Plot
With Nora in a coma, Ray isn't in a good state of mind even before he learns he's become Neron's latest host. Meanwhile, Sara tries to stoke the romance between Nate and Zari by sending them off on an allegedly easy mission alone, as Mick and Charlie discover an interesting offer that could make them both a bit of money.
Influences
The Evil Dead movies (Ray struggling with his evil hand, his parodying Ash's "groovy" catch-phrase, the severed nipple moving on its own), Raiders of the Lost Ark (Zari and Nate's costumes and aliases, the red-line showing their journey on the map during the travel segues, the "where does it hurt?" scene.) and the movie Entrapment (Nate's going through the trip-wires is a parody of a scene from this movie.)
Performances
Brandon Routh does a phenomenal job of simultaneously playing up the humor and the horror of his possession.
Adam Tsekhman does a phenomenal job with Gary's "turn."
Artistry
The music does a perfect job of emulating the John Williams score from the Indiana Jones movies.
Props to the costume department for perfectly mimicking Marion's dress and Indy's suit for Zari and Nate's "date" clothes.
The show's script and editing are great, subtly hinting at the end with the way the segues overlap (i.e. Sara's talking about the villain being the put-upon assistant as we cut to Gary.)
Trivia Of Tomorrow
The title of the episode comes from two sources - the popular McDonald's breakfast sandwich and the technical fiction writing term MacGuffin.
In fiction writing, a MacGuffin is the term for any object, unimportant to the audience, which sets the action of the story in motion. MacGuffins are frequently left unidentified, the better to keep the audience speculating as to what exactly they are, even though the exact details are not important to the story. Prime examples of MacGuffins include the statue from The Maltese Falcon, the glowing suitcase in Pulp Fiction, the Necronomicon in the Evil Dead movies, the contents of the Arc of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the meaning of the word "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane.
Most of the sequences involving Ray being possessed pay tribute to the Evil Dead movies, which saw the hero struggling with a demonically possessed hand.
By the same token, the Adventurer's Club scenes pay tribute to the Indian Jones movies, particularly Raiders of the Lost Ark. So do Ava's whip tricks during the fight with the Nazis and the recreation of the "Where does it hurt?" scene that closes the episode.
Nate's journey through the trip-wires is a parody of a similar scene in the movie Entrapment, which seemingly existed just to get actress Catherine Zeta-Jones to crawl and suggestively stretch in such a manner as to satisfy the male-gaze of the camera.
Technobabble/Arcana
According to Neron, a demon can take control of a person's soul if that person kills someone they truly love while demonically possessed.
A possessed person cannot tell other people that they are possessed.
The spell that John uses to heal Nora requires the tail-feather of a phoenix. These are quite difficult to come by.
Demons cannot back out of a promise once it is made. This is why Neron cannot harm Nate once Ray agrees to become his host in exchange for a promise not to harm Nate.
John learned a spell from Marie Laveau that lets him bind a demon while it is still inside its host.
Dialogue Triumphs
(Zari is unsure how to take the next step with Nate.)
Sara: I will help you.
Zari: Please don't.
Sara: (knowingly) Relationship. Expert.
(Sara walks off as Zari looks pained, knowing something of Sara's previous relationships.)
(Ray looks down at his demonically possessed hand, horrified.)
Ray: Not groovy. Not groovy at all.
Zari: I - I know these costumes are totally ridiculous.
Nate: You- you- you look absolutely, um... Yeah, ridiculous.
Zari: Uh, apparently it's all part of a cover story Sara gave me. I'm someone named Marion Ravenwood.
(Nate blinks at this, instantly recognizing the name.)
Nate: Wait...Wait a second.
(Nate fumbles with his wallet to find his fake ID - a membership card with The Adventurer's Club.)
Nate: Huh. Well, it says here I am Dr. Henry Jones Jr. Professor of Archaeology, expert in the occult, and how does one say this? Obtainer of rare antiquities.
(Zari .)
Nate: It's Indiana Jones! (pauses) Yeah.
Zari: (nodding in understanding) Sara set us up.
Nate: What's that?
Zari: Adventurers' Society, everyone else unavailable for the mission, dressing up... like your favorite movie - it's all a set up to send us on the perfect date.
(Nate swallows nervously as the "D" word is said.)
Zari: I totally get if you wanna go back to the ship.
Nate: Or we can see where this mission takes us?
(Nate gestures for Zari to move before him into the club and she does so.)
(Sara is settling down with the trashy novel for book club.)
Sara: Okay, page one.
(Sara looks at the page and then turns to the camera, as if addressing the audience.)
Sara: Is this on audiobook?
(Cut to Sara on a treadmill, listening to the book as she runs.)
Zari: We are crushing this mission, by the way. No classic Legends mishaps. And only one historically insignificant nobody received blunt-force trauma to the head.And now we get our prize.
(Zari moves forward toward the egg but Nate stops her.)
Nate: Wait. Trip wires.
(Nate points out the thin, near invisible wires set up in a mesh around the egg.)
Nate: This is gonna require one of us to squeeze through these trip wires, maneuvering our bodies in unexpected ways.
Zari: (deadpan) Are you asking me to do that?
Nate: No, I'm asking you to hold my coat.
(Charlie still isn't convincingly playing Rebecca's character.)
Mick: You still don't know Rebecca.
Charlie: Well, I know you and you're Rebecca. Your primary mode of communication is grunting like a caveman.
(Mick grunts disapprovingly.)
Charlie: Besides, I mean, Rebecca Silver is whoever we want her to be. These people, they don't know anything about her.
Mick: What are you talking about? They read her books! They read her letters!
Charlie: Her letters? Do you answer your fan mail?
(Mick just stares at her as if to say "Why wouldn't I?")
Charlie: (sighs) I just thought all this was a big laugh at their expense.
Mick: (evenly) Well, it's not.
(Ray is trying to explain that he is possessed.)
Gary: Come on, tell the Garebear what ails ya.
Ray: I- I don't know how to explain it, but it feels like like there's something inside of me.
Gary: Oh, yeah,. You know, there's a beautiful singer inside of me,. But no one's ever gonna meet her.
Nate: Um - I'm sorry that our first date got ruined by Nazis.
Zari: (soft smile) Who says it's ruined?
(Gary locks himself inside the Waverider's brig as Ray advances on him.)
Gary: Ray, Ray? Remember, if you kill a loved one, Neron will take over!
Ray: Oh. Well, here's the thing, Gary. I-I like you, but... (hesitates)
Gary: Oh.
(There is a sight pause as Gary puts on a faked smile.)
Gary:Yeah, got it. Ol' Gare. (sadly) Not loved by the Legends. Bottom of the pecking order at the Bureau. Constantine's plant sitter. Always the butt of the joke.
Ray: Gary, it's not like that...
(Ray's hand shoots up and a monitor comes towards him. Neron, in the form of Ray, appears on the screen.)
Neron: It is like that, Gary. No one appreciates you. They all think you're a fool that they can use whenever it's convenient for them. But I respect you, and I see your potential.
Gary: Neron?
Ray: Gary, don't listen to him. He's trying to trick you!
Neron: A demon can't renege on the deals they make. So you can believe me when I say I can make you whole again.
Gary: Whole?
(Mick takes a microphone from a flailing Charlie.)
Mick: Nasgowa chased Cash for one reason. It's the same reason humans have gotten together since the dawn of time. It's why people like you come to conventions and dress up as your favorite characters. Why a man sits behind a desk, typing, pouring out his heart. Why... an author, a writer, replies to fans. It's connection. Human connection. - I am Rebecca Silver.
(The crowd gasps)
Mona: You.. ARE Rebecca Silver! I'd recognize that wisdom anywhere!
(The crowd cheers and applauds as Mick looks vaguely uncomfortable at the attention.)
Ray: I'm Ray! The wrist of me isn't!
(After the fight with the Nazis)
Ava: See them whip skills?
Sara: Yeah. It gave me an idea for date night.
Continuity
In 1933, an expedition uncovers a golden egg buried in the Arctic ice.
Sara says that capturing the magical fugitives has been much easier since Neron was apparently defeated last week.
Ava has joined a book club (made up of herself, Nora and Mona) and is trying to get Sara involved in it. Sara isn't that enthused, but is committed to reading some 500 page trashy novel for Ava's sake.
Sara offers to help Zari with getting set up with Nate.
Mona is reading the book club book to Nora.
Ray hasn't been sleeping well due to weird dreams.
Nora hasn't improved since last week, but she hasn't gotten worse either.
John is apparently off researching a way to bring Nora back.
Ray tries to smother Nora with a pillow one-handed. He has to struggle to stop himself.
Neron speaks to Ray through his reflection, threatening to kill Nora if Ray doesn't give up control of his body to Neron.
The men's room on the containment level of the Time Bureau is Gary Green's secret spot to cry.
Mick gets an invitation to appear at a romance novel convention. Despite being offered $20,000, he refuses on the grounds that he does not look like a romance novel writer.
Charlie discovers the invitation and says she can pose as Rebecca Silver for Mick and they can split the money.
Ava tracks a new fugitive to New York City in 1933 at a meeting of the Adventurer's Society.
Nate is familiar with The Adventurer's Society of 1933 and describes it as the coolest place ever.
Sara sends Nate and Zari off on the mission to investigate the Adventure's Society together.
Ava bets Sara $20 that Nate and Zari won't hook up on the mission.
Charlie puts together a costume with frizzy hair, glasses, a zebra-skin blazer and short black skirt to pose as Rebecca Silver. Mick approves of the outfit, apart from switching out the glasses for a pair with cats-eye style red frames.
Ray refuses to go on the mission because he's working on something for "N-" Nate assumes he means Nora, but he can't say the name Neron.
Charlie and Mick refuse to go on the mission because they are going to the convention. This leaves Zari and Nate alone.
Sara sets Nate and Zari up with costumes based on Raiders of the Lost Ark. Their fake IDs identify them as Dr. Henry Jones Jr. and Marion Ravenwood.
Sara gives up on reading the book for book club and listens to the audio book, at 4x speed, while jogging on the treadmill.
The big ceremony at the Adventurer's Society is to honor an explorer named Gordon Gilchrist, whose flag is being retired after he discovered the Golden Egg in the arctic wastes.
In truth, all of the discovery was done by Gilchrist's assistant, Vincent.
Ray has no luck creating a scientific vaccine to neutralize Neron.
Constantine's last known whereabouts were in 2019 with Gary Green.
Neron short-circuits Gideon so Ray can't have her call Constantine for help.
Ray tries to call Gary to get John for him, but Gary comes over to the Waverider instead.
Zari and Nate knock out Vincent in order to get to the egg.
Mick takes the people who like his work seriously and doesn't see his writing as a way to scam money. This stuns Charlie, who thought the whole thing was just a joke.
The Golden Egg turns out to be paper mache, suggesting someone already switched the real egg for the fake one.
Mona doesn't know that Mick is Rebecca Silver.
Mona abandons book club night to go go to the romance novel convention after getting a message from a friend that Rebecca Silver will be appearing there in person and revealing herself to the world for the first time.
Ava admits that she doesn't read the books for book club either. She just goes to drink wine and let her brain shut off for a bit while Mona does most of the talking.
Ava is impressed and touched that Sara really did read the book so they could try and do something non-work related together.
John Constantine let Gary study his spellbooks in exchange for watering his plants while he was away finding a cure for Nora.
Gary refers to himself as an "Intern of the Dark Arts."
Nate and Zari are approached by two Nazis who are after the Golden Egg. They think the Nazis are actors hired by Sara to make the date adventure even more exciting.
Sara and Ava show up to rescue Nate and Zari after they call in to "congratulate" her on the well-played fake adventure.
Nate and Zari were able to free themselves first.
Nate goes back to check on Ray while the ladies retrieve the egg.
Mona recognizes Charlie and nearly ruins the event by asking a question that the real Rebecca Silver should have known but Charlie doesn't.
Mick reveals himself as the real Rebecca Silver to answer Mona's question and is beloved by the crowd.
Ava is a surprisingly skilled whip fighter, using a whip to disarm a Nazi with a machine gun.
Sara is apparently curious about BDSM and playing a submissive role.
Ray agrees to willingly host Neron if he promises not to harm Nate.
Neron gives Gary back his nipple, making him whole, in exchange for his service.
Ray, Gary and the unconscious John teleport away with the time stone.
Ava makes Nora Darhk an official Time Bureau agent.
Zari and Nate finally kiss for the first time, for real.
Zari and Nate discover the Golden Egg is a dragon egg.
Location
Arctic Wastelands- 1933
New York City - The Adventurer's Society - 1933
Seattle - RomantiCon - 2019
Untelevised Adventures
Sara and Zari had some kind of adventure where they had to capture a mummy.
John is away for most of the episode doing the research to save Nora and trying to acquire the tail feather of a phoenix. He has apparently been time-traveling while doing this (using Damien Darhk's time stone) and went back to learn a demon-binding spell from Marie Laveau.
The Bottom Line
A definite contender for the top five best episodes list. The writing is smart, the entire ensemble is utilized perfectly and the ending is powerful.
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