Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Legends of Tomorrow 3x16 Recap: "I, Ava" (Totems and Avas) [Contributor: Marilyn]


"I, Ava"
Original Airdate: March 26, 2018

Sara needs a personal day. Given how the last episode ended, with her breaking things off with Ava, I’m not surprised. She names Amaya as interim captain and takes off. The team is doing what they usually do (including Mick testing out his new totem by using it to cook food) when they get an alert for a new anomaly: Amaya’s granddaughter, Mari, is in the hospital, injured because she never received her spirit totem from Amaya. Ray calls Sara back and that’s about when Gary shows up to tell them that Ava has gone missing.

Sara, Ray, and Gary go to Ava’s office and find that all her personnel files have been erased from the Time Bureau’s system. And at the hospital where Mari is, Kuasa shows up and when Wally and Nate catch up with her, they learn she’s there to protect Mari — not hurt her. So she wasn’t the one who put her there.

At Ava’s parents house, Sara, Ray, and Gary discover that her parents haven't seen Ava in months... and are super fishy about it. When Sara threatens the mother, they reveal that they aren’t Ava’s parents after all. They were hired by someone to pose as her parents.

Back on the Waverider, Mick and Zari are sitting out the adventures because Zari has been tasked with teaching Mick how to use his new totem. Sara, Gary, and Ray meanwhile go to the Bureau and are surprised to find Ava there. She’s acting strangely and when pressed, says she was in Fresno visiting her parents — which they of course know is a lie. Sara wants to know what’s going on.

Kuasa takes Nate and Wally to Mari’s gym and they get her to agree to help them find the spirit totem for Mari — since she’d rather her sister have it than the Darhks — even though the evil duo frightens her. At the Bureau, the team learns that Ava went to Vancouver in 2213, which is a “no fly zone.” So Ava is clearly hiding something there; is she an anachronism herself? To find out, the trio steals the Bureau’s mothership and flies to 2213... where there are Avas everywhere. Sara thinks this place is hell, clearly. As it turns out, Ava is a clone, created by the Ava (Advanced Variant Automation) Corporation.

Meanwhile Nate, Wally, and Kuasa are trying to plan how to get the totem from the Darhks. Kuasa rules out an ambush, wanting to instead lure the Darhks to them. Amaya checks in with Nate, wanting to know what’s going on with Mari. He gives her an update, but leaves out that they’re working with Kuasa. They don’t want anything to happen to Amaya (thus winking Kuasa and Mari out of existence) so Wally is tasked with keeping her safe.

At the Ava Corporation, Ray, Sara, and Gary sneak in and do some investigating. Sara feels that what she had with Ava isn’t real now. One of the newly-made clones wakes up and declares they have no clearance to be there. She fights the group and Sara knocks her out, so they tie her up.

With Nate as bait, the Darhks show up. Kuasa requests the spirit totem in exchange for Nate, and Nora is happy to hand it over. Nate expects he’ll be freed now but Kuasa changes her mind, seeing Nate as a threat to her existence. So she gives Nate over to the Darhks and leaves with the totem.

In 2213, the “real” Ava shows up, having tracked Ray, Sara, and Gary and it becomes clear that she has no idea she’s a clone. Learning that she is causes her to pass out. Meanwhile, Nora threatens Nate. When she leaves, Damien reveals that he’s uncomfortable with the influence that Mollus has over his daughter. The closer he gets to escaping, the worse things are for Nora. Damien is so upset by all of this that he doesn’t even want to torture Nate.

Ava wakes up and she’s forgotten she’s a clone. Ray thinks they should tell her, but Sara isn’t so sure. Before they can decide what to do, they realize the clone Ava they knocked out has escaped. Back on the Waverider, Zari is getting frustrated with Mick and they get into a fight which — to be fair — he had coming. Kuasa, meanwhile, shows up with the totem and Amaya learns that Wally has been hiding what’s really been going on (and that Nate is being held hostage). Kuasa gives her a guilt trip over not saving her village and getting involved with Nate. Amaya tells her granddaughter that she’s beyond redemption.

Ava tells Sara that she regrets them not being together, but the situation can’t be dealt with at the moment because an army of Avas have arrived to take them out. This leads to the real Ava having a bit of an identity crisis, questioning if she’s real or not. Sara tells her she believes in her — she’s real to her. So the real Ava poses as one of the clones and tells the army that she’ll take the “intruders” outside and dispose of them. Before they can get away, however, the clone Ava that the team had tied up interrupts them, calling out this Ava as a “fake.” Together, the four fight all the Avas, including the army, and eventually knock all of them out.

In 2018, Damien is pretending to torture Nate until Nora figures out what is happening and knocks her father out. Amaya and Wally arrive to save Nate but Nora takes away Wally’s speed. Amaya uses the spirit totem she got from Kuasa to break Nora’s magical hold and Kuasa shows up to free Nate. Wally gets his powers back, as does Nate, and they all team up with Kuasa to try to defeat Nora. Kuasa stands up to her, trying to appeal to the human beneath Mollus’ influence. It doesn’t work, however: Nora rips the water totem away from Kuasa and it kills her. Nora gets away, taking her father with her.

Everyone returns to the Waverider and Ray mind-wipes Gary so he won’t recall 2213 (and the clone thing). Nate tries to comfort Amaya about Kuasa and apologize for keeping things from her but she pushes him away, saying she doesn’t want to have anything more to do with him. She blames her attachment to him for the troubles her family has faced. Zari and Mick make up, something made easier by her fast being over so they share a meal together. They both felt Kuasa die and it sobered them, making them realize these totems connect them all. Sara and Ava have a drink together and realize that Rip is the one who recruited her so maybe he is the one who erased Ava’s files at the Bureau and Sara wants to get to the bottom of why he would do that. Amaya takes a shuttle and sets off to go back in time to Zambezi in 1992 to save Kuasa.

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