After a year where time itself felt incomprehensible, we’re due for a much-needed dose of fun, nonsensical temporal shenanigans. Legends of Tomorrow is back for its sixth season. Like seeing an old friend again, Legends jumps back right back into it like no time has passed.
For the Legends, a few hours have passed since we watched Sara Lance get abducted by aliens at the end of last season, but the rest of the team don’t know that yet. They’re scattered to the winds, in various states of post-party jubilations. Rory is the most put together, returning to the Waverider (still in London, 1977) after dropping Lita home. Ava’s the only one there, not counting a few random punks they picked up from the party. Wondering why she’s not passed out in bed with her girlfriend, Ava and Rory set out to find the rest of the team.
Zari and John are in a hotel room, postcoital, both acting like their night together was nothing more than a fun roll in the hay. Astra’s in a poker den, making some good money and a lot of enemies. Behrad is getting his munchies on with a guard from Buckingham Palace. Nate meanwhile had been commiserating about Zari with David Bowie, who he met at the after-party. Still no sign of Sara, but they’re in luck because Bowie caught footage of their captain on his Super 8 camera.
And did he ever capture some important footage. Bowie, apparently a fan of Charlie’s band, first runs into Sara at their performance where she reveals to him she’s going to propose to her girlfriend. Even through the screen, their captain’s excitement at this prospect infects the Legends. Ava’s own expression tells what her answer would have been on all on its own.
But the happy bubble of the moment can’t last because the next thing they see on David Bowie’s footage is Sara being pulled into the air. Ava bows out for the moment to process while the rest of the Legends try to plan without either Time Mom present.
Meanwhile, on a ship that looks much less inviting than the Waverider, Sara wakes up in a chamber where she begins to freeze over. Before the frost can get too far she hits a panel on the wall and the doors open for her. Through the nearest window, she can see Earth but before she can get the chance to wonder why she isn’t on it, the ship jumps away.
Back on the Waverider Ava’s regrouped and compartmentalized. She’s turned to her old reliable, binders, handing them out to the team, ready with a plan of action. The Legends, being the Legends, choose to do their own things but Ava Sharpe been with this team long enough for her plan to be exactly that; let the Legends chase their own leads while she contacts ‘Plan A’ aka, the D.E.O.
Nate’s impressed with how Ava anticipated the Legends’ actions but is concerned she might not be comfortable asking Alex Danvers for help, given her past with Sara (see my favourite moment from the Crisis on Earth X crossover). Ava’s okay with working with Alex if it helps bring Sara home.
At his house, Constantine’s trying to use his connection with Sara to find her location, but he comes up empty. Zari and Astra refuse to let him give up on Sara but he doesn’t have the magic capable of finding her. Space aliens aren’t his purview. With John ready to throw in the towel, Zari has the idea of using the other resources they have on hand, namely Astra’s network. Astra reminds her that she only just got out of hell, which is exactly why Zari wants her help.
Team Supergirl apparently didn’t give their superhero friends the memo that their government headquarters was destroyed, meaning Ava had to find out the hard way that they won’t have the girl of steel or her kickass sister for support. Gideon also informs her that the space ship that took Sara didn’t originally appear in the timeline. Nate thinks this is great news. Supergirl might be the expert for aliens but they’re the experts for time travel. Ava’s worried about that, but her binder plan pays off when Behrad returns with an idea.
He’s found a report about a girl, Esperanza Cruz, abducted by aliens who can now communicate with them. Ava’s doubtful considering the information comes from a tabloid, but any lead is better than none. She tasks Behrad and Mick with tracking down Esperanza.
Sara, in the meantime, has been searching the ship. Finding another containment pod, like her own, she opens it, releasing Spartacus. Yes, that Spartacus. He thinks they can find allies by opening other pods, but the first one he opens is a very big, very hostile alien. Spartacus just stands in the corner while Sara fights the thing back into its cell. She’s not happy that he just stood and watched. He claims it was part of his strategy. To observe and to avenger her if she fell to it. He doesn’t know he’s talking to Sara Lance, who defies death on the regular.
She takes charge, not needing anyone to avenge her because she isn’t dying. She’s going to find a way off this ship and back to her team and he’s welcome to join her or not. They come across two aliens in a control room. Sara wants to wait until they’re alone to jump them, but Spartacus is a rush in and attack kind of guy. Or in this case, rush in and get eaten.
Zari and Astra have an idea. She heard of Allister Crowley while in hell. He claimed to have learnt spells from aliens and recorded them in a book called the book of law. He disappeared from hell, making Astra think he used those alien spells to escape. Only one small flaw in the plan, John was the one who summoned him and trapped him on earth. He even has the book of law close at hand, or he did until Gary borrowed it. In Gary’s room, they find the book of law. They also find a giant human-sized cocoon.
While they’re confronted by this strange finding in Gary’s room, Sara is coming face to face with the man himself. Only he’s not a ‘man’ as in not human. Once she gets one of the aliens alone he puts on glasses and transforms into former Time Bureau agent/former holder of a demon nipple/interim Legend, Gary Green. Gary’s an alien.
Meanwhile, Nate’s noticed Ava hasn’t been grieving or angry or showing much of any emotion after Sara was abducted. Nate notes she hasn’t talked about the proposal Sara never got. Ava is putting aside her feelings until they get Sara back.
Behrad and Mick find the compound Esperanza is holed up at. Mick melts the lock to let them in. Once inside, Esperanza gets the jump on them, knocking them out with darts.
Around the same time John, Zari and Astra return to the Waverider with the news that Gary is an alien. They not only found his cocoon, but his glasses, which Zari puts on, turning into the image of Gary. They realize that he took Sara.
Speaking of, Sara is questioning why she was taken. Gary explains he was sent to abduct the ‘quintessential’ human. He never took her because he came to love her and the Legends. Only, as Sara points out, she still got abducted. His boss, Kayla, found them, which is why she’s on the ship now, but he did help her. He rigged the panel in her pod to open with her handprint. Unfortunately, Gary doesn’t know where they’re going, as Kayla doesn’t trust him anymore.
Sara can relate because she’s pretty mad with him too. Right now all she’s concerned about is getting back to Ava, knowing how worried she must be. Gary offers to let Sara kill him, but she wants his assistance more than his life. From Gary, she gets a rundown on the ship.
Behrad and Mick wake tied to tables. With his comms Behrad lets the Legends know what’s happening. Esperanza, who goes by Spooner now, questions who they are and why they’re there. She notices Behrad talking via comms and pulls the device from his ear. Tapping into it, she hears Ava talking about bringing the ship around. She thinks their aliens who’ve come for her. The Waverider appearing doesn’t do much to dissuade that idea.
Ava tries to explain they’re time travellers and the ship is their time ship. She begs for Spooner’s help to find the woman she loves, but Spooner thinks that the kind of story an alien would make up. Mick and Behrad luckily escaped while Spooner was distracted and knock her out.
Back in space Sara and Gary have come up with a plan. The ship doesn’t have enough fuel to return to earth so they’ll commandeer the ship, opening a wormhole to the temporal zone and fly into it. Gary convinces his boss to leave the controls. Sara fights her, getting pushed back into a pod. She begins to freeze again.
Spooner wakes in the Waverider’s med bay. Behrad and Ava convince Spooner to help them, offering to remove the device in her brain in exchange for helping them find Sara first. Using the book of law, John’s found a spell that can link them to Gary via Spooner’s connection to aliens. From there he’ll look for Sara by astral protecting. The spell works, but the connection is too taxing for him to maintain and look for Sara. Ava steps in to look for Sara instead.
She finds Sara barely conscious and almost frozen. Ava tells her yes. Yes, she’ll marry her so she better come home. The spell is taking its toll on Constantine, draining the life from him. Worried, Zari takes the air totem, using it to force Constantine away, ending the spell. It ends the connection between Sara and Ava, but Captain Lance has all the encouragement she needs. Her girlfriend, no, her fiancée is waiting for her.
Using the diamond ring she was going to propose with, Sara breaks through the glass of her pod, escaping. Kayla attacks her. At the same time, Gary opens a wormhole to the temporal zone. Sara opens the air vent but Kayla uses her tentacles to hold on. Sara releases the other pods. They hit Kayla, sending her and the pods into the temporal zone.
Constantine wakes up to Zari waiting with a healthy smoothie. Astra’s back to staying at John’s house, not in a rush to join another Legend’s mission. She wants to learn what it means to be normal now that she has her life back. Astra is also amused that he thinks whatever he and Zari have is casual when it obviously isn’t.
On the Waverider, Gideon can’t find anything out of place with Spooner’s brain. Spooner hears the aliens as they enter the temporal zone. From the bridge of the ship the Legends watch the pods drop into the timeline. Ava can’t help but smile. She knows only one person who could cause this much chaos to the timeline. She knows Sara is somewhere out there, alive.
Gary’s is ecstatic that his favourite ship is engaged, but before they can celebrate they need to get into the wormhole. Gary drops the fact that he’s engaged to Kayla. But neither of them are going to get the chance to see their fiancées just yet because the wormhole closes before they can get there, leaving their ship hurtling to another planet.
Review
‘Ground Control to Sara Lance’ was a solid reintroduction to the Legends. You had the classic Legends recipe of someone on the team doing something to mess with the timeline and now the ‘monster of the week’ formula is an alien of the week. Everyone had a moment to be centre stage and show what they bring to the team’s dynamic. Behrad especially is someone I’m eager to see more of this season after he was ‘gone’ for so many episodes last season. Likewise with Astra. She says she’s not looking to join any more mission but something (the season trailer) tells me she won’t be able to keep away.
Speaking of new blood, Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz is the newest Legend to enter the fold. She was pulled along by the plot this episode so we haven’t seen her personality fully as yet. I’d like to see the dynamic she brings beyond the alien divining rod she has in her head.
The big shift in the status quo this season is the Legends being without their Captain Lance. There have been moments where the team was left without Sara’s command in the past but never quite like this. Ava’s leadership style obviously differs and it will be interesting to see how this affects the Legends’ dynamic. Already we’re seeing Nate step up into more of a support role, being Ava’s soundboard for ideas and a confidant.
But we know it’s not a question of if they’ll find Sara, but when. Until then we get to watch the adventures of Sara and Gary, the alien, on an alien planet.
Only Legends Could
- Behrad must not have been listening any time Nate complains about a crossover if all he knows about aliens is they’re green.
- Ava’s binders were all labelled scenario 601- Missing Legend Sara Lance. I see what you did there Legends.
- How amusingly ironic that while team Supergirl is dealing with time travel, the Legends are dealing with aliens.
- ‘Being an avenger is stupid… I’m a preventer. You want to join the Preventers?’
- Sara: ‘Tell me everything you know about this ship’
Gary: Begins talking about Avalance. - The tradition of Constantine’s spells requiring ingesting questionable liquids continues.
Images courtesy of the CW
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