The search for the Loom McGuffin ring continues with the final part. Only there’s one catch. Charlie gave the third piece to her good buddy Enchantress, who happened to be hanging out in Ancient Egypt. Enchantress uses a spell a hide the third Loom piece meaning the Legends have zero leads on where to find it.
There are some frustrations about the final piece being unfindable meaning their whole endeavor has been for naught and they don’t have a way to bring back Behrad. Zari tasks Constantine to find the ring or he’ll have her to deal with.
Meanwhile, Sara’s been having strange visions since she got blasted with a full dose of god energy. She sees flashes, seconds into the future of what’s about to happen. But she doesn’t tell anyone, brushing off Charlie’s concerns about any effects from the fight with Atropos. Constantine does find a spell they could use to get the ring, rounding up all the Legends to his house for it. He needs to ‘borrow’ energy from everyone which is only very unsafe.
During the spell Sara passes out, breaking most people’s concentration as the ring appears. Zari and Constantine grab for it, falling into the magical opening together. They fall into… Constantine’s house? Only it’s clean and bright and doesn’t look a sorcerer has been using it for occult rituals. Constantine’s spell bounded the ring to his house, but he was still working on the time when the spell failed. Now he and Zari are stuck in the past with no clue where in the house the ring could be. Luckily, the house happens to be a boarding house in the time they fell into. Renting a room, they get to work searching for the ring.
Using a spell, it leads to the only other occupied room in the house belonging to a doctor who checked in moments after them. Said doctor not so subtly screams evil what with his perchance for long black trench coats and creepily glaring at Zari. But she doesn’t realize this until lured him out of his room with a fake ailment so Constantine could search for the Loom piece. As soon as red the flags raise she excuses herself to look for Constantine. The Doctor follows her back to his room, wielding a scalpel.
Constantine gets the drop on him first, killing him. Then he gets up moments later only for Constantine to knock him out. Their would-be-attacker is an encore-fied Jack the Ripper. And he’s only the beginning of their problems as more encores show up, all coincidently in need of a room for the night.
Back on the Waverider, Sara’s in the med bay in a coma. Gideon can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. In the meantime, Ava has to step into the captain’s role to find their missing Legends. The Prognosticator is picking up the Encores traveling through time but is unable to pinpoint their location. Without another way find the Encores, Ava decides to go right for their boss. Armed with Ganesh Khan’s sword, tapping Gary in as their warlock and Mick as the muscle (who’s able to join them for this mission because his father bonding time was cut short after his daughter told him to go to Hell), they send themselves to Hell in search of Astra.
Zari and Constantine have been arguing back and forth since they fell into the past together. The host of new Encores (consisting of Bonnie and Clyde, Henry the 8th, Black Cesar, and Brutus) only redoubles their frustrations. Zari points out the Encores could be there for the ring, not him. Dressing like Jack the Ripper, Constantine goes to confirm that theory, telling Zari to stay hidden despite her protests. Dinner with some of history’s most notorious killers goes how you expect to. Henry’s a pile of dust before the first course and everyone’s got their Hell weapons aimed at each other. Before it all went to hell, John did learn the Encores were offered free reign on Earth if they found the ring.
Zari steps in at this point, pretending to be Cleopatra. She convinces everyone to work together to find the ring. It’s enough to end the fight for now, but it’s not long after dinner before the Encores are stabbing each in the back. Or shooting each other in the back to be more accurate.
Back in Hell, the Legends manage to get Astra alone, threatening her to call off the Encores. She doesn’t know what they’re talking about. She’s the most surprised when she finds all her coins missing, including Constantine’s. Knowing the only person who could do this is the Coin Maker who we now know as Lachesis. She agrees to Ava’s help in confronting her. They even have a bonding moment over being betrayed and used by their mentors. But this is still Hell so Astra double-crosses Ava. Mick and Gary have already been captured when Ava joins them. Their get out of Hell free card isn’t so free since they need to be touching Gary when times up or he’s the only one who’ll leave Hell. Mick’s especially pissed he might be late for his daughter’s soccer game.
Constantine and Zari haven’t found the ring yet, nor have the Encores. Zari starts to wonder if the ring can even be found which helps Constantine figure out how Enchantress’s spell works. The ring can’t be found by someone who wants to find it. Without a way to get the final piece, Constantine goes to his next best option. Alcohol. As he commiserates Zari reveals more about herself. Sharing times she’s been hurt by the people closest to her, only to push her emotions aside instead of trying process.
But Behrad’s death isn’t something she can push aside. Especially not because she sees it has her fault. Their moment is cut short by Bonnie and Clyde, who found and released Jack the Ripper. Constantine takes Zari to a secret exit, staying behind himself.
Meanwhile, Astra confronts Lachesis about the missing soul coins. She doesn’t deny it, twisting the story saying she did it for Astra. She introduces Atropos, revealing they’re the Fates. They want the Loom back and for Astra to join them. She agrees but asks for John’s coin back. Astra goes to Ava and the others, letting them go. She seems to be hedging her bets, by letting them live she has nothing to lose. Either they help Constantine find the Loom or Lachesis finds it. Either way, she gets something she wants. Ava convinces her to leave Hell with them.
Back with Constantine and the Encores, thinking he has the ring they’re interrogating him. Zari bursts back in, trying the Cleopatra ploy again, but Jack already knows who she is. She unlocks the air totem’s powers, using the opportunity to free John and sending the Encores back to hell with their own weapons. In the heat of the moment, she and John almost kiss, but before they can he notices the ring sitting a table nearby.
Ava and Nate burst in, ready for a fight. Seeing the party’s over they grab the extra Hell weapons and head back home. Sara’s still out, but for now, the Legends have won. They have all the Loom pieces and there’s no chance of inviting Astra onto their ship will backfire.
Review
The best Legends episodes are the character ones. The Great British Fake Off is not a character episode, but in terms of plot set up episodes, this is one of the stronger ones. There were a lot of pieces that needed to get on the board and pieces that needed moving. The episode managed to make its moves and still find time to squeeze in character moments.
Squeezed in is the phrase to use talking about the character beats here, but squeezed doesn’t mean suffocated. The moments still landed, in part because of groundwork laid down by previous episodes, in part because you can throw any subset of this cast together and they’ll oose chemistry through your screens.
Zari and Constantine get the lion’s share of character work spending the episode bickering and bonding. Really should have seen this coming. Two characters don’t have that much chemistry in an R+J scene together without something coming of it. That doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be miffed about Zari and Constantine being the ones to get the romantic development with Charlie’s been flirting up a storm all season (for two seasons if you count Zari 1.0).
Their bonding also came wrapped up with some Zari backstory. We learnt some of the heartbreaks she’s faced: a boyfriend who cheated on her with her assistant/friend and a mother who thinks she’s shallow, and those are just the ones she’s named. From the first episode she was introduced to us Zari has always been more the vapid façade she put on. More than ever now it’s clear that façade was one she put up to compartmentalize the strife she’s faced.
On the other side of things, Ava and Astra had a few precious scenes to squeeze out enough interaction to sell Astra’s decision by the end of the episode. It does work. Who else in the Legends could relate to betrayal from a mentor as Ava Sharpe could? Stealing the soul coins also sows just enough distrust between Astra and Lachesis to make it believe she would go with the Legends. Even if I’m 95% sure Astra’s just stacking the deck in her favour. There’s a good chance once John’s brought her mother back she’ll betray the Legends and take the Loom to Lachesis and Atropos. She gets her mother and the godlike power, it’s a win-win.
There were some clever and subtle moments this episode with the Loom ring. The way the ring’s sitting on the table the whole time but Constantine and Zari just can’t see it. Mrs. Hughes line about ‘finding it eventually. Sometimes one just needs to stop looking.’ Well done set up for the payoff finding the ring and revealing Mrs. Hughes being Enchantress. Side note, only Legends could pull off a casual Enchantress cameo.
Only Legends Could
- Sara Lance, Paragon of Destiny, Defier of death, Captain of the Waverider can see into the future now? That checks out. Really it’s barely the fifth weirdest thing to happen to her.
- Shout to Zari and Legends for pointing out Cleopatra was more than just a pretty face.
- Mick would love Hell if only for the flame aesthetic.
- What I wouldn’t give to hear more of Charlie and Nate’s conversation. We definitely knew Nate and Amaya used the superpowers during the ole vertical tango, still amusing to hear him say it.
