Who says you can never go home again? If you’re one Nathaniel Heywood and home is the glory days of college then you can certainly try. The Legend find themselves on campus this week in search of immortality and stumble across friendships and life lessons along the way.
With the Loom in their possession, the team’s now looking for a way to use it. Charlie needs help weaving, there’s just the small hitch of mortals being incinerated by the loom if they use it. So the team’s researching magical immortality pick-me-ups. Constantine comes across the chalice of Dionysus, said to give the drinker immortality for a day. Only one issue, no one has seen the cup in centuries- except Nate who tried to steal it from a rival university in his college days.
With a quick social media search Gideon confirms it, the chalice of the God of wine and revelry, now known as the chug cup, is in the possession of college frat boys at Hudson University. There’s a competition every year where sororities, fraternities and fororities compete to drink from it.
Hudson U is also a prospective university for Lita although it’s out of her price range. Mick offers to cover it, if it’s what she wants to do. Lita and Mick take a campus tour while the rest of the team handles the mission. Also when Lita comments Ava’s clothes make her look like a narc she overcorrects her wardrobe, going in the completely opposite direction.
The chalice is in the possession of the head of Sigma Psi Phi, who Nate recognises from his time in college. Charlie also recognises him. Dion, head frat boy is Dionysus himself. He’s stoked to see Charlie. The Loom breaking meant, free will, more celebrations, and more people to follow him. She’s about to win him over when Astra’s impatience reveals their true intentions. The cup’s enchanted so none of them can lift it unless they earn the right to.
Charlie and Astra rush a sorority for the chance to win the chalice, but their plans are cut short when they get kicked from the rush ceremony after starting a fight. They also get three socially awkward girls kicked from the rush too. Astra and Charlie are still at each other’s throats back on the ship. Without being in a sorority there goes their chance at the chalice.
Zari proposes they form their own sorority. With some time portal trickery, they use Constantine’s mansion as their house and recruit the three girls they got kicked out before. Delta Chi Sigma (or DCS) is officially opened. Thanks to their new recruits Astra even starts to understand the appeal of the whole ‘team’ dynamic.
Meanwhile, Lita and Rory are a little out of a place on a tour with rich donor families and kids who’ve had time to pad out their applications because they weren’t working part-time jobs. When Nate joins the tour Mick has him pretend to be Lita’s dad. A Ph.D. father sounds better on a college application than one who’s been in jail.
While they’re exploring the campus they run into Dion who invites them to the party. Lita suggests they use it as an opportunity to stake out the place. Nate entertains the bros with his ass of steel while Lita searches for the cup. Nate drinks some magical IPA that has him spilling why they want the chalice. Dionysus isn’t trilled they want to put the Loom back together.
Crashing Delta house he bans them from the competition. Astra’s done trying to play by the rules. For all the teamwork and sisterhood speeches the Legends have thrown at her, they hadn’t listened to her ideas.
Elsewhere on campus Lita finds her dad looking up at Rory Hall. He went back in time to donate to the school. Her application is as good as accepted. Only, Lita would rather have had him around than get a building. Mick thought him stepping back was better since he didn’t fit in. Lita feels as much of an outsider as he does. They have a mutual ‘Shut up, you’re awesome and way cooler than these people’ moment and decide to mess with some rich kids instead of trying to impress them.
Astra’s ready to torch Sigma house but Charlie stops her. She gives the classic ‘the Legends don’t want you to change’ speech. Hybrotized Nate drops some helpful info that Dionysus will have had his power as long as he has his followers. To steal the chalice they need to steal his followers. Best way to steal college kids from a party? Throw an even bigger party.
Laying out the beer and decorations isn’t enough to get people to Delta house so the Legends stop playing fair and turn to Astra. She knows it isn’t enough to have the better party, they need to sabotage Dion’s and she has just the plan to do it. Charlie shapeshifts into Nate to lead Dion away from the party where Mick destroys his beer stash. Zari hacks their music, playing the finest of a yodeling mix. After that, the kids go running to Delta house.
Even with the party at their place, Dion’s bro squad is still by his side. Sara challenges him to beer pong, defeating him the only thing that might break his bros from his side. Dion isn’t scared of the challenge with an undefeated streak under his belt. But Sara’s played her fair share of beer pong. Also, her Sara-vision doesn’t hurt her chances. Sara Lance demolishes the god of parties, winning over his bros and getting them the cup.
The girls they recruited decide to keep the Deltas alive after the Legends are gone, wanting to make a space for everyone to be included the same way the Legends included them. Dion willingly hands over his cup, allowing the Legends to drink from it. Everyone minus Zari (no wine for her on account of it being haram) drinks, gaining immortality for a day.
But because there are too many episodes left in the season for things to be going this smoothly Lachesis finds Astra when she’s alone. Astra still owes her from when she tried to kill Constantine and she’s here to collect.
Review
‘Freaks and Greeks’ has all the elements of the bests Legends episodes. Insane premises that would be out of place on any other show. Bring a new Legend into the fold with initial cattiness that leads into a speech about the Legends being better because of their quirks and differences. Homage to a movie/genre where they play on one or multiple of the tropes from said genre. B and C plots that explore the characters. It’s all here.
Astra joins her first Legends mission will all the usual growing pains. Growing up in Hell makes her one of the rougher recruits to the team so who better than Charlie to be her welcoming hand. It wasn’t that long ago Charlie had to learn being a Legend doesn’t mean conforming to the team, it’s about bringing your best. Sometimes a person’s best is an optimistic outlook, sometimes their best is knowing how to undermine a party’s atmosphere.
Speaking of bringing your best, Lita and Mick’s arc continues to bring out the best for Mick. He straddles a line of muted enthusiasm of support for his daughter. It’s touching to see this side of Mick without robbing him of the rough edges that make the character.
Similarly, Nate wanting relive his college glory was a perfect Legends blend of humour and character introspection. ‘Shotgun’ Nate might be Nate wanting to return to simpler days before he faced heartbreaks like losing his father and saying goodbye to his best friend. Or it could just be Nate getting a magical high again and bro-ing out. Either way, he always gives his 100%.
The college movie homage couldn’t be complete without the third act wager that bets all the marbles. Of course, Legends of Tomorrow has the highest stakes for a game of beer pong. Of course, Sara Lance is a pro at the game. And of course, her newfound powers only make her better at beer pong. The whole scenario screams Legends so much the only surprising thing is there hasn’t been a high stakes game of beer pong before now.
Only Legends Could
- There were a few humourous ‘blink and you miss it’ moments this episode: Ava reaching up to her ear for her comms while in moose suit and a random guy thinking she’s going for a high five. Zari sticking a fork into her bra to hide it from Astra. During the Delta’s video, Charlie kept a hand on Sara’s shoulder to stop her from walking past her mark. A guy’s reaction at the party to seeing Charlie going into the bathroom and watching ‘Nate’ come out.
- Zari convinces Ava to form the sorority with the promise of the paperwork.
- Nate dabs this episode. That’s it. No further commentary.
- What I wouldn’t give for Nora and/or Mona to have been a part of this episode.
- Sara’s partying days with Oliver and Tommy finally came in handy. And it was for a gorgeously shot game of beer pong.
