NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Legends of Tomorrow” are present in this review
As much as it’s a bummer that Legends of Tomorrow is skipping The CW’s traditional DC TV crossover this year, we nonetheless got a spiritual crossover within the show’s own canon this week, after Constantine defied the laws of history by altering the fixed moment in time when he got together with Dez. The result is a series of broken timelines that Constantine and Charlie are constantly trying to fix, alongside Zari, who has been transformed into a cat. This is a crazy idea with a ton of potential, and, “Legends of To-Meow-Meow” definitely doesn’t disappoint in terms of its humour and its heart, making it not only a fantastic midseason finale for Legends of Tomorrow, but also one of this season’s best episodes to date!
The episode starts out funny, and only gets funnier, as Charlie discovers that she’s regained her shapeshifting powers, before shortly after discovering that Zari has been transformed into an adorable kitty. After going to the Time Bureau to investigate, Charlie then discovers that Constantine is in confinement there, having grown increasingly unstable after struggling with a set of memories that are built on two separate timelines. Charlie manages to break Constantine out, with some help from Mona and Ava, after Constantine humourously turns Zari back to normal, only to make her a cat again soon afterward, when she doesn’t go along with Constantine’s and Charlie’s plan to fix the timeline. The main issue with Constantine revising history specifically comes from Ray, Nate and Mick working as lethal Fugitive hunters called the, “Custodians of the Chronology”, which the Legends’ men re-branded themselves as, after Sara is killed by the unicorn at Woodstock. One hysterical 80’s action movie parody later, and Charlie has the Jump Ship blast the unicorn immediately back in the 60’s, allegedly fixing the timeline.
Except Zari is still a cat, and all that Charlie accomplished by destroying the unicorn off the bat is changing history so that Ray, Nate and Mick are killed by the Fairy Godmother at Salem instead, which leads to Sara and Ava (and a manifestation of Gideon made flesh, somehow), forming an equally lethal Fugitive-hunting team called S.O.S., or the ‘Sirens of Space-Time’. The episode really starts kicking into high gear here, as a humourous montage starts unfolding, wherein Charlie and Constantine keep trying to fix history, only to lead to new people being killed, and history constantly being altered for the worst. The highlight moment is when Mick keeps the Journal of Brigid in one new timeline, and uses it to turn Sara, Ray, Zari and Nate into humourous, kid-friendly puppets, after making a crack about them all being the, “Puppets of the Time Bureau.” It’s insane, it’s hilarious, and somehow, the storytelling just keeps getting better!
Not only is this series of false timelines a very funny device to keep leaning ever further into this show’s crazy sense of humour with every botched attempt to change history, but it also leads into another surprisingly effective ‘rite of passage’ episode, which starts to fully cement Constantine’s and Charlie’s place on the team. This midseason finale thus feels like something of a spiritual follow-up to, “Here I Go Again” with Zari from last season, which paved the way for entire eccentric story devices that spotlight an individual new Legend, and give them a believable motivation to find their place among the Legends’ ensemble. Throughout all of the history shifts, we get a great picture of just how indispensable Constantine has become to the Legends, since it’s often his magical intervention that prevents the untimely deaths of the team members, which always seems to lead to the Legends re-branding for the worst, and getting exceptionally lethal in their Fugitive hunt.
Another great curveball is had later on as well, when it’s revealed that, while Constantine is necessary to keep everyone alive, it’s actually Charlie that serves as the real catalyst behind the Legends not immediately destroying any magical creature that they come across, on top of Charlie being the true necessary lynchpin to uphold the integrity of the timeline. The team’s meeting with Charlie, and Charlie losing her powers from Constantine’s dampening spell, is what motivates the Legends and the Time Bureau to not just kill Fugitives on sight, which is another common problem throughout the aborted timelines. This very smartly highlights what makes Constantine and Charlie essential on the current Legends roster, while also forcing both of them to confront their newfound responsibilities to history. This revelation is very effectively bittersweet for both characters, since, like Zari, they have to confront their self-serving agenda, and start opening their mind to find the motivation to serve the greater good of time.
This profound realization comes together in an exceptionally fun and tense climax as well, when Charlie is forced to unmask herself in front of Sara in the divergent timeline that is finally settled upon, only to see that Sara has no issue killing her, since they never met, after the team’s former London mission was erased. The fact that Charlie can apparently heal any injury as a shapeshifter, allowing her to easily bypass even grievous, life-threatening wounds that she sustains in trying to appeal to the Legends, feels a little bit like a cop-out initially, but it does also lead to an effective new dimension of Charlie having to learn to embrace being both de-powered and mortal; She’s giving up her incredible ability to be impervious to any harm, as well as resigning herself to aging. Despite the struggle of accepting this, Charlie still manages to stall with Sara just long enough so that Constantine can fix history and make up with Dez, before using a Time Bureau memory flasher, and making Dez forget the whole break-up attempt, which restores history to its rightful timeline.
Things then conveniently end with the Dybbuk from last week immediately being captured, and Constantine and Charlie both completing their rite of passage with history. There’s one last great tease after this however, when it’s revealed that Neron is already walking on Earth, disguised in Dez’s form as Hank’s superior for Project Hades! This was an awesome turn, since it confirms that Neron has an agenda with the Fugitives’ capture, and is using Hank’s authority to round up magical creatures! Truth be told, there’s really nothing to complain about with, “Legends of To-Meow-Meow”, which is an excellent midseason finale for Legends of Tomorrow in pretty much every respect! This episode was not only a hilarious and memorable sequence of historical wreckage, but one that also cemented both Constantine’s and Charlie’s place among the Legends, while also perfectly leading into their next major obstacle. This is why it really hurts that Legends of Tomorrow is now taking an especially lengthy midseason break, with the show not returning until some point in April, resulting in Black Lightning moving into Legends of Tomorrow’s Monday night timeslot for the remainder of its sophomore season instead. Even with a whole four months between now and the next new episode of Legends of Tomorrow however, at least the show closed out its 2018 run on a spectacular high note, and it didn’t even need to participate in The CW’s crossover event to do it!