It’s been little more than a month since we last had a new Legends episode but in these strange times, it’s felt much longer. With so many shows cutting their production short, those lucky enough to have completed filming are a special kind of solace. The utter insanity of Legends made for good escapism in the best of time, now it’s nothing short of a miracle to join the crew of the Waverider once a week.
The episode kicks off in jolly ole’ London in the ’70s. More accurately three days after Charlie was captured by the Legends. Her band’s the Smell concert is cut short. Charlie’s sister Atropos is in town and doesn’t mind tearing down some bodies to find her.
Meanwhile, Zari and Nate have a rude awakening. In the night Zari slept walked into Nate’s room (adorably adorned with Hey World paraphilia, Scoots McGoots and of course, Beebo). Nate’s sure it’s a sign her subconscious remembers something from the other timeline. Half the Legends, including Behrad, catch Zari leaving his room all jumping to the conclusion they hooked up.
Constantine’s all gung ho to find the remaining Loom pieces, but Atropos’ visit shows up in the timeline leaving Charlie to mourn her bandmates. She knows it’s her sister from the description of the body being burned inside out. Sara puts the Loom search on hold to let Charlie grieve but Constantine has his own ideas. Using the piece they do have he tracks the next one to Vancouver.
Back in Hell, Atropos pays the coin maker a visit. Oh yeah, Astra’s surrogate parent in Hell is also Charlie’s other sister, Lachesis. Knowing now Clotho goes by Charlie they put it together the Charlie helping John Constantine is the same Charlie they’re looking for.
After being assaulted by a sleepwalking Zari, Gideon’s running slow on the uptake so she only informs of the team of Constantine nabbing the jump ship after he’s long gone. Sara and Charlie gear up to find him. Ava was going to join them, but Mick returned to the ship complaining about kids and her mission for the day changes gears.
Mick’s considers stopping his past self from sleeping with Ali, but Ava proposes they use time travel so he can be there throughout his daughter’s life. She pretends to be his CO covering why he’s able to visit during the years he’s supposed to be in jail. They jump around the years, letting Mick be there for her milestones, from reading a bedtime story that’s definitely too raunchy for a toddler to helping with science projects and seeing her off to homecoming. Ava captures all the moments, putting together a scrapbook.
In Vancouver, Sara discovers, to her delight, Supernatural is filming in the area (who said Crisis was the only crossover this season?) They find Constantine by the Winchester’s car. While Sara and John argue about finding the Loom Charlie hears her sister’s voice. Atropos not only knows they’re there, she destroys the jump ship to they can’t escape. Without it, they can’t contact the Waverider so they’re left to fend for themselves until the team realizes what happened. Sara steals some prop weapons. With Charlie’s sister there they have no choice but to grab the Loom piece before she can.
Charlie hears her sister’s voice, threatening to kill her friends. Slipping away from Sara and John she confronts Atropos. Right away her sister pokes at her insecurities, wearing her down to give up the location of the Loom. But the Legends come to her rescue. So what if Atropos is a literal goddess. Sara Lance is ready to throw fists with her anyway. Using a spell Constantine buys them time to escape. Charlie’s sure John is as good as dead, but he shows up right on cue, looking a little worse for wear but still very much alive. He says he tricked Atropos with an illusion of him bleeding out but the John we see on the forest floor doesn’t look like an illusion.
On the Waverider Zari’s hallucinate multiple timelines now, seeing cat Zari walking the halls. She follows it to where her brother is playing Mortal Kombat. When he offers her a controller her memories kick in and she’s demolishing him with record speed. She never plays video games so it freaks her out. In her freak out, she accidentally activates the air totem, which is the final nail in the coffin they need to give this a deeper look. With Nate they theorize the Hey World changes brought ‘Z-nation Zari’ but the previous Zari must have joined the Legends sooner. They’re mostly spot-on, aside from assuming she and Behrad shared the totem in the previous timeline with no way of knowing he was actually dead.
Comparing herself to the hacker superhero she was, Zari can’t help but find her current self lacking. Wanting to know more about her ‘another’ self, Behrad suggests she goes on a vision quest to speak with their ancestors. Also known as getting high.
Back in present-day, Mick and Ava give Lita the scrapbook but her attitude hasn’t changed. Being there a few times throughout her life doesn’t change he’s missed most of it. From her view, he still abandoned her. Mick’s ready to give up altogether but Ava pushes him to try again. He can’t make up for not being there in the past, but he can try to be there now.
Meanwhile, Sara and Charlie are too busy stumbling on the dead Supernatural crew to notice the way ‘Constantine’ is lurking behind them. Did I say dead? Sorry, I meant undead. The crew, now zombies thanks to the Loom’s effects, attack Charlie but Sara keeps them at bay with some help from the props she snagged earlier.
But when Charlie grabs the Loom, Atropos drops her Constantine disguise, pinning her to the tree and taking the Loom. Sara tries to stop her, but she reveals her true form, the same thing she did at the start of the episode that left Charlie’s bandmate cooked from the inside.
On the ship, Zari’s all drugged up and ready for her vision quest. The ancestor waiting to meet her isn’t old nor is she an ancestor. Zari 1.0 appears. The first Zari we came to know and love. When the timeline changed that version of her was preserved in the totem as a previous bearer. It’s with heart-breaking tears of joy Zari 1.0 learns her parents and Behrad are all alive in the new timeline. The two Zari’s sit down with some tea and donuts to learn about each other. Zari 2.0 admits she must seem lame to her former self, but Zari 1.0 thinks she’s pretty cool.
Its right about now the Legends realize the jump ship was destroyed, jumping to Vancouver to provide backup. As they appear, the Loom ring Atropos has resonated with the one on board, clueing her into where she can find it.
Ava and Nate find John gravely injured, but still alive. Also not dead, is Sara Lance. She’s died so many times she shrugs it off like a minor inconvenience. Meanwhile, Atropos found her away onto the ship. Behrad tries to wake Zari but she’s in too deep. Finding them, Atropos offers to leave Zari alive if Behrad hands over the Loom. With Zari using his totem he’s powerless. He hands over the Loom, but when Atropos turns her back, he grabs Khan’s Hell sword. Even with the sword, he’s helpless against her. Pulling his thread of fate Atropos cuts it. Sara and Charlie get there in time to see him fall.
Sara only pauses long enough to check Behrad before she’s grabbing the sword and charging after Atropos, yelling orders to take off. They face off in the cargo bay, the sword seeming like it can’t do any lasting damage. Atropos disarms her, but Sara’s plan was never to kill her with the sword. She has Gideon open the cargo door, exposing them to the temporal zone. Atropos grabs her foot before she can get sucked out. Charlie appears, grabbing the sword and holding onto Sara, cutting off Atropos’ hand sending her flying into the temporal zone, while the Loom rings she was wearing stay behind with her hand.
They may have beaten one Fate, but fate’s still cruel. Zari says goodbye to herself, promising to come back for a visit and next time with Behrad. As she wakes Nate and Ava are there, the pain etched in their faces. Before they can get out what happens, Zari sees her brother. After just meeting the version of herself who became a Legends to save Behrad she wakes to a world where he’s died. Distraught but with a newfound resolve Zari storms into the med bay where John’s recovering. If the Loom of Fate can bring her brother back, she’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
Review
Someone, please hand Tala Ashe all the awards. She slipped back into our old Zari like no time had passed pulling off a performance that was equally heart-warming and heart-breaking. To see the joy when she learned they changed her family’s fate tinged with the sadness of the knowledge that she, the version who lost them would never see it. And all the emotional groundwork she laid as Zari 1.0 only compounded when she had to play out Zari 2.0’s anguish at the end of the episode. Brutal and heart-wrenching, even with a trailer giving some clues to Behrad’s fate it’s impossible to watch without sharing in her pain.
I believe at one point I mentioned the Encore gimmick ran the risk of being trite as the season wore on. It seemed the writers sensed that possibility and headed it off early by bringing the Loom of Fate into the fold. Charlie’s sisters, especially Atropos after her imposing introduction here are quickly shaping up to be terrifying and resourceful villains. With their threat properly established as the big bads, the Encores can continue to flourish as sub-villains they can get as flexible as they want with.
Sara Lance really looked into the face of God and said ‘Eh, I’ve seen better.’ I’m sure there will be an explanation in an upcoming episode as to how she’s alive; my money is on the reason being linked to her being the Paragon of Destiny and/or because she wielded the Spear of Destiny. The Lazarus Pit and Death Totem are also strong contenders for reasons behind her surviving. It’s been teased that Sara will get a ‘magical illness’ this season and there’s little doubt this is the prelude to that. For now, I’m content with seeing her not only hold her own against a god but outwitting her.
Only Legends Could
- I.P The Smell, we hardly knew ye.
- Atropos pulls her bones from her body to made blades. That’s equally gruesome and cool.
- On that note, Legends continues to rack up the body count this season.
- Mick, like a good father, read his own erotic book to his daughter.
- Matt Ryan threw in an extra sashay to his walk when he was playing fake Constantine.
- Seems like on Earth-Prime Supernatural’s final season is also suspended indefinitely.
- Also, I don’t know if this episode is saying that Supernatural uses real weapons as props or that Sara is skilled enough to use prop weapons with deathly force.
