Delayed Reaction and Meta: DC's Legends of Tomorrow 2.08
I have some thoughts about the midseason finale of DC's Legends of Tomorrow that I want to post. I saw the episode a while back, but it's taken a while to get my thoughts into words, and they still aren't very coherent words.
SPOILER WARNING: if you have not seen the episode and are avoiding info for it, this contains spoilers up to and including 2.08
[Spoilers, mini-meta, and theory regarding DCLoT episode 2.08 and series 2.]
SNAAAAAAAART!! \o/
I wasn't expecting anything going into this episode because I don't watch the promos or ads, and had no idea this return was in the works. I saw Wentworth Miller in the credits and literally screamed. I had no idea how much I had missed Snart. (Rick Hunter was a nice surprise too.)
Rory and Snart talking to each other made me realize how their speech patterns were in a sort of sync, and still are despite Snart having been gone for so long. And Rory's "I'll be dead like you" is haunting with the sense of how deeply Mick truly misses his friend and partner in crime.
Now, the theory: I think Snart was not a hallucination. Here's my thinking.
The way Snart died, it likely spread him throughout all time and space. Initially I thought it might be a Clara Oswald sort of thing where he exists in multiple periods of history, etc. But this occurrence makes me think he's been slowly coalescing. Pulling himself back together across time and space, and becoming a sort of temporal ghost in the interim.
Leonard's not dumb; he'd realize pretty quick after regaining the capacity to realize things that no one he was around was reacting to his presence, and since he knew he was going to die when he died, he'd probably assume he was a regular ghost. Maybe he's been trying to communicate and maybe he's just been sitting back and snarking. Maybe Mick's said something before that seems like he's responding. Not sure. Needs brain.
The thing is, Mick has never moved on from the loss of Leonard. Nothing shows that more than that quiet little 'I'd be dead like you'. He tried to make Ray be Snart-like. Rory carries that Snart-shaped hole with him everywhere. They were each other's best and practically only friends, the only ones they could get close to really trusting for so long. With that level of personal attachment housed on a ship that travels through time, it seems to me Mick Rory would act like a sort of Snart magnet. Gathering up bits of Leonard Snart wherever they land, taking them back into the ship to form a concentration that could begin to manifest as a hallucination or ghost.
Also, Mick was in the hands of the Time Masters for a while, and they made him into Chronos. This probably involved modifications that improved certain temporal senses. I think Mick is Leonard's focal point due to their personal attachment, and that Mick has begun to see/hear/sense him because he is closest to Snart and thanks to the Time Masters' interference, he is now the most sensitive to this sort of thing. Gideon may not be as attuned, or not have the same emotional connection, or it could be that Snart is on her cleared personnel list, so the Snart-like trace that has started appearing on board doesn't ping her radar, and since he has been accreting gradually, not appearing suddenly or entering through any of the Waverider's doors, so any trace Gideon may have detected has been waved off as background noise or minor interference.
So, yeah. That's what I think. As the Waverider travels through time, Mick Rory is acting as a magnet to bring wayward Snart particles/energies/hoody-hoo onto the ship, which have now conglomerated enough to be aware and snark at Mick for turning slowly into a hero.
Or something like that. It'll do for me until the series gets around to bringing Snart back in full. Because they'd better.
SPOILER WARNING: if you have not seen the episode and are avoiding info for it, this contains spoilers up to and including 2.08
[Spoilers, mini-meta, and theory regarding DCLoT episode 2.08 and series 2.]
SNAAAAAAAART!! \o/
I wasn't expecting anything going into this episode because I don't watch the promos or ads, and had no idea this return was in the works. I saw Wentworth Miller in the credits and literally screamed. I had no idea how much I had missed Snart. (Rick Hunter was a nice surprise too.)
Rory and Snart talking to each other made me realize how their speech patterns were in a sort of sync, and still are despite Snart having been gone for so long. And Rory's "I'll be dead like you" is haunting with the sense of how deeply Mick truly misses his friend and partner in crime.
Now, the theory: I think Snart was not a hallucination. Here's my thinking.
The way Snart died, it likely spread him throughout all time and space. Initially I thought it might be a Clara Oswald sort of thing where he exists in multiple periods of history, etc. But this occurrence makes me think he's been slowly coalescing. Pulling himself back together across time and space, and becoming a sort of temporal ghost in the interim.
Leonard's not dumb; he'd realize pretty quick after regaining the capacity to realize things that no one he was around was reacting to his presence, and since he knew he was going to die when he died, he'd probably assume he was a regular ghost. Maybe he's been trying to communicate and maybe he's just been sitting back and snarking. Maybe Mick's said something before that seems like he's responding. Not sure. Needs brain.
The thing is, Mick has never moved on from the loss of Leonard. Nothing shows that more than that quiet little 'I'd be dead like you'. He tried to make Ray be Snart-like. Rory carries that Snart-shaped hole with him everywhere. They were each other's best and practically only friends, the only ones they could get close to really trusting for so long. With that level of personal attachment housed on a ship that travels through time, it seems to me Mick Rory would act like a sort of Snart magnet. Gathering up bits of Leonard Snart wherever they land, taking them back into the ship to form a concentration that could begin to manifest as a hallucination or ghost.
Also, Mick was in the hands of the Time Masters for a while, and they made him into Chronos. This probably involved modifications that improved certain temporal senses. I think Mick is Leonard's focal point due to their personal attachment, and that Mick has begun to see/hear/sense him because he is closest to Snart and thanks to the Time Masters' interference, he is now the most sensitive to this sort of thing. Gideon may not be as attuned, or not have the same emotional connection, or it could be that Snart is on her cleared personnel list, so the Snart-like trace that has started appearing on board doesn't ping her radar, and since he has been accreting gradually, not appearing suddenly or entering through any of the Waverider's doors, so any trace Gideon may have detected has been waved off as background noise or minor interference.
So, yeah. That's what I think. As the Waverider travels through time, Mick Rory is acting as a magnet to bring wayward Snart particles/energies/hoody-hoo onto the ship, which have now conglomerated enough to be aware and snark at Mick for turning slowly into a hero.
Or something like that. It'll do for me until the series gets around to bringing Snart back in full. Because they'd better.