Legends of Tomorrow S03E03 Review: Totems and Water Ladies

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 3, Episode 3: Zari

This is a more solid episode, even if it reeks heavily of repetition. While the setting and plot devices are different, the whole thing is just a repetition of the plotlines of the previous two episodes "Legends fuck a mission up, the Time Bureau show up, they have a face-off, Legends fix the mission anyway". Sure, the face-off now involves Sara and Sharpe staring each other down with their time spaceships as opposed to whacking each other in a corridor, but there's definitely a huge sense of "seen that" when I watched that episode. It's still fun, of course, even if we do have to resort to scenes of Nate being quite literally high off his ass on some Zambesian herb. 

The main plotline thankfully is starting to sluggishly move forward, with the main plotline (taking place in 2042, a dystopian ARGUS-headed regime over the USA... which the show doesn't actually do a lot with) involves Kuasa, the water-wielding evil sister of Mari McCabe, the 2017-era Vixen, hunting down the totem of air. Which, in this episode, ends up falling to Zari Tomaz, a wanted criminal who has been working as a resistance fighter in 2042. Zari manages to manipulate the Legends to working with her to ostensibly rescue her brother from a metahuman detention center, but it's just an excuse to steal the totem. It's all basic stuff, we get some absolutely cool shots of Kuasa's water powers (that shot of her pouring her way through the car's air conditioning system is amazing), but it's otherwise a pretty standard and basic character introduction. 

Zari herself is okay. Likable enough for me to root for, a decent enough backstory and a good enough actress, but she's not actually done a whole ton so I'm still waiting for her to actually be relevant. 

There are some laffs when Gary, the little nebbish Time Bureau Agent that called in the case which the Legends intercepted, is concerned. There are some laffs too when Mick just doesn't manage to shoot anyone in this episode. Gideon has apparently grown a lot snarkier than she has been, which is also good for some comedic beats. Oh, and Amaya goes on a spirit vision which basically tells her to guide the new totem-bearer, which is neat, but feels a lot more plot-device-y the way Hawkgirl's visions had been in the first season of Legends of Tomorrow. It's a pretty decent episode overall, one that was entertaining, but hardly spectacular. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• We'll not really talk that much about Zari's alter-ego because that might be a bit spoileriffic (and also inaccurate, considering her powers are now tied to Zambesi totems instead of Egyptian magic), but she does mention that she has a brother. In the comics, Adrianna Tomaz does have a brother, Amon Tomaz, otherwise known as the superhero Osiris.
• Mick being happy to plan a "Prison Break" is, of course, a reference to his actor's role in said series, one of the many, many times that the show has been mentioned.