The surprising thing about this week’s episode is that there’s never been the opportunity to write Legends of Tomorrow and Bollywood in the same sentence before. The over the top, campy, but with a lot of heart, the nature of Bollywood lends itself perfectly to the style Legends has cultivated over the past seasons. It was inevitable this would happen. ‘Séance and Sensibility’, like any good episode of Legends, doesn’t just stop with the melodrama and whirlwind romance of Bollywood. It adds the satirical wit and honest allure of Jane Austen.
The episode opens at Hank’s memorial service, the Legends in attendance. Ray’s uneasy about being there because, as far they know, his sorta-not-girlfriend is responsible for killing Hank. Zari and Nate are still pretending to date. Their dating may be fake, but the tension between them during an almost kiss certainly isn’t. Zari, being Zari, wants to bail as soon as feelings start coming into the mix. At the service, Ray runs into Nora via mirror magic and is delighted to learn that she didn’t kill Hank.
Meanwhile, on the Waverider, Mona notices some changes to the timeline. Some of Jane Austen’s books, her favorite author, have vanished from history. Leaving behind Mick and Constantine as the Legends representatives at the service, the rest of the team heads to Bath, England circa 1802. The ladies attend a wedding, where a few things happen. First Zari’s almost run over by a horse but she’s saved by a handsome and charming coachman. Secondly, the wedding doesn’t happen because the bride declares her love for a maid and then most of the guests follow suit shouting their affection for someone. Naturally, Sara and Charlie are delighted by the turn of events. Sara and Mona go to see Jane Austen, while Zari goes to the charming coachman, both teams trying to discover why the sexual revolution is happening two centuries early in Regency England.
Mona and Sara’s talk, however, doesn’t go well. Austen brushes aside Mona’s notions of romance, the very thing Mona learnt from Austen’s books. Zari has a better time with the coachman. By ‘a better time’ I mean she figures out he’s the fugitive and she makes out with him, before putting him in cuffs. The fugitive is Kamadeva, the Hindu God of love and desire. They take him back to the ship, but removing him from the period does not restore Jane Austen’s works to the timeline. After their day filled with a memorial and a lust-filled wedding, Sara decides Austen can wait until the morning.
Ray has been busy with his own side adventure. He snuck Nora on board and is hiding her in his room until they find a way to clear her name. Ray, being Ray, refuses to share the bed with her. However, while the Legends sleep, Kamadeva sends some magical dust through the ship’s ventilation to give everyone wet dreams. After their respective dreams, Zari and Mona clash because of their different views when it comes to love.
Zari blames Mona for falling for Konane too quickly, while Mona argues that Zari never opens up at all. Afterwards, Zari goes to Kamadeva determined to not shut herself off. He reveals he’s not really a God, but just a guy named Sanjay who happens to have the magical ashes of the actual love God. He and Zari take a hit of the God dust, fall madly in lust and cue into an elaborate Bollywood style song and dance number.
Mona, after her fight with Zari, wolfed out, going to Jane Austen. She confronts the writer about her views on love, blaming Jane for her current heartache. Austen admits she does believe in romantic choice, but she’s doubting her own beliefs because her books aren’t being published. Mona encourages her not to give up.
Crashing the musical number, Mona stops Zari’s whirlwind wedding. She apologizes for saying Zari was too guarded. They both admit their approaches to relationships were flawed. All the while still singing.
Meanwhile, back at the Heywood home, Constantine sensed Hank’s spirit was still around. He summons Hank, learning he was killed by Neron. Neron then shows himself to Constantine, revealing he’s been in Desmond’s body. Nate discovers his own truths about his father. The reason Hank was trying to train the fugitives was to open a theme park featuring them, all based on an idea Nate had as a kid.
Review
A Zari centric episode with a Bollywood musical number and Jane Austen, what is there not to love? ‘Séance and Sensibility’ takes the best of an Austen novel and Bollywood film. As someone who grew up on a healthy diet of both those things, it was impossible to not enjoy this episode.
Legends has a knack of pairing their characters that come off as opposites. Mona and Zari couldn’t be more different when it came to their relationships. But by the episode’s end they each take something from the other’s perspective. As for Nate and Zari, there is a charm there between the characters. On top of it all, the episode gave us several moments with the ladies of the ship together, from casually ribbing each other, to supporting each other.
Nate’s story this episode was a well-paced arc for his grief. It’s understandable he doesn’t know how to feel about his father after learning he’d been using the fugitives. He struggles throughout the episode about offering a toast to his father and ultimately can’t say what he really wants too.
Then at the end Legends takes all of that and turns it on its head by revealing Hank wanted to use the fugitives for a theme park for his son. It’s the kind of absurdity that would be completely out of place on any other show. But in Legends, it’s exactly the kind of thing that would happen.
Only Legends could
- I adore how open and casual the Legends are about displays of platonic love. Last episode it was Nate declaring his love for his teammates, albeit under the effects of a truth bug. Here, he and Ray exchanged ‘I love you’s and Sara and Ray kissed Nate on the cheek when they had to leave.
- Zari hilariously called out their failure of the Bechdel Test. But Sara wasn’t wrong in saying it’s okay to talk about boys sometimes.
- I’m here for Ray asking ‘It’s this okay?’ before taking off Nora’s clothes, even in a dream. Consent is sexy.
- And speaking of the dreams, go Zari with that threesome. Plus her continued breaking of the fourth wall as she looked right at the camera before saying ‘damn this is definitely a dream.’
- Again, there was a whole choreographed musical number with spontaneous costume and set changes. It lasted five minutes. Legends didn’t need to go that hard, but they did.
- Best line of the episode – “Wait a sec, is this a Bollywood musical number?”
“You bet your ass it is.”
