After a lengthy hiatus, “Daddy Darhkest” starts up with John Constantine breaking in a mental institution in Star City as he meets up with Emily, a victim of demonic possession. The exorcist tries removing the demon with his best enchantment, but it is useless as Mallus takes over and taunts him with Astra, whom I presume to be from Constantine’s own canceled show. Eventually, Mallus lets down, but not before mentioning Sara Lance as that’s where we meet the team again.
Meanwhile, Ray and Zari are working on a new gun that may supposedly help the Legends fight the Darhks. Sara convinces John to allow her to accompany him to the exorcism, but before they go, Ava Sharpe calls Sara!! So, okay, it’s hard to tell, but I guess somewhere between the two being catty to each other and now, the couple developed sexual and romantic tension? At least that’s what we’re meant to go with because there are talks about wine and stolen glances… even Leo agrees that Sara and Ava are dancing the dance and, honestly, I was screaming with excitement.
At the hospital, the team even makes an honest attempt to break in surreptitiously, but that doesn’t last long and that’s not even counting how Kuasa suddenly appears so Amaya has to stay behind to fight her. When the Legends do reach Emily, Zari comes in with hot new information: Emily is actually Eleanor/Nora Darhk. While Leo goes to get some adrenaline to wake Nora up, Nate takes Leo’s gun to help Amaya which comes in handy when she freezes her, turning her to ice.
The Legends disable their electronic equipment before Constantine starts performing the ritual which quickly goes awry: not only does the exorcism fail, but Mallus draws a symbol on the floor that makes the three teammates disappear into 1969.
Zari and Ray go back to Nora’s room and find the symbol on the ground which informs them about the time travel. After seeing Nora, Zari decides to talk to her, expositing about how she has also been in a mental institution. The two women bond, but Nora has no idea where the Legends went to. As she fears for Nora’s life, Zari decides to break her out of the hospital.
Back in the past, Mallus starts taunting Sara which includes the “hands deforming a wall” semi-cliché trope we’ve been seeing more and more in media, given the demon is hellbent on possessing Sara. Leo tries to sneak in a clue so the 2017 Legends can go and find them, but he gets knocked down by the 1969 version of Nora’s mean doctor.
John and Sara find a place where the exorcist can help her calm down from her Mallus-y feelings. The two talk about their trauma and their unwillingness to forgive themselves for their sins which, as we all know, is a highly erotic and tantric subject as the two corrupted souls bang one out to release some steam.
Back at the Waverider, Amaya defrosts Kuasa to talk to her. The granddaughter is emphatic about her resentment towards Amaya, a once wonderful grandmother who now refuses to turn her ship back and saves her country from being war torn and even herself from being murdered.
After the off-screen breakout, Zari and Ray take Nora to a coffee shop which can only mean two things: Central City’s Jitters is opening franchises at Star City or they thought we wouldn’t notice they were using the same set but for a different town.
John and Sara finish out their dirty business just in time to save Leo from a lobotomy. Sara convinces John to try using the same spell Mallus had used before, but this time to get them back to 2017 which John thinks is a risky idea because it would involve Sara getting possessed by Mallus and then having to fight back.
Upon seeing a clip of Damian Darhk being murdered on TV (can Star City’s networks really air that clip willy nilly?) Mallus takes over Nora once again and wreaks havoc at Jitters, fighting the two Legends easily. Amaya tells Kuasa about her visions and how she wants to help her, but they get interrupted by Nate, coming in with a fever against Kuasa
Sara gets back to the demon world where she finds the real Nora, just a scared little girl, and talks her into fighting back Mallus just in time before he kills Zari. Thus, she completes the symbol and the three successfully get back to 2017.
Before Kuasa can drown Nate, Amaya convinces Kuasa that the two of them can help Amaya go back home eventually to Zambesi and turn things around. I believe this scene somewhat implies on some suspicions I believe some of us have that Nate will be the father of Amaya’s child/children and possibly even Kuasa’s grandfather.
At Jitters, things seem okay with Nora after the possession, but then, of course, the Damien Darhk that was resurrected shows up and talks her into going with him and the mean old nurse, a member of the Mallus Fandom.
The Legends get back together and Zari brings back something that Mallus!Nora mentioned about her being “one of the six”. This means that there are six totems out there which was a surprise to Amaya, who believed there were only five: Amaya is spirit, Zari is air, Kuasa is water, and then there’s earth and fire (how about the little totem that the Darhks are using to time travel?). Nonetheless, these totems seem to be the key to stopping Mallus.
Constantine says his goodbyes to the team and advises Ray to keep working on their anti-magic gun because it might be useful when Sara succumbs to Mallus. Leo also decides it is time to go back to Ray and get married, which feels like a personal punch to the gut because I was finally engaged with having Wentworth Miller on the DCTV universe given how much I found the original Snart barely watched.
Capping off, Sara calls Ava with some pretext to ask her to come by, but Ava bears bad news: Rip Hunter has escaped and the Bureau has no idea where to.
