throughout the episode. Sara blows off Mona again and sticks her with an unpleasant task. Gary does an amusing take on the stereotypical “conspiracy wall” and seeks an unexpected ally.

 

Mona identifies too much with a magical critter, which is an ongoing thing with her, and sets off a series of bad slapstick moments that put the Legends and their new ride on the police radar, and, from there, to Hank’s attention. Ray handles the situation badly, Hank and Nate portal in slightly too late to catch the team, and then the Heywoods somehow get a magical costume change. Constantine somehow knows the cop car behind them doesn’t have cops in it, and manages a spell to throw off the pursuing Heywoods. Zari comes up with a clever way to send messages to the team without Hank listening in.

 

Gary and his new friend start hacking into the Time Bureau’s computers, and need some information that prompts a bonding scene with Hank and Nate. Gary and company get an unexpected visitor at the Bureau, which does bad things to Gary’s ally of convenience. The Legends’ scheming gets back to Hank, which ticks off and disappoints the Acting Director. One of the running gags about truth sparks an outburst from Sara which sends Mona running away from the team. Hank finds out more about the Legends’ plan in a remarkably unlikely way, and Mona runs into some Bureau agents and loses her cool in spectacular fashion.

 

Sara and John manage to catch up with Mona for a very energetic reconciliation. The rest of the team hits a Bureau roadblock and Ray opts for the non-violent approach. For whatever reason, Mick Rory agrees, which sets up for more of the running gag, this time dragging in Nate. All of this sets up for an actual, honest, peacemaking scene between Nate and Hank.

 

Mona, Sara, and John catch up with the others in a car they’ve acquired (there’s a lot of auto theft in this episode). Nixon comes to an epiphany which doesn’t last courtesy of the memory flasher. A new member officially joins the team, Sara has a realization about family, and the running joke about Charlie kicks in again. Zari catches up with Nate and gives him some bad news.

 

The episode ends with some suddenly serious moments. There’s a change of heart about a secret plan, some ally on ally violence, an escape, a death, and a misunderstanding about appearances versus reality. I suspect two characters who are actually more or less on the same side are going to be at odds for a while.

 

What I liked: At least one of the running jokes was actually funny at times, especially one of Rory’s lines. Hank’s bobbling Gideon’s commands on the Waverider made sense and was in character. I’m glad Sara realized she was screwing up on the leader front and fixed it. Gary, as always, was amusing comic relief, and his ally had some good scenes. There were callbacks to both Smokey and the Bandit and the old live action Shazam series.

 

What I didn’t: as is becoming standard for the show, most of the character’s specialties/powers were ignored. The only ones that consistently draw on their strengths are Sara and John. I wonder if they burned through their special effects budget in that mid-season finale with all the timeline rearranging. Compared to how the characters all started, Ray especially has become a shallow parody of what he once was. I don’t like the set up at the end of the episode. I don’t get why Ava wasn’t here; it felt more like a “cover up for the actor” bit than an actual plot point. A lot of this felt like an extended one of those old After School Special shows.

 

This seemed like a particularly shallow episode. I’m not even sure why. I’m going 2.5 out of 5 for this one. I usually enjoy the silliness of this series, but this one just didn’t click for me.