Two more episodes until the season ends, and the Big Bad is revealed in "Nip | Stuck". Sort of. As is often the case with DC's Legends of Tomorrow, they undermine the big reveal with humor. Last season it was having the team turn to actor John Noble to come up with a ruse to stop Mallus (voice of John Noble). This year it's having a relatively minor and humorous threat from earlier in the season become the Big Bad.
So who is the Big Bad? Let's find out. Somewhat confusingly, the episode starts at the Donner Pass in the Ice Age. Other than being a "name" location so the audience recognizes it, and Mick making a joke about it, there's no significance to it being the Donner Pass. Neron (in Ray's body, so Brandon Routh) takes Constantine there, Gideon tracks them to that location when Constantine uses his magic, and Neron tricks them into opening fire, burying the timeship under an avalanche of ice.
Neron then takes Constantine to a Celtic village in 55 BC. Where we meet King Konstentyn (also Matt Ryan) , who is sending magical creatures to Hell by using his subjects' fear to power his magic. Neron boasts he's there so Constantine can learn how to create a two-way portal to Hell. Konstentyn seems to be doing good as he sees it, but the magical creature he's capture--a Puka--is relatively harmless. Constantine gets himself captured and befriends the Puka, fights back, and uses the subjects' magic to stabilize the portal, and cuts off Konstentyn's hand. Konstentyn gets away, and Neron uses the portal to summon Tabitha: Fairy Godmother (Jane Carr).
Constantine realizes he can't kill Neron without killing Ray. So he falls into the portal to go to Hell and free Ray's soul. Hell looks like your typical dystopian CW future but with more sparks.
What's happening on Waverider? Since Mick gave the order to fire on Neron when Sara hesitated, Sara isn't happy with him. They gripe briefly at each other about how Sara has a personal life with Ava while she's complaining Mick and Charlie went to Romanti-Con (last episode). They soon get over it, drink hot cocoa rather than conserve power, and play Ray's "Cards Against Humanity"-ish game. The game gives them the idea to have faith in each other, their shenanigans warm up the ice, and they break free on full power despite Gideon's warning the odds of them surviving are small. They then fly to 55 BC and get to watch as Constantine fights Konstentyn and goes to Hell.
In the C plot, Mona and Nora have something to do at the Time Bureau. Gary (Adam Tsekhman) is back, and acting all cool. He soon "convinces" Ava to let him do performance reviews, and each agent he reviews is soon saying "Gary is the man they need" and going all hypnotized. Nora somehow falls under Gary's dark power, and betrays Mona.
Mona gets taken to Gary, who reveals his restored nipple can turn into an eye and has "nipnotic powers". Don't blame me: they call it that twice. Mona goes all Wolfie, bites out the nipple, and frees Ava and Mona from the nipnosis *sigh*. Fairy Godmother and Neron arrive, Gary wishes to escape, and Fairy Godmother obliges. Ava goes to Waverider to tell the Legends, while Mona and Nora do something.
Also, Nate and Zari take care of the dragon egg and have sex.
So we're left with Constantine blazing a path in Hell trying to find Ray's soul. It's not quite clear what everyone else is doing: how they'll track down Neron and Fairy Godmother, I don't know. Judging from the previews, next week's episode has Neron/Ray creating an app that has the user sell his soul to Hell, and chaos and hilarity ensue, not necessarily in that order.
"Nip | Stuck" is a fun romp, as are most DC's Legends episodes.The plot doesn't make much sense, and mostly it showcases Matt Ryan and Brandon Routh. Ryan gets to be Constantine as well as his evil ancestor, who doesn't appear to be evil. Yes, he banishes magical creatures to Hell, and the Puka isn't evil, but it's not like Konstentyn would know that. He comes across as more misguided than evil, although I get the impression we're supposed to think he's the latter.
Brandon Routh does evil as Neron a lot better than he does naivety as Ray. I like him as the evil smooth-talking Neron, even if the scenes with him simpering over Fairy Godmother are a little much.
Dominic Purcell gets to have Mick vent about something serious for once, and it's interesting watching him give Mick a more three-dimensional personality while still remaining somewhat unlikable. As he and Sara note, with Ray gone they're the only two original Legends left. And other than Sara dismissing Mick and his drunken belligerence, even when he's not drunk, we haven't seen the two of them interact much, so it's nice to see them get a moment or two.
The creative team is intent on making Nate and Zari a thing. No harm no foul. It's more predictable than offensive, and at least the actors have some chemistry with each other. Where they're going with the dragon, I don't know.
Mona gets to be at least a little effective, although more as Wolfie (Sisa Grey) than as herself. Nora and Ava don't contribute much to the episode, although there's some humor in Nora having to fill out her start paperwork. Charlie does have a brief bit where she poses as Mick to try to apologize to Sara, which falls apart when the real Mick arrives. She has a few other good scenes, like her "about time"-like comment when Sara says they should spend time together rather than wait to freeze to death.
Adam Tsekhman gets to do smarmy evil rather than bungling idiocy for most of the episode. It makes a change for Gary, but it's still played for laughs. Gary never comes across as particularly threatening, which means the whole "subvert the Time Bureau from within" story is a one-episode come-and-gone threat that isn't that threatening.
DC's Legends heads for its season finale in two weeks. Presumably we'll get Ray back in his original body, Constantine kicking butt, and the Legends taking down Neron and Fairy Godmother. Doing so doesn't seem to resolve the magical fugitives on the loose story arc. So maybe that will carry over into season 5. There doesn't seem to be anywhere else for the creative team to go, but there wasn't last year either and then we got the magical fugitives story.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Written by Gislef on May 7, 2019
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