There is so much to unpack about last night’s Legends of Tomorrow that I don’t even know where to start. What an episode, guys. What a fantastic, hilarious hour A Head of Her Time delivered in true Legends insanity fashion.
Sara had to go to Star City on business, so she left Ava in charge of the crazy group, acting as interim captain. Of course, our precious Ava was absolutely terrified of leading the Legends, but Sara gave her a pep talk and left before she could say no.
That led to an absolutely hysterical sequence of events, a beautiful friendship forming, and Courtney Ford hilariously playing Marie Antoinette in an episode that has easily soared to my top 5 list.
Zava for the win
Legends of Tomorrow Season 5, episode 4 called A Head of Her Time took us to France in the midst of a collapsing French revolution in 1793.
Ava is super in over her head – not because she is not a capable leader, mind you but because the Legends are just uncontrollable once they get there. Because their encore is none other than Marie Antoinette and she’s determined to have everyone party themselves to death – literally.
But here’s where things get interesting. While Nate, Ray and Behrad immediately are affected by the party mood, Ava and Zari 2.0 are not affected at all. And this is because before they left the Waverider (and Zari expertly convinced Ava to let her tag along), our new resident influencer and fashion guru sprayed
Ava and herself with her new perfume, which caused them both to lose their sense of smell temporarily due to the power of Z’s new perfume.
So once they identified who their encore was and the mayhem she was causing — and also that the rest of the Legends were incapacitated, Ava has no choice but to work with Zari. And let me tell you, Zari 2.0 really knows her way around an event.
From getting them into the party in the first place to dressing Ava in that absolutely gorgeous dress to teaching her how to get close to Marie Antoinette, this Zava friendship is the content I never knew I needed, and that now I love with all my heart.
Because in a way, Ava and Zari are kindred spirits who are just trying to find themselves and their place in this world.
So with Marie Antoinette secured, they start to lead the encore out of the party, but that causes one hell of a commotion. Because Marie obviously invites everyone to follow her, causing complete chaos in her wake. During the commotion, she crashes into a pillar and literally loses her head, which is caught expertly by Nate.
In the end, they manage to get back to the Waverider, Marie included, but with her head very much apart from her body. And obviously, at that point, we’re still halfway through the episode, so we know the other shoe is yet to drop.
Zari, as it turns out, has the launch of her new perfume line to go to. But before she leaves — in a stunning dress fabricated by Gideon, I might add — she convinces our kickass AI to show her the future.
And, well, to say her future is bleak would be an understatement because her new line of perfumes are going to cause damage to people’s bodies, causing them to lose their sense of smell — as it already happened to her and Ava — which will lead her to lose everything.
So what does she do? She steals Marie Antoinette’s popularity/party perfume to pass as her own and skips off to her red carpet event. Of course, at one point the magic perfume spills all over her, which causes a riot at her event. And that’s exactly how Ava, Behrad and Nate find her.
Let me reiterate how much I love Ava and Zari’s relationship development in this episode. They started off as pretty much enemies, not standing each other, to saving each other on two different occasions and then becoming besties.
It turns out that these lost souls were exactly what the other needed on this ship to feel like they truly belonged.
A surprising turn of events
While the Legends were off to fight an encore in 1793, we check in with Gary and Charlie in 2020 in Constantine’s old place. Gary is beside himself that John went through the door that held Astra’s mom’s spirit, and tries as hard as he can to rescue his master. Of course, he screws up the spell to open the door and ends up letting Natalie’s ghost come out to play.
And this was an excellent way to introduce us to John Constantine’s back story, as well as give us a glimpse into Charlie’s past as well. It turns out that John and Natalie were childhood friends. She was a witch and he’s a warlock and they loved each other very much.
One day, Natalie was killed in a freak accident and her husband was absolutely torn up about it. He begged John to bring her back until Constantine caved in and this is where everything went wrong. Because John didn’t realize that in bringing Natalie back, the demon would need a soul in exchange.
And guess who that was? Yup, young Astra. The same one who is trying her hardest now to kill John Constantine. While the Marie Antoinette plot was absolutely hilarious and easily my favorite part of the episode, this right here was the plot that had the big bucks. Because Natalie tells John that the Loom of Fate was not just a story and is indeed very, very real.
And not only that — she reveals that this was the reason she lured Charlie into the house in the first place. It turns out that our dear shapeshifter Charlie is a hell of a lot more than she’s been letting on. Because she destroyed the Loom of Fate and scattered it across the multiverse.
Meanwhile, young Astra is hell-bent on getting revenge on Constantine and decides that anticipating his death is the best way to go. So she finds herself a demon that can do that, and they leave us in a cliffhanger of John collapsing and coughing up blood.
Other highlights of Legends of Tomorrow
- As much as I miss our OG Zari dearly, Zari 2.0 is a highlight in herself. I just can’t get over how extra and hilarious she is, at the same time that she’s so very lonely and lost and really is just trying to find her place in the world. I love her so much and Tala Ashe has been doing such an amazing job of portraying Zari’s layers.
- Mick is lovesick! Gideon’s “I have confirmed that you like, like her” made me laugh out loud. We love one sassy AI.
- Ray told Nora he loves her! And she said it back!
- I wonder if they’re going to enlighten us as to what kind of business Sara had to take care of, or if this was just because Caity Lotz was off prepping for her directorial debut.
- Zari getting flashes of her old life by eating a donut was an absolute stroke of genius. I can’t wait to see how they’re going to really get her to fully remember her past life. For her sake and for poor Nate’s.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.