Legends of Tomorrow Moments Even Weirder Than Gorilla Grodd Trying to Kill Obama

On this week’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gorilla Grodd tried to murder a young Barack Obama in 1979. This led to the time-traveling heroes arriving to rescue the future President (“We’re on Obamacare”), with Ray Palmer urging Obama to “Run, Barry, run!” in a wink to The Flash. Later, the Legends urged Barry Obama to use his full name, Barack. While this moment is a knee-slapper and certainly ranks high among the strangest things ever seen on The CW’s superhero show, it’s par for the course on Legends of Tomorrow. This show is just weird, and gloriously so.

Originally a gathering of the misfit secondary characters the Arrowverse had accumulated, Legends began as a sprawling time-travel adventure that allowed the producers to expand and explore the various corners of their TV Multiverse. In the second season, the series’ braintrust began to realize the strength of Legends lies in how they can basically do anything and go anywhere. What’s more, with Sara Lance/White Canary, Ray Palmer/The Atom, and Mick Rory/Heatwave leading a motley crew including Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, Nate Heywood/Steel, Wally West/Kid Flash, and soon, John Constantine, they had a troupe of characters eccentric enough to roll with whatever lunacy comes along.

Related: Legends of Tomorrow Is Now The Best Arrowverse Show

As the third season comes to a close, Legends has embraced their “anything goes” mantra with gusto. The Legion of Doom arc during Season 2 cemented the Legends as cosmic screw-ups who manage to save the day against all logic, but in Season 3, the series has truly cut loose by becoming relentlessly bizarre – and incredibly fun. This year, the heroes had to fix time itself, which they had broken with their ineptitude. Due to the multiple “time anachronisms” they created, the Legends fought P.T. Barnum and his pet sabretooth tiger; they met Helen of Troy in 1920s Hollywood and took her to Themyscira; they discovered Ava Sharpe, Sara’s new girlfriend and the director of the Time Bureau, was a clone from the future; and after the death of Martin Stein, Leonard Snart from Earth-X tried to counsel Jefferson Jackson with a puppet of his late mentor.

If all of that sounds strange, you ain’t seen nothing yet: none of those moments even make our list of the 10 weirdest moments on Legends of Tomorrow.

This Page: Pirates, Elvis, Aliens, and George Lucas

10. The Dread Pirate Jiwe

Between Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood, Legends is littered with constant references to movies and pop culture – like Pirates of the Caribbean. When Edward Teach, the infamous pirate known as Blackbeard, discovered the mystical Earth Totem and buried it, the Legends donned pirate clothes and sailed to the year 1717. To infiltrate Blackbeard’s crew, they pretended Amaya was “the Dread Pirate Jiwe“, the scourge of the seas. Uncomfortable at first posing as a pirate queen, Mick Rory helped her ease into the role so that by the end, she earned even Blackbeard’s admiration – but not before Teach boarded and tried to take over the Waverider before being stopped by Ava Sharpe and Sara Lance.

9. Saving Elvis Presley and Rock N’ Roll

The King of Rock and Roll – and the genre of rock music itself – were almost wiped from existence. In 1954, on the cusp of stardom, the young Elvis Presley didn’t know he was in possession of the Death Totem, which was reanimating his dead brother Jesse. With his favorite music genre threatened, Nate Heywood led the charge to save his hero Elvis, and also his hairstyle, which refused to become a coif while the King’s life was in jeopardy. In the end, the Legends helped Elvis banish his dead brother, saved rock and roll, and retrieved the Death Totem. Plus, Nate’s hairdo returned to normal.

8. Julius Caesar in Aruba

Mick Rory yearned to vacation in Aruba, and he got his chance when Julius Caesar popped up as a time anachronism during Spring Break 2017. After Sara fought Caesar on the beach during a toga party, the Legends learned he stole the book “The Rise of Rome” from their library, which gave him foreknowledge of his assassination. Caesar traveled back to Ancient Rome and changed history. The Legends and the Time Bureau successfully foiled Caesar’s plot and wiped his mind, setting history on its proper course. They haven’t been back to Aruba since.

7. Young Ray Palmer Adopts A Baby Dominator

Legends did a shameless homage to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial full of Spielberg and 1980s Easter eggs when a baby Dominator named Gumball was stranded in Ivy Town and befriended by a young Ray Palmer. Hunting Gumball were the Legends, the NSA, and his mother, a fully-grown and very angry Dominator. When Gumball was captured by the NSA, the adult Ray and Zari Tomaz helped the younger Ray rescue his little friend. This rescue attempt came complete Ray singing “Good Morning”, his favorite song from Singing in the Rain, to distract the NSA guards, and Zari using her wind powers to launch young Ray, with Gumball in his bicycle basket, into the air. Finally, Gumball reunited with his mother and left Earth.

6. Saving George Lucas and Star Wars

In Season 2, the Legends saved Star Wars. Back in 1967, George Lucas was merely a prop master working in Hollywood when the Legion of Doom attacked the set. This event caused a traumatized Lucas to abandon filmmaking and become an insurance salesman – which robbed the world of Star Wars. George also knew the location of the piece of the Spear of Destiny the villains sought, so the Legends had to convince the visionary director to not only help them retrieve the Spear but also not quit his destiny of directing one of the biggest films of all time.

Related: Every George Lucas Nod And Easter Egg in Legends of Tomorrow

Naturally, the heroes succeeded and Lucas went on to make his space fantasy film after all.

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