Love and friendship are two of the strongest emotions in the universe. Through the years we have seen the Legends all engaged in these emotions, in one way or another. Sometimes it ends well, and other times it ends badly. For Zari, these two emotions are finally coming to a head, in terms of how she feels about Nate. “Seance and Sensibility” is very much a Zari-heavy episode of Legends, as thanks to a hindu God of love and a little song and dance, her feelings are becoming clearer and clearer….as well as some other people’s feelings of love.
KAMADERA AND JANE AUSTEN
When the Nate/Zari pairing first started being hinted a few episodes ago, I really didn’t know how to feel about it. It almost felt like it came out of nowhere, to be honest. However, the truth is that Nate and Zari have really good chemistry! The subtle little glances and moments have added a sense of something other than friendship to them. Cute moments like Zari fixing Nate’s tie are from the shipping 101 playbook. Another page taken from that playbook is later, when Zari tries to downplay it to Sara, Mona and Charlie during their mission.
The mission: Get Jane Austen writing again in 1802 England. After seeing Jane at a wedding (which has the bride getting together with her scullery maid, and the groom with the bride’s mom), the team find out all the lust is due to a new stranger in town. That stranger being the Hindu God of Love — Kamadera.
Zari captures Kama fairly easily, because he’s a God of love, not fighting and off to the Waverider we go. There, Kama ends up giving each of the Legends some sexual dreams: Sara’s is about Ava obviously, Charlie’s ends up being about David Bowie, more on Ray’s in a little bit, Mona’s is about Konane and Zari dreams of Kama AND Nate as well.
Being confronted with her feelings in the dream is not something Zari is a fan of, and she kind of takes it out on a still hurting Mona, when she talks about how what Mona had with Konane didn’t last long enough to be love. Mona’s hot temper takes this the wrong way (and to be fair, it was a lousy thing to say) and she goes to confront Jane Austen in her Wolfie persona.
Mona blames her pain on Jane, but Jane is able to calm Mona and get her to revert back to herself. They have a chat about love and writing, and both are back on the paths they need to be in their lives: Jane – legendary romance author. Mona – believer in everything romance.
While this goes on, Zari talks with Kama again, and decides to finally let go. To let love into her life. To be impulsive and free. Nothing’s wrong with any of that. Except when you take some ashes (basically drugs) from Kama, which lead to a Bollywood-like song and dance sequence.
It’s a great sequence and showcases that Legends of Tomorrow can do these wild and wacky things, because underneath all that is a show that is full of heart and soul. Legends isn’t afraid to take chances, and it’s able to mix moments like this with moments like Mona and Zari singing about still taking chances on love.
Mona convinces Zari not to marry Kama in a drug-induced state, and I hope it’s the beginning of a friendship between the two. All the females being supportive of one another on the Waverider is a beautiful thing to see.
So what’s next for Zari? My hope is that Zari decides to take a chance to see if her and Nate are for real or just a passing infatuation. We know that Nate would like to try, and now I think Zari is willing to do the same.
RAY AND NORA
Some light-hearted moments in “Seance and Sensibility’’ came from Ray and Nora, as Nora is still in hiding from the Time Bureau and the only place to hide is in the Waverider.
If you are unaware, the actors that play Ray Palmer and Nora Darhk are married in real-life (Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford) and the show plays up their chemistry for everything in this episode. First we get Ray trying to resist Nora when she calls for help, only to be there for her within seconds. Been there, done that, so I can’t blame Ray for that. Nora tells Ray that she’s hiding on the Waverider and Ray’s big plan is to hide her in his room.
This probably isn’t the smartest play Ray could make, but it does give a ton of tropy goodness that only Whiskey Cavalier could top:
- The “Turn you back while your crush’’ changes trope
- The “Share a bed with your crush” trope
- The gentle touching of fingers trope
- The erotic song and dance trope
Ray and Nora’s flirting has been a cute part of recent episodes, but now I’m ready for it to happen. Let it be official, and let Nora continue onto her path of redemption and believing in herself.
LEGENDARY THOUGHTS
- The B-story is Hank’s funeral and Hank’s ghost trying to contact Nate to tell him the truth. The truth being that Hank was capturing the magical creatures for a theme park called Heywood. Okay, that’s kind of lame. Also Hank tells Constantine that the demon he was working with is called Neron. Neron then taunts John about all his failures and failures to come. Decent stuff, but very overshadowed by Zari’s storyline.
- “MONA, WAIT!!” has become Sara’s new catchphrase
- “What are pretend girlfriends for?” Oh Zari, it might not be pretend for very much longer.
- It was nice to see all the Legends consoling Nate about his father’s death. Nate and Ray telling each other “I love you” was a nice and lovely moment between two best friends.
- The amount of effort that went into that 3-4 minute dance/song sequence probably took weeks, so the fact that everyone nailed it so well is a testament to everyone on the cast, crew and choreography.
Legends of Tomorrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on the CW.