DC’s Legend’s of Tomorrow welcomes its fearless leader Caity Lotz in a different capacity in this week’s episode, titled Mortal Khanbat.
We have seen the actress portray the survivor turned assassin turned Captain of a time ship Sara Lance for the past seven years, and tonight we get to see how she does behind the cameras.
In honor of Lotz’s directorial debut on tonight’s Legends of Tomorrow, we thought we’d take a stroll down memory lane to revisit and pay homage to this absolutely fantastic, flawed, complex character and how much she has grown since we first met her in the second season of Arrow back in 2013.
Arrow origins
I loved Sara from the moment she showed up on Arrow on Season 2 Episode 3, Broken Dolls. She was such a badass, and the more was revealed about her and what she’d had to endure after The Gambit went down, the more I liked her.
When she joined Team Arrow permanently, I was overjoyed. One, because it was another woman on the team to balance things out, and two, her presence in the bunker gave us so much fantastic Felicity content.
It might be an unpopular opinion, but I actually really liked Sara and Oliver together, as short lived as that was. And I was absolutely gutted when she was murdered in early season 3. Gutted.
But then, Laurel decided to resurrect her sister via Lazarus Pit — because nobody ever really dies in these shows anyway; Sara is a testament to that — and, after a short stint in Starling City, she decided to leave, much to my dismay.
But then, in trying to find herself, she was recruited by Time Master Rip Hunter to join the Legends, and that’s when the real fun started.
Legends of Tomorrow
Let’s be honest here. Season 1 was a chaotic mess. I tried. I really did, because I loved Sara and I kinda sorta liked Ray, but that first season was just not good. I wanted to stick around for Sara, but I just really couldn’t. I left halfway through and didn’t even try to give it another shot for years.
But then they pulled themselves together in Season 2, and decided to put Sara in charge as she rightly deserves. That did wonders for the show, and Legends of Tomorrow went from the black sheep of the Arrowverse to a critically acclaimed show. Despite (or because of) its insane weirdness factor (or is it weird insanity?), Legends was suddenly the best show in the Arrowverse and the character of Sara Lance grew and developed so organically with the show.
It took me four years to give it another shot. I always tuned in whenever Sara visited the other shows, but it was only after an Arrow Season 2 rewatch — and asking Twitter for reassurance and getting an overwhelmingly positive response — that I decided to give it another go.
And boy, am I glad I did. Not only did the show improve immensely, but it did wonders for Sara Lance’s growth. Once they put her in a leadership position, Legends of Tomorrow soared.
It seems that once they figured out what made this show work, everything fell into place. The writing for these characters is just fantastic, but especially for Sara. They took that lost girl that we had last seen on Arrow, who was fighting her blood lust after being resurrected, and slowly but surely turned her into a brilliant leader — and eventually captain.
Because even though Sara is still so young, she has been through more than most people go through in a million lifetimes. From that reckless, helpless girl that boarded The Gambit with Oliver Queen, she’s been through such a wild transformation over the years: survivor, assassin, lost misfit, Legend and Captain. And just like she is one of the reasons Season 2 of Arrow was so incredible, her character becoming a leader has made Legends of Tomorrow the show that it is today.
Sara and relationships
I love, love, love that Sara Lance is so unapologetically bisexual. It doesn’t define her as a human being, it doesn’t diminish her abilities in being a Captain or a badass ninja, and it doesn’t make her character a one-dimensional stereotype — it just is. And I love that the writers on this show just roll with it.
Her relationships have allowed Sara to grow and get through some tough times, and I just love that being bisexual doesn’t define who she is.
From Oliver to Nyssa to Ava — and a few others throughout time and space — the character of Sara Lance has seen such an amazing development and growth. Again, even though this is an unpopular opinion, her relationship with Oliver in Arrow Season 2 was exactly what both characters needed at the time — as frustrating as it was to watch as an Olicity shipper.
Nyssa was the one who saved her when she had been left for dead, and I think that relationship will always, always have a special place in her heart. Meeting Nyssa defined who she is today. If she hadn’t met her, she would’ve never joined the League of Assassins, would’ve never returned to Starling City, would’ve never been resurrected and been recruited to join the Legends.
As much as joining Oliver on The Gambit was a major turning point in her life, meeting Nyssa was an even bigger one. Without Nyssa, she would probably be dead in a ditch somewhere, and not the Captain of a time ship. But these relationships were just stepping stones to prepare her for what was to come.
Because it’s with Ava Sharpe that she finally finds peace and is finally ready to have a healthy, loving relationship. And a lot of that is due to the explosive chemistry between Caity Lotz and Jes Macallan. As much as the writing is absolutely suberb for these two characters, without chemistry, this ship would have sunk faster than the Titanic — just look at Oliver and Laurel on Arrow.
But the chemistry there is just so, so incredible, that both Lotz and Macallan bring out in these characters their very best versions of each other. When Jes Macallan joined Legends of Tomorrow in Season 3, she was the missing piece for Sara’s continuous growth.
Adding Ava Sharpe to the mix brought out a whole other side of Sara to the surface, and turned a character that was already fantastic and complex and damaged and beautiful into an even better version of herself. Because she finds she can truly be herself with Ava and that’s just a beautiful, beautiful thing.
What I love most about this is that each have their own thing, their own issues and their own friends, and they’re more than capable of getting stuff done by themselves; but together, they’re unstoppable.
So in Caity Lotz’s directorial debut tonight, Sara will still be away on business in Star City for the most part — which is understandable as Lotz is directing. As much as we have all missed her, we are most definitely very excited to see Lotz working in another capacity on the show tonight.
She has brought so much to Sara Lance over the past seven years, and she’s the beating heart of Legends of Tomorrow. We can’t wait to see how she does behind the cameras. Check out the promo below:
Legends of Tomorrow Season 5, Episode 5, Mortal Khanbat, airs tonight at 9/8C on The CW.