DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 4, Episode 12: The Eggplant, the Witch & the Wardrobe
An all right episode, I guess. It's interesting just how much Legends manages to draw me in with their frankly pretty slapdash approach to drama, whereas the deliberate, overblown bits in The Flash have been mostly disappointing. But this episode tries to do a whole ton of wacky plots while also trying to progress the whole Neron storyline, and somehow it... works out? Again, I keep hammering home the point that Legends of Tomorrow isn't the most ideal adaptation of DC comics' characters or anything, but it's entertaining in its own right.
I do believe that this episode does end up trying to do too much, and very nearly collapsed under its own weight. In the more serious side of the story, we've got Nate having to force himself to come to terms about his father making deals with demons and being mostly okay with enslaving magical creatures... all underscored by the genuinely bizarre decision to straight-up make Hank betray Neron just to make a Jurassic Park with unicorns or some shit. I tend to like Legends of Tomorrow's juxtaposition of generic serious sci-fi/fantasy plots with wacky bizarre details (Beebo, anyone?) but this one just felt genuinely off to me.
Nate ends up meeting the rest of the group as Constantine and Nora are in a little plot to exorcise Neron for good -- which is the more straight-up drama bits of the episode, with Neron trying to get Constantine to drown in grief with the whole Desmond thing, while also tempting Nora to form a pact with him. Also, both Constantine and Nora begin to talk shit about the other, noting how untrustworthy the other magician is -- although it all ends up being an act to make Neron think that Nora's betraying the Legends. Interestingly, it's not Nate charging in out of anger and grief (making him susceptible) that causes the exorcism to fuck up, it's good-natured Ray, who ends up charging in, thinking he's playing the white knight, that ends up fucking up the exorcism. Our characters don't know it, though, and this seems to include Ray in its number -- as the final shot of this episode is Ray ominously walking away whistling "pop goes the weasel", the tune Neron's been whistling throughout the episode.
(Also, for all the buildup in the previous episode that Nora's presence in the Waverider's going to lead to some Ray-against-the-group problems... Constantine and Sara basically just brush it off since they're all on the same page almost immediately.
The other main plot that doesn't really deal with Neron is our heroes finding out that Ava isn't just being a catty girlfriend and shutting out Sara, she's actually captured by Neron and being prepared to be used as a vessel (and having Charlie pretend to be Ava is how Neron gets captured in the first place). In a bit of a kind-of-a-callback to how Constantine helped to restore Sara Lance back to mental health in season three of Arrow, it's now Sara's turn to be shoved into Ava's personal purgatory in order to drag her out. Ava's personal purgatory is... IKEA?
Meanwhile Gary sort of makes this bizarre pseudo-spa for Ava. Bizarre, socially-inept and kind-of-creepy Gary is a hilarious take on the character.
The IKEA bit is... it's a bit too on-the-nose, honestly, with Sara and Ava straight-up just hollering at each other and being angry about Sara's aversion to commitment and the whole "grow up together forever" anxiety that comes with a long term relationship. Throw in a bunch of additional cloning blues drama, and... and it's a neat little sequence? I did feel like the episode could've stood to be a lot less melodramatic, but on the other hand, this is an emotion-world-within-your-mind episode, and I'm honestly not that bothered by it.
There's also a B-plot with Charlie, Mick and Mona trying to basically get Zari to own up and basically make the first move in getting Nate to date her, which is neat but also earns a bit of a shrug from me. Am I the only one who thinks this relationship genuinely pops out of nowhere? It's sort of unfortunate that I watched this episode right after the Caitlin/Ralph subversion over on The Flash. Having Nate's phone be smashed by a literal wrecking ball that causes Zari's message to go unread is hilarious, though, as is the random bit of incredulousness of everyone else that Zari's straight.
Overall, this is an episode that is perfectly enjoyable! And while, again, some of the topics and plot points in this show tend to be a wee bit too out-there, I still find the majority of Legends of Tomorrow as being pretty enjoyable. It's amazingly off-the-rails while still developing their characters pretty well. I honestly don't see this show being sustainable for much longer, particularly with CW's desire to restructure things, but if this was the last season we go out on, it's definitely going out with a bang.
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