S05.E05: Mortal Khanbat

[scarynikki12]

Quote

With Sara still away from the Waverider, the Legends find a new Encore with Ava's new invention, the Prognosticator, and must now try to defeat Genghis Khan in 1990s Hong Kong.

 

 

[scarynikki12]

Nice direction Caity Lotz! 

Only Genghis Khan would walk straight up to the Triad and inform them he’s taking over. 

Oh good, Bro Nate showed up tonight. Said no one ever. 

I loved Charlie's Hong Kong Angels. Wish we could have kept them. 

So Charlie and Behrad were the Zari and Nate of the new timeline except with two awesome characters instead of one. They did the heart eyes well so I’m on board. 

That one Triad guy assuming Charlie is a ghost when she wore his face was not a bad theory. She should use it going forward. 

Con had a rough episode. He sure looked like About To Die Of End Stage Lung Cancer. He’s right about Ray being the Arrowverse Captain America though. 

Con agreeing he’s enjoy shoving the cane up his ass earned a giggle. 

As did the image of Genghis Khan and his Triad army riding scooters.

Prince Charles hanging out with Mick during his beer break to avoid Genghis Khan. Of course. Charles enjoys a drink Mick so grab him one and get yourself a new BFF! 

Badass Charlie taking down Khan with his own sword! That’s what I’m talking about! And she’s one of the Moirai???? ::puts on Classis Major hat:: TELL ME MORE AND DOES THIS MEAN WE’RE GOING TO MEET ATROPOS AND LACHESIS????

Con singing Scarborough Fair and starting to get through to Astra. Smart man. 

Thank god Sara’s finally back. 

[teenj12]

A surprisingly enjoyable episode as I've been so-so on this season so far. The Constantine stuff still doesn't intrigue me, but now that all the threads are coming together, I think I can get into the larger threat at play.

Speaking of, a nice character based episode for Charlie, and I didn't hate the Behrad reveal, so that's a plus too.

Really nice direction for Caity as well, she should go behind the screen more often! I feel like the pieces flowed better tonight, and they remembered that this is a superhero/action show what with the actually interesting battle scenes tonight, including the awesome moment of Behrad airbending the bullets in place.

Looking forward to next week.

Edited February 26, 2020 by teenj12

[Alice Mudgarden]

As someone who loved Constantine's own show, I really appreciate Legends incorporating the Astra storyline into their show, especially being able to have it move more or less in sync with the rest of what's going on. I never would have thought there'd be any continuation of anything related to Constantine in any fashion, and it makes me so happy to have this.

From the jump, Legends has been great at taking characters that originated somewhere else and giving them more depth and attention, and I think that the work they've done with John is one of the best examples of that. It's exceeded what I wished for when he first popped up in S4 of Arrow and I began hoping they'd use John more regularly in the future.

Other than that, I'm basically a broken record. I just love this show so, so much.

[Lantern7]

Um, guys? I think Caity Lotz might like Hong Kong-based actions films. I think she likes those a little too much.

The cheese is packed on this week, as we find out Genghis Khan isn't as chill a dude as he was portrayed in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I was wondering why he appeared in 1997. Turns out it took 700 years to escape his grave. Anyway, we get full-on HK action, Genghis adapting Nate's love of motor scooters in an attempt to kill Prince Charles and take over Hong Kong. BTW, what was the date that Hong Kong changed hands from England to China? I'm just wondering about the potential irony of two royals getting killed in vehicles.

Since the Legends manage to screw up time from time to time before Crisis, we learn she and Behrad (I still have to look up his name because I don't want to type "Zari's Bro" and be done with it) were an item. Nice bit of retcon. Charlie revealing herself as one of the Fates, and that the formation of Earth-Prime pained a bigger target for her sisters to kill her? Impressive plot twist, and it ties into John's arc.

While I'm still not compelled to look for episodes of Constantine online, I will say that the bastard has grown on me. He wins up getting a stay of execution, but it doesn't look like he's going to run out on Astra. Also, we get some bonding with Ray and Gary, the latter still being written as a giant pain in the ass. He's manageable . . . for now, anyway.

45 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

Oh good, Bro Nate showed up tonight. Said no one ever. 

For me, he manages to continue being a dope (vital since Ray was away), and he indirectly taught Ava a lesson: on the Waverider, BRANDING IS EVERYTHING. Who doesn't laugh at the team fawning over "Scoots McGoots," while Ava is all, "Hello? I built a detection system to make our job easier!"?

[Nogoodnamesleft]

Yes a Charlie story and her and Behrad surprisingly works for me

Speaking of Behrad him and Zari make a great brother sister duo and I hope they both stay

Not the biggest Nate fan but him riding in all steeled up on a scooter did amuse 

Hong Kong angels(stealing this from scarynikki12) should maybe pop at later date I would not mind at all

Ray can even make John's story interesting for me... we are in a evil house let's make a roast and cannot believe him and Nora are leaving what the heck are they thinking, I want to see the wedding..Mick throwing his bachelor party and imagine the bachelorette party the girls could throw Nora the damage they could do to the timeline.

[Jediknight]

Methinks that Caity Lotz is a John Woo fan.  Just a hunch I have after watching this episode.

I was disappointed that there was no Bill and Ted reference.  Come on, you have an episode with Bob Genghis Khan, and no reference to Oshman's Sporting Goods or Twinkies?  Make your free throws.

Nate and the scooter, oh my goodness.  Only Legends can get away with Genghis Khan trying to take over 1997 Hong Kong and having a fleet of motorized scooters.

Gary got another kiss from Constantine.  Still a fan of Garystine.

Ray, propose to Nora, and let Gary be the flower boy.

[shantown]

I surprisingly don’t hate the idea of Behrad and Charlie. Also liking Charlie and Zari 2.0 meeting (and flirting?), Zari and Ava’s weird friendship, Constantine and Ray’s weird friendship, and Ray and Nora. Legends always does so well with building realistic connections between different characters. While I can appreciate the wackiness of the plots on this show, it could easily veer into annoying territory without the meaningful character relationships grounding it.

I thought Caity did a good job directing and that in general everyone seemed to bring their A game to this episode. Will be happy to have Caity back in front of the camera next episode!

I could have done with a lot less Bro!Nate though, and more Mick. 

Edited February 26, 2020 by shantown
spelling

[owenthurman]

5 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Um, guys? I think Caity Lotz might like Hong Kong-based actions films. I think she likes those a little too much.

It isn't possible to like HK action movies too much. They're the pinnacle of cinema.

I almost died when I saw that slow-mo dove fly past behind Genghis Khan, a hilarious hat tip to John Woo; but it saddened me to see Ava (who has zero charisma) doing the double-gunning of the effortlessly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat.

I was hoping we'd get rid of Constantine this week, but no such luck.

[thuganomics85]

An episode that is all about leading up to a scene where Genghis Khan leads a Triad army on scooters to kidnap Prince Charles.  Yep, that is why I'll always love the Legends! 

In general, I really enjoyed how this "Encore" ended up in an era way after his initial time due to not being able to get out of his casket so easily (imagine that would have to be an issue for some), and seeing how he adapted to everything.  Credit where credit is due, Genghis is a maniacal tyrant, but he'd probably be the best suited to adapting to a situation and finding ways to make it work.  Great seeing Terry Chen in the role: he's one of those actors I see in a lot of stuff (Continuum, The Expanse, Jessica Jones), and he's always a delight.

Interesting that Behrad never used this wind powers to their fullest extent until now.  And that he and Charlie had a thing going as well.

So, Charlie is actually a Fae, and her sisters are after her due to her destroying a loom that controls destiny?  Hmm...

Delighted that Marie Antoinette is still stuck on the Waverider!

Easy week for Dominic Purcell.

Wish we had more of Zari, but I certainly won't complain about Tala Ashe rocking a midriff!

Figured Constantine was going to find some way to delay the inevitable, but even if he does bring back Astrid's mom, I suspect she won't be through with him.  Also not surprised he tried to push all of his support away, but it's a good thing that Ray is loyal to a fault and Gary is... well, Gary.

Admittedly, I'm going to be bias since I think she's generally the best, but I thought Caity Lotz did a great job directing this one.  Especially all of the John Woo-like sequences!

[UNOSEZ]

If Charlie is this cosmic being.. Shouldn't she know that the multiverse isnt destroyed... Or when Ollie and the crew merged everything into one place.. Did he put up some barrier to shield this universe from the greater multiverse?... Or are there shields up between all of them now..... The combined showrunners if they haven't already need to get together and codify some set in stone rules so going forward we all know what the deal is... 

I enjoyed the epi.. Agrees that Ava doing the chow yun fat double gun felt dead.. But Behrad going mini avatar was cool... In this timeline does Nate remember he loved Amaya... Or did that not happen.. Lotto questions need answering

[darkestboy]

Strongest episode of the season so far.

Charlie's backstory, I love it. I really do and the pairing with her and Behrad actually works too. I think he's improving a bit as a character.

At least we know that it's Charlie's sisters that are after her. I guess we'll be seeing them soon enough.

Constantine went through the gamut here, didn't he? Not surprised that he found a way to trick Astra into prolonging his life.

While I did appreciate the snog with Constantine/Gary, the writers seriously need to tone the latter down. Gary was too OTT in this episode at times,

Ava had some good gun skills but Nate having a scooter seemed more impressive to everyone else than her organising getting Encores.

Nice use of Genghis Khan, loved the scene with the scooters too. I also laughed at Marie Antoinette still being on board the Waverider as well.

Ray wanting to marry Nora is adorable. I want those two to make it and I do hate that we're losing them as characters.

Zari had some good moments but Mick and Sara had little to do. At least with the latter it was down to Caity Lotz directing and she did a great job here, 8/10

[MarkHB]

The fact that Genghis Khan was so badass that he spent 700 years digging himself out of his tomb (the precise location of which is lost... only his burial party knew where it was) by hand is amazing, as was his turning the Triad guys into a scooter-riding Mongol Horde. Plus, he had an actual plan: take control of Hong Kong and use that as the starting point to rebuild his empire.

Plus, we got actual superpowers!  Charlie shape-shifted!  Behrad used his totem! Nate Steeled up! Ray... made a roast in the kitchen of the House of Mystery.

Caity's direction was solid. I'm sure it was a learning experience for her in terms of "you have 8 days and X dollars, get it done", but she wanted an action-heavy episode and she got one.

[kirinan]

11 hours ago, Alice Mudgarden said:

As someone who loved Constantine's own show, I really appreciate Legends incorporating the Astra storyline into their show, especially being able to have it move more or less in sync with the rest of what's going on. I never would have thought there'd be any continuation of anything related to Constantine in any fashion, and it makes me so happy to have this.

From the jump, Legends has been great at taking characters that originated somewhere else and giving them more depth and attention, and I think that the work they've done with John is one of the best examples of that.

My husband, a Constantine fan, had to explain to me who/what he was when I heard Constantine was coming to LoT. And when he did, I was not looking forward to the addition since witchcraft, demons, and spells are just not my thing.

But I have to say, the way the show has worked in the character has won me over (not to mention Kevin Ryan's portrayal). In fact, last night I told Mr. kirinan that to my complete surprise, I'm now way more invested in Constantine's story than anyone else's (except Zari's. Always love Zari).

ETA: Too bad they're going to squander my appreciation for bringing on a character I grew to like by soon getting rid of a character I adore (and another one I really like). As someone who's still bitter over losing Snart, this one will sting for a long time and make me resent the show again, I fear.

Edited February 26, 2020 by kirinan

[questionfear]

2 hours ago, UNOSEZ said:

If Charlie is this cosmic being.. Shouldn't she know that the multiverse isnt destroyed... Or when Ollie and the crew merged everything into one place.. Did he put up some barrier to shield this universe from the greater multiverse?... Or are there shields up between all of them now..... The combined showrunners if they haven't already need to get together and codify some set in stone rules so going forward we all know what the deal is... 

I enjoyed the epi.. Agrees that Ava doing the chow yun fat double gun felt dead.. But Behrad going mini avatar was cool... In this timeline does Nate remember he loved Amaya... Or did that not happen.. Lotto questions need answering

There's still a difference between the old multiverse and the new one. The new one is implied to have less universes and the access between them is different (based on what was said on The Flash, IIRC). 

Plus we don't know how the split up loom pieces work. If they want to be closer together, which is possible for magical cosmic loom bits, then when the multiverse recombined the pieces might have all been drawn to Earth Prime. There's a lot of ways to handwave how the reconstituted sort-of multiverse led to the loom pieces being in the same universe. 

[Sakura12]

That was some great action directing from Caity. I did love the homage to HK action movies. Although seeing Caity behind the scenes with guns makes me wish it was her instead of Ava. Because that felt kind of lifeless instead of being epic. JM does not have the charisma CL has. 

Genghis Khan taking 700 years to get out of his tomb, I kind of wanted the encores to be out of their time to make it more interesting. So I'm glad we had one. They better keep his sword this time instead of wasting the gun like John did. I don't mind Constantine, I like seeing him with the other Legends. Him and Ray were good. Gary I could do without. 

So we have the Paragon of Destiny and one of the 3 Fates, I hope Charlie and Sara can share some screen time. You know if she can pry herself away from her only storyline of being Ava's love interest. 

[JonasArm]

7 hours ago, darkestboy said:

At least we know that it's Charlie's sisters that are after her. I guess we'll be seeing them soon enough.

I'm completly new to the universe and discovering it's mythology... so I'm wondering, isn't last week's coin maker a Fate sister?

[Starfish35]

9 minutes ago, JonasArm said:

I'm completly new to the universe and discovering it's mythology... so I'm wondering, isn't last week's coin maker a Fate sister?

Oh interesting thought.  I’ve never known much about the Fates, but reading up on them just now...maybe she is Lachesis?

[Writing Wrongs]

18 hours ago, Jediknight said:

Methinks that Caity Lotz is a John Woo fan

I laughed when the white dove slo-moed behind Genghis.

It bugged me that Prince Charles' aide addressed him as "Your Majesty".

[Starfish35]

4 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

It bugged me that Prince Charles' aide addressed him as "Your Majesty".

Oh good I wasn’t the only one . 😄

[Sakura12]

1 hour ago, JonasArm said:

I'm completly new to the universe and discovering it's mythology... so I'm wondering, isn't last week's coin maker a Fate sister?

They should make her Lachesis to tie all the storylines together. 

[Jediknight]

12 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Also not surprised he tried to push all of his support away, but it's a good thing that Ray is loyal to a fault and Gary is... well, Gary.

He may find him annoying at times, but I think Constatine does care about Gary.  So Gary not leaving his side, is good for Constantine.  He hugged Ray when he came back to life, but full on kissed Gary on the lips, and was gonna leave Gary his house.  As weird as it sounds, Gary is somebody that can get through to Constantine.

Edited February 26, 2020 by Jediknight

[BaggythePanther]

On 2/25/2020 at 11:00 PM, shantown said:

I surprisingly don’t hate the idea of Behrad and Charlie. Also liking Charlie and Zari 2.0 meeting (and flirting?)

Oh good, so I’m not the only one who saw that. People were shipping Zari/Charlie last season, so now the writers have Behrad/Charlie be a thing. They’re wrong for that. But I think it works. I’m still loving Behrad as an addition to this team and his sibling dynamic with Zari is great and different than what we’ve seen before.

 Since this is Caity’s first time directing I didn’t expect that there would be so much action but it was really great. And it wasn’t fancy, but I particularly loved the final showdown where Behrad stopped the bullets while Charlie took care of Kahn.

I’d forgotten that Ray had been engaged twice. I’m surprised the writers were willing to acknowledge a plot point from the first season.

Zari assuming QB meant Queen Bee was great and I hope it comes up again.

ETA: This is just a personal nitpick, but I hate that whenever they go to the 90s they don’t bother to bother to dress in period appropriate clothes. People in the 90s did not dress the way we do today. The guys  would get weird looks for wearing such slim fitting jeans.

Edited February 27, 2020 by BaggythePanther
Added a thought

[MissLucas]

I loved the dove and all the nods to Hong Kong cinema - but sadly not much else. Not sure why but I'm not feeling this season. Well, except for Marie Antoinette (channeling the Queen of Hearts). I wish they could keep her around but that's not going to happen.

[bettername2come]

As always, this show is on crack. I missed Sara this episode, but Caity Lotz did a great job. Behrad continues to be a likable character and the scene of him stopping the bullets was cool. Did Zari ever do that? I think this is an interesting way to go with Charlie's character, but I still don't like her as much as Amaya.  I laughed at Ghengis Khan figuring out Behrad and Charlie had sex. Prince Charles on the Waverider seeming way too calm about shapeshifters while being babysat by Mick was funny. Constantine talking to a bulldog cane made me like him more.

It's always nice to see the characters with powers actually using them so glad they all made good use of them this ep.

[shantown]

Yeah, in this episode we had Charlie shapeshifting, Nate going steel, and Behrad's air totem power. If Ray had used the ATOM suit I think we would have hit all the powers! (I don't count Mick's fire gun)

[owenthurman]

Just remembered that I also loved the shoutout to The Wrath of Khan!

[Goldmoon]

For "Kahhhhnnnn!" I genuinely laughed like a demented person. These stories are too disjointed. For those who care Constantine, both the live action and the animated series, are on the free CW Seed app.

[Cthulhudrew]

Why is it that every female character on this show has to be romantically connected to another character, but the male characters quite often don't have to have any such ties? (Mick, John, Martin, Wally, Jax, Snart, etc...)

[TV Anonymous]

Why did Prince Charles wear Lieutenant ranks of the U.S. Navy?

[tennisgurl]

This crossover between LoT and The Crown is kind of weird...

That was a fun episode, Caity did a good job directing, you can really see how excited she was to direct some John Woo style action scenes. I saw that dove Caity, I saw that dove! Genghis Khan in the 90s restarting his empire after digging himself out of his tomb and taking over the Triad and using scooters as attack vehicles is very much peak LoT. Wacky, but still a credible threat. We even got to see people use their powers, Nate steeling out with his scooter, Charlie doing a lot of shape shifting, Behrad used his air totem is a pretty badass way, its wild! I am glad that Sara is back on screen though, I miss her! 

The Charlie backstory is really interesting, and the classical mythology geek in me is seriously geeking out (The Moirai!) at getting to see some of the lesser pop culture famous characters pop up! Its also a decent way to use Crisis in a way to advance the plot, with the multiverse coming together. I was also very skeptical about her and Behrad, but I thought they worked pretty well together. I am also really liking Zari and Behrad as a brother sister team, and Zaris happy smile when Ava told everyone to get to the bridge (including you Zari) was really sweet. I do wonder how things will go when Zari gets her memories back. Will she have both of her memories? It will be some serious whiplash to suddenly get memorizes where her whole family was dead, despite her brother being right there now. 

Constantine really got put through the ringer, but I liked his scenes with Gary and Ray a lot, even admitting that he did like them and appreciate them trying to help. Yeah he tried to sneak out of it when he got his life back, but we all know the truth! Gary can be a LOT, but I like him as a foil to Constantine, they kind of balance each other out. Ray is just the best and most awesome person ever, awesome friend and cook extraordinaire of course, and I cant wait for him to propose to Nora! I also really liked the references to Rays two past engagements and how badly they went, we so rarely get references to Rays time on Arrow. Plus, angry magic bulldog cane! 

[legaleagle53]

On 2/25/2020 at 9:01 PM, Jediknight said:

Gary got another kiss from Constantine.  Still a fan of Garystine.

I get the distinct impression that Gary is still in love with John, which is why he had Nora turn him into John's apprentice.

Edited March 1, 2020 by legaleagle53

[benteen]

Prince Charles on the eve of the Hong Kong handover and Genghis Khan on a scooter...this show has an amazing ability to throw the weirdest stuff on the wall and somehow make it stick.

Really fun episode.  Khan turned out to be an entertaining encore, which is always appreciated.

I was tired of Constantine's neverending Astra storyline last season but I have to say it worked really well here and I liked his interaction with Ray and Gary a lot here.  This should be good going forward.

Really liked the information we got about Charlie's past and her and Behard work.

Should have figured that was Charlie as Prince Charles because that the the tinniest and most unimpressive motorcade I've ever seen.  I also seem to recall the Hong Kong handover happened on a rainy day.

[legaleagle53]

On 3/12/2020 at 5:36 AM, benteen said:

I was tired of Constantine's neverending Astra storyline last season but I have to say it worked really well here and I liked his interaction with Ray and Gary a lot here.  This should be good going forward.

I've been binge-watching Constantine on the CW Seed app, and it really gives me a lot of insight as to why Constantine is the way he is. And yes, the very first episode of that show dealt directly with Astra and what happened between her and John and why she hates him so much and why he's obsessed with undoing what he did to her. I'd recommend it to anyone who, like me, can't get enough of John Constantine (oh, and by the way? Matt Ryan really CAN act)!

Edited March 14, 2020 by legaleagle53