Legends of Tomorrow has become that kind of show that is just consistently excellent. No matter what they do, how outlandish their plots are, the writing, directing and performances are just so good, that they make it all work anyway. Last night’s episode, titled “Mortal Khanbat” and directed by our very own fearless leader Caity Lotz, had everything that makes this show so amazing.
In her directorial debut, Lotz did a fantastic job with the action-packed episode, relying on creative camera work and just absolutely out of this world gunfire and action sequences. Mortal Khanbat had so much going on — in the best way possible — that it’s hard to pick a place to start.
Charlie and Behrad had a thing? Charlie is one of the Three Fates? Genghis freaking Khan wants to take over the world with a fleet of soldiers riding scooters? Constantine is about to die?
There was a lot happening. And it was so good. And honestly, I just love this show so much, guys.
Charlie and that insane plot twist
Our favorite interim Captain Ava Sharpe has created a system with Gideon, that she proudly calls “The Prognosticator.”
While only Ray gives her the time of day about it — because the rest of the team is more interested in Nate’s new scooter — what The Prognosticator does is that it predicts where and when an Encore might be about to make a move, so they can prevent changes to history instead of just cleaning up their mess.
And that’s awesome, Ava. Don’t mind the children — Sara is going to be super proud.
So she picks a category 5 encore event in 1997 Hong Kong for them to do a test drive on this thing. While Ray and Gary are off trying to save Constantine, the rest of the Legends go to Hong Kong following Ava’s lead. And yes, that does include Zari 2.0 and she’s very proud of that fact. I just love this new friendship so much.
Off they go to a tea house so they can wait for their new Encore to make an appearance. Nate quickly identifies the Encore as Genghis Khan, a 13th-century Mongolian warrior who founded the Mongolian Empire, one of the largest empires in history.
And what is Khan’s objective now? To conquer the world, of course!
And to do so, he first tries to take over the Chinese Triad, and then he moves on to his next goal — kidnapping Prince Charles during his visit to Hong Kong to stop him from giving Hong Kong back to China, only to give it to him instead. Which, you know, is not a bad plan, especially considering he has a magic sword that can literally turn people into dust.
Charlie infiltrates Khan’s crew, which puts Behrad on edge. Because apparently, they had sex and Charlie just vanished the next day, essentially ghosting him. Our baby B has caught some serious case of feelings for our resident shapeshifter, and it was so sweet.
Charlie, on the other hand, has more pressing matters to deal with. Because sure, Genghis Khan was awesome and all the action sequences were to die for, but the real star of the episode was Charlie because we’ve learned a hell of a lot about her in Mortal Khanbat, including what she really is. And what she really is, ladies and gentlemen, is a literal freaking Goddess.
It turns out that our very own Charlie is actually Clotho, one of the Three Fates — the three Greek goddesses that basically decide the fates of mortals? Ring any bells? Because my inner nerd is screaming.
But Clotho, aka Charlie, one day decided she didn’t want to assign fates to people anymore, that mortals should have free will and not just pre-destined set of events happen to them. So being the Spinner, she destroyed the Loom of Fate — where she literally spun people’s destinies — and scattered the pieces across the multiverse.
However, after Crisis happened and, as she so cheekily put it, “Sara and her merry band of paragons” rebooted the universe, now all the pieces of the Loom are on Earth Prime. And that means that her sisters are now after her, which means mission Protect Charlie 2k20 is officially a go.
Honestly, I am so excited about this storyline, especially how it will all tie together with Constantine’s storyline this season with trying to save Astra — even though she is hell-bent on killing him.
Constantine’s race against time and death
Meanwhile, Constantine was dealing with his very, very imminent death. While Charlie and Gary rushed him back to the Waverider when he started coughing up blood, Gideon gave him some really bad news: John had lung cancer, it was terminal and there was nothing they could do.
So being John Constantine, he decided he was going out on his own terms and broke out of the med bay and went back to his own manor with Gary and Ray.
And this was such a touching and a total contrast to the Hong Kong storyline because Gary and Ray were there basically for John’s last supper. He nearly died a couple of times — where he managed to find himself in purgatory with Astra — but this was such a nice way to pay homage to such a fantastic character.
I’ll be the first to admit that it took me a while to actually like Constantine, but now that he was facing his death, I was devastated.
So it goes without saying that when he finally convinced Astra that he could bring her mother back and change her entire life, which finally made her reverse his terminal lung cancer, I was very, very relieved.
So now, both storylines are very much tied together, since John needs Charlie and the Loom of Fate to change Astra’s destiny, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Other highlights of Legends of Tomorrow
- Sara coming back to the Waverider only to find it a mess was the epitome of a mother coming back home, only to find her children threw a rager and destroyed the house. I love one Time Mom.
- Caity Lotz did an insanely good job on her directorial debut. “Mortal Khanbat” was fun and exciting and just plain funny, while managing to move the story along so incredibly well. Not to mention the sucker punch that was Charlie’s plot twist.
- Nate is so smitten with Zari 2.0 and I think she feels exactly the same. I ship them so hard, guys. I just want Zari to get her memories back. Please and thank you.
- Charlie flirting with Zari was everything. As much as I love Nate and Zari, I still kind of ship Zari and Charlie. Please don’t make me choose.
Legends of Tomorrow returns on March 10 with an all-new episode at 9/8C on The CW.