DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is always fun and always a great time, but last night’s “Slay Anything” surpassed any and all expectations I have every week about this show.
Paying homage to 1980s slasher movies, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 5 episode 3 told the story of Freddy, the prom night slasher, a famous serial killer that has been freed from hell.
This is only a new villain in Astra’s long list of evil souls wreaking havoc on Earth, and this time, Freddy came back to 2004, right after he had been executed for murdering several classmates on his prom night in 1989.
So, of course, our favorite team of misfits is off to the early 2000s to stop Freddy from finishing the job.
Nora and the path to redemption
Can we please talk about Nora Dahrk’s absolutely fantastic character development?
Remember when we first met her, back in season 3, fighting alongside dear old dad Damien Dahrk? Supervillain, serving as a vessel for a powerful time demon and super willing to die for his cause?
Well, that Nora is thankfully no more. It has been so gratifying to see her incredible arc, as she took the road to redemption at the end of season 3 and has finally reached a place where she can call herself a hero.
Courtney Ford has been an absolute delight to watch in her performance of Nora Dahrk, but last night she brought her A-game.
The team realizes Ray’s idea of reforming the encores when they’re young to prevent them from ever becoming villains, and returning from hell is the only viable solution in Freddy’s case. So, Sara sends Ray and Nate to 1989 to try and talk some sense into young Freddy.
Nora happens to be aboard the Waverider when they land in the 80s and ends up hearing young Freddy’s call. As a fairy godmother, she has no choice but to grant him three wishes.
And this is where Ford brought out her amazing comedic side because Nora is so fed up with being a fairy godmother and wearing that god awful blue dress while hearing whiny children wishing for stupid ponies.
But when her new charge happens to be a serial killer, she is terrified. Her first encounter with Freddy is hilarious, and her reaction when he asks for a new suit — instead of murdering all his classmates like she thought he would — made me laugh out loud.
However, what followed next was a touching and heartwarming story because Nora saw so much of herself in Freddy.
After the popular boy in school humiliates him in front of everyone at prom, Nora’s speech about how being yourself is a magic far stronger than any wish, and how accepting who she is, scars and all, led her to find her people, had me in tears.
After watching Nora struggling with her demons for two seasons, seeing her fully accepting herself and embracing her team and her place in it was so incredibly satisfying.
This is what makes this show great — how these characters continuously evolve and try to be their best selves while trying to accept and atone for their pasts.
Of course, that led to a fantastic plot twist that Freddy had never been the serial killer at all. The real culprit was his mother, who couldn’t bear to see her little boy grow up and need anyone else other than her.
So she decided to murder the girl he liked and all his new friends, taking the concept of helicopter mom to a whole new level.
And because Freddy loved her so much, he took the fall for her. So when he was executed, poor Kathy couldn’t take it, and she died of a heart attack. Which means the real encore was Freddy’s mother, and not poor misunderstood, awkward, sweet Freddy.
Ava Sharpe, the fangirl
I love Ava so much, guys. Ever since she first appeared on our screen back in the season 3 premiere, I knew she was special. Jes Macallan has brought such life to this otherwise rule-follower character, and it’s so much fun to peel each layer of the Ava Sharpe onion as time passes.
We all knew she was a serial killer connoisseur, but finding out she has a podcast about it was just all sorts of hilarious and fantastic.
Part of me wonders if this is something she’s been doing for a long time or if she has just started StabCast after leaving the Time Bureau. Regardless, fangirl! Ava was something that I never knew I needed until she was squealing about chasing one of her top 5 serial killers of all time.
Watching Ava lose her mind over being in the cafeteria where Freddy killed his first victim and then fangirling over the girl who survived was one of the highlights of the season for me.
And then when the Encore traps them all inside the school in 2004 and she is so excited and recording her podcast during the chase — it was all kinds of hilarious. There were so many great one-liners that I wouldn’t even know where to start talking about them.
That said, I loved seeing Ava and Sara being such a formidable team together. They have fantastic chemistry, and god knows I ship them so hard, but it’s always so great to see how well they work together in the field. That final fight scene where they only talk through their eyes and the other knows exactly what to do was incredible.
And of course, all ended well because Behrad changed the timeline by knocking Kathy out in 1989, which erased the encore from 2004.
Everything that followed was just the cherry on top of what was a really, really fantastic episode — the team reuniting, Sara and Ava talking about how they were the final girls and being their usual adorable selves, the photo booth montage and, of course, Mick heavily making out with his high school sweetheart.
Other highlights of Legends of Tomorrow
- I love Charlie and Constantine’s friendship and I can’t wait to see more of those two working together. We only caught a glimpse last night, but I’m sure Charlie will be an integral part of helping Constantine defeat (and hopefully save) Astra.
- We need to talk about Zari. This section could be an entire article in itself, but suffice to say that I liked Zari 2.0 a hell of a lot more in this episode and I can’t wait to find out more about what she’s really like. That airhead persona seems to be just that — a persona — and I’m ecstatic that she’s slowly getting her memories back. Now please just let her remember Nate. Please?
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on Tuesdays at 9/8C on The CW.