Last night’s Legends of Tomorrow was every bit as funny as the show usually is; but with Nora and Ray’s exit looming, it just felt extremely bittersweet. In Episode 7 of Season 5, titled Mr. Parker’s cul-de-sac, Ray had every intention of proposing to Nora Darhk during a super romantic dinner.
He went to Constantine’s manor to prepare the ultimate romantic evening — with the help of his buds Nate, Behrad and Gary — but it all went to hell when the latest encore decided to show up. And it was none other than Damien Darhk himself, also known as Nora’s dad.
The dinner from hell
What was so great about last night’s Legends of Tomorrow was that, even though we had plots A, B, C and D, they were all so intrisically connected that most of them ended up culminating during the most hilarious family dinner this show has ever had.
And sure, Ray trying to propose to Nora and then Damien Darhk crashing the party was the conduit for the whole thing, but the way this episode was structured was absolutely perfect – as all the simmering conflicts came to a head during dinner, and it was so, so great.
I love that Legends of Tomorrow is the one DC show that just keeps getting better and is just so consistently good. It feels like after they embraced Beebo, they found a “let’s just be as crazy as possible” formula that always works.
So the way this starts is that when Ava’s prognosticator points to an encore in 1874, half of the team is nowhere to be found. Sara and Ava go by themselves and find 2018 Gary tied to the rails in the path of an oncoming train. They manage to save him right before a train speeds by, and he’s the one that tells them that the encore is Damien Darhk and he stole his time courier.
That brings Ava and Sara back to the ship in time to find out that Darhk is in 2020 in Constantine’s manor. So they decide to go just the two of them — along with the hell sword Khan left behind last week — and just end this once and for all, sending Damien Darhk straight back to hell, where he belongs.
Meanwhile, Ray is preparing a romantic evening with Nora, so he can finally pop the question. Of course, Darhk arrives and ruins everyone’s plans. Nora sends Ray away with her current charge Pippa, and tries her best to distract daddy dearest, telling him lies after lies about how she’s a powerful evil sorcerer.
In the end, everyone gets roped into this mess, but it’s done in such an expert way that Mr. Parker’s Cul-De-Sac has immediately soared to one of my favorite episodes ever.
And everything was hilarious — from Sara and Ava being her henchwomen to Nora pretending she and Constantine were a thing. The pacing, the tone, everything was perfect.
But what this episode really put on spotlight was how communication is so important in whatever kind of relationship you have.
Yay for communication and cooperation
The one take away from this episode — other than the fact that I’m going to miss Ray and Nora terribly — was that communication is key.
Literally all subplots were about miscommunication: Nora trying to hide who she really is from her dad; Sara hiding her job offer in Star City from Ava; Charlie trying to deceive John, so he won’t go looking for the Loom of Fate; and Mick finding out his online troll was actually his daughter that he never knew even existed, because Ally kept her from him.
Nora tried to create this whole persona that she thought her father would approve of, but of course, in the end, it all obviously blew up in her face.
Her issues with her dad were only resolved once she actually verbalized everything she was feeling. How being raised by a demon cult was not her choice, it was his; and helping kids now is actually her choice, and it’s the way she manages to cope with her tragic past. How she’s so proud of the woman she’s become and she’s never going back to how she was before.
It was beautiful. And Nora actually saying these things helped Damien Darhk realize some pretty important things; but most of all is how proud of his daughter he is, no matter what.
If she’s happy, then so is he. And even though he’s this mega villain and he’s hurt and killed so many people, last night Darhk made me cry and empathize with him. In the end, he just wanted to protect his little girl.
Now Ava and Sara was a different story. Even though it was resolved fairly quickly, the fact that Sara even considered taking a job in Star City because she thought Ava wanted to settle down and have a real home spoke volumes of how she feels about our Captain Pantsuit.
I love how their relationship is so solid and how, even though they did fight — and Damien Darhk of all people was the one moderating it — they actually used their words and talked things through like the grown up kickass women they are.
Other highlights of Legends of Tomorrow
- “I volunteer as tribute.” Green, Gary. I love him so much. He’s my child.
- “Do it for book club.” and “Are you seriously invoking book club right now?” were absolutely golden. This entire sequence was just brilliant.
- John and Charlie working up a deal to find the Loom of Fate and then destroy it. Why do I think all hell is about to break loose? No pun intended.
- Can we talk about the surreal casting of the kid playing Mick’s daughter? She looks so much like him, it’s freaky. And I guarantee you we’re not done with this storyline. Mick may have erased their memories, but this is going to come back and bite him in the ass. And soon.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on Tuesdays at 9/8C on The CW.