We recap this week’s Arrowverse episodes: Legends of Tomorrow 3×16 “I, Ava,” Black Lightning 1×10 “Sins of the Father: The Book of Redemption,” and Arrow 6×16 “The Thanatos Guild.”
This week in the Arrowverse, Ava learns a shocking secret about who she is, Black Lightning’s identity is under threat and a sect of the League of Assassins comes for Thea.
‘Legends of Tomorrow’ 3×16 ‘I, Ava’
So, Ava’s a clone from the future with no memory of her origin, Kuasa is dead and Amaya has her totem back, and Zari and Mick bond after a failed totem training attempt. Oh, and Amaya is about to wreck time. Just another day at the office for the Legends.
Rip has gone to some pretty extreme lengths to hide Ava’s true identity as a clone from the future; besides deleting Ava’s personnel file, he hired actors to play her parents if she ever visited home and declared the time she came from a no-fly zone for the Time Bureau. And he’ll need to answer for his sketchiness now that Ava knows who she is and is having to struggle with that realization.
It’s a pretty serious existential crisis she has to work through, but I loved seeing her get more confident as she fought her clones. It should be interesting to find out exactly why Rip recruited her and has gone to such lengths to hide the truth.
I’d also just like to take a moment for some Gary appreciation. He is hilarious no matter who he is paired with, from Constantine to Sara.
We also have Kuasa’s arc coming full circle. Her loyalty to her family proves to be her purest motivation, as she shows up in this episode to protect a powerless Mari, manages to get Amaya’s totem back from Nora Darhk and ends up dying when she helps Amaya and Nate. Kuasa’s arc, when taken from start to finish, is quite fascinating and a bit tragic.
Hers was always going to be a story that pushed Amaya. Amaya has struggled with knowing her future yet having to go back if Mari is to become Vixen in the 21st century. But Kuasa’s desperation to stop the destruction of her people, to save her family, ends up pushing Amaya to finally use time travel to stop the massacre.
I imagine this will have several consequences. For one, this could set Mallus free. I also wonder, considering Amaya wishing she’d never come aboard the Waverider, if she might have her memories of the Legends wiped before she’s returned home to save the timeline. Her time on the ship has always been limited by her destiny, but the fact that this conversation comes after Ray uses the memory zapper on Gary felt significant.
Finally, we see Zari trying — and failing — to train Mick in the use of his totem while fasting for Ramadan. Mick has no interest in training, but Zari gets the upperhand on him after he calls her a bitch. (Women really don’t like that word, Mick.)
What really works about this story, though, is that the two reach a truce after they feel Kuasa’s death through their totems. Zari cooks the traditional meal for breaking fast, and she tells Mick about why she still adheres to the traditions. And Mick listens. For all that he acts angry or disinterested, he really does care about these people.
‘Black Lightning’ 1×10 ‘Sins of the Father: The Book of Redemption’
The more we’ve learned about the ASA — which, admittedly, still isn’t a lot — the shadier the organization has seemed. And it turns out they have their hooks even deeper in Freeland than we initially thought. After Anissa tracks down the pods Gambi told her about, she smartly goes to her father rather than try anything alone.
However, by the time the duo returns to the warehouse, the pods have been moved. But it’s proof that the ASA has been keeping the metahumans they created through the vaccine. But why? Do they intend to weaponize these kids?
But that’s not the only shady thing going on; Green Light is starting to create metahumans in the present day, and the ASA is taking those kids, too. Jefferson’s old friend Two-Bits sees one of these abductions and tells Jefferson because it looked like one of his students.
Two-Bits is hilarious — as is the scene where he and Black Lightning are talking in an alley and a woman keeps trying to drop appliances on Black Lightning because there is a price on his head. I mean, it’s not really funny that Tobias has turned the community on Black Lightning by framing him for murder, but the attitude of the woman and her interaction with Two-Bits had me cracking up.
Anyway, even more shadiness happens when the ASA kidnaps Gambi and tortures him to get him to reveal Black Lightning’s identity. Gambi, of course, is too much of a badass to give anything up, so the agents go after Jefferson (not knowing he’s Black Lightning). But when there is a power outage that allows Gambi to kill two agents and both men to escape, it becomes clear to the ASA that Jefferson’s Black Lightning.
The Pierces go into hiding, taking refuge in Jefferson’s childhood home.
The biggest twist, though? Mrs. Fowdy, the vice principal, is an ASA agent. She currently performs the function Gambi did before his defection. And she may have to turn on Jefferson.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s powers flare when she and Anissa get into an argument. Lynn runs some tests, and an MRI reveals that while Jennifer and Jefferson have similar powers, Jefferson channels electricity while Jennifer creates it.
And Lala is still seeing ghosts; this time, he sees Will. His lackeys aren’t sure about following him when he’s talking to nothing, but Lala’s brutality keeps them in line as he moves in on Tobias’ leadership of The 100.
‘Arrow’ 6×16 ‘The Thanatos Guild’
In Arrow‘s return from a brief hiatus, we got an episode that explored identity. Former members of the League of Assassins loyal to Malcolm Merlyn arrive in Star City looking for a map that they believed Thea, as his daughter, either had or could lead them to. Unfortunately, this arrival coincides with Thea trying to leave town with Roy and thus pushes their departure back.
Thea has complicated feelings about the legacy of Malcolm coming back to haunt her. She never loved Malcolm, but he died for her sake. He trained her to be strong when she felt weak, but he also took advantage of her — he made her kill Sara, after all. But he influenced the person she has become, so it’s hard to turn her back on this new development.
More than that, the episode contemplates how much responsibility a child should have for his or her parents’ sins. Oliver has been trying to atone for Robert Queen’s sins since returning from Lian Yu. Nyssa now travels the world attempting to make up for Ra’s al Ghul’s evil. How much of Malcolm’s legacy does Thea need to make up for, if any? Oliver and Nyssa disagree about this, but at the end of the day, this is all about Thea’s choice.
Once the map is decrypted and the immediate threat of the Thanatos Guild is gone (temporarily), Nyssa realizes the map leads to other Lazarus Pits besides the one she destroyed in Nanda Parbat. I vote we use one to bring back Earth-1 Laurel and then let her get on the Waverider with her sister, but Nyssa wants to destroy them instead. Whatever.
Thea, having realized that like Oliver, she feels like her best self when she is acting and doing good, decides to go along with Nyssa to destroy the remaining Lazarus Pits. It is both making up for Malcolm and doing good on its own merits. She has her own connection to the Lazarus Pit so knows firsthand the danger of their existence. And because Roy Harper is a keeper, he decides to go with Thea and Nyssa.
I’m just saying, I would watch a spin-off with the three of them traveling the world and hijinks ensue.
Meanwhile, Curtis and Dinah are trying to root out the cops who are on Ricardo Diaz’s payroll. In the process, they discover the new chief is corrupt and is helping Diaz sell Vertigo in Star City. Whomp whomp.