"Return of the Mack"
Original Airdate: November 7, 2017
I find myself actually looking forward to watching Legends of Tomorrow lately and this week's episode is no exception. (Especially after watching The Flash, which wasn’t that great, it felt great to be able to sink into Legends afterwards. Sort of like a television palate cleanser.)
We open on a scene in the past: a young woman is being pursued through an alley by a man and we find that it’s just Rip. Right about the time they both discover a body — a man who was drained of blood by a vampire.
Elsewhere, Ray isn’t so sure about breaking up Firestorm but Jax is certain this is what is best for Stein. Ray is willing to help by shooting him with some sort of serum that helps him not crave grapefruit. Which is a big deal because that’s what Stein eats each morning. So does this mean they are already separating?
Zari wants to go back to 2042 to save her family. But Sara and the others correct her — they can’t change the past and save people who died. Soon, Nate calls a team meeting to let everyone know that he discovered the anachronism map forms a pattern. There are two outliers: Seattle in 2042 and London in 1895, where there’s a vampire. He’s positively giddy about going to fight vampires, as is Mick. Sara thinks they should go check it out, so they do.
Jax displays some short-term memory loss which concerns Ray a bit while the rest of the team poses as cops investigating the deaths. The coroner they visit has a Palmer Tech watch from 2016. They question him about where he got it from and he says it was a dead body that fell from the sky. They ask where the body is now, and he tells them he buried it. The next day, vampire victims started showing up. So they wipe his memory and go to dig up the body. Of course when they get there, the grave is empty.
What they do find is Rip Hunter. He tells them the Time Bureau doesn’t know he’s there and he needs the Legends’ help. Well, that is surprising. On board the Waverider, Jax is still displaying confusion which Ray tries to cover for but Stein is suspicious about. Amaya talks with Zari about her totem and the conversation gets heated, which makes the totems activate and kind of swirl together. Amaya tells her they’re connected and they need to find out how.
Rip admits to Sara that he misses the Waverider, but Sara is less than sympathetic. He tells her that he let them get away with the Waverider for a reason. He’s been following a creature known as Mollus for years (since it’s been years for him, it is months for them) and he believes the Legends are the only ones who can really help since the Time Bureau is so tied up in bureaucracy. Sara isn’t sure they can trust him though. Rip offers to call off the Time Bureau and Sara takes the deal. Rip believes the vampire is the objective of Mollus and if they catch the vampire, they can possibly catch Mollus too.
So they need bait, of course. Someone who looks like Martin Stein abducts Nate, and the rest of the Legends chase a horse and carriage that they believe has him. It doesn’t, of course. Just potatoes. Meanwhile, Nate wakes up strapped to a bench in a strange room. The Stein lookalike is there. Apparently he’s a relation of Martin’s and he took some of Nate’s “lifeblood” to give to his “master” who is residing in some sort of coffin. Which... that would be the vampire, yes?
Nate gets the team on the comms and he tries to describe where is (and who he is with). Rip is able to figure out where Nate might be, so the team moves in as the lunar eclipse starts (which is significant to the whole vampire thing). They’re amazed by Stein’s British actor relation, who introduces a woman who claims she can communicate with the dead. She does her thing, which intrigues Zari. She really misses the family she lost.
One of the prints Ray lifts from the watch belongs to Oliver Queen. Is Oliver a time-traveling vampire from the future? The rest of the team is distracted by seance upstairs while Rip and Sara try to get to Nate. But is the seance real? The woman speaks in a strange voice and Zari is horrified — it’s the voice of someone she knows, or did know. It’s her brother. The doctor threatening to drain Nate’s blood is using a two pronged syringe to drain his victims, hence the vampire nonsense.
Rip and Sara arrive to save Nate, and they debate seeing who the dude in the coffin is. Meanwhile, Ray contacts Curtis who tells them that Oliver’s print is on the watch because Oliver touched the watch. The watch itself actually belonged to Damien Darhk... who is the body Sara finds in the coffin. Dun dun duuuuuuuun! Rip deduces that Darhk is integral to Mollus’ plan.
The team retreats to the Waverider where they argue about what to do next. Rip wants to use Darhk as bait for Mollus. Sara wants to get rid of Darhk’s body so he can’t be brought back. Rip accuses her of letting personal prejudice cloud her judgement. But Rip really wants to catch Mollus. Maybe he’s the one who has lost perspective. Elsewhere, Zari is spooked from the seance and Amaya speaks to her about it. Zari admits what happened the night her family was killed — she got scared and ran away that night. She believes she should have been the one who died.
Stein, meanwhile, discovers what Ray and Jax are doing. Jax admits why he wants to break up Firestorm. He’s upset that his partner would attempt this behind his back, knowing the dangers at stake. Stein runs into Rip, who locks everyone on board the Waverider so that he can make sure Darhk is resurrected.
Zari made it off the ship though and she’s gone back to find the woman from the seance. She wants her to channel her brother again. The woman offers to try but asks for a memento — something to focus her energy on. Zari, being extremely naive, gives her the totem. The woman knocks Zari out and takes the totem. On the Waverider, the team discovers they can fly the ship, just not leave it. They can also access their weapons system.
The ritual begins and Rip pulls a gun and the Time Bureau comes rushing through portals to stop the group from raising Darhk from the dead. Rip demands to speak to Mollus. The woman then transforms, speaking through the voice we heard her use during the seance. Rip wants to speak face to face, but Mollus said he would never survive it. Meanwhile, the lunar eclipse does its mojo on Darhk and he rises up out of the coffin. He notices his missing watch immediately.
Sara fires upon the Waverider. She figures that’s the best way to rip through the shielding keeping them on board. Back at the ritual, Darhk is kicking butt to the music of “Return of the Mack”. It’s... kind of hilarious. Rip pauses time and is about to stab Darhk, but Darhk breaks free using his magic. He remembers him. He remembers everything now, actually. The Legends arrive, having gotten out of the Waverider, and they proceed to kick butt. Zari gets her totem back and Darhk leaves with the woman from the seance. Who is she? He seems to know her.
On the Waverider, Jax tells Stein that he had Ray restore their psychic connection. He kind of missed it, actually. Stein thinks that with the return of Darhk, the team needs Firestorm more than ever. But Jax still thinks they should try. Stein gives in, agrees to work with him and Ray. Amaya and Zari bond over totem feels. Amaya predicts they will become great friends while they work to defeat evil. Rip is feeling emo about the whole mess with Mollus and Darhk, and Sara confronts him about it. She tells him there won’t be a next time. He betrayed their trust. So she hands him over Agent Sharp and Director Bennett from the Time Bureau. He’s being detained even though he created the Bureau.
Agent Sharp tells Sara that the Legends are free to fly. Rip warns Sara that there’s a war coming and they need to be ready.
All in all, I really liked this episode. The team dynamics continue to be spot on, plus it felt like we finally had Rip back, even when he was being a douche (maybe especially when he was being a douche). I really liked the scene with Darhk at the end. I found myself kind of glad to have him back, actually. The setting was fun and it furthered the whole Mollus/Big Bad plot in an interesting way. Plus, it all made me look forward to the next episode which is exactly the right way to feel when you finish an episode. Good job, Legends of Tomorrow, on continuing to make me love you.
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