​ "Witch Hunt" – DC's Legends of Tomorrow S04E02 Review

Witch Hunt? This hunt!

"Witch Hunt", the second episode of Legends Season 4 is a bit of a let down from the premiere. But then again, it typically has to be in American full-season shows. They hit the ground running, they establish the basic plot points for the coming season, and then they spend a few episode doing relatively average stuff.

In this case, the plot points are: 1) Constantine joins the team, but as a consultant. Which means they don’t have to pay Matt Ryan a full star's salary, I guess.

2) The team hunts magical anomalies.

3) Zari (Tala Ashe) is going back to her hacktivist roots, and trying to "hack" time to prevent injustices in the timeline like the one that happened to her family.

4) Nate has issues with his father Henry, and he joins the Time Bureau.

All of these were addressed in "Witch Hunt". The Nate/Henry thing appears to be resolved, at least for now, but it leads to taking Nate off the team. Temporarily?

The magical thing and Constantine's in-and-out are pretty much ongoing. Zari, who knows? At least it gives her something to do other than be Team Member #6. Even when she got some better bits of acting in late season 3, the hactivist characterization that she was introduced with and that she used in, say, "Helen Hunt" was pretty much dropped. Zari instead got swept up in the whole Mallus plot, was used as yet another wacky Legends member, or given a vague romantic role like in "The Good, The Bad, and the Cuddly".

So far this season, we've had her working with the main team, but also going off on her own when she felt there was something time-wise that she needed to hack. Like saving Jane Hawthorne. Which brings us to this week's plot.

Constantine comes aboard , but insists that he's a consultant. Presumably he's on the run from whatever bounced him around his hotel room last week. How he got to Waverider, I don't know. Magic, I guess. In a brief bit he grates quite a bit on Mick when they both stay on the ship while the others go to investigate a new magical anomaly in Salem, 1692.

A suspected witch, Jane Hawthorne (Laura Regan), is arrested on the order of mean ole Reverend Parsons (HITG Gerard Plunkett). It turns out that Jane's daughter Prudence (Jordyn Ashley Olson) is the real "witch". She's bonded with this week's magical monster, Fairy Godmother (Jane Carr). And the script really plays up the whole fairy godmother/Cinderella/Disney connection. From the fact that Fairy Godmother (FG) likes to sing and has her own magical background music (which Ray enjoys, of course), to Sara's "What in the Disney hell is this?", to FG complaining that she was once asked to provide glass slippers.

Essentially FG plays a malevolent genie. She can only use her powers when asked (shades of the Wishmaster movies), but only has to fulfill the wishes of the person she's bonded with. Which in this case is Prudence, who isn't too happy her mother is going to be executed on the basis of a false accusation.

Zari is reminded of her own mother, who we saw last week. So she tries to free Jane but Jane wants to martyr herself as a matter of principle. Worse, Sara says that since Jane died in the original timeline, she has to die and they can't save her. The Legends (falsely) tell Prudence they'll save her mother so she'll stop making wishes which involve killing the villagers in horrible ways. This works until FG shows Prudence a magical recording of Sara saying they're going to let Jane die.

FG busts Prudence out, turns Ray and Mick into swine, and covers over Constantine's mouth so he can't do magic. Meanwhile, Zari has tried to stop the trial using her Air Totem, but realizes she's just spreading more fear so she eventually stops and is captured as a witch. Zari and Jane are both going to burn at the stake, but FG wants to use Prudence's wishes to kill the villagers starting with Parsons. Prudence does what her mother would want and releases FG from their bond, which conveniently ends all of her spells. Constantine gets his mouth back and captures FG.

In an interesting bit, Constantine offers to be FG's new bond mate. She refuses, saying that what's coming for him is worse than the hell he'll send her back to. And Constantine sends her back.

In the B Plot, Nate is in 2018 DC trying to bond with his father (Thomas F. Wilson). That doesn't work since neither can discuss what they do for a living, and Henry is all "Look what you're (not) doing with that history degree you got). So Nate hangs out at the Time Bureau and offers to help Ava get her yearly funding from the Department of Defense. Turns out Henry works for the DoD and Nate bows out. However, when comedy relief Agent Gary (Adam Tsekhman) botches the presentation, Nate is forced to step in. Henry wants proof the magic Ava is talking about work, and Nate shows up with Pig Ray. Ray transforms back into his (naked) man self when FG's magic is ended as above. Henry initially says he'll give them the money just so they never mention the whole Naked Ray in Nate's Arms thing. But Nate tells his father what he's been doing, and Henry is all proud of him, and aahhhh, father-son moment.

In the end, Sara tells Zari she knows all about wanting to save relatives via time travel and being unable to, and offers to be there for Zari. Nate decides to stick around in 2018 as a Bureau member so he can be close to Henry. They take Jane off to some other time zone, so the whole "We have to let her die" thing is pretty much wasted. And that's pretty much it.

We got more character development on Zari and Nate, the two relatively late entries on the show. Mick was... Mick. Sara was Sara, Ray was Ray. Ava and Gideon were Ava and Gideon. Matt Ryan steals the show as usual as Constantine. With his moments with Mick, his providing the magical solution to the whole episode, and the bits of subplot about how he's running from something that's a lot more dangerous than the hell realm.

"Witch Hunt" was one of those "characterization" type episodes. It kept the main plot going, and cemented the stuff that happened in the premiere. The episode didn't do anything major or provide a major plot twist, and it wasn't a laugh riot. A little bit of Gary goes a long way. However, it was a nice steady episode with the usual batch of funny moments: Mick/Constantine, the over-the-top FG, the jabs at Disney, Brandon Routh's endlessly chipper performance as Ray, the brief shot of Mick as a pig stuffing his face.

I'm still not sure if I'm happy with the reduced cast size. Eventually Maisie-Richardson Sellers is supposed to be back, but as a villain rather than a teammate. It seems like the creative team is going to exhaust the team-ups within the group pretty quick, particularly now that Nate is gone. Constantine can always pair up with Mick, since they seem to have a hate/hate relationship with each other. But he doesn't seem to have much he can do with Ray, or Zari, or a semi-engaged Sara. That could change: Legends is all about change. But I'm missing Victor Garber and even Franz Drahmeh and Sellers. The Legends need to be a large team to milk all of the team-ups and resulting comedy. And it seems a bit undermanned these days.

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