Legends of Tomorrow picks right back up with the curveball it threw last episode. So, Sara is a clone now, something Bishop is very proud of. A few episodes back when he said he was giving Sara an antidote to the Amelia Earhart venom, that was a lie. There was no antidote and the concoction he gave her helped copy her DNA and her mind.
Meanwhile, back on earth, in the most heart-wrenching of situations is Ava. She’s been rewatching the David Bowie footage of Sara, unable to leave her room. Nate tries getting her to eat, but she refuses. The rest of the Legends are commiserating in their grief. Astra, Zari, Spooner, and Constantine are together. Behrad is suffering in silence alone.
Nate and Zari go to check on him, but his den is empty. When they find a half-smoked blunt of his ‘thinking weed’ and ‘Back to the Future Part II’ circled on a whiteboard they realize he’s trying to stop Sara from being abducted.
Mick and Kayla, post-coital, emerge from the pod once things are safe again. Now, since they’ve acquired a power source, Kayla just wants to leave the planet. Mick argues she has to help him find Sara. She’s not going to help, but she will give him time. She says she’ll wait until the third moon sets. Mick sets off to search for Sara and runs into some AVA troopers. Only this time that’s good news because Gray’s won them over to their side.
Bishop, meanwhile, is explaining his big plan to Sara. His initial experiments proved failures because the people he used lacked the mental fortitude, which is where Sara comes in. He’s going to colonize alien planets with human-alien hybrid clones of Sara.
When she tries to take the ring off her old body Bishop stops her. He’s not going to let her have a symbol of her previous life. But Sara refuses to help him. He’s disappointed but unfazed. With her DNA and memories stored, he can simply make a new version that will be more cooperative. He orders the AVAs to dispose of her.
The Legends know exactly when and where Behrad went: back to London 1977 to stop Sara from being abducted. But they not there to stop him, they’re there to help him. They’ve left Ava out, knowing she’d never agree to a plan that changes the timeline. They set up in an Indian restaurant across the street from the club Charlie performed in to strategize. They need to get Sara to leave early. Knowing they can’t risk interacting with their past selves, they need to wait for the moments their past selves are away from Sara. Behrad knows he took a weed break at midnight so he’s up first.
He runs into her as she returns, presumably from Central City where she got the engagement ring from her mom. He tries to get her to leave with an excuse about a time emergency but Sara’s isn’t going to let anything get in the way of proposing. Behrad has to return to the Indian restaurant, plan A, failed.
Back in space, Sara’s being escorted to what she assumes is her death. She attacks the AVA clones guarding her, but Mick and Gary show up saying they’re on their side. She’s happy to see them, especially Mick after Bishop told her he was dead. They want to leave immediately but Sara can’t leave until she’s stopped Bishop’s plan. She can’t let him use clone versions of herself to colonize the galaxy. One of the Avas suggests that if they blow up all the generators at once, it would shut down Bishop’s operation. They split up to plant the explosives. While Sara’s at one of the generators, she cuts her hand, but it heals instantly. Realizing Bishop really made her a hybrid she returns to confront him.
Meanwhile, Zari and John are up next in the plan to save Sara. Their past selves snuck away a few minutes to hook up, giving them the opportunity to convince Sara to propose hoping if she does she’ll leave earlier. They run into Ava, asking if she knows where Sara is. She points them in Sara’s direction but the interaction is just strange enough to make her suspicious. Sara is in the bathroom, throwing up her nerves. John tries to give her a pep-talk but optimistic gusto is such a strange look on him it only seems to disconcert her more.
His behavior is also enough for Zari to realize that John doesn’t have any magic. He admits he lost it and Astra covered so it seemed like he did have it. He wants this plan to work, hoping that resetting the timeline means he gets his magic back. Zari makes him promise no more lies. As they’re leaving Ava sees. She also sees another Zari and John come out of a room after they’ve left.
She follows them, confronting the Legends. She knows they must be from her future and that they’re there to change something. She points out that any change could have huge effects and orders them to return to their proper time. She then takes all their drinks so she can get blackout drunk and forget she saw them.
Back on Bishop’s planet, Sara disables him, taking her ring back. Since he won’t help her make a clean version of herself, she asks Nurse Ava for help. They begin printing a 100% human Sara clone. Elsewhere in the facility, Mick, who came after Sara because he’s worried about her, finds an AVA and Bishop fighting. He kills Bishop but this uploads his consciousness to a virtual space without another body to go into.
After being discovered by Ava, the Legends realize if they’re going to save Sara they need to do it while also keeping the timeline intact. Behrad has an idea how to do that and it involves a mannequin and fireworks. They send Spooner to keep an eye on things inside, warning her not to interact with Sara. Naturally, two seconds after this Sara ends up taking the seat next to Spooner.
At first, she tries to listen to Behrad’s advice, but it doesn’t take much prompting to get her to open up. She tells Sara about being abducted by aliens as a kid and how ever since she’d heard voices. She lays out her fears about not being sure who she is and that she may hurt the people closest to her. Sara, not even knowing she’s sitting down for one of her classic Captain to Legend conversations, lets Spooner know that the people around her are the ones who support her on the journey she has ahead of her.
In turn, Sara opens up about her fears about proposing. She’s been so many different people in her life she’s scared that the version she is now, the person Ava is in love with, might change. She’s scared that one day she’ll no longer be the woman Ava fell in love with. Without giving away that she knows who Sara or Ava are, Spooner suggests that any change that comes in their future that Ava would be okay with it.
Across the street, while Zari and Behrad are putting the final touches on their fake Sara, the four bowls of curry Nate ate catch up to him. When he rushes into the restroom another Nate in Constantine cosplay barges into the room. He’s Nate from the alternate time they create when their mannequin plan fails. In his future, they only delay Sara’s abduction, not stop it. Also, John dies to an alien and Nate loses an eye at some point.
With that warning from a dire future, the others concede to give up on this plan. But not Behrad. When Spooner gives the signal that the past Legends are heading out Behrad rushes out in one last attempt to save her. He tries to get her attention, but it’s too late to stop the abduction.
In space, Sara gets memories from the new timeline where she saw a second Behrad moments before her abduction and knows the Legends are trying to change the timeline to save her. Knowing her team is likely to break the timeline, again, she knows they need to hurt. Nurse Ava says the new clone will take ten minutes to print. But they don’t have ten minutes due to Bishop uploading his consciousness to the cloud. If he completes the upload, he can create a new clone of himself from anywhere.
Sara’s still determined for the clean clone of herself to be the one to head home. Mick walks in, wondering why they’re not leaving yet. She explains that Bishop made her a hybrid and she can’t go back to the team changed like she is. She’s worried she could hurt them. But Mick only sees the same woman he’s stood beside for years. His captain and friend. His words convince her and leave together, blowing up the facility and generators.
The AVAs choose to stay behind. Sara, Gary, and Mick head to Kayla’s ship. At first it seems like she left without them, but as they’re being attacked by aliens the ship flies overhead, firing at the aliens. Kayla joins them outside, but they’re attacked by a second wave. Kayla transforms into her full alien self to protect Mick but she goes missing in the chaos of the fight. Mick wants to wait for her, but the aliens closing in force them to take off.
Back on Earth, Behrad is devastated he couldn’t save Sara. Worse, he thinks it’s his fault. Astra points out the flaws in his logic. She knows he still had to try or the ‘what if’ would have eaten away at him. She knows because she felt the same thing with her mother. The Legends decide to celebrate Sara’s memory together.
On the Waverider, Ava is still watching the same video of Sara on a loop. But the video gets corrupted. Just as Ava thinks she’s lost the last remnants she had of Sara she hears her voice behind her. She doesn’t turn around, scared she isn’t real. Sara takes her time, holding Ava from behind and easing her into the moment.
Ava does turn around, knowing this is real. Her girl made it home to her. She holds her and kisses her, both overjoyed to be reunited. They fall into bed, just holding each other until Ava wonders if the others know Sara is back. Thanks to the timeline shenanigans Sara knows exactly where they are.
As they’re toasting to Sara, the woman herself walks in, giving them an even better reason to toast. The Legends, all the Legends, finally reunited get ready to return home. But before they do, there’s just one more thing to do. The thing Sara didn’t get the chance to the last time they were at this seedy London club.
Sara Lance gets down on one knee in front of Ava Sharpe. Their team watches on with the brightest smiles. The music swells. Ava’s so excited she answers yes twice before Sara’s asked the question. And Sara does ask the woman she loves to marry her. And Ava says yes to the love of her life.
There are fireworks and kisses and love. The co-captains for life are engaged.
Review
I’ve talked before about how Legends of Tomorrow has never been afraid to shake up its own formula. Ironically its most consistent strength has been its flexibility. In retrospect, it’s foolish to think Sara Lance’s character would say fixed given Legends proclivity to change. Yet, there has been a secure stability to Sara for a few seasons now. While yes, there have been major shifts in her life that she’s reacted to (Oliver’s death or her and Ava’s relationship for example), the bedrock that is Sara Lance has remained fairly consistent recent. She’s the steadfast leader the Legends rally around. When it looks like they’re down she’s the one who gets them back up.
Also changed and grown so much from the party girl we first saw on the Queen’s Gambit, one wouldn’t be remiss to think that stability would continue. But here’s Legends willing to break down that bedrock. The interesting element here is the unknown. Is Sara a ticking time bomb like Amelia Earhart was? What’s the extent of the ‘enhancements’ Bishop made? Will she ever be fully human again? There’s so much to potentially dig into going forward. There’s the obvious parallel between her and Spooner that could see them working together to understand more about themselves.
Speaking of parallel’s, how fascinating that the thing that made Sara hesitate to propose to Ava was the fear that she would change into someone Ava didn’t love. Not that she, Sara, would change and fall out of love. She never hesitated in her love for Ava, not even for a moment. And in spite of Sara’s fears, it’s safe to say that neither will Ava. This moment is something they both deserve. Love.
Love is what made the Legends risk breaking the timeline, again, to save Sara. It’s what made Mick Rory travel across the galaxy to save his friend. Speaking of, if you had told me in season one that Mick Rory would have one of the most emotional moments in an episode I wouldn’t believe you. But here we are. It’s a testament to how he’s grown as well.
But of course, Legends can have emotional wroth scenes and in the same episode have Nate dress in Constantine cosplay and an eye patch and it doesn’t feel out of place. Now that the team is all together again, I’m looking forward to more of that. The Legends reuniting was the perfect cap to the first half of the season and the proposal was the perfect cap to the reunion.
Only Legends Could
- Apparently, Bishop first learned of Sara from Mick’s Rebecca Silver books.
- “I die about once a year,” – even Sara’s aware she has dying on her annual to-do list.
- The Legends fully breaking the fourth wall by acknowledging they time-traveled to the last finale.
- Behrad being confused about which of Sara’s family is alive in this timeline is great.
- Sara got the engagement ring from her mom! The chances are so small, but I’d love to see Mama Lance on Legends.
- I know it’s technically just stock footage from last season but it was great to see Charlie again.
- Gideon has advanced technology from the future. I choose to believe the footage didn’t get corrupted, but she knew Sara had arrived on the ship and made it look corrupted just for the drama of the moment.
Images courtesy of the CW
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