With Rory and Ava at odds, Sara tries to come up with a way for them to get along, but all is put on hold when a new magical creature attacks the Legends. Constantine is forced to confront his tragic past but it could have devastating consequences for the rest of the team. Mona has a crush on someone she works with and gets some advice from Nate.
In 2018, it has become very difficult to keep up with every television show out there. It's even more difficult to provide adequate coverage on this site about the episodes that air every week. Not every show can get full coverage because of my busy and hectic viewing schedule. As such, some reviews will now be condensed to give only some summary thoughts. But it also affords a space for me to jot down my thoughts on the various episodes. And so, here are my thoughts on this week's episode of The CW's Legends of Tomorrow.
"Hell No, Dolly!" was written by Grainne Godfree & Morgan Faust and directed by April Mullen
More time is spent on fleshing out John Constantine's backstory as it pertains to the current story this season. That is a welcome development because the show has actually been slow in teasing the overarching villain that the Legends are facing this time around. Sure, there is the looming threat from Hank Heyward regarding Project Hades. That is seen a little bit more here as well. But the season premiere established that one of the magical fugitives released from Hell was a threat that was targeting Constantine for a reason. He was terrified and that's why he teamed up with the Legends in the first place. He doesn't want to be on the Waverider. He's not committed to the various missions-of-the-week. He doesn't change his signature outfit no matter which time period he appears in. And now, the show reveals a tragic story of him being in love with a man but cursing him to Hell because of a tragic deal made with the demon Neron. The way that Constantine talks about that creature makes it seem as if that is the threat that the Legends will be facing in the grand scheme of things this year. That's exciting but that demon doesn't make his grand entrance here. Instead, Constantine's story is all about him going back in time with Charlie in the hopes of preventing him from ever meeting Desmond and thus falling onto the path that leads him to the Legends. It's Constantine being very dismissive of the rules of time travel. He doesn't care about his potential impact on the timeline. He just wants to fix the immediate problem that ensures that his corner of the world remains safe as he currently sees it. He hates that his relationship with Desmond appears to be fated into happening. And yet, he does seem to find a way to break time as evidenced by the close of this episode. That's a chilling visual and one that immediately presents importance onto Charlie. Sure, it's strange and bizarre why everything is frozen while Zari has been turned into a cat. Charlie has her shapeshifting powers back though. As such, that could potentially come in handy when it comes to fixing what Constantine clearly broke. He has warned the Legends about the dangers of magic. They always come with consequences. And now, the newcomers are seeing just how devastating the consequences of time travel can be. Of course, that's only one aspect of this hour as well. The rest is a little all over the place with the show needing to pay service to a number of characters and ongoing stories. It appears that Mona will be the entry point for Project Hades. She has fallen in love with one of the magical creatures. It tries to protect her when the clandestine agents come to experiment on him. And yet, she still gets hurt in the process. That too may be something that is erased because of whatever is happening in the time stream because of Constantine. Meanwhile, the Legends visit 19th century New Orleans in order to hunt a serial killing demon that possesses dolls. That affords the show a number of really creepy visuals that play into another subgenre of horror films. It even means Sara can reference them in the hopes that the team can understand the damage possible by such a creature. Of course, it's very amusing that it takes over the doll of Martin Stein. That's unexpected but really delightful as well. But again, this is a conflict that mostly hits the pause button because of Constantine. It's a threat that will continue at some point. Right now, it's just important to get that freeze frame image of everyone in mid-fight unable to actually follow through on their intended actions.
