Previously on Legends of Tomorrow, Ray and Nora got married and Damian Darhk told Ray to take Nora off the Waverider, Charlie and Constantine agreed to help each other find the Loom of Fate then destroy it for good, and Mick found out he has a daughter.
This episode opens with Ray wistfully looking around his room, remembering his time spent with the Legends, wondering, like the rest of us, why his time had to come to an end. Ray tells Nora he thinks it’s time for them to leave the Waverider, hard as that would be, and Nora says she wants to build a life with him, she doesn’t care where it is. So Ray says he’ll do one last mission with his family and then they can go start their own. Nora is moved.
Down the hall, Sara is banging on the bathroom door, Ava not too far behind her. It seems Zari is taking up the only bathroom on the ship, and it doesn’t seem like this is the first time. Ray joins the bathroom line and is going to tell Sara and Ava his news.
But then one by one everyone hops on line until finally Mick guesses what Ray has been dancing around. Sara and Ava are super bummed and ask him how he’s going to tell Nate… when Nate walks in. Ray chickens out and doesn’t tell him, though. And Zari provides a much-needed distraction when she comes out all dolled up. Charlie even mentions how good she looks.
After they all finish in the bathroom, Mona appears seemingly out of nowhere to talk to Mick. She says she’s back for Nora’s first book club as a married woman, and also she wants to talk to him about Rebecca Silver’s troll. Mick yells at her to leave the troll alone and drop it and storms off.
While Ray was packing up his stuff in the lab, he noticed Marie Antoinette and the Rasputin goo are gone, and asks Sara about it. Sara says Darhk said something about Astra recalling their souls to hell, but also probably the writers needed a way to plausibly get rid of Marie Antoinette in the same episode as Nora. Ray admits he hasn’t told Nate he’s leaving yet, and Sara tells him to put on his big boy pants and rip the bandaid off.
They squad up and Charlie tells them how she broke the Loom of Fate and how if they put it back together they can fix their Encore problem and then Constantine can help her destroy it for good. She disguised the parts as rings and gave one to a friend in Elizabethan England, so that’s where they should start. Sara and Gideon both try to give Ray big, wide openings to tell Nate this is his last mission but he keeps dodging it, so finally Sara tries to give her kickoff one-liner but instead ends up doing a really horrid British accent.
I won’t lie to you, I can usually take or leave Constantine, but when they panned to him and he was just standing there staring at her with an offended face, I cackled out loud for real.
So the team heads back to England in 1594 and realize the friend Charlie was talking about was the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. The boys try to bully the information out of him while Charlie stands there looking amazing as a barmaid.
Shakespeare admits that he gave the ring to his producer to get more time to finish this brand new play he’s working on, Romeo & Juliet… you see, he can’t decide how it should end.
Back on the Waverider, the gals sans Charlie are having their book club meeting and they invite Zari to join.
Zari is hesitant about reading anything that isn’t written in 280 characters or less, but Sara promises her that their book club isn’t really about the books. It’s just about hanging out with friends.
Down in England, the boys find Shakespeare’s producer Henslowe and see that he’s wearing the ring they need. Nate concocts an unnecessarily elaborate and incredibly wacky plan to get it back, and Ray nearly cries for how much he’s going to miss this. While they’re planning and emoting, Charlie nicked the ring without making a fuss.
But they decide that mission was too easy, so Nate decides to throw Ray a bachelor party right there in 1594. Charlie looks a little annoyed she’s stuck with the idiot boys and doesn’t get to drink and flirt with the girls, but she always finds a way to blend in.
Up on the Waverider, Zari is told the club can help her find her true path in life, and she starts to wonder if she was in a cult. Ava says they don’t use the words “cult” or “clone” in book club.
Especially since Nora was in a real cult and Sara was basically in a cult of assassins. But the book club has helped them both. It helped Ava find connection, it helped Mona cope with being a kaupe. They think the book club can help Zari, too.
Avoiding the question, Zari decides they should use this time they’re gathered to throw Nora a belated bachelorette party.
So when Nate calls Sara to get the boys more time, Sara doesn’t ask any questions to give them time, too.
Meanwhile, in hell… (Have I mentioned lately how happy sentences like this make me? I love this stupid show.) Astra goes to the clockmaker and tells her about Constantine’s plans to fix her life so her mother never died. The clockmaker apparently raised her and doesn’t want to be erased as part of Astra’s life, so she convinces Astra she should get the artifact herself so SHE could control her. They do a scrying spell so that Astra can see what Constantine is up to.
Back at the pub, the boys are getting tipsy and Ray thanks Nate for being his best friend, Mick admits he has a kid and thought he could ignore it but he can’t stop thinking about her. It’s a real feelsfest and it’s very sweet and cute.
At the same time, the girls are having… the opposite kind of affair. They are getting rowdy on the Waverider, having scooter races and riding around on electric animals and dancing with a stripper. True shenanigans.
The boys are starting to slur a little, talking about totems shmotems, and trying to remember the name of the Loom they’re after. Astra overhears Constantine clarify that it’s the Loom of Fate, but then he rolls high on his perception check and can tell that someone is scrying on him, and knocks her consciousness back to hell, knocking her actual body unconscious.
All this hullabaloo starts a big bar fight, and with no captain to guide them, they use all their powers, while Shakespeare watches with great interest. And when it’s all over, Nate thinks to mind wipe Shakespeare, but he’s drunk so he fails miserably.
Up on the ship, the girls notice that Romeo & Juliet has turned into, “Romeo v Juliet, Dawn of Justness.”
Sara realizes this means the boys screwed things up, and calls them back to the ship. She tries to scold them and tell them that their mission isn’t over until they fix Romeo & Juliet, but she’s still a little drunk, so she’s having a hard time with words like “history.” Charlie points out that she is definitely sloshed and has glitter on her face and it’s all very cute and perfect.
Sara also pulls Ray aside and tells him that he really has to come clean with Nate. Ray is afraid telling Nate will make it real, but it’s not like not telling him will make it any less real. So Sara says that embracing change is what got them to where they are today, and it’s time to do it again. Sara reflects on that change, that night they decided to leave their homes behind and take to the sky to protect the timeline. They’re both surprised they’re still here, still doing this thing, and they’re really going to miss each other.
They hug it out and we all try not to cry.
The team goes down to try to talk Shakespeare out of this new version of the play, so while Nate and Zari steal scripts, Ray talks to ol’ Billy Shakes about his original plans for Romeo & Juliet. Shakespeare admits that he knows how the story should end, and that it has to, but he loves these characters, and isn’t ready to say goodbye. Ray says the characters deserve a great ending, and for a minute I was concerned that Ray and Nora were going to go the way of Romeo and Juliet in this episode, but I guess this was just the writers explaining that they love the characters even though they’re voluntarily letting them go for no good reason.
But while Ray is telling Shakespeare why he relates to his plight of ending journeys, Nate overhears him and is super bummed that is time bro is leaving and didn’t even tell him. Ray finds Nate and learns that he knows and tries to convince him they still have time for one last mission since the book hasn’t turned back yet, but Nate is hurt and says Ray should just go now.
So Nate takes off with Zari and tries to find Shakespeare again, and they realize he didn’t finish the play this time because Henslowe pulled funding when he realized his ring was missing.
Sara goes to the tavern to figure out what’s taking Nate and Zari so long and she finds them just drinking and moping. Sara tells them not to give up, and that she knows it sucks Ray is leaving — she’ll miss him, too — but they have to keep going. Just like they did when Kendra left, or Amaya, or Jax.
And sure, Ray’s relentless optimism and silly plans will be sorely missed, and his bright smile will leave their ship a little darker for a while, they’re a team, and they’ll stay a team, even as members of their family come and go.
Sara gets a Ray-inspired idea of her own, and tells Gideon that they have an all hands on deck mission to do. The show must go on. So all of the Legends dress up in their finest Shakespearean garb and have Gideon in their ear feeding them lines and they put on Romeo and Juliet themselves.
Mick gets really into it, Ava and Sara are overacting and hilariously bad at it. Ava even has a goatee.
Constantine is Romeo, and Nate is Juliet, but when Nate starts saying Juliet’s lines, he thinks of Ray and is too overwhelmed to continue. He runs backstage and Sara is like, “I knew we should have cast a woman in that role” and Zari offers him words of wisdom. She says, “Change is hard, but it can be beautiful. It can be both.”
So Nate rushes off to find Ray and Zari says she can take over as Juilet. Also, she’s off-book, as she tells Gideon (who she still calls Gidget.) And sure enough, she is off-book. And she’s GOOD.
Also, when Zari comes on as Juliet, Shakespeare asks if it’s a man, and Charlie asks, “Does it matter?” which is the perfect answer for our pansexual pal to give.
Ray says goodbye to Gideon, and considering he’s talking to the AI of a spaceship, it shouldn’t have been quite as emotional as it was, but Gideon has been with us since day one, and Ray has, too, so I had FEELINGS. Especially since Gideon asks if she’ll ever see him again. He hopes so, and he also hopes Gideon will take care of the Legends for him. And you know she will.
So Ray finds Nora and they use a time courier to open a portal to the present. They lock hands and get ready to begin their next adventure.
Nate goes through a lot to try to get back to the ship on time but when he gets there he thinks it’s too late. He thinks Ray is gone, but it turns out Ray couldn’t leave things on those terms, either. And this is when I realized Romeo & Juliet weren’t Ray and Nora at all, but Ray and Nate. Nate admits he’s sad for himself but happy for Ray, and Ray admits he wishes things could change and stay the same all at once. They hug and cry and it’s a real testament to this deep friendship. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
In England the play goes on too, Zari and Constantine kiss, Charlie and Shakespeare are moved to tears.
Sara comes back to the Waverider to find Nate in his feelings. He muses about how sometimes, if a friendship is strong enough, people can outgrow them. And it’s a bummer but maybe it’s a good thing. That if you help each other grow, things are bound to change. Sara offers to be his new time bro if he ever needs a hug, though her bro hugging skills need some work.
(Also she punches him when she teases him about it and he looks at her tiny frame and is like “why are you so strong?” and it’s pretty cute.)
Mona finds Mick before she heads off and tells him he should talk to his daughter. He thinks he’s protecting her by not being in her life, but Mona says he’s made HER life better, so maybe he can for his daughter, too.
Back on the bridge, Sara takes the ring from Constantine and says she’ll be the one holding onto it since she’s the captain. Charlie says they can use this piece to find where the rest of the Loom landed when the multiverse collapsed.
Speaking of collapsed, Astra finally wakes up with a gasp and tells the Clockmaker what she saw. The Clockmaker convinces her that SHE should be the one to get the Loom instead, and we’re off to the races again.
Later that night, Sara stumbles out of bed in her little hoodie and finds Nate still awake, too.
One by one everyone finds they can’t sleep and the team gathers in the kitchen. They find Ray’s green juice and decide to drink some for their buddy, knowing he would say there was never a problem so big it couldn’t be solved with a smile.
They all drink and quickly realize that they will miss Ray, but they will not miss his green juice, and they will not be sad to have one less person in the bathroom line.
Next week was supposed to be an episode called, “Zari, not Zari” but with productions being halted because of quarantines and social distancing, I’m not entirely sure when it will actually air, but what I can tell you is that whenever it happens, I’ll be here to recap it for you. Stay safe, fam!
Supergirl Writers: “Wait, you can cross cut between congruent relationship scenes and actually mean it?”
Legends Writers: “Hold my Beebo.”
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So Astra has two mommies – Earth Mom and Hell Mom. Do with this information what you will.
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My family has been heavily involved in the local community theater in my hometown, including their annual summer Shakespeare performance. As a result I’ve seen such strange things as A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in the deep South (imagine Larry the Cable Guy as Bottom), but nothing compares to seeing the Legends ham it up like it’s Easter Sunday.
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“Gideon, fabricate some cod pieces.”
“In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention…” Whoops, wrong Time Warp.
On the one hand, it’s plausible that the Waverider only has one bathroom. It’s not bigger on the inside; presumably most of the bedrooms are converted cargo holds or something.
On the other hand, it seems like with time travel, you should be able to avoid everyone having to use it at once.
I love this show and need it more than ever right now! When I was watching it today I thought “oh you can tell this is a fantasy show about time travel because they’re OUTSIDE at a PUB and not in quarantine!” That said, the on-ship bachelorette party was pretty epic all on its own.
Plus, I appreciated that they gave Ray and Nate a lovely little moment for romantic friendships <3 (and maybe some similar moments for Zari and Charlie in the future??)
Valerie, I don’t want LoT but often read your recaps all the same. I just want to thank you for your continued contributions here – the world is so insanely unsettled and having these recaps on Autostraddle to look forward to is especially comforting right now.
don’t *watch*, not don’t want!