Astra tries to escape her Legends Of Tomorrow montage with body-swapping and, inevitably, song
TV Reviews Legends of Tomorrow
“The Satanist’s Apprentice” feels very much like an episode of TV written by a bunch of people who just lived through 2020 and needed to work some things out. While not a ‘Covid episode’ in a conventional sense, the threads tying Astra and Sara’s adventures to this particular era don’t stop at the creative means by which director Caity Lotz and writers Keto Shimizu and Ray Utarnachitt limit the number of actors physically present for any given scene. This is an episode shaped by, ah, topical questions. What happens when we feel, or actually are, helpless? What’s the cost of isolation? When we feel a lack of agency, how do we compensate? And of course, the big question: Which season of Wynonna Earp is the best?
There’s one more, however, and it’s one with which fans of the show (and readers of these recaps in particular) will be intimately familiar. Legends is always* the why-the-fuck-not show, but “The Satanist’s Apprentice” is a big swing even by WTFN standards. If quarantine made many of us feel isolated or helpless (or like bingeing all of Wynonna Earp), it made even more of us go just a little bit stir-crazy, and if it had that effect on the average person, what did it do to the magical, maniacal writers behind this show? It made them go full Disney and full Ex Machina in the same damn episode.
“The Satanist’s Apprentice” marks the second time Lotz has stepped behind the camera, and while the first time was also entertaining and technically impressive, this episode takes much bigger swings. The result is an hour that’s perhaps not quite as consistent as Lotz’s first attempt; that messiness also keeps it from reaching the heights of the show’s very best episodes, but only just. Shimizu and Utarnachitt handed Lotz a story with two very different stories and a pack of influences far more contradictory than the John Woo-influenced “Mortal Khanbat,” and she and the show’s always-game cast manage to make the wildly disparate elements blend and fuse in a way that’s both disorienting and incredibly satisfying. Beauty And The Beast, Alex Garland, Saturday morning cartoons, hard sci-fi, ’80s movie montages, racism, meta-commentary, Freaky Friday, Aleister Crowley, Pagemaster, a bad wig, and a presentation via projector that the A.V. Ava worked really hard on? None of those things should go together.
But here we are, and somehow, they do. “The Satanist’s Apprentice” checks a lot of familiar TV boxes, but rarely are all those boxes checked at once. You’ve seen that montage, but have you seen it with demon internet outages? You’ve seen the big bad with the savior complex, but how often (outside of Ex Machina) does he dance himself to sleep? You’ve watched a woman fight to be her own rescuer, but has she done so by inciting a body swap and by gaining the ability to read a magical de-magicking spell because all cartoon princesses can sing? It’s a lot, but it doesn’t over-stuff the episode; it would be easy to wish that both Astra and Sara got more time to work through the bizarre realities in which they find themselves, but removing either story would negate the marvelous dissonance and resonance produced between them.
And really, who cares about messiness or a teeny tiny bit of underdevelopment when the results are this fun, let alone this emotionally engaging? Astra’s out of place “topside,” and John, her only regular connection to her old life and the only help she’s likely to get in her new one, can’t be bothered to take the time to listen when she explains how much she’s struggling. That neglect creates a void, as Astra’s increasing frustration and isolation make her an easy target for the talking painting that is occultist Aleister Crowley (played in turn by the voice of Matt Lucas and the personage of Matt Ryan, the latter of whom is especially great here). Before long, she’s learning magic from a very wily guy who jumps at the first opportunity to murder a racist neighbor and turn his soul into a portable battery in amulet form, and when she objects to Crowley’s plan to add her friends to the amulet—oh, yeah, she also turned all the Legends into objects, Ava’s a binder, Behrad is Lumiere, it’s great—he turns her into an animated Disney-style princess.
It’s! Amazing! (For more on how the sequence was created, read this terrific interview with Lotz from EW’s Chancellor Agard!) Lotz and the WB Animation department kicked the shit out of the animated segment, I have to say, and so did the show’s actors, all of whom modify their vocal performances slightly to suit the change in style and tone. The song is great. The design is great. The transition from live action to animation is great, and the transitions within the animation from the sleepy no-magicky night night song to the ranting of Crowley? Those are great, too. No notes. I can’t imagine that it’s feasible for Legends to often return to this well, given the time and cost demanded by animation, but wow, I sure wish they could do this once a season. It’s terrific.
The Sara storyline doesn’t get the bonus of a flashy animated sequence, but it’s still pretty solid. That’s due in no small part to Raffi Barsoumian’s performance as the nefarious, self-obsessed Bishop, who we learn in this episode is the inventor of the AVA clones. (Messed up!) His goal is to create the ultimate unkillable human, able to adapt to any circumstance, but the selflessness of this deeply creepy pursuit is more than a little questionable, since he views the Avas as programs he designed and nothing more. He needs Sara and the other beings that were aboard Gary and Kayla’s ship because he wants to essentially mine their DNA for parts, taking the useful bits and shoving them into his Frankensteins. It’s a lot.
But none of it would work half so well without the Sara/Ava relationship. Jes Macallan here plays another Ava, one who, like Astra, sees herself as unable to change her circumstances—but this Ava doesn’t see that as a problem. It’s disturbing, and a great place to begin a complicated story; if the complexity doesn’t get fully explored here, that’s perhaps to be expected. But Macallan and Lotz give it a lot of weight all the same.
All in all, this episode marks a new high for Legends in its ambitions, if not totally in its execution. That, coupled with the typically strong performances and usually WTFN-ery, makes “The Satanist’s Apprentice” the highpoint thus far of another solid Legends season.
* Season one excepted.
Stray observations
- Does Nate use his extremely helpful superpower in this episode? Yes! AS A CHEESE!
- Episode MVP: Olivia Swann is as good as she’s ever been here, but Lotz is just as good, and she directed, so it’s not even close. Matt Ryan was also excellent, especially in that final scene.
- Why the fuck not?: I repeat, Ava is a binder.
- Line-reading of the week: “I miss my blood pool.”
- Gideon, what’s the most meta moment?: Nurse Ava was right, in the second season the show really figured out what kind of show it was and things just got better from there.
- Episode title ranking: 1. Meat: The Legends. 2. Ground Control To Sara Lance. 3. Bay Of Squids. 4.The Satanist’s Apprentice. 5. The Ex-Factor.
130 Comments
Nice 80’s opening scene.Please don’t paint Astra as being naive. Desperate, maybe, but not naive.So Bishop’s 70’s look is more than just a look.Bishop is Ava’s creator. Interesting.How will all of this play into Ava’s story?Wynonna Earp!Did she say all 15 seasons of Wynonna Earp?“…it’s all just Glamour.” I’m sure that that’s not a Chekov’s Gun. (Huh. It wasn’t.)Nurse Ava is a WayHaught shipper. Does this mean that all Avas are gay?Hmmmm…Crowley’s fountain is probably another Chekov’s Gun.Ava is a binder, and Zari is a flip phone. It’s great.Spooner is a fork for the irony, I imagine, but why is Behrad a candle and Nate a cheese? (Apparently, since Behrad has wind powers, he’s a candle in the wind.)
I like how Spooner and Zari are with Astra. Kill the guy.Really wanted to see cartoon Zari. Alas…
Behrad is a candle because he likes getting lit.Nate is cheesy because come on, of course he is.
When Zari’s flip-phone began biting on Crowley, she made a “Nom-nom-num” sound that really REALLY cracked me up. Imagine Tala Ashe recording that bit in ADR … I … um … it’s goofyness transcendent.
And Ava going, “Pew-pew-pew” while shooting pages from her binder. I can’t stop smiling!
Plus, her initial reaction: “…Am I a flip phone?!”
The “Season 2 is when they figured it out” line was great–a nice nod to the show we’re all watching. Overall, though, I thought this episode was…meh? The Astra stuff was fine but, except for some of the Disney stuff, not great, and I just cannot stand the new villain; maybe he’ll grow on me but I found him irritating. I dunno; this show has certainly earned my trust (who would’ve thought that after Season 1)?
I feel like the problem with S1 was that it focused too much on nonsensical time travel mechanics at the expense of….everything. Coherence, characterization, compelling villains. I feel like the key to great time travel stories is using them to probe the emotions of the characters in ways that wouldn’t be possible without it (like Doctor Who’s The Girl Who Waited or Steins;Gate). S1 failed miserably at that.It’d be interesting to see them try again….but at the same time, they know where their strengths are.
I always feel that the best Doctor Who is “The Girl in the Fireplace”. The original girl who waited.
Aye, that’s a classic too. Maybe the Legends writers should’ve taken some inspiration from Doctor Who.
I think the Doctor Who inspiration became apparent when the Waverider’s control console became six sided in Season 2.
I don’t think Season 1 suffered from a lack of focus on character; there was plenty of that. But it did suffer from its general approach to its charactersSeason 1 very much felt like it was trying to be the Rip Hunter show, but it also had a myriad of other characters who didn’t have a clear place in the Rip vs. Savage conflict, so each episode also need to fit in B- and C-plots for each of them.The show improved as it became more of a true ensemble, became less focused on a single season-long narrative, and got more comfortable with saying not every character needs to go through the dramatic wringer every week. Sometimes they can just spend the hour as a wheel of cheese.
Totally agreed. Almost all of S1 episodes had 3 things happening: 1) Rip tells them where they need to go and tells them not to mess up time. 2) They mess up time. 3) They give each other pep talks that felt unearned. Once they embraced the “we mess things up for the better” motto, the show became great.
“Season 1 very much felt like it was trying to be the Rip Hunter show”It both annoys me and makes me laugh that, even in season 7, when it shows upcoming episodes on my PVR, before the episode descriptions fill in for the specific episode, it still says “Time traveler Rip Hunter gathers a collection of heroes and villains to help …”
Respect for the Steins;Gate shout-out.
Time travel opens up a lot of “why don’t they just….?” questions, and I don’t think season 1 was very good at either breezing past them or answering them. Until the bit late on about Vandal working with the Time Bureau, it was people with access to all of time trying to stop someone who didn’t have it, wasn’t a secret to them, and wasn’t *that* powerful.
They are working really hard to make you get that Bishop is quirky.
Am I the teensiest bit disappointed they didn’t do a full animated episode despite knowing how logistically impossible that would be? Yes, of course. Was what we got still great? Yes, of course. I also thought Matt Ryan was great tonight, especially when he was being possessed. And why was Spooner a fork?On Batwoman corner, I was impressed that they brought back Bruce Wayne, that they abolished the Crows, and that Luke decided he didn’t want to live anymore, but then lived anyway, and next week is Diggle week!
I didn’t get this at first either, LaToya pointed it out to me in our little aftershow, but Spooner was a fork because… spoon-er.
I was like, “Why is Nate cheese?” and my mom replied “Because he’s cheesy dude… duh.”
That’s terrible and I love it!
I was amused that the Crows’ last gasp was knocking out and kidnapping Jacob, after basically letting everyone else do that to him the entire season. Poor guy probably has about 15 concussions just from this season alone.
All it took for Jacob to finally disband Crows was his agents trying to kill him in a coup.
And for one of the leads to get shot :/Also is Bruce dead or in a coma?
Yeah they didn’t give an answer about Bruce…but I just can’t help but admire how perfect of a casting that is for Bruce Wayne, he looks so good.
Yeah felt refreshing to see the real Bruce and not Hush with his face.
Yeah, I’m glad they kept that guy. Now if we can get Barry, Bruce, and Clark on screen together, all I’d want is for the three of them to look at each other and go, “S’up.” … “Not much, you?” … “Eh, same old same old.”Then disband. That would be pure heaven.
Jacob wasn’t that upset about Luke getting shot. He was only mildly suspicious of Tavaroff’s testimony against Luke instead of instantly being outraged by his obvious bullshit.
Bruce might be neither since it was just Luke’s subconscious. Unless he learned coma-specific astral projection.They didn’t bother confirming Enigma is Riddler’s daughter until the episode after she was killed. Will season three be about Riddler seeking vengeance on Ocean for something the audience was actually aware of?
I was a bit surprised by Jacob’s almost cavalier reaction to Luke getting shot, but then I realized, they have no relationship. Luke worked for his daughter, who he now thinks is dead. I’m not even sure if the two of them ever had a one-on-one scene together.
Maybe he went back in time.
Jacob sucks so much that I am very confused by him making a right decision. Him teaming up with Alice to help Kate seems promising though.I loved the Alice-Mary scene where you get the feeling that though they hate each other they are starting to also care for each other too in a way that those actresses since they are so great are really pulling off
Joss Whedon is dead to me, but Charisma Carpenter is not, so I’m just going to say…“How many times have you been knocked out? One of these days, you’re going to wake up in a coma.”
Astra hadn’t learned her name.
Uh, thanks for the summary of an episode of another show from 12 hours ago that I haven’t watched yet.
Honestly, I think the show worked better with only a small animated segment. Instead of it being “This is the weird animated episode!”, it was “Oh, uh, yeah, we’re suddenly going animated for the climax bitches!”, a lot more suprising and abrupt in the best of ways :D.
I tell you, this episode was such a delight that I couldn’t resist a few bouts of laughter. Especially when it comes the Astra plot.
It made them go full Disney and full Ex Machina in the same damn episode.I was thinking Discount Jeff Goldblum in Ragnarok, but you’re right, there’s a lot of the Ex Machina CEO in there too.ETA: did Legends intentionally name our Ava after EM’s Ava all those seasons ago??-WYNONNA SHOUTOUT-Damn Crowley’s sudden but inevitable betrayal…but I didn’t see Cartoon Legends coming.-CARTOON CHEESENATE STEELED UP-“Like an enema for magic” John proves he can only be Disneyfied so far.-Crowley’s alien space fountain is gonna come back for saving Sara, isn’t it?-Holy shit powerless Constantine.
>-Holy shit powerless Constantine.
That’s my one issue. He doesn’t have powers, as he’s said on occasion that the secret to magic is that anyone can do it, even a conman chancer from liverpool. His power as always been knowledge and only way I can see it working if it was more lobotomy than enema.
Leaving that aside I love that they took the opportunity to include actual pannels from the comics. Really nice touch, and taking advantage of the animated segment..
Impression I get is that it’s a bit like being an athlete. Most people are capable of running, but you can’t become a champion sprinter without lots of exercise. John still has his magical knowledge, but his magical physique has been set back to couch potato levels, hence his mention of needing to start his occult training over again.
This reminds me of an issue of Justice Society of America (written by Marc Guggenheim!) where Mr. Terrific is slowly regressing in intelligence as caused by one of his enemies, and is forced to relearn everything from the beginning. The last scene is him watching an episode of Barney to relearn the ABCs again.
There’s an episode of original Star Trek where a robot/drone/whatever is on the ship and hits Uhura with a beam that erases all of her intelligence. It isn’t reversed, and we see her in sick bay relearning basic reading capabilities. But by the next (?) episode she’s back to normal at her post.
What I primarily took from that is that there’s an obstacle coming up for the team where John’s magic might provide an instant fix, so they needed a way to pre-emptively neuter him. But it fit in the story, so I’m cool with it, even if the “magical logic” is always suspect.
Mystery I still wonder about: when Ava confronted Rip about her being just another clone from the future he kidnapped, he told her that she was different from the others but never explained in what way. Maybe she was the only one that could override her orders?
At that time, Ava was the only AVA that had an actual personality. The rest of them were basically organic robots.
I do wonder how giving Ava fake memories worked. Like, no way Rip sat down and scripted out decades’ worth of memories to inscribe into Ava’s head. Is this a Dollhouse sort of thing, where memories are downloaded from a bunch of real people then mixed-and-matched into a new tapestry of memories?
Suspect she is simply a lot older than the rest of the Avas we see. They get made as adults, But Saras Ava was made for command, made without awareness of her origin, and spent an indeterminate amount of time running the time bureau – Very hard to know how long her personal timeline actually is, given timetravel. Would make sense if acquiring an actual personality simply takes more time than most Avas get.
Although, isn’t “our” Ava like the fourth or fifth AVA that Rip bought, because time travel is dangerous work?
I think she’s 11 or 12, actually. And I have to assume that Rip had some way of backing up her memories; I feel like someone at the Time Bureau would have noticed if Ava had repeated amnesia.
I am not even a huge Constantine fan, but Matt Ryan was great in this episode
He stole this episode, easily the season’s strongest so far.
I was surprised that it was actually Matt Lucas and not Matt Ryan doing a Matt Lucas impression when Crowley the painting was talking.
I have to say, the animation was legitimately great considering how short a time frame the animators had to work with. I mean, it honestly looks better than WB’s normal DTV stuff, which makes me wonder why the fuck these animators aren’t working on those. The rest of the episode was quite fun and zany, and done so without making the heroes look like complete jackasses. Well, except John, but that was intentional. I will never not stop being amused by how much of the spaceship set is recycled from Stargate Atlantis. Also, since we’re not getting weekly reviews, this week’s Batwoman: An overall decent episode, if a little off on just how quickly the Crows were disbanded. Though I had to laugh at their final appearance having Jacob knocked out AND kidnapped AGAIN! By his own people! And the final snark by Alice on how much the Crows sick at their jobs is just the icing on the cake. Also, are we to take this episode as confirmation that Bruce Wayne/Batman is indeed dead, or was it just a figment of Luke’s consciousness?
Bruce said it was Luke’s subconscious.
I don’t think they’d ever take Bruce off the board completely.
I have to say, the animation was legitimately great considering how short a time frame the animators had to work with. I mean, it honestly looks better than WB’s normal DTV stuff, which makes me wonder why the fuck these animators aren’t working on those.Didn’t they literally hire retired Disney animators for this? I think the regular DTV stuff just hasn’t had any opportunity to flex in a very long time, the way they’ve fallen into an assembly line schedule.
Thanks for mentioning Batwoman, I watched that just before catching up on Legends this week and I was pleasantly surprised with how it went, even with a potentially hacky invoking of Bruce. Very good performance by Camrus Johnson anchoring it, as well.
Yeah, I was legit crying along with Johnson when Luke explains that he’d rather die. I think the whole cast is pretty amazing, and I’m glad he got the chance to shine in this one.
Caity Lotz is great at dramatic acting, comedy, romance, stunts, directing, and she drew the animation herself! Well, not really
There are times when we need to step back and appreciate the fact half of this episode is about a mad scientist and his army of clones turning people into monsters on an alien planet, and the other half’s about a 19th Century sorcerer changing reality into a cartoon and being defeated through song.Like, could anyone who watched the first episode of Arrow way back when have predicted we’d end up here?
That animation was gorgeous. Kudos to the team who did it, it looked so fluid and colorful. Also, yeah, I was sold on this when I realized Ava was a binder and Nate was cheese and of course Zari was a phone.Definitely great development for Astra, I liked the opening had her dressing up in very 80s clothing.
This was so so good. Loved the whole episode, especially the animation of course, but also the bits of John and the other Legends checking in to John’s house after previous episodes of the season.So how much should Astra have been able to get for that lamp?
Yeah, I loved the little bits and pieces of previous episodes being hinted at during Astra’s “life is shitty” montage.
They went full “Revenging Angel!”
Good episode but what happened to Gary?
Given the preview for next week, it will be answered then.
The flushing sound in the preview was just so Gary.
Based on the other CW shows and Caity’s ew interview, they couldn’t have the entire cast in each ep because of COVID. Hence why astra was awol for a couple of eps and Conatantine was awol last week.
and they shoot in pairs alot of time.
What an incredible hour of TV. I was waiting for animated Beebo to show up. Alas we have to wait for Christmas.
Fifteen seasons of Wynonna Earp – caused by Crisis or caused by current timeline shenanigans?
I wish!
I only have one reaction gif appropriate for considering 15 seas0ns of Wynonna Earp
As somebody who has not yet taken the plunge, I think the biggest initial challenge for me will be getting the idea of Mrs. McMurray as an action badass into my head.
Holy crap, I never knew Mrs. McMurray played Wynonna Earp! Now I’m probably going to have to take the plunge!
This week in Sara Is The Best, I’m gonna get a little meta and say Caity Lotz Is The Best, because she did a damn fine job directing. Between that excellent Astra montage, Sara’s kickass fight scene, and a full-on ANIMATED MUSICAL SEGMENT, she directed the hell out of this episode. I’m a little disappointed in Sara for falling for Nurse Ava’s obvious ploy, but I guess she was blinded by love for her Ava, and seriously, that fight scene kicked ass.So do we believe Bishop’s story about being the last person left on Earth? And if so, I guess that means he’s from the future?Also, if that song removes all magic from an area, shouldn’t Crowley be out of the painting? And does that mean Zari and Behrad’s totems lost their magic, as well?
My entry for Sara Is The Best is her reaction to Bishop when he tells her what he’s up to — “THAT IS A TERRIBLE PLAN!” That’s why we love our Captain.
Yeah, between that and spitting on the floor, she was really bringing the sass, and I am here for it.
Bishop is the creator of the AVAs and we saw the team go to 2213 (?) Vancouver and saw their manufacturing so he is from the 23th century.
Unless, of course, Crisis did a thing that will never be explored or fully comprehensible.
Crisis is the new Speed Force.
Wondering how this reconciles with Bishop saying he’s the last person on Earth, unless the world is due to end sometime after that or he’s been to another point in time or…something.
Making every character powerless except Nate. Who hardly steels up.
I guess that’s one way to save on the FX budget
The totems are one thing (& also something I didn’t even think about) but Crowley being back in the painting did bother me. But then again, in a show that had a battle for supremacy of the Earth won by a cover of the Buzzcocks, I am a little lenient with minor inconsistencies.
I assumed the spell specifically removed John’s magic (since it was “For John”). It worked on John’s physical body, so Crowley was depowered when he was inhabiting John, and now John’s depowered now that he’s back to himself.
Ava turning into a technical manual is some truly excellent character humor.
The pew-pew noises when she was shooting paper at Crowley? ::chef’s kiss::
I’m behind on watching this show. I really need to get on it.
I have to say, I’ve had Bishop for a little over an episode but he is already in my top Beeboverse big bad villains (along with Slade, Prometheus, Damien Darhk -on Legends, he was terrible on Arrow-, Reverse Flash and Alice). I love an evil dude who dances himself to sleep.I loved that they kept the bit about Astra dressing like it’s the ‘80s (Nora had called her out on the shoulder pads). The animation was sooooo beautiful. This show is just the best, i love it so much.
I will say this for Bishop, he is the kind of villain who it is a pleasure to see Sara Lance snap his neck
Definitely, he’d have put that as his yearbook quote!
It was like seeing a Weyoun die on DS9
I love that the entire idea of the Vorta being clones came from having Jeffrey Combs guest star for a single episode where his character died, but the show runners loved his performance so much, they came up with a reason to explain why they’d bring him back again and again. Hard to imagine the Dominion era of the show without Weyoun.
The funny thing is for a second when I first saw Bishop in this episode, I thought he was a heavily made up Adam Tsekhman because at this point I wouldn’t put it past this show to have the big bad somehow be a Gary Green clone (or vise versa).
Not quite the home planet of the Avas as I’d speculated a couple weeks ago, but close enough. Bishop’s “no context” intro was great too. Did Bishop just hire Kayla and Gary as alien mercenaries, or were they some of his earlier experiments?
Zari taking extreme offense at being turned into a flip-phone, A+
Loved the animated sequence, dropping in some actual comics art was a nice touch.
Space Cabbie-watch: Well, we got an earthbound cabbie.
Space Cabbie-watch: Well, we got an earthbound cabbie. I am not satisfied.On the plus side, this was soooo much better than I expected an Astra-focused episode to be. I’ll echo everyone else’s being impressed at how well they handled the split focus, but I wonder how they’ll do when Mick and Garima Kayla come back into play.
I loved Astra being frustrated that it was hard to find work when technically she is supposed to be 15 years old in the current timeline, but time worked differently where she grew up, similar to Nora Darhk, who grew up in the past before returning to the present, having the same issue, since in the present she was I think also 15, and in a mental institution.
Nora and Astra would have been amazing friends!!
Considering that makes me miss Nora Darhk even more. Nora would have been a much better magic mentor for Astra than Constantine, who I still don’t think she can really trust, especially given his sketchy expression at the end of the episode
I have a feeling that the loss of his magical abilities also means that the incantation saving him from cancer was also removed; John’s expression read more as one of concern, to me.
I think John’s sinister expression at the end was connected to him coming up with a plan to find the magical power source that Crowley was ranting about, that John pretended not to be interested in
This didn’t occur to me until well after, but the magical power source does seem to be more than a throwaway line and may well be the start of a subplot or tie into the main plot. Which may also make Crowley’s spirit a potential supporting villain.Also: Had no idea Crowley was a real person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley
I bet we will see more of Crowley, especially since they cast Matt Lucas as his voiceAleister Crowley, “the Great Beast,” aka “the wickedest man in the world”
Oh, good call. I read it more as trying to hide how broken up he was about losing such a big part of himself, but ‘if we don’t fix this soon I’m going to die’ works too.
I mean, their first exchange in Hell was: “Nice sparkles.”“Nice shoulder-pads.”
It’s also a thing for X-Men’s Magik when she grew up in Limbo.
The Wynonna Earp thing is probably a shout out to when Nicole Haught said she wanted to die in Waverly’s arms with Waverly in Sara Lance cosplay. Caity Lotz posted a gif of it to her instagram.
Not sure how many Legend of Korra viewers we have here, but the Prince Wu vibes I get from Bishop were so strong that I had to google whether or not the latter was played by the former’s voice actor. (He isn’t.)
Hahaha, thanks for reminding me how great Prince Wu was.
Same here! I had persistent “I know that guy” vibes and finally remembered Prince Wu.
Even happier that it was Caity who directed it. Watched a podcast with her and Stephen Amell last summer where she talked about her negative lockdown experiences so it was interesting that this was her episode.Thought the episode was decent if a little ho hum until Astra turned the Legends. From that point it was absolute hilarity for me. I was just thinking to myself Behrad looked like the candle dude from Beauty and the Beast and than Astra gets turned into a cartoon princess. I lost it when I realized Ava was a binder.I like Spooners intense energy. Even as the fork she just makes me smile.
I love that Spooner was in no way disconcerted about being turned into a fork; she’s a true Legend.
I’m very curious how Caity Lotz got assigned this episode to direct (of which she did a fantastic job) – my first thought on a TV production schedule wouldn’t be to give a relatively new director an episode with an animation component much less one where she also appears onscreen with fight scenes, but maybe someone thought this would be a good stretch for her? Not feeling the Bishop stuff yet. I haven’t watched Ex Machina outside of the clip above so if he’s supposed to be one big in-joke to that it’s lost on me. There’s something interesting about him being the creator of AVA, but it feels so obviously retconned in. Was nice to get Caity and Jess interacting again, even if Jess isn’t playing the ‘real’ Ava.Good focus episode on Astra, I assume her learning magic alongside John will be the impetus to get her more involved in the adventures. Anyone know if that one segment in the animation (ie. when the art style shifts briefly non-Disney) is made up of actual Constantine stills from the comics?
is made up of actual Constantine stills from the comics
I’m pretty sure I recognized some actual Hellblazer panels, so I’d tentatively say yes.
Yeah, some of them I recognized as being drawn by Steve Dillon.
Maybe it was that none of the directors in their usual roster have worked with animation before, so it was gonna be a learning curve no matter who got it.
Cant believe I missed Nate steeling up as the cheese on first viewing.
I really like Olivia Swann as Astra. She nails both Astra being angry & intimidating, and her childlike vulnerability. It helps of course that she is tall & imposing but has the face of an angel
I both felt tremendous empathy for Astra’s job search woes and was extremely jealous of her rent-free living situation. Part of me wanted to her to just sell everything from the house, but I also suspect that everything in it is cursed. maybe she could sell them to that antique shop from Friday the 13th: The Series.
It would be extremely John Constantine if he hoarded so many cursed objects into the same place that none of them can collect enough magic to do their thing.
So apparently Tala Ashe is actually married to Bishop (Raffi Barsoumian). Lucky guy… and lucky gal.
As doing the time warp did wonders for Zari Prime, so did this spellbinding episode for Astra. I really felt for her starting from zero and dealing with the most casually racist neighbor.
Constantine is definitely gonna buy a washer and dryer now.
It’s interesting to see Jes Macallan embody multiple Ava’s, including a confetti-throwing nurse. Granted the rest of the clones will come in varying degrees of dutiful but I imagine some will get more distinct personalities when interacting with Sara.
No doubt the best episode so far this season. Crowley cast a spell of chaotic hilarity.
Lightbulb ding:Maybe Wynonna Earp should actually join the crew.
Wait, who did Astra have in her spare-change pocket? Ed Gein and who else? Yikes.
Christopher Columbus.
That moment did lead to an interesting exchange where I had to explain to my mom who Ed Gein was.
You could just say, “He’s who Norman Bates in Psycho was based off of.”
I went into this season thinking Legends has lost a step and would sorely miss some of the characters who have left. But man, they just know how to make episodes fun with whoever they do have.
Anyone else wondering what cartoon item Sara would’ve been?
A gold medal, because she is The Best
Tremendous! Plus my mum has that Bethany lamp! I’m so glad I didn’t peek at the review before I got a chance to watch this episode – going in blind definitely helped. I also loved how, within the animated sequence, there was *another* animated sequence, but one that referenced Constantine’s comic appearance! Also, the special effects looked really good for the Legends-as-objects. I’d definitely point anyone dubious as to this show’s charms to this episode, but without spoiling any of it. “Just watch it and tell me it’s not mental.” Never change, Legends. Unless it’s into talking cheese!