DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 3, Episode 15: Necromancing the Stone
I'm of two opinions of this episode. On one hand, it has Constantine at his best, being funny and a big asshole, with some hints of his tragic backstory. It also progresses the plotline of the totem storyline and turns Sara Lance into a psychotic demon banshee, and while it's obvious as all hell that she's going to regain control because Sara Lance's just that badass... it's also fun to watch.
But on the other hand, the progression of the totem storyline feels predictable, and I just cannot really get into the Ava Sharpe/Sara Lance romance. Caity Lotz and Jes Macallan are amazing actresses and they manage to make the scenes feel more charming than annoying, but the romance feels really shoehorned in and it really takes me out of the story when we get a recap showing "oh, Grodd is fucking up the timeline, Mallus is fucking up the timeline, Darhk is fucking up the timeline, get the totems, hurry, existence is at stake!" and then we get an extended scene of Ava and Sara being adorable in bed talking about Sara's ex. And a huge chunk of this episode's catalyst is Ava and Sara learning to be girlfriends (and eventually breaking up because Sara doesn't want attachments or some shit) and it's... it's definitely well written. It's just paced weirdly.
Anyway, that's the gist of this episode. Sara gets possessed by the Death Totem (because she's the only one to have actually, y'know died) and she gets confronted by the sight of her past as a member of the League of Assassins, something that thankfully isn't forgotten, and we get to see a cold flashback of her murdering a man in front of his own daughter. Nora Darhk shows up to basically go "you're already evil, you belong with us monsters", but Sara, of course, chooses the heroic thing and along with some assistance of her buddies outside, manages to choose that she's going to change -- she owes it to her past victims to do so. And that's a very nice story.
Oh, and Mallus-Sara shows all the other Legends their deepest, darkest fears, all the while giving some of the show's long-missing action scenes when Sara does backflips around Mick and Amaya. We get to see a very powerful scene as Zari, after a brief reminiscing with her dead brother, chooses to ignore the apparition and go do what she wants to do. Nate ends up succumbing to the sight of his grandfather (from last season!) and the guilt at letting Heywood Sr die. Oh, and throw in some Amaya self-doubt there for good reason. Wally confronting Jesse Quick and their bad breakup is... a lot more underwhelming and as much as I like Jesse, I'm not sure this is necessary.
The horror shows abroad the Waverider as Demon Sara locks down the ship and the Legends on-board has to try and beat Sara (and ends up outclassed by Sara and her new demon powers) is neat, although the significant under-usage of Mick Rory throughout this entire season makes his sudden rise to "yep, you wield the fire totem now" feel insanely rushed. Doesn't help that since the crossover Mick has been kept in the sidelines or in the Waverider itself as a bridge bunny, making this feel really oddly done.
Meanwhile, Ava and Gary go off to find Constantine, who, naturally, we see in some apartment with an elderly woman trying to chase a chicken. The show manages to play up Constantine's insane antics with a neat enough balance with his "offscreen adventures" to really make his story work, and Matt Ryan's performance through all this really makes me sad that the poor actor never quite got his chance to play Constantine in a more permanent basis. He also gets to go through a bit of the storyline abandoned when his series was cancelled when the Death Totem apparently channels Astra, turning the wise-cracking jackass into a suddenly vulnerable man... and for a second he looks like he's roped in by the Death Totem until he pulls out his little gimmicks and strikes the possessed Sara, because, hey, he's Constantine, lovable rogue and all-around likable brit.
I think the episode overplays Gary's nebbish charm a bit too much here. I do like Gary a lot, but I think this episode uses him too much, especially when that D&D talk goes from charming to just an over-long gag. Ava's neat in this episode as well, and has some fun moments with Constantine, but I really wish we didn't have such a central focus on their romantic drama.
Overall, though, despite my complaints it's still a very fun episode, and a very neat romp to watch, with Constantine in particular being a bag of laughs. Of course he uses Mick's new fireball powers to light his cigarette.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Mick gains innate fire-manipulating powers after touching the fire totem. While he never utilized any magical artifacts in the comics, during the New 52 reboot, Heat Wave did gain natural fire-manipulating abilities instead of using a gun,
- Sara notes that Constantine "looks like Sting". Sting, of course, was the original visual inspiration for John Constantine's look in the comics.
- Constantine's sister, who exists in the comics and was mentioned in the Constantine show, is also mentioned once more by Ava when she reads through Constantine's file.
- Zari's shirt throughout this episode has a picture of a tiger, which apparently is intended to be a reference to the Captain Marvel family's sidekick, Tawky Tawny the talking tiger-man. And while Legends of Tomorrow does take large liberties with the character of Adrianna Tomaz, she did originate as a superhero connected to the Marvel family.
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