David Farnor | On 07, Apr 2018

Warning: This contains spoilers. For how to watch Legends of Tomorrow, click here.

The last Elvis-themed episode was a definite low point for this season of Legends of Tomorrow, so it’s something of a relief to find the show back on top form. Aside from the welcome return of guest star John Constantine (Matt Ryan), this episode gives us plenty of action, high stakes, a dash of emotion and significant character development for some of the main players. The fact that the writers manage to throw so many funny moments into an otherwise quite dark and scary episode is further testament to just how confident the show is in its tone and storytelling this season.

The episode begins with Sara having spooky dreams about a little girl on the Waverider, whose head spins around. She wakes up to find herself in bed with Ava (they are, like, totally together now) and confesses that she had sex with John Constantine “three weeks before I got a girlfriend”. Ava is simultaneously jealous and also delighted that Sara has made their relationship official with the g-word. This is, of course, a problem, because as any longtime viewer of television surely knows, this sort of happiness can’t last.

After Ava leaves, it’s business as usual for the Legends and Sara assigns various anachronisms to everyone. Amaya and Zari are doing something with the Mona Lisa (turns out it’s a self-portrait of Da Vinci in drag), Einstein is in the Ice Age for some reason and someone needs to return Laika to the Russian space program. All of those sound like fun episodes, but we don’t get to see any of that. Instead, Mick refuses “Russkie pooch” duty and Ray says he could use his help rebuilding the fire totem. Meanwhile, Sara starts getting a ringing sound in her head, as everyone else heads off on their missions.

Remember the Death Totem that was rattling in its box in the cliffhanger for last episode? Well, that’s what’s been calling to Sara and giving her the nightmares. When she approaches it, she’s confronted by herself in pre-death Black Canary gear, urging her to put on the Death Totem. “You could banish that little girl from your dreams, bring back your sister…” says Black Canary Sara. She also points out that it’s the only way to defeat Mallus, as the six totems need six totem bearers. This will be Important For Later. Anyway, Sara gives in. She puts on the Death Totem and becomes… well, let’s call her Dark Sara, even though there’s a lot of white in the costume and make-up. White hair, white jacket, white t-shirt, Goth make-up face, plus those scary black eyes.

Amaya and Zari return from their Mona Lisa mission and discover that Ray has been viciously attacked (offscreen) and left for dead in the science lab. Rounding up Mick, they realise that whoever did this is still on the ship. Amaya and Mick head off to investigate and promptly get their asses handed to them by Dark Sara, who apparently now has teleportation and shape-shifting powers to add to her already formidable fight moves. You don’t mess with Sara Lance at the best of times, but now? The Legends: suitably panicked.

Luckily, just as Dark Sara is about to plunge a dagger into an unconscious Mick – See? She means business – Wally speeds in and grabs Mick and Amaya, regrouping in the med bay with Zari and Nate. They realise that Sara’s bonded with the Death Totem and has been possessed by Mallus, just as Constantine warned might happen a few episodes ago. To make matters worse, Dark Sara activates the Waveriders’ “Nostromo protocol” (nice Alien reference there, seeing as that’s basically what they’re doing this episode) and shuts down all the means of escape, meaning she’s free to pick them off one by one.

Meanwhile, Ava appears in hologram form and is taken aback by Sara’s lack of response. (“Are you okay? Sometimes these holo-feeds can really wash out your skin…”) She holograms into the med bay and is quickly brought up to speed by the Legends, who tell her she needs to find Constantine. Ava’s not too happy about having to track down who she now thinks of as Sara’s ex-boyfriend, but she goes along with it.

With the Waverider all but shut down, Wally speed-vibrates the door of the med bay open and cockily heads out to confront Dark Sara. However, it turns out the Death Totem is capable of messing with their minds, so he runs into his ex-girlfriend Jesse Quick (a bit of a wasted guest appearance from Violett Beane), who distracts him long enough for Dark Sara to zap him with an anti-speedster gun. On the plus side, Wally manages to work through his issues with Jesse, effectively accepting their break-up, and thereby presumably freeing him up for a new romantic interest sometime next season. Nice work, writers.

It’s not entirely clear why the Legends each decide to take on Dark Sara one at a time, but pretty much exactly the same thing happens to Zari, who encounters her younger brother Behrad, shortly before getting knocked unconscious. Mick: “We’re going to need a bigger med bay.”

The Legends need a new plan, so Amaya (who’s also wounded, from her earlier fight with Dark Sara) suggests they try putting on the other Totems. Nate volunteers to get the Earth Totem, but he falls victim to the same ‘seeing your darkest fears’ trick and encounters his grandfather, Commander Steel (Matthew MacCaull), in nice little callback to last season. Nate’s grandfather basically blames him for his death and then beats him up, which just leaves Mick and an out-of-action Amaya.

Fortunately, Amaya manages to convince Mick to wear the Fire Totem. This is a blindingly obvious plot development when you think about it, so it’s kind of impressive that it comes as such a pleasant surprise. Mick, of course, is obsessed with fire and he takes to the totem instantly, giving Dark Sara a run for her money and actually managing to knock her out. This is a great development for Mick, not least because he’s been stuck on the sidelines a lot so far this season, so here’s hoping he gets to keep the damn thing once the season ends.

Meanwhile, Ava and Gary have tracked down Constantine, but somehow lose contact with the Waverider. There’s a lot of comedy to-and-fro once Constantine realises that Ava is Sara’s girlfriend and is jealous that they slept together. He even kisses Gary and gets in a Doctor Who joke. This whole sequence is a pretty great showcase for Constantine’s character, and it’s enjoyable to see him interact with characters other than Sara. Anyway, they finally make it back aboard the Waverider and Mallus confronts Constantine with the voice of Astra, the little girl he failed to save in his own series. (Kudos to the Legends showrunners – they actually cast Astra actress Bailey Tippen as the voice coming out of Dark Sara.) Mallus tells Constantine he’ll release Astra from hell if he’ll sacrifice Sara, but Constantine refuses.

While all this has been going on, Sara has been back in Mallus’ blue-lit realm again. Let’s call it the Astral Plane, just for shorthand. Anyway, she’s confronted by Nora Darhk, but not the good Nora Darhk, which is a bit odd, because surely, that’s where the good Nora Darhk is now? Anyway, Bad Nora tries to tempt Sara to the dark side, reminding her of her life as a member of the League of Assassins. This is where the little girl from Sara’s dream comes in – it turns out she was the daughter of a man Sara killed when she was an assassin, and the girl caught her standing over her father’s body. The image of the girl has clearly haunted Sara ever since, and Caity Lotz brings strong emotion to the scene, as she rejects Nora’s offer, effectively saying that she knows she’ll have to live with her darkness and has accepted it.

The show actually does a pretty decent job of dove-tailing all the different stories for the final sequence. After Constantine rejects Dark Sara’s offer, she starts killing him, but is distracted by her totem reacting to Mick having put on the Fire Totem. She goes off to fight Mick, and is then knocked out, which coincides with Astral Plane Sara rejecting Nora’s offer, which brings Waverider Sara back to normal, with a tearful Ava urging her to come back to her.

So all’s well that ends well. Except it isn’t, because Sara breaks up with Ava, telling her that deep down, she is Death, just like Mallus said, and that although she cares about Ava, she won’t risk hurting her. Something like that, anyway – it’s really all just a contrivance for next week’s Ava-centric episode. Still, there’s sadness for now and Lotz and Jes Macallan really sell the hell out of it.

All in all, this is a pretty great episode, which benefits from being so streamlined. In fact, outside of the Astral Plane and early Constantine scenes, it’s basically a bottle episode. Still, it brings action, humour and emotion, as well as advancing the story significantly in terms of Mick’s new powers. It’ll be fun to see what he does with them in future episodes. Tune in next time, when Ava’s secrets are revealed in “I, Ava”.

Footnotes of Tomorrow

– After this episode aired in the US, it was announced that Matt Ryan would be joining the regular cast if the show got a fourth season. That fourth season was confirmed a few days ago, so welcome to the Legends, John Constantine.

– Beebo Watch. Beebo has become one of the Arrowverse’s best running gags, following the Beebo the God of War episode. He appeared in an episode of The Flash and he pops up again this episode… on Gary’s Beebo socks.

– There are lots of great lines this week, but the line of the episode is shared jointly between Mick and Wally for the following perfect comedy exchange. Wally’s told to rouse a sleeping Mick and he speeds him into the Waverider main room. Cue a confused Mick, standing there in his robe. Mick: “Who…dressed…me?” Wally (looking super-awkward): “Uh…FYI, he sleeps in the nude.” Zari: “I tried to tell ya, kid…”

– Brandon Routh spends most of this episode unconscious, which is a shame. Guessing that was probably the trade-off for all his screentime in No Country For Old Dads.

 

Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 is available on Sky 1 every Wednesday. Don’t have Sky? You can stream it live or catch up on-demand through NOW, as part of a £7.99 monthly subscription, no contract. A 7-day free trial is available for new subscribers.

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