Legends of Tomorrow S3 Ep. 3 ‘Zari’ Review
A new diverse cast member/character joins the team. A time-traveling assassin is out to kill and collect an important artifact. A vision quest goes wrong for one of the Legends. These are just a couple of elements that make this the best episode of the season thus far. With a perfect blend of comedy, action, and drama, with the Legends actually being competent.
Spoilers ahead
The year is 2042 and the organization ARGUS is running the country, hunting down metahumans. They have the well-known thief, hacker, and overall criminal, Zari Adrianna Tomaz, a Muslim superhero with very close ties to Shazam and Black Adam in the comics. She’s being hunted by a woman with the power to turn into water. While it may seem like a stupid at first, (my mind went to the Wonder Twins) this assassin is extremely dangerous and even more determined.
The Legends mission is to stop the assassin and save Zari, which ends up as a success even with ARGUS agents trying to kill them, but the real foil for the team is still the Time Bureau, specifically Agent Sharpe. I hate Sharpe as a character, but she is a great addition to the series adding something we haven’t seen much of in Legends, a good antagonist.
The comedy, which is the main staple of the show, was the best it’s ever been. Last episode we were introduced to Gary, a funny but incompetent time bureau agent, who’s very much a coward on the field. Mick is always a delight, especially since he might start to develop a crush with Zari later in the season. However, it’s the fun Prison Break reference that gets a good laugh, since actor Dominic Purcell (Mick Rory) was one of the leads of the show. However, the scene stealer of the episode was Nate. Amaya and Nate are growing closer again and he wants to help Amaya connect with her Totem so he plans that they both go on a vision quest together, but things don’t go as planned for Nate. Instead, we see him walk around the ship spewing nonsense, trying his best to help the team as he see’s and feels everything and nothing.
Meanwhile, Amaya actually goes on her vision quest and is connected to her past lives and is told to “trust it.” She learns to accept and trust the totem and with it, she unlocks a new way to use her powers as she battles with the time-traveling assassin. After the assassins defeat, she teases Amaya that in some way, they are connected, as well is Zari.
It seems that the Amaya and Zari’s totems will be a key plot point for the episodes to come. Zari is a nice addition but I think the true test of the character is how well she is around the Legends for the rest of the season and whether or not she mixes well with the team.
For a sci-fi series about time traveling, each season they always deal with mysticism, so it’s a little odd that Prof. Stein still doesn’t believe in the power of the totem, so that was rather jarring. Jax was just there, he didn’t really offer much help. Ray on the other hand also might develop a nice relationship with Zari, but only time will tell.
One can assume that the villain this season is one connected to mysticism. My guess would be a villain connected to Shazam that isn’t Black Adam. It might be too early to say, but I think the series is beginning to find its stride this season or at the very least I hope they have. Overall, it was a very solid episode and I’m genuinely excited for next week.
Episode Four of Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesday, October 31 at 9:00pm EST on the CW.
