*Spoiler warning for Legends of Tomorrow season 4, episode 11.
Zari and Sanjay have a Bollywood musical number on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Photo courtesy of the CW, screenshot by Linda Maleh.
So, it seems Hank is officially dead. This episode picks up after Hank was killed by the demon inhabiting Desmond last episode. Unfortunately, Nate still thinks that Nora killed him, so she’s on the lamb. While at the wake, the Legends get a call from Mona and Charlie that history has changed, and Jane Austen never published any novels. Sara and Zari leave the wake early to join Charlie and Mona on the mission, one Mona is particularly excited about since Austen is her favorite author. Ray, after getting a message from Nora that she’s innocent goes off to secretly hide her on the ship. Constantine and Mick keep Nate company at the wake. Wow, remember when the Legends used to all go on missions together?
When Zari, Charlie, Mona, and Sara get to 18th century England to see what’s preventing Austen from publishing, they witness a very strange wedding where the bride and groom each announce they’re in love with other people, and then everyone at the wedding starts jumping those they’re not supposed to be with. Love is in the air? Or at least lust is anyway.
When they go to talk to Austen to investigate, she tells them her cynical views on love and marriage, disappointing Mona. The Legends discover there have been many more incidents of the entire town going sex crazy, and after talking to some townspeople, find out that it’s the work of a handsome coachman who arrived with Lord Reynolds a few weeks before. Zari, who split off from the group to go talk to the coachman, realizes halfway through her encounter that he’s the magical being they’ve been looking for, and captures him. He tells them that he’s the Hindu sex god Kamadeva (Sachin Bhatt).
Even after they imprison Kamadeva on the ship, history still has Austen not having published any novels. That night, Kamadeva releases his love/lust powder on to the ship, which gives everyone sex dreams, including Ray and Nora, who are awkwardly holed up in Ray’s room. Mona is so upset about her dream about Konane (her dead Kaupe lover) that she hulks out and runs off to confront Austen. The magic also infects Zari, who realizes from her dream that she’s attracted to both Nate and Kamadeva. She goes to confront Kamadeva, who convinces her to let loose for once, and they both inhale the powder, go to town on each other, and then they have a Bollywood musical number, and decide to get married.
Mona, over by Jane Austen’s house, confronts Austen about her cynicism, while still in beast form. Austen remains remarkably calm through all this, and says that due to the latest sex craze, no one wants to publish her books. She recognizes Mona from earlier, and says that she does believe in only marrying for love, which is why she left the one guy she almost married. Mona turns back to her normal self, and with her renewed faith in Austen, convinces her to not give up on getting published. It’s unclear why Austen doesn’t question Mona’s beast form, or Mona telling Austen that she’s her favorite author, before it’s even happened, buy okay.
Mona gets back to Zari just in time to stop her from marrying Kamadeva, who’s real name is actually Sanjay, and has been using the powers of the sex god for the past 1,000 years through the magical relic he found, which is where the lust powder comes from. Broken free of his spell, Zari refuses Sanjay, especially after he tells her he already has 1,000 wives.
Meanwhile, over by the wake Constantine realizes that Hank’s spirit is lingering, and tell Nate that Hank must have something he needs to tell them. Nate, however, refuses to do the seance because he’s still mad at his dad for experimenting on the creatures. Constantine finally does the seance himself, and finds out that it was actually Desmond/the demon that killed Hank. Nate finds a video message from his dad that says that Hank was trying to create a magical creature amusement park, as Nate dreamed of when he was a kid. He then forgives his father, and realizes his father wasn’t as bad as he thought (although I think that using magical creatures for your own amusement purposes is not so much better).
This episode was not as good as the last couple of weeks. For one thing, it wasn’t clear what the real consequences on history were without Austen. Without stakes, the episode seems a little toothless. The Legends have saved various artists before, but they’ve always made it much more clear how much history was changed without that person. Also, this show is usually great at blending genres, but 18th century England mixed with Bollywood is too much of a clash. At least Constantine is finally clear on the threat facing them, and next week’s episode looks interesting as Sara ventures into Ava’s version of hell, where she seems to be trapped.
