Ava meets Ava…and Ava….and Ava…
In this episode, we return to somewhat lighter fare as the Legends recover from last week’s death totem adventures. Sara still needs time to process her break-up with Ava, but she’s pulled by Gary into a search for her missing ex. Meanwhile, Amaya’s future granddaughter is injured in a fire and she sends Nate and Wally to check on her. Of course, it’s not that simple.
Between the two storylines, the funniest moments are found in the search for Ava, while still leaving room for some emotional beats. Sara and Ray team up with Gary to find Ava. They stop by her parents’ place, which seems too good to be true. And after some mild threatening by Sara, Ava’s “parents” reveal that they’re only actors. For the last four years, they’ve been playing the role of Ava’s parents, keeping up the charade every time she comes home to visit.
Ava shows up at the Time Bureau, supposedly fine, but Sara and Ray don’t buy it. Whatever the deal is, it has to do with her first mission in 2213. The three steal the mothership and travel then, arriving to find a world inhabited with multiple clones of Ava Sharpe. Or as her acronym says, Advanced Variant Automation.
Sara thinks that her Ava has been keeping this a secret all this time. But, given that Ava passes out as soon as she arrives and gets a look at the clones, it’s news to her as well! Ava feels shattered that her whole life has been a fake. But Sara convinces her that she’s different from her clones. Then there’s a big fight scene where Sara and Ava take on a dozen clones. It’s a great moment for both Ava and Sara to move past their break-up, though they sadly aren’t back together yet. Gary offers consistent entertainment value too.
In more serious affairs, Amaya’s missing totem is starting to have ripple effects in the timeline. Her granddaughter, Mari (aka Vixen), is burned trying to rescue people from a fire since the totem isn’t passed down to her from Amaya. When Nate and Wally go to check on her, they run into Kuasa. She reveals that even though she clashes with Mari, she still wants to protect her sister. She agrees to team up with Nate and Wally to get Amaya’s missing totem back from Nora Darhk, protecting her sister’s timeline in the process.
This goes about as well as you’d expect. Wally goes to keep an eye on Amaya and Kuasa betrays Nate to the Darhks. Since Nate and Amaya are in love, that would also warp the timeline and make sure neither Mari or Kuasa ever exist. Once they show up, Damien goes to torture Nate to find out the location of the totems. But his heart’s just not in it, as he’s starting to regret working with Mallus, given his gradual takeover of his daughter. So, in a wonderful segment they fake Damien torturing Nate, while he works out his father-daughter issues. Again, Neal McDonough is having the time of his life milking these comedic moments for all their worth.
Nora isn’t fooled though. With the power of Mallus, she takes down not only her dad, but Wally and Amaya too. Kuasa returns and frees Nate, proving herself to Amaya, but is then brutally killed by Nora, who steals the water totem. This death scene comes minutes after Amaya lashed out at her for betraying Nate. It’s still a question if Kuasa had a genuine change of heart or just wanted to prove herself worthy to her grandmother.
Either way, the loss proves to be too much for Amaya. She gets in the jump ship and orders Gideon to take her to 1992, the year her village is massacred by soldiers. This looks like the start of Vixenpoint. She should take a lesson from Barry Allen. Don’t mess with the timeline!
Show Notes:
- Where are Zari and Mick during all these shenanigans? Training! …kind-of. Amaya assigns Zari, who’s fasting for Ramadan, to show Mick how to properly use his totem. As expected, it doesn’t go well, until Mick pisses Zari off enough that she just kicks his ass with her totem powers. Then they have a nice bonding dinner afterwards. It’s a good character moment for them both.
- Gary on Sara and Ava: “No, you can’t break up! I was shipping you so hard!”
- When Ray asks why Ava’s fake parents would agree to the acting gig, fake mom says “Do you know how hard it is to get an acting gig in Fresno?”
- Ray: “This is the second-worst Attack of the Clones I’ve seen.” Favorite line of the episode.