Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Legends of Tomorrow 3x15 Recap: "Necromancing the Stone" (The Death Totem) [Contributor: Marilyn]


"Necromancing the Stone"
Original Airdate: March 19, 2018

In this episode, Sara wakes up from a nightmare featuring a creepy little girl who looks like Nora from the asylum. Ava tries to comfort Sara, but she doesn’t want to talk about the nightmare. Apparently, however, Sara called out John’s name while asleep and Ava is feeling a bit jealous. Sara explains Constantine and his role in her life, and Ava’s ego is soothed when Sara calls her her girlfriend. Gideon son calls Sara to the bridge, and Ava jets off to rejoin the Bureau.

Mollus is doubling down on anachronisms so the Legends need to split into teams to deal with it. Amaya and Zari team up, while Nate and Wally form another team. Mick opts to stay behind and help Ray with the fire totem. That leaves Sara on her own to sort out some mess with Einstein. Before Sara can get anywhere though, she notices something strange: the death totem is making an awful racket in her mind. She goes to it and sees a vision of her former self as the Canary — the first Canary in Arrow — telling her that the totem has chosen her and she needs to pick it up. I mean, it makes sense. Sara has died... how many times now? If anyone on the team should wield the death totem, it’s probably her.

Amaya and Zari return after their mission and find Mick asleep, Ray beat to a pulp in his lab, and someone on board, sabotaging the ship and its crew. Zari sticks with Ray in the med bay while Mick and Amaya go off in search of what’s wrong. They find it in the galley: Sara is wearing the death totem but she’s clearly not well. Has Mollus come to play again? She looks like a zombie ninja warrior goddess. Amaya and Mick are no match for her, and Amaya tries to appeal to the Sara that’s still inside. Sara can hear Amaya while Mollus taunts her — that this is exactly what she feared would happen. Wally saves Mick and Amaya from getting totaled by Death!Sara. Zari realizes they need Constantine’s help, since it sounds like Mollus is definitely in the driver's seat of Sara's body. Ava calls and is alarmed, to say the least so the team fills her in on what’s happened with Sara.

Sara has activated the “Nostromo Sequence,” which has the team trapped on the Waverider with locked doors and no power. Wally tries to help subdue Sara so they can get the Waverider working again. She taunts Wally with a vision of Jesse, which distracts him long enough for her to take him out with a freeze ray. In the present-day, Gary and Ava are hunting down Constantine in New York City and find him chasing a chicken as a part of a ritual to get his neighbor’s son married. Don’t ask. John knows that Sara has been taken over by Mollus. Ava tells him that the death totem is involved, and that changes things. Apparently there’s some connection between the death totem, Mollus, and Zambezi. Maybe Sara has something to do with it.

John is tickled to learn Ava has slept with Sara too, and she insists on joining him to the realm of Mollus to save Sara. Mollus isn’t too happy about that, of course. Meanwhile on the Waverider, the team is looking for Sara and Wally, and Nate finds the latter. Wally’s okay but he needs the med bay. Zari is about to take a wrench to Gideon’s inner workings so they can escape on a shuttle when she’s interrupted by a vision of her brother as a young boy. She regretfully turns her back on him but Gideon knocks her back and then Death!Sara attacks. Zari repels her at first with wind, but Sara isn’t that easy to knock down. Zari pleads with Sara to fight Mollus and gets through to her for a moment.

Constantine is searching for another way to get to Sara and there’s a delightful reference to Beebo, whom everyone but Ava seems to love. John says Ava is wound a bit tight, which is putting it lightly. Ava is, however, and she’s stressing about her relationship with Sara in the midst of all of this. John tells her that Sara is worth the trouble. Gary, meanwhile, has an idea borrowed from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign from the previous year, which is strangely fitting for their current situation. Yay, Gary! Apparently, they need another totem to fight Sara. Someone needs to wield the earth totem, so Nate volunteers.

The Legends can do this as long as they don’t split up! Of course, they split up because that’s what Sara wants them to do. Meanwhile in Sara’s mind, Nora Darhk is telling Sara she can’t fight Mollus. Nora blames her path on Oliver killing Damien, but Sara tells her that her path was a choice. Then, Nora shows Sara the things she has done on her own path, including killing a father for the League. Once a killer, always a killer? Nora tries to get Sara to embrace her past and join the Darhks, telling her that this is her destiny.

Nate finds the earth totem and picks it up but has a hard time connecting with it. Death!Sara finds him. So now the fire totem is their last chance to stop Death!Sara. Zari and Amaya are weakened, so clearly Mick should be the one to wield it. It seems fitting, right? Constantine, Gary, and Ava arrive at the Waverider and interrupt Sara from beating up Nate. Constantine tries to expel Mollus from inside Sara, but Death!Sara tries to trip him up the same way she has the rest of the team. But he gets Sara to take his hand and tries to free her.

Mick, wielding the totem, distracts Death!Sara and she lets John go, running off to confront the other totem bearer. They face off, power against power, and Mick overwhelms her. Nora continues to try to get Sara to join with her and Damien, and Ava begs Sara to fight back. Sara can hear Ava and feel her and it gives her the impetus to fight back against Nora. She doesn’t want a life without pain and regret — she doesn’t want to be a demon’s lackey; Sara wants to do better than she has in the past. She fights back and returns, with Death!Sara no more.

John and Sara commiserate over their lives, and he admits that is why he likes to work alone. But he also tells Sara that Ava is a good one. Sara apologizes to Ray and the rest of the team, believing that Mollus uses each of their deepest fears against them... which freaks the team out a bit. Sara tells Ava they need to talk, with Sara believing that she really is death — it will always be a part of her. Ava argues; she doesn’t care about Sara's past. But Sara says that she should. She breaks up with Ava, leaving them both miserable.

I get why Sara feels she needs to push Ava away. I really do. We saw the same thing with Oliver and Felicity on Arrow's third, fourth, and fifth seasons. Sara isn’t comfortable with the darkest part of herself and she’s scared to death that it will hurt those she loves. She has a hard enough time letting her team in and being vulnerable with them. But someone even closer than that? Someone to share her heart with? It’s a tall order for our Captain Lance.

On the totem front, Mick bonding with the fire totem makes so much sense; I don't know why I didn’t think of that sooner. And the same goes for Sara and the death totem, though I imagine she’ll be understandably hesitant to wield it again anytime soon. But who should wield the earth totem? Nate didn’t seem to have the touch. Will it be Ray? Wally? Someone else altogether? I have some questions.

0 comments:

Post a Comment