History Notes: Legends of Tomorrow Episode 204, "Abominations"

The promos for this episode of LEGENDS OF TOMORROW were geared toward it being Halloween week. Thus, the focus was on the zombies that got created during the U.S. Civil War when a time-pirate crashes there with a bioweapon.

But the really intense story here wasn't the involvement of Sara (CAITY LOTZ) and Nate (NICK ZANO) assisting General Ulysses S. Grant (JOHN CHURCHILL) against confederate zombies (oh where oh where is Selena Rosen when I need her?), nor is it in the drama that finds Ray (BRANDON ROUTH) and Martin (VICTOR GARBER) trapped aboard the Waverider with a zombified Mick (DOMINIC PURCELL).

No, the Emmy-deserving portion of this episode belongs to Jefferson (FRANZ DRAMEH) and Amaya (MAISIE RICHARDSON-SELLERS). When the Legends team lands in 1863 to eradicate the crashed time-pirate's vessel, the come upon a crew of soldiers chasing a black man. He is Henry Scott (WARREN BELLE), a freeman from New Jersey. He's also a dispatch, a black who infiltrates the South to carry information back to the North. The team rescues him, only to find that the Confederates rise back up. They're zombies, infected by the TX90 virus carried by the time pirate. And they end up killing Henry Scott.

Jax makes it his mission to complete what Scott was doing -- preparing to steal Confederate plans for an ambush at Champion Hill which would turn the tide of the war. (On the Waverider, archival newspapers are already showing Union surrender headlines.) Martin doesn't want him out there alone, because, hello, he's black in 1863 Mississippi! Jax won't back down, but he does relent into taking Amaya with him.

As they approach the Collins plantation, where a cotillion is being hosted that Scott was meant to infiltrate as "the help," they see a female slave being beaten. Amaya is about to intercede, but Jax stops her, warning that interference with the timeline can have unintended and catastrophic consequences.

But when Jax accidentally runs afoul of the plantation owner (DEAN S. JAGGER), he finds himself beaten and chained up in the slave house with other slaves. And the stories they tell of those who try to escape are chilling and horrifying, more so than any of the lumbering undead. By the time Amaya comes to rescue Jax, he's ready to do a little history-fixing of his own.

Yes, it's fun to see Martin and Ray try to chase down zombie-Mick (who gifts Ray with something at the end of the episode), and deal with Martin's irrational fear of zombies -- although it's not particularly irrational if their really are zombies, he points out. And it's exciting to watch Nate and Sara help the Union soldiers fend off an attack, even if it is depleting all the ammunition they were going to need for later in Vicksburg. But the intensity Franz Drameh brings to his role, both in the escape and later on the ship during closing credits is something that should get serious attention.

There were not a ton of Easter eggs in this episode that I caught, however we do get a little bit more of the message from Future Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN) of which only Jax and Martin are aware. It's a warning. "A war is coming." This could be a reference to the upcoming INVASION storyline that will be the four-part DCW crossover event. What role a Barry Allen 40 years later might have in it I can't imagine, but with time travel being a part of both FLASH and LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, I'm sure the writers have worked something out.