Hello and welcome to this Legends of Tomorrow recap of season 7 episode 10, “The Fixed Point” aka the (second) one directed by Maisie Richardson-Sellers AKA THE ONE WHERE WE GET OUR FIRST CANON ASEXUAL LEGEND OF TOMORROW!

Eh hem. But we’ll get there. Previously on Legends of Tomorrow, the Legends were attacked by Evil Gideon and her band of androids so they scooped up the inventor of time travel and are on a mission to stop them.

At the end of the last episode, Gideon said they have to stop the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and as she walks through a potential plan, Ava realizes she’s serious and asks why the heck she would recommend messing with time so majorly. But the thing is, since it’s a Fixed Point in history, aka a moment so pivotal people aren’t supposed to time travel there, Gideon knows that messing with it will be too big of a deal for Evil Gideon to just let go. It’s bait!

Astra thinks this plan sounds downright diabolical and she’s a fan.

I already hate how hard it is to get a shot of Astra without Behrad in it. (And to reiterate, I like Behrad, I just don’t like this pairing and its potential to water Astra down.)

Sara feels like she can finally see the light of the end of the tunnel, a way out of the darkness that descended when the Anti-Legends blew up their Waverider. She takes a deep breath and holds her head high and faces her team and rallies the troops. They’re finally going home.

Who’s going to tell them that actually 2022 is no picnic and maybe they should skip ahead a bit?

Nate tells the team how the historical day went down and they make a plan to drug the three would-be assassins so they sleep through their murder plot. Once they feel ready, they head to 1914, but before Sara can slip the drugs into the bad guys’ drinks, a mysterious man stops them. He clocks Sara and Nate as time travelers and invites the shocked duo into a supernatural speakeasy called the Fixed Point, a bar packed with other time travelers here to do exactly what the Legends are planning.

This look gave me Dracula (2013) flashbacks and I’m not mad about it.

Sara fetches the rest of her team, sans her wife and the father of time travel, and Gideon is surprised she didn’t know about this hangout. It doesn’t take too long before they see how things work here: a time traveler pulls a ticket, and when their number is called, they get to try their hand at stopping the assassination.

The problem is, travelers always fail, and failing often ends in death. The barkeep says that trying to change a Fixed Point pisses Time off, and Time will try to kill you about it.

“What in the Final Destination is going on here?”

Back at the manor, Ava tries to make a plan with Gwyn that will save Alan with as few ripples as possible. When Gary returns to give Ava the update on what’s happening topside, after marveling over a whole community of time travelers that Gwyn Davies helped create, Ava realizes that if Alan never dies, Davies will never invent time travel, and reality as they know it will devolve. No time travel, no Legends, no Avalance.

This is neither here nor there but Jes Macallan’s acting skills and hair game have been on an upward trend and they were already doing great.

Gwyn has already thought of this though, and he has a solution. He wants to save Alan, but never tell his younger self. This very idea breaks Ava’s whole heart and she cannot fathom why he would want that.

In the bar, Gideon’s having a hard time wrapping her human brain around the totems shmotems of time travel, so she drags Gary to the bar with her to deal with her problems the way many humans do. Behrad and Astra, despite deciding last week that they were going to take it slow, are being gross, so Spooner is left with Fancy Zari to try out this whole one-on-one hangout deal.

Me trying to make small-talk with a coworker I barely know while waiting for the rest of the people to show up on the Teams call.

It’s pretty cute, actually, even though it’s incredibly awkward. They both try to chat about the other’s interests, despite having little to no interest in it themselves, and it’s very sweet!

Across the bar, some youths start making fun of Sara and Nate, calling the Legends washed up superheroes. And Sara gets a little in her head about it, and the next plan she comes up with is so sure to fail that a man who happens to also be trying it does indeed get dead.

She decides to just improvise instead; she’s always been good at following her instincts. So she steels herself and marches out into 1914.

“Gotta go my own way.”

And almost immediately gets clotheslined by a ladder.

Sara goes back to the bar with her tail between her legs, embarrassed to hear Gen Z³’s laughter. She tries to go back to the drawing board, but she is clearly a bit shook.

Also shook is Ava, who can’t fathom why it seems like Gwyn has given up even trying to come up with a way to save Alan and the history of time travel. Gwyn admits that he thinks that’s what he deserves, that this is his penance for loving another man. Ava doesn’t understand how someone who has lived with her and her wife for at least a week at this point could say such a thing, and she promises that there are places — places they can take him — where he would be accepted and safe to be himself, because there’s nothing wrong with loving another man.

My kingdom for an Ava Sharpe pep talk.

But Gwyn doesn’t want community or acceptance; he believes he’s already sinned in the eyes of God and deserves to be punished. Religious trauma will do that to a person.

At the Fixed Point, Fancy Zari and Spooner take a break from their awkward small talk to rag on some bar patrons and they realize this is something they have in common: hating people. The tension broken, Zari admits that she thought Spooner didn’t like her, and Spooner admits that she thought Zari thought she was too good for her. They were intimidated by each other and keeping themselves from a fox and the hound friendship this whole time.

This was some bar bathroom level bonding and I am here for it.

Sara is kicking herself for leading the team straight into a brick wall, but Nate tells her to shake it off. She got the yips! It happens. But Sara feels off in a bigger way; probably ever since her honeymoon ended in an alien invasion. And what’s extra weird, is she has no idea what their next move should be, and it’s a new and unwelcome feeling.

Nate calls the Legends together to give their captain a taste of her own pep talk medicine. Maybe Sara failed because she tried to do it on her own. This time, they’ll try as a team. Because one thing they have over the Gen Z³ kids is that they’ve failed. A lot. Together.

Failures of Today is a superhero group I’d qualify for.

Reinvigorated, Sara gets ready to break time again with her found family. Since she’s part of the Unkillable Gay Squad, she will take point, and everyone else will help from the sidelines. Zari and Spooner head off together, not ready to be done forming this new friendship.

The team takes their places and get ready to help their captain in a good old fashion time loop.

Two tropes I love! Time loop and teamwork!

And I just…love everyone’s stupid little hats.

It’s a jolly holiday with Gideon!

Luckily they each were given a ticket so they have a few tries. During which, Sara dies…a lot. Again. She gets hit by a car, shot twice, poisoned twice, both by her own hand. Over and over she fails, but over and over she gets ever closer.

Me seeing if Twitter is safe from spoilers before diving fully in.

The Gen Z³ kids call the Legends the Failures of Tomorrow but the Legends are used to failing and they will not be stopped by some petty mockery.

While Zari and Spooner wait for the plan to get to their part, Zari asks Spooner to play Smash, Marry, Kill. She starts with some of the guys on the team, but Spooner says she’s not really interested in any of them. Smoothly she pivots to some of the women, but that doesn’t feel right to Spooner, either. Spooner admits to Zari that she’s ever really felt…that way about anyone. Ever. She thinks it’s a side effect of being mind-swirled by aliens, but Zari IMMEDIATELY quashes this theory. She tells Spooner that the way she feels is very normal, and that plenty of people are asexual. Spooner hears the word and her eyes flicker with recognition; she didn’t know the word, but she knows it fits. She looks a little overwhelmed, but in a good way, as she repeats it back. She’s asexual.

The look of…relief? This scene was so well done.

And this is big for a lot of reasons. One, because there simply isn’t enough asexual representation on television. Off the top of my head I can only think of two who have explicitly said they were asexual, and one is an axolotl. I’m sure there are more, but the fact that I could only instantly recall two isn’t great, considering how much television I watch. So this is huge. But also, I think it’s important because it’s an example of how we can always do better. All of us, always. Lesser shows could have been like, “Look at us, we’ve got queers at the helm of this diverse group of weirdos, we did it, we solved prejudice.” They could have rested on their laurels (no Lance pun intended) and patted themselves on the back and considered themselves done. But instead, they keep pushing. They keep reflecting and listening and learning and adding more types of representation like they’re trying to win LGBTQ+ bingo. And I’ll continue to be impressed at how this show is consistently 37 minutes of pure tomfoolery and nonsense, and then 5 minutes of really impactful, meaningful character moments. They manage to take these conversations and situations seriously without taking THEMSELVES too seriously, and they continue to hit it out of the park, in my opinion.

For the record, this will not stop me from shipping Spatula. It will only stop me from shouting KISS KISS KISS at them.

And I think it’s important that it was Fancy Zari Spooner had this conversation with, because this version of Zari could have been written as a ditzy type but instead, she has all of Flannel Zari’s smarts, she just channeled it into building a social media empire instead of learning about tech. And being on social media, and being thrust into celebrity at a young age, she has learned to read people and become very insightful, and I love this for her and for us.

After this lovely moment, Zari teases Spooner for coming out to Fancy Zari first of all people, and they laugh about it. When Astra finds them she can tell they’ve bonded, and isn’t sure how it happened so fast, but leaves them be for now.

Astra was like, “I can’t take them as chums.”

Once they’re alone again, Spooner decides to ask Zari what her type is besides “broody British wizard”, gesturing to a man in a top hat. And before we can get confirmed bisexual Zari Tarazi, the man disappears and Spooner’s bad guy radar goes off, so they head back to the team for help.

Sara checks the footage and sees the same thing; a man in a top hat who is there one second, gone the next. So it’s not the abstract concept of time protecting the Fixed Point, it’s just a man.

What’s more, based on the way he blinks in and out of the footage, they think that this mysterious figure can freeze time.

“With any luck, it’s Piper Halliwell.”

Back in the manor, Ava tries one last time to convince Gwyn that he’s making a mistake. Ava says that she can’t fully understand his faith, but she knows deep down that whatever higher being there might be, whatever pronouns They prefer, They would want Gwyn to experience love, to feel acceptance, to love whoever the fuck you want to. She quotes lyrical genius Lin Manuel Miranda’s least genius tweet and says, “love is love is love is love” and while it’s a trite phrase to us at this point in 2022, Ava’s passion is palpable and her speech moves Gwyn.

I miss Sara/Ava content but also I’m here for Therapist Ava.

He agrees to do whatever it takes to save both Alan and time travel, impressed by Ava’s unrelenting belief that they can solve any problem. Legends find a way.

She hugs him and I wish she was hugging me instead because MY FEELINGS.

Using a part from Davies’ time machine, they make Sara a gizmo that can protect her from time stoppage exactly one time. Ready to try again, they run into an issue: they’re out of tickets. But impressed by their sticktoitiveness, the Gen Z³s offer up their tickets and their comms to help the Legends out; they realize they were being a bit bratty, and they promise to talk about how they lashed out in their next group therapy session.

The bar chats, “Take a chance on Sara Lance!” and off they go, one last time.

When Sara gets to the third assassin, she activates her thingamabob and when time freezes, she’s able to turn to see who did it.

:insert Tiktok sound: “A white man?! No!”

And while I would not have recognized this man’s face if he slapped me across mine, I did, unfortunately, recognize his name when Sara hissed it: Thawne. Eobard Thawne. This version of Thawne plagued the Legends in Season 2, and his Tom Cavanaugh shaped counterpart has been plaguing me, specifically, on The Flash for what feels like a millennium.

Sara immediately loses any sense of gravitas she was holding for the mysterious timekeeper in a top hat, telling him he looks like a railroad villain and asking him what the hell he’s doing here. After a bit of a skirmish, he tells her that he’s protecting the Fixed Point. His speed was stripped and this is all he can do to help, he’s looped in this day.

I won’t lie, I’m a little nervous about how much they’ve been playing up Nate as Sara’s right hand man. If Sara ends up pulling some kind of Last Centurion shit and has to protect this Fixed Point indefinitely I will be FURIOUS.

Sara tells Thawne why she’s here to change the timeline, and how she doesn’t actually want to change it all, she just wants to keep her family safe. (:sob:) So he says he can give them 40 minutes. 40 minutes to make it look like Ferdinand wasn’t assassinated, enough time to bait the RoboLegends and unplug Evil Gideon.

The only catch is, if she killed Thawne, she has to be the one to take up his position protecting the Fixed Point indefinitely. Sara agrees and they shake on it. I really wish I could understand why CWDCTV writers seem to have a gross misunderstanding of their own characters and think we want to see people like Eobard Thawne, Damien Darhk, and Lex Luthor over and over again and even sometimes try to redeem them, and yet got rid of characters like Nora Darhk.

Anyway, the team gets into position, Gideon dipping Gary for a kiss first, and gets ready for what will be their final chance. They run outside and the False Waverider descends, right on cue. Sara says, “This time, there’s no do over,” like a badass video game character and they prepare for the BBEG to land.

Does it stress me out that it looks like we’re entering a boss battle when there are still three episodes left? Yes, yes it does.

In next week’s episode, directed by Jes Macallan, the Legends face off against the RoboLegends, in what I’m sure will be a hilarious tête-à-tête, and hopefully there will be less sneak-attack feelings, because a girl can only survive so much.

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