Legends of Tomorrow: Season 5, Episode 10 - The Great British Fake Off

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Plot

Charlie notices there's something odd about Sara following her shrugging-off a god's death-stare. Meanwhile, Ava, Gary and Mick take a trip to Hell, as Constantine and Zari get trapped in a 1910 boarding house with an army of Encores while searching for the third and final piece of the Loom of Fate.

Influences

The Great British Bake Off (title), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest (Black Caesar's compass) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the enchantment that keeps something from being found by someone actively looking for it) and the original Hellblazer comics.

Performances

The interplay between Matt Ryan and Tala Ashe as Constantine and Zari is the high point of the episode. Much as I normally loathe these "will they/won't they" romances, this one works. And continues the fine tradition of John's bad romances with women whose name start with Z.

Trivia Of Tomorrow

This episode introduces the Arrowverse version of The Enchantress. First appearing in Strange Adventures #187 (April 1966), The Enchantress was the spirit of a witch who took possession of artist June Moone whenever she said the word "Enchantress." Originally a hero, she later appeared in Supergirl as a villain and was numbered among the villains during Crisis on Infinite Earths. John Ostrander later explained the discrepancy in Suicide Squad by revealing The Enchantress to be a succubus bound into the service of good rather than a personification of June's repressed magical power. The current Enchantress origin in the New 52 reality has June Moone and the Enchantress being separate entities bound together like Billy Batson and Captain Marvel.

The Arrowverse version of The Enchantress requires a host and, according to Charlie, seems to favor bonding herself to artists. In Ancient Egypt, she is bonded to a musician. In 1910 England, she is bonded to an older woman who runs a boarding house. This version of the Enchantress is decidedly more benevolent than her comic book counterpart, seemingly helping the Legends out, even if it does benefit her to do so and the end of the episode implies she has her own scheme playing out.

Jack the Ripper, in this episode, is identified as a man named Dr. White. There are many theories as to the identity of Jack the Ripper but some theorists believe that he had to have medical training to be as efficient in cutting as he was. 

Reference is made to a demon called The Norfulthing, who tortured Henry VIII in Hell. The Norfulthing first appeared in Hellblazer #11 and was the demon Astra Logue accidentally summoned to Earth to defend her from her father's friends during a magical orgy. Described by John Constantine as a primordial fear elemental, the Norfulthing.is a destructive creature of pure id that's first instinct is to rape any physical being it encounters and destroy everything else it encounters. Though seemingly slain by the demon Negral (who John summoned hoping to use a stronger demon to drive away the weaker one), it survived as a spirit and haunted the building where the Casanova Club once stood until John Constantine could bind it again. 

Technobabble/Arcana

John knows a summoning spell that can be boosted by drawing off the auras of other people, though it isn't safe to do this.

While Sara is in a coma, Gideon determines that there is unusual activity in her striatium - the portion of the brain that, among other functions, controls the perception of time.

Opening a portal to Hell requires the wizard working the spell to drink demon blood. According to Gary, it tastes tangy.

The spell Gary works is timed to automatically teleport him out of Hell after four hours. Unfortunately, everyone else he took into Hell in the first place has to be touching him in order to leave with him.

John knows a spell to put the target to sleep. He uses this on Jack the Ripper to stop him from struggling while tied up and shoved in a closet. 

Dialogue Triumphs

Zari: I met the other me.
Nate: Really?  How - how is she?
Zari: She's great. Tough. Cool. You must have a thing for warrior women.

Nate: Only if they're from another time period and eventually will leave me, sure.

(The Legends are gathered around a summoning circle.)
John: All right you lot, listen up! Our Lachesis' ring could be anywhere in space and time. I'm going to need to borrow a little bit of magical energy off you lot to help amplify the summoning spell.
Nate: Exactly how does that work?
John: It's easy. All you need to do is keep your mouths shut and let me use your auras like batteries.
Ava: Is this safe? It doesn't sound safe.
John: (quickly) It isn't. Any more questions? Good. Let's hold hands.

Charlie: Mick! I thought you were taking some time off to hang out with your kid?

Mick: She told me to go to Hell. Where are we heading?

Gary: The portal to Hell is ready, Captain.

John: Look, I can't look after you and figure out what Astra's up to at the same time. 

Zari: (holding up the wrist with the Air totem bracelet) This might be Behrad's totem, but there is a little warrior me inside here from a different timeline and she's gonna protect me. 

John: ...I don't even know what to say to that.

(Astra had just discovered all her soul coins have been stolen.)
Astra: At least the most valuable one is still...

(Astra reaches down and looks at the necklace she made of John Constantine's soul coin. Her eyes widen in disgust.)
Astra: Who the hell Vandal Savage?! 

Gary: Oh, I actually know that one. 

Zari: So you're just gonna accept failure when we're this close? I'm not giving up. 

John: Oh, I don't see it as giving up, so much as, uh, accepting reality. I know myself. I'm a ripe old mix of, uh, guilt and torment. If the Loom of Fate offers me even one glimmer of hope of redemption for all my past sins, particularly Astra, then, uh, I'll never not be thinking about it.

Zari: You know, it's funny, I'm usually an expert at getting things out of my head. Boyfriend cheating on me with my assistant/best friend? No time to cry, I have a fall fashion line to plan. Overhearing my mother tell a friend she's embarrassed her daughter is so shallow and self-absorbed? Definitely can't process that. I will check my CatChat analytics.But my baby brother dying because he was trying to protect me? There's nothing that can get that out of my head. I was wearing the totem when he died. If I hadn't been, then maybe he... maybe he would've had a chance. 

John: (takes the seat next to Zari) Now, look, you can take it from an expert. (sighs ) Nothing good ever comes from beating yourself up, love. 

Zari: (smirking) Don't try to make me feel better.

Continuity

Charlie tells the other Legends about Lachesis. She describes Lachesis as the leader of the Fates and her older sister. 

Charlie also tells the other Legends about how she entrusted the final part of the Loom of Fate to the Enchantress in Ancient Egypt, telling her to hide it so not even Charlie could find it again. Enchantress agreed to help on the grounds that humanity needed the shake-up.

Zari tells Nate about how she met her Pre-Crisis self in 509.

Sara begins seeing things before they happen. First seeing her hands move to pour her a drink before she does it. Next, seeing Ava breaking the circle during John's ritual to run to Sara when she passes out.

Charlie fears there will be side effects from Sara shrugging off Atropos' death gaze. Sara lies and says she is fine.

John works a summoning spell to bring the final Loom ring to them at his house. The spell is botched, however, and John binds the ring to the house but isn't able to anchor it in time. This causes him and Zari to be taken to where the ring is in the past.

Sara passes out and lapses into a coma during the summoning ritual. This triggers it botching after Ava breaks the circle to check on Sara.

Zari and John wind up in John's house in the year 1910, when it was a boarding house run by a woman named Mrs. Hughes. They pose as an engaged couple in order to get a room together.

At the same time, another guest checks into the boarding house - a man in Victorian dress named Dr. White. He is later revealed to be Jack The Ripper.

Zari says she was worth $500 million by the time she was 15 and the New York Times called her the most influential influencer of her generation.

John tracks the Loom ring into Dr. White's room. Zari agrees to pose as a patient and distract him while John searches the room. John figures out that he is Jack The Ripper based on his gear and how he tries to kill Zari with a surgeon's scalpel.

The Prognosticator detects all the Encores moving through time and space to converge on a single location. Unfortunately, it crashes before it can determine what that location is. 

When the Prognosticator breaks, Ava decides to go directly to Hell and confront Astra.

John says something is interfering with his magic to keep him from finding the ring.

Another group of guests arrive at the boarding house, led by a man named Clyde Barrow, who is with a woman named Bonnie. This is, of course, the famous robbers Bonnie and Clyde.

Ava puts Charlie and Nate in charge of fixing the Prognosticator, even as they point out that neither of them is really a technical expert.

Gary knows how to work John's "portal to Hell" spell in theory. 

Ava takes Mick and Gary with her to Hell. Mick because she needs some extra muscle. Gary because he's the only wizard she has handy.

Mick is able to locate Astra's club by threatening a random demon on the street.

John realizes that he never told Astra about the Loom of Fate but she must have learned about it somehow to be sending all the Encores after the piece after Zari says it would be overkill to send that many people just to kill John.

John decides to pose as Jack the Ripper to learn what the Encores are up to.

While in Hell, Bonnie and Clyde were personally tortured by Manaxos The Mutilator - a fairly famous demon, by all accounts.

Henry VIII was tortured by the Norfulthing.

The rest of the party includes the notorious pirate Black Ceasar and Roman general Marcus Junius Brutus.

Astra claims to have nothing to do with the Encores currently rampaging on Earth.

Clyde kills Henry VIII.

Zari crashes the dinner gathering dressed as Cleopatra.

Zari, as Cleopatra, convinces the rest of the Encores to work together rather than fight over who gets the ring, even though whoever brings the ring to Lachesis is promised free reign on Earth.

Astra discovers all her soul coins have been removed from her safe. 

Astra's accountant, a demon named Tiberius, is the only other one with access to her safe. He claims Astra told him to remove her coins from the vault last week.

Astra also discovers that her necklace, with John Constantine's soul coin, was replaced with the soul coin of Vandal Savage.

Bonnie kills Brutus. 

Astra pretends to lead Ava to Lachesis, only to hand her over to her own followers and stealing Genghis Khan's sword for herself. 

Black Caesar has a compass that enables him to find whatever treasure he seeks. 

Clyde kills Black Ceasar.

Mick has an appointment to watch Lita play soccer. 

After Zari says that it's like the ring doesn't want to be found, John hits upon the idea that the ring is enchanted to so that anyone who is actively looking for it can't see it. His solution is to get so drunk he doesn't care about anything and then he'll be able to find the ring.

Astra meets Atropos.

Lachesis offers to make Astra the third Fate so they can use the Loom of Fate once they recover it.

Astra agrees to join the Fates, but asks for John Constantine's soul coin. Lachesis agrees.

Bonnie and Clyde discover Jack The Ripper tied up on a closet. He tells them that the "Jack" they met is John Constantine. 

John Constantine's reputation in Hell is such that Bonnie and Clyde have heard of him. 

John sends Zari into a hidden room, promising to hold off the Encores.

Gary tells Ava that she's the best boss he ever had. Of course she is the only boss he ever had.

Astra frees Ava, Mick and Gary, figuring that if John doesn't come through Lachesis will.  When she mentions Lachesis' name, Ava asks Astra to come with them and work to find the Loom directly.

Nate tells Charlie that Amaya did channel an animal once while they were making love. He does not get the chance to tell her which one, however.

Astra is able to use the Air Totem - first to knock Clyde back onto Jack the Ripper's scalpel, then to defect a bullet fired by Bonnie, which ricochets back to hit her. 

Zari and John almost kiss, but then John spots the Loom ring on a side table.

Ava and Nate arrive to save them but find that all the Encores are dead.

Nate, Ava and Zari start gathering up the dropped Hell weapons.

John recognizes the Enchantress through her disguise as Mrs. Hughes. He says he thought she wasn't allowed to interfere any more but she plays dumb.  Later, once John has left, she changes into her true form, and says she'll be seeing John around.

It is revealed that they used John's soul coin to find him since the Prognosticator was broken..

Location

Ancient Egypt
Northumberland County, UK - 2020

Northumberland County, UK - 1910

Hell

The Bottom Line

An enjoyable fit of filler which allows two of the ensemble's more solid performance a chance to play off of each other in a way they haven't had the chance to before. The final twist also puts an interesting spin on the season so far.