We recap this week’s Arrowverse episodes: Legends of Tomorrow 3×10 “Daddy Darhkest” and Black Lightning 1×05 “And Then the Devil Brought the Plague: The Book of Green Light.”
This week in the Arrowverse, John Constantine boards the Waverider to find out why a demon knows Sara’s name, and Jefferson learns that Tobias is alive as Anissa digs into her grandfather’s death.
‘Legends of Tomorrow’ 3×10 ‘Daddy Darhkest’
Legends of Tomorrow is back in a big way with John Constantine’s visit to the Waverider. We open with Constantine’s hilarious introduction to the Legends as Mick mistakes Constantine for Rip and Constantine flirts with Leo. Mick is overwhelmed so spends the rest of the episode watching football because he hasn’t gotten to watch a live game in three years.
Constantine is there because he tried to exorcise Mallus, who used Sara’s name. Sara convinces Constantine to let the Legends come along for the exorcism. Another plot twist? The girl being exorcised is Nora Darhk. I love this twist. I should have seen it coming with the title “Daddy Darhkest,” but I was surprised. One can only hope that adult Nora will remember the kindness the Legends showed her as a child.
Mallus is also more powerful than Constantine was expecting and sends Sara, Constantine and Leo back to 1969. There, Sara feels the effects of Mallus’ presence, and Constantine has to help calm her down. Meanwhile, Leo is nearly lobotomized by Nurse Ratched and Sara and Constantine hook up. Because of course they do.
Thank you, Legends, for remembering that both Sara and Constantine are bisexual. Constantine flirts with everyone and Sara and Ava have crushes on each other, but Sara and Constantine hook up. It’s beautiful.
Sara eventually convinces Constantine to summon Mallus into her so she can redo the spell that sent them back in time. As Sara is possessed, she runs into Nora, trapped by Mallus, and convinces her to be strong. Then she finishes the spell and takes her friends home.
Before he leaves, Constantine tells Ray that Sara will eventually succumb to the darkness of Mallus’ possession. Ray needs to have the magic gun he and Zari have been working on ready, because they will need to use it on their captain. Uh oh.
Constantine also leaves the door open for his return, because Mallus comments on Zari’s totem; Zari’s touch burns him, and he calls her one of the six. Amaya only knows of five totems, though, so Constantine promises to look into it. I love the idea of having him pop in and out a few times every season because he brings such a fun dynamic to the show.
Meanwhile, Kuasa appears to protect Nora, but Nate captures her by using Leo’s gun to freeze her. This leads to Amaya and Kuasa conversing. Kuasa reveals she feels abandoned by her family and that she’s made deals with the Darhks and Mallus to save Amaya and their village.
This does some great work humanizing Kuasa by fleshing out her motivations and further personalizing her connection to Amaya. Interestingly, Amaya tells her that she needs Nate alive; could that mean Nate is her grandfather? That would be a twist.
The episode closes with Leo departing for Earth-X; he’s going to ask his Ray to marry him — time for a new adventure. The line is a bit meta since it was Wentworth Miller’s choice to move on, but I hope he returns sometime in the future.
‘Black Lightning’ 1×05 ‘And Then the Devil Brought the Plague: The Book of Green Light’
Coming out of retirement to be a hero is no easy feat, as Jefferson learns. Trying out his new hover feature (which, by the way, gives some great shots of the Atlanta skyline), Jefferson starts suffering debilitating headaches that interfere with his daily life, both in and out of the suit.
When he collapses in Gambi’s shop, Gambi calls in Lynn, who runs tests but can’t find anything physically wrong with Jefferson. Both Lynn and Gambi try to convince Jefferson to take some time off, but Jefferson has learned that Tobias is still alive because one of his cronies, Joey Toledo, is selling green light in Freeland. Nothing is going to stop him from going after the man who killed his father.
I remain fascinated by the relationship between Jefferson and Lynn; their dynamic is built on a lot of history, knowledge and intimacy. The love is clearly still there between them, but the lifestyle of a superhero is not conducive to raising a family.
I can’t blame Lynn for not wanting to watch the man she loves and the father of her children put himself in such obvious danger night in and night out. She wants him there both for her and their children. But despite her frustration, her love for him keeps her in his life, including when medical tests are needed.
Jefferson’s confrontation with Joey doesn’t go well because he’s wracked with another headache. It brings him to his knees, and Joey gets the upperhand. He’s left beaten in an alley, seemingly with his powers malfunctioning.
Meanwhile, Jennifer and Anissa definitely take after their father. Jennifer is confronted at a skating rink by Khalil’s ex and a friend. Jennifer doesn’t back down, so the girls attack her. Jennifer fights them off and breaks one of their wrists. She doesn’t tell her parents, which gets her grounded when her victim’s family visits the Pierces. Lynn defuses the situation and grounds Jennifer while Jefferson is impressed at Jennifer’s skills. Oh, Jeff.
Anissa, for her part, is doing research when she runs into a video talking about some Freeland kids with abilities going missing and her grandfather having looked into them. His stories were killed, however, and we know he was killed, so Anissa’s attention is piqued.
Anissa tracks down her grandfather’s editor, who doesn’t want to talk to her, but her tenacity convinces him to give her a box of her grandfather’s papers that he’d held onto for all these years. In these papers, Anissa finds a key for a storage facility, so she buys a superhero outfit then heads over in her new duds. In the storage unit, she finds papers and a safe; in the safe is a vial with a mysterious substance.
Anissa’s is probably my favorite story on the show right now, and I can’t wait to see where this storyline with there being a whole group of metahuman children who went missing in Freeland goes.
Meanwhile, Tori convinces Tobias that he needs to face his very first enemy: their father. She tracks the abusive monster down, and the siblings confront him. Tobias breaks his father’s back, leaving him to die a slow, painful death. Tobias remains a fascinating character, and it’s clear from the fact that we’re learning about his background that he’s meant to be much more than a simple antagonist. He’s cruel and nasty but human.