DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 5 episode 8 review: Bye bye, Behrad

Charlie and Constantine race against Atropos for another piece of the loom, Ava tries to help Mick smooth things over with his daughter, and Zari comes face-to-face with her alternate self in Legends of Tomorrow’s”Zari, Not Zari.”

After an impromptu break, the Legends are back in full force, with a strong, action-packed episode of Legends of Tomorrow that leans away from time-traveling hijinks and focuses more on what really makes the show great: the characters. “Zari, Not Zari” saw the classic three-pronged setup we’ve grown used to by now, but unlike some previous episodes, every plot worked in its own way, and the three stories combined worked as a cohesive unit.

This week’s ‘A’ team consisted of Charlie, Constantine, and Sara as they continued their search for pieces of the loom of fate after it was revealed that Charlie herself is one of the three fates. Charlie (who used to be known as the fate Clotho) betrayed her sisters and destroyed the loom, scattering its pieces. Now, her older sister Atropos is back to bring Charlie home, reassemble the loom, and kill anybody in her path.

The episode opens with a little bit of a throwback: we see Charlie’s ex-band members from “The Smell” killed by her sister Atropos in her rage for the loom. Although it’s a shame we couldn’t have spent more time with them (they were fun guest stars in season four) it was still a nice nod to Charlie’s past.

In the present, or rather, in the timestream, Constantine has convinced Charlie to take him to the location, so with Sara, they head out to a forest where, coincidentally, Supernatural is being filmed. It’s a cute gag, but the inclusion makes us wonder why the show didn’t go for a straight-up crossover. It feels as if we were teased for something better than what we actually got.

Nonetheless, Charlie locates the piece of the loom, but not before her sister appears and attempts to kill Constantine and Sara. Both survive —  Constantine with some apothecary magic, and Sara by an unknown force (which we’re guessing is related to her time in the Lazarus pit). Although all three survive, they can’t stop Atropos from taking the piece of the loom (in the shape of a ring), and heading off in search of the next piece, which happens to be on the Waverider.

Also on the Waverider is the episode’s ‘B’ team: Behrad and Zari. Zari 2.0 has been having more and more visions of her alternate self, and is growing insecure about this other version of her, and how well loved she was by the team. Worried about her own abilities in comparison to the original Zari’s ass-kicking attitude, Zari begins to question her own role on the team, and Behrad suggests that she takes a drug-fueled trip into the totem to gain some confidence by speaking with previous totem bearers.

It reminds us quite a bit of the ancestral plane from Black Panther, but instead of being greeted by all of her relatives, Zari meets … you guessed it … original Zari. We’re not quite sure how she ended up in the totem after being erased from existence, but we’re not questioning it. We’re just glad that Zari is back.

The two Zari’s have a heart-to-heart, where the original Zari learns that, in this reality, her family is alive. She asks that next time Zari 2.0 decides to go into the totem, she brings Behrad with her, and Zari agrees. After an emotional talk, Zari 2.0 leaves with some newfound confidence but awakens from her trance to find her brother’s dead body.

While Zari was tripping, Atropos broke into the Waverider and stole the piece of the loom the Legends were holding onto – Behrad let her do so, in exchange for sparing Zari’s life. However, when Behrad tried to fight Atropos, she clipped his life string, and he died instantly. To make matters even worse, while Zari is mourning the death of her brother, the Legends begin fading all around her a-la Thanos’s snap (this episode is just chock full of Marvel references), and the only one left on the Waverider besides her is Constantine.

Through tears, she orders him to help her bring Behrad back — and the duo set off to an unknown fate. It’s an incredibly dark way to end an episode for a show that’s normally very humorous, but Tala Ashe’s emotional performance as both Zaris anchors the whole thing and makes the ending incredibly believable and painful.

There’s also a ‘C’ plot involving Ava’s attempt to help Mick reconnect with his daughter — and while it’s solid (and gives Dominic Purcell something to do, finally) it’s not nearly as interesting as the other two stories unfolding.

However, the story with Charlie and her sisters, combined with Tala Ashe and Shayan Sobhian’s stellar performances as the Tarazi siblings, this family-centric episode of Legends of Tomorrow is an emotional one that doesn’t need to rely on gimmicks or hijinks to keep us hooked ’till the last second.

What did you think of Zari meeting Zari on Legends of Tomorrow? Is Behrad really dead? Where did all the other Legends go? Sound off in the comments below.