This week on Legends of Tomorrow, Constantine headed to Spain, 1939, with Spooner to find the Fountain of Imperium, which was also being searched for by Franco and Hitler’s agent, Capitan Noriega (Leo Rano). Meanwhile, on the Waverider, the rest of the gang had to contend with a rapidly growing Gus-Gus, and Rory’s Necrian egg infection.
1. VAMPIRES
OK, so The Flash and Supergirl technically beat Legends to the punch when it came to introducing “real” vampires to the Arrowverse, but it’s still amazing it took this long for them to show up. This episode introduced Melissa Farman as Noelle, a bloodsucking banker who Aleister Crowley gave his map to the Fountain to, in exchange for blood potions that briefly boosted his abilities. That dangerous magic, which presumably requires a hapless victim or two, is the kind no one should be dabbling in, and sadly its use is an addiction Constantine succumbs to by the end (more on that later.)
2. Baby Blues
Mick reaches a new low, basically telling Lita he doesn’t care if the eggs Kayla impregnated him with will explode and kill him when they hatch: he explains he feels guilty that he left her on Bishop’s planet, and that this must be his just desserts for (ahem) deserting her. Lita worries the reason she didn’t hear from her dad until 2023 is because something disastrous happened, and feigns going into labor so he’ll charge ahead into the medbay, while helping the other Legends force Gus-Gus into a time corridor. It was a neat way to write out the (now not so little) critter, while progressing the father and daughter’s story — now let’s hope Lita’s intervention will be enough to help her dad out of his dangerous mood.
3. An Unspoken Story
This episode, which was primarily a Constantine and Spooner two-hander, saw them learn a boy named Fernando (played by Ricardo Ortiz, but voiced by Hector Meneu Hueso) had drank from the Fountain after fleeing into a cave during a bombing. He gained the ability to heal people, causing his uncle, the Republican freedom fighter El Gato (Alexander Soto) to develop an invincible reputation.
Core to the episode is how Fernando cannot speak, but Spooner can telepathically communicate with him because of their alien connection: it’s a neat nod to the many disabled saints in Catholicism, and plays a vital part in how Spooner outwits Noriega (this is why you always need a second opinion.) After being persuaded to give up his powers, Fernando reunites with his uncle, and calls him tio (uncle): I’m guessing the Fountain’s magic, or the trauma of the bombing, were meant to be why he was mute.
4. Creepy and Trippy
After the Fountain rejects Constantine’s attempt to transfer its power from Fernando to him, he’s forced to drink the blood potion to fight off the Francoists, which leads to an incredibly bizarre sequence, and not one that’s hilariously strange the way Legends usually is: we get what sounds like a muffled techno remix of the lullaby Spooner sang, to disorientating, lurching camera angles of Constantine slaughtering the fascists, before pulling Noriega towards him and squeezing his heart. If this was week one of his potion abuse, I can only imagine how wild the next time he uses them is going to be.
5. Two Faces of Constantine
Constantine — and presumably the writers too — have been living with this fear that Zari has tamed him, neutering someone who was once a wild, complex, and dangerous magician. This episode emphasizes Constantine’s noble qualities, as well as his self-serving ones, especially with his wonderful speech about how being “normal” sucks, which makes it even more heartbreaking when he decides he’s going to keep using Noelle’s potions, and casts a spell on Spooner to make her forget. Can you imagine how angry and violated she’s going to feel when (it’s not a matter of if) that enchantment wears off? Bloody hell John.
Bonus Thoughts:
– There were lots of great shout outs to the previous seasons, from Noriega mentioning the Spear of Destiny and Loom of Fate as other occult relics of interest to the Nazis, to Fernando bringing up the JSA to Spooner (at first I thought it was a Stargirl reference, until I cast my mind all the way back to season two.)
Continued below– The Tarazi siblings “activating” their powers was a pretty obvious Wonder Twins parody, but it still made me chuckle. On that note, it’s always great seeing Zari 1.0 outside the Air Totem again, and her observation that Spooner has her former grumpy “new girl on the ship vibes” was spot on.
– Constantine’s descriptions of the fighting during the Spanish Civil War are supposed to come from his grandfather, but many aspects — like the use of olive oil to grease guns, or the lice — are really derived from George Orwell’s memoir Homage to Catalonia.
– To be honest, El Gato’s cover story involving a donkey isn’t that absurd if you’ve seen Doom Patrol.
– If you told me this show would lead to Constantine being disguised as an Italian priest…
– When do you think Lita is going to tell Rory that trans men can get pregnant?
See you all next month for “The Final Frame,” which, thanks to the Olympics, won’t air until August 8 — if we only we had the Waverider, or a time corridor.
