"Séance and Sensibility" DC's Legends of Tomorrow S04E11 Review

Season 4, Time for a Wedding!

And a Bollywood dance number. And Ray and Nora linking up. And a spotlight on Zari. And "Heyworld", which got a snicker out of me while the dance number was a LOL moment.

So what was so funny about "Séance and Sensibility"? The episode starts with the Legends attending Hank's supposed wake. Although it's more like sitting shiva, what with the mirrors being covered. Which is not a traditional American wake procedure. Constantine senses an evil spirit around the place, and Ray is worried about what Nate thinks of him dating Hank's (supposed) killer. Nate is understanding, and the Legends are soon called away when Mona and Gideon discover Jane Austen's books have been wiped out of the timeline. Of course, a magical fugitive is responsible.

Constantine and Mick (Mick?) stay with Nate, while the rest of the legends head toward Bath, England, 1802. Ray stays on Waverider while Sara, Mona, Charlie, and Zari go into Bath. Jane (Jenna Rosenow) was at a wedding, so the female Legends go to the church. The bride breaks off her wedding to kiss her chambermaid, the groom and the bride's mother declare their love for each other, and lust breaks out throughout the church.

The Legends realize something is up and they suspect a recently-arrived lord. Zari goes to talk to the lord's attractive coachman (Sachin Bhatt), while Charlie goes back to Waverider to coordinate with Ray, and Sara and Mona look for the lord. It turns out he's not inspiring lust in anyone, so they realize his coachman is responsible. Meanwhile, Zari and the coachman start making out in the carriage house, but Zari handcuffs the guy. Who then reveals he's Kamadeva, the Hindu God of Love.

While this has been going on, Nora has contacted Ray and he hides her out on Waverider in his cabin. Kamadeva explains he's really Sanjay, a boy who was there when Shiva incinerated the real Kamadeva. Sanjay has been using Kamadeva's ashes to empower himself and blows some into the timeship's ventilation system to give everyone erotic dreams. Sara dreams about Ava, Mona dreams about Koname, Charlie dreams about Mick Jagger, Ray and Nora end up in bed with each other, and Zari dreams of a threeway between her, Kamadeva, and Nate.

Zari isn't happy about this and confronts Kamadeva, who challenges her to drop her defenses and give in to love. She does so, inhales some more of the ash (yuck), and soon she and Kamadeva are dancing in the garden. Zari suggests they get married, and so begins a big Bollywood number as the townspeople of Beth get swept up into the magic of Kamadeva's ash. Gideon pumps the music onto Waverider so Ray and Nora start dancing and singing about their lust.

Sara and Charlie show up at the wedding and soon they're wearing saris and dancing. Meanwhile, Mona is still grief-stricken about losing Koname, turns into "Wolfie" (wasn't Koname Hawaiian? do they have wolves?), and goes after Jane. Who doesn't believe in true love, although it's not clear what the connection is between Kamadeva's arrival and Jane deciding not to write romances. Jane eventually talks Wolfie down, and Mona goes to the wedding. She sings about love and grief, which breaks the spell so the Legends can take Kamadeva into custody. What they do with him since they can't turn magical creatures over to the Time Bureau anymore, I have no idea.

Meanwhile at the wake, Mick is stuffing his face. He also tells Nate to tell the truth at the toast for Hank, and Nate considers doing so. He eventually has a change of heart, Hank's wife Dorothy (Susan Hogan) tells a story about how Hank dressed up as Mickey Mouse when Nate couldn't make a trip to Disneyworld, and it's very sad. Constantine summons Hank's spirit, which is hanging around. And places it into Mick's body within a containment circle. The spirit reveals he made a deal with Neron.

Nate finds a secret room with a video of Hank talking about how he wants to make a theme park filled with magical creatures, like the one Nate drew as a child. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with Hank having the prisoners abducted by men in black and tortured, but it's enough to convince Nate that Hank really was a good guy.

Neron reveals himself to Constantine and taunts him. A lot. And that's it for this week.

As I said, the Bollywood bit is a hilarious and unexpected trip into the world of TV musicals I wasn't expecting. So if you're a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More, With Feeling", or The Flash's "Duet", or any given episode of Glee, then you'll be happy to know there's a bit of it in "Séance". If not, grab your remote and fast-forward through. If nothing else, the episode demonstrates Tala Ashe is a capable singer. Ramona Young also gets a bit of solo singing, and I'm not as impressed with her. Ditto for her acting. Ms. Young seems to be emoting a bit too much. Maybe not, but whatever she's doing, it's not to my taste. Sorry.

The rest of the episode is good as almost always the case. Brandon Routh is all over the place, as usual. He's guilty, he's lustful, he's awkward, he gets to take off his shirt and flex his pecs. I'd also call out Maisie Richardson-Sellers. She has a lot more acting to do as Charlie than she got as Amaya last season. The creative team still isn't doing much with the character: Charlie has less of a development arc than Mick, for Pete's sake. But Ms. Richardson-Sellers is having a ball, with comments like "buffing the old bishop, was we?" and telling Zari to "smash Nate". Richardson-Sellers as a 70s punk rather than a stilted African goddess type works a lot better. It's nice to see the actress has a flair for comedy when they have her funny stuff to do.

Everyone else is pretty standard. Having the four female Legends off on their own is entertaining, although Mona tends to be a fifth wheel. You wonder how her being a werewolf, or wereKaupe, or Wolfie, or whatever the heck she is, plays into the team's superheroics. But they've been downplaying that quite a bit, and indeed, "Séance" has no superpowers whatsoever other than Constantine throwing a spell or two.

These days, Legends is a goofy time-travelling adventure which focuses more on character development and the occasional drama than superheroics. And it's the right approach: I'd rather see Dominic Purcell stuffing his face and suggesting he grow his hair out, then firing his heat gun at people. Which is often what he did in the first season before they tossed out a lot of the superhero stuff and went with comedy shenanigans.

The creative team also dances along the line between drama and (mostly) comedy. Watching Nate realize Hank was just as "wacky and well-intentioned as any Legend" is a touching moment, nicely delivered by Nick Zano. And the previous scene with a childlike Hank (Thomas F. Wilson) boasting about Heyworld and showing off Nate's childhood drawing is funny and touching in equal measure.

Overall, "Séance" is definitely the best of the three episodes since the show's mid-season return. I wouldn't say it's the best of the series--"Guest Starring John Noble" and "Legends of To-Meow-Meow" set a high bar--but "Séance" is definitely a keeper.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?