‘There Will Be Brood’ picks up where the last one left off. Zari returns to the mansion, the glass and blood from Constantine’s fight with himself still everywhere. Constantine is extra angsty as Zari wonders what happened to the man, who, not too long ago said he didn’t need magic.
The rest of the Legends storm in, demanding to know where Bishop is. Constantine says he has things handled. He admits Bishop has promised him the fountain and he plans to make him take him to it, even if Bishop is planning something. The Legends try to talk him out of it, but he keeps talking in circles. Zari realizes he’s stalling. She tries to slap him, but her hand phases through his form before it vanished. Constantine wasn’t in the mansion. He was on the Waverider. With Bishop.
Bishop hacks the Waverider, shutting down Gideon and taking over the ship. They take off, leaving the Legends stranded. Most of the Legends. There were two who weren’t part of the Constantine Confrontation squad, Astra and Spooner.
When they realize the ship’s taken off and there’s no Gideon or comms they know something is wrong. Hearing Bishop and Constantine, Spooner is ready to turn this episode into a western with a shootout, but Astra stops her, knowing they’re no match for John’s amped-up magic. With her own magic, she turns them into a fork and snow globe to hide.
Constantine uses his magic to reveal new symbols on the map that lead him to the fountain before. Bishop translates, finding a new place and time to find the fountain. They jump there with the Waverider.
Astra and Spooner know that John and Bishop going after the fountain is bad news but neither of them can fly the Waverider. With no Gideon and no way to get the rest of the Legends, it’s up to them to stop Constantine and Bishop.
Investigating outside the ship, Astra and Spooner discover they’re in 1925, Texas. Spooner finds the place familiar, but that’s not all that’s familiar. There’s a woman that Spooner feels drawn to, as though she knows her. Like she’s her mother.
The woman, Gloria, is a healer who also happens to have an oil barren after her house and land. Spooner and Astra watch as Gloria turns down his offer, only for him to not so subtly threaten her with his side piece. Spooner shows her gun, with Astra backing her up, they fend him off for the time being. Gloria is grateful for the help, insisting she treat them to a warm meal as thanks.
Spooner is all too eager to accept. Astra tries to keep them on task, but she sees hope in Spooner’s eyes. The hope of maybe being with her mother again. A hope that Astra knows and for her, one that ended up being crushed. She doesn’t want to see Spooner hurt the same way, but she can’t deny if their positions were reversed she’d take this chance too.
They go with Gloria to her home. Realizing this is Odessa, Texas, where Spooner grew up, she comes up with a theory that when the aliens abducted them her mother got transported to the past. Astra still tried to keep some of their focus on the mission, suggesting they ask Gloria about the fountain.
John and Bishop meanwhile are searching the woods for the fountain. His magic leads them to a clearing with mushrooms. John thinks it’s a dead-end, but Bishop gets excited, dropping the knowledge that mushrooms are actually an alien species. He posits that the mushrooms are connected to the fountain and the fountain itself might not be a water source at all, but an alien itself.
Bishop promises with some samples and time to analyze it he can make the fountain choose John. While Bishop is collecting those samples, John hears humming. Following it to the source of the sound, he finds a little girl, collecting herbs and mushrooms for her mother.
Back with Spooner and Astra, they ask Gloria if she knows any fountains in the area and about her life. Gloria doesn’t know about any fountains, but her life provides the more interesting story. She tells them she moved to Odessa after her husband died, with her daughter. The Oil barren has been trying to buy the land because it’s located on oil. When Gloria mentions a daughter, the hope in Spooner’s eyes grows a little more.
Said daughter is the girl John encountered. He uses some magical lights to endear himself to the girl, asking if she’s seen anything magical in the forest. She hasn’t but offers him a flower. When he touches her hand he gets flashes of a vision, but not enough to make anything of it. He asks the girl her name. She gives him one that’s both familiar, but a name we haven’t heard in a while. Esperanza Cruz.
Spooner is more and more certain her theory is right, except she was the one with her memory wiped and she was sent to the future. Astra’s concerned that meeting tiny Spooner could affect the timeline for slightly less tiny Spooner, but before they can ponder any further on that, young Esperanza returns and she’s not alone. Constantine is with her. Astra and Spooner are less than thrilled to run into him.
Meanwhile, in the present day, the Legends are stranded without their timeship. The issue with finding a timeship is you need a timeship. Or a time courier, but no one was wearing theirs. Mick is getting anxious, with his eggs on the ship. Sara gets an idea. Kayla has a timeship, they just need to get in touch with her. For once, they turn to Gary.
He does have a communicator, but knowing that she won’t answer his call, they’ll have to use another way to get her attention. That way is through alien social media. Using fruit as fake eggs, they post a photo of Mick with them, tagging Kayla in the post. Now they can only hope she’ll come to them.
In 1925, Astra, John and Spooner properly introduce themselves. Spooner introduces herself as Esperanza before saying she goes by Spooner. She notices that the younger Esperanza is reading War of the Worlds and that she’s fascinated by the concept of aliens, not scared of them. Esperanza dreams of traveling to other worlds. Spooner, with a smile, knows that she will.
Astra and Spooner try to confront Constantine, but he’s only interested in talking about the glimpse he got when he touched Esperanza. Spooner and Astra don’t trust him, but with magic, he puts Astra, Gloria and Esperanza to sleep and uses his magic on Spooner to help her remember what she forgot.
The last time she saw her mother, it wasn’t because they were abducted together. The oil barren returned, this time determined to get the land by any means necessary. In this case, that means murder. Gloria told Esperanza to run, which she did. In the forest, she fell, cutting herself. The fountain sensing her blood, abducted her to protect her.
When the others wake up, Constantine is gone. Astra knows something happened, taking Spooner outside so they can talk. Spooner tells her what she’s learnt and her decision to stay with Gloria and protect her, so she can grow up with her mother.
Astra more than anyone understands why she could want to protect her mother. But she also knows when John Constantine is involved, there’s nothing but danger and deception to expect. Astra notices a cut on Spooner’s hand and knows she gave John her blood to open the fountain.
Back with the rest of the Legends, Kayla arrives. She’s furious when she learns the eggs are fake. Sara tries to convince her to help them, so they can take her to the real eggs. Mick admits that he truly cares about Kayla. She doesn’t respond to his confession, her concern is for her babies.
Bishop has been working on a serum that will make the fountain think John is worthy. Astra confronts John but he just brushes her off. He knows Bishop is using him but he has his own plans. She tries one last time to reason with him and Constantine deflects saying she wanted power just as badly as he did. Why else would she be learning magic when her mother had turned away from it. It drives a knife in Astra’s heart and before she responds, he poofs her away to Gloria’s house.
Spooner is getting ready to defend Gloria and the house. Esperanza is growing scared so Astra takes her to her room to read as a distraction. Gloria can’t believe they’ll kill her and is adamant she talks with them. Spooner begs her not to. When just that doesn’t convince her, Spooner tells her the truth. She tells her she’s her daughter. That she’s from the future and they get separated that night and never see one another again.
Despite sounding impossible, Gloria looks into Spooner’s eyes and sees the truth. She sees her daughter. For the first time, in a very long time, Spooner gets to hold her mother. Astra looks on, expression tinged with sadness, but maybe, just a bit of happiness too, that Spooner is getting the moment she never could.
But Astra knows there’s one part to Spooner’s plan she hasn’t thought through. If she never goes to the fountain, she’ll never become a time traveler and be able to stop this in the first place. She’ll never help the Legends find Sara. She and Astra won’t become friends, and Astra doesn’t want to lose her friend.
Spooner is willing to risk that, so she can have a life with her mother. But Gloria, hearing how much Spooner has done and seeing the kind of woman she’s become, knows Esperanza will go on to help so many people. Spooner doesn’t want that, she doesn’t want to be apart. But Gloria says they aren’t apart. Faith brought them together. With her mother’s words, Spooner finds the resolve to let her go.
Meanwhile, Constantine uses Spooner’s blood to draw out the fountain. Spooner can feel its presence and knows its time. This time Gloria and Esperanza get the goodbye they didn’t the first time. Astra takes her to the fountain, promising Spooner to take of her. When Gloria steps outside to confront the men, Spooner steps out with her.
But, when the men aim their guns at Gloria, Spooner does what a Legend does best. She finds a loophole. Esperanza has to go to the future to meet the Legends. She has to be separated from Gloria. But Gloria doesn’t have to die.
Tapping into the fountain, Spooner stops the men in the tracks, making them feel every emotion she had to, being separated from her mother. The men retreat. Astra and Esperanza arrive at the fountain, Esperanza scared for what comes next. Astra is honest, that it will be scary at first. But she will find friends and a family. She’ll see Astra again. When Constantine sees Astra, he blasts her away. But Esperanza is taken by the fountain, going to the future.
The Legends arrive on the scene with Kayla’s ship. Most of the teams rushes to the Waverider to check on the babies, but Zari wants to find Constantine, bringing Nate along. She doesn’t know exactly where to find him, but figures following the glow in the forest is the best way to go.
Constantine, having swiped the serum Bishop made, takes it. He’s connected with the fountain, but there’s something else happening. Something’s wrong. Constantine assumed that Bishop wanted the power like him and was planning to steal for himself at the last moment. But Bishop’s plans were bigger.
He didn’t want power. He wanted to destroy the earth. The fountain had been sent by aliens to protect the earth from other species who wanted to invade. But the serum he cooked up poisoned John and through the link, poisoned the fountain. Spooner feels the fountain die, and because she’s connected to it, the poison makes her fall unconscious.
That wasn’t the end of his plan. On the ship, he rigged a bomb to the alien babies’ incubator. Kayla and the Legends rush to get all the eggs out in time, but when one gets left behind in the chaos, Mick rushes back in to save it. Just as the bomb explodes.
Bishop merrily slips away, leaving John to die. Astra finds him, and even after betraying and hurting her, he’s still the closest thing to family she has left. The person she’s known the longest. He’s John Constantine, Hellblazer. He can’t go out like this.
Except he can. He’s run out of tricks and cons. In the end, the only thing he can do is apologize to the girl he failed to save. To the woman he got out of hell. In the end, John Constantine hears the fountain die as he dies with it. Zari and Nate arrive too late to do anything but watch as his body is consumed by the earth.
Review
The signs have been there for a while. This season has tonally been one of the darker seasons of Legends of Tomorrow and Constantine’s path has been leading him away from the light. The worst of his flaws reared their heads again. He couldn’t give up his lust for power and he couldn’t trust his friends. Him going out like this was inevitable.
It’s fitting that Astra was the one by his side for his final words. As he said, she was both his biggest regret and greatest accomplishment. He’s not without regrets, but he can at least find some solace in the knowledge that Astra is with people she can call family.
Speaking of family, the mystery of Spooner and her mother finally comes to light. She’s truly earned her place among the Legends now, making the sacrifice to send her younger self to the future so the timeline can stay intact. But as much as the Legends try to preserve the timeline, they’re always going to bend the rules to do the right thing. It’s poetic that Spooner saves her mother with the very alien abilities she was eager to get rid of at the start of the season.
With only the finale left, it’s time for a wedding… and an invasion.
Only Legends Could
- Spooner the fork returns!
- I see that lampshading with the time courier.
- Where was the mushroom fountain when the Dominators showed up? Or the Daxamites?
Images courtesy of the CW.
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