Legends of Tomorrow Mortal Khanbat Television 

Five Thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow‘s “Mortal Khanbat”

By | February 26th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

This week on Legends of Tomorrow, the gang discovered Genghis Khan plotting to kidnap Prince Charles during the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. (To quote Ava, “an authoritarian power wants to control Hong Kong? Sounds familiar.”) Meanwhile, Ray accompanied Constantine and Gary back to the exorcist’s house to help him find a magical cure for the advanced lung cancer Astra had inflicted on him.

1. Stealing From the Best

This episode marked the directorial debut of our very own Captain Lance, Caity Lotz, which is why Sara doesn’t come back from Star City until the end of the episode: suffice to say, she did a great job on this, handling the John Woo parodies, and the more subtle character moments, with perfect aplomb. (I could tell Behrad and Charlie had a thing from how awkwardly intimate the close-ups in their first conversation were – more on that later.) The Woo homages, from the excessive slow-mo to the tense shots encircling characters, were on point, as was the shot of the dove flying past Genghis Khan when he enters the triad’s tea shop, which – trust me – isn’t far off from how blatantly Woo uses them in his films.

2. I Understood That Reference

John Woo homages weren’t the only neat thing this week: we got Behrad homaging The Matrix, that other great tribute to Hong Kong action movies (a homage to a homage? Homageception), when he discovered he could stop bullets, and Nate pulling the predictable and cheesy but still hysterical reference to that line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (you know the one). What threw me most this week was when Yeung, the henchman Charlie impersonates, sees her disguised as him, and screams “Gwailou!” The captions translate it as “ghost,” which is accurate, but trust me, that’s not what it really means! It’s amazing.

Also, do you Americans want to know why Constantine’s bulldog-shaped cane talks, and why he brings up meeting Churchill’s ghost? It’s a reference to Churchill Insurance, a British company whose mascot is a talking bulldog – I know right, who is writing this? I feel like this show is being written solely for me at this point!

3. So Charlie and Behrad Banged

Yeah, apparently they did it in-between seasons, and it was “mediocre.” I just had to cackle at the running joke, from Nate catching on as quickly as I did, to Ava somehow not getting it even after he explained they went to “pound town,” “moan zone,” and “smash city,” when even the mighty Genghis Khan susses it out after capturing the two. (Totally uncool of him wanting to have her executed after he found out by the way.) The funniest part had to be when Behrad and Nate were doing the stake out, and Nate cheered up his bro by telling him there’d be plenty of other women into him, by explaining he’d date a female version of him… which instantly made Behrad realize Nate was into his sister.

So is anyone not paired up on the Waverider now? Mona’s presumably still single, but I’m not sure she’s coming back now (Hong Kong would’ve made perfect sense for her to come back). Ray confesses to Constantine he wants to propose to Nora, and even Mick’s still got his thing with Ali now. Oh, speaking of Mick, he’s assigned to guard Prince Charles when Charlie (geddit?) trades places with him in the escort – truly this show never ceases to surprise me.

4. Constantine’s Endgame

Constantine’s been a strange fit for this show from day one given it’s a comedy and “Hellblazer” isn’t, but this episode revealed a potential endgame to his presence on the show that’ll mean it’ll have truly made sense, beyond him being a source of supernatural expertise: he could use the Waverider to make sure Astra never went to Hell in the first place. He hints at the possibility to her while communing with her, pleading that he could undo everything so he never damns her and her parents don’t die, a possibility that eventually causes her to relent and turn back his terminal disease (for now). I loved Constantine’s suggestion that Astra isn’t evil, but so institutionalized by her time in Hell that she can’t imagine anything better. It’s a desperate gambit, but possibly the only thing that can fix that.

Continued below

5. Prince Clotho

After acting as Prince Charlie’s decoy, our Charlie comes clean about her past to the Legends, revealing she didn’t leave because of Behrad, but because (deep breath), she was one of the Fates, specifically Clotho, and she destroyed the Loom of Fate as she decided everyone deserved free will. She scattered the pieces of the loom across the multiverse, but after “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” each piece is now on our Earth, and now her sisters want to come back. First, I was not aware the Fates had names. Secondly, how cool is it (other than Helen of Troy) that we have a character from Greek mythology on the show? Because of its connection to Wonder Woman and Aquaman, I’ve always felt pagan gods were a gold mine of potential stories waiting to be looted by the show – perhaps they’re opening the gate slightly for this season, and then they’ll go wild with it next year? It’s an exciting idea to say the least! (Imagine Mick drinking with Dionysus?!)

Bonus thoughts:

– Even when dying of cancer, Constantine still isn’t allowed to smoke by the Legends.

– The Prognosticator is a terrible name, Scoots McGoots is even worse.

– I like how Ray, Nora and Gary first enlist a girl named Pippa, and then a Puca to cure John’s cancer. (Pippa, Puca, say it five times really fast.)

– Ray’s such a lovely, selfless person that I’m surprised he didn’t raise the subject of doing the ritual that would require his circumcision to save Constantine’s life again.

– It’s so rude of Nate to start calling Charlie and her sisters old, even if he does have a thing for older women like Amaya and Ray’s mom.

Well on that note, I leave you all until the next episode – which is in two weeks, darn Super Tuesday. (Vote anyway!)


//TAGS | Legends of Tomorrow

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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