written by Kate Danvers

SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT

But soft! What fight through yonder window breaks? It is Juliet, and damn, son! That thou, her maid, kicks far more ass than she.

Okay, I’ve been both looking forward to and dreading this episode. This week, we say goodbye to a Legend – one of the originals.

Ray is looking through mementos and belongings in his quarters. When Nora wakes up, he tells her he’s thinking about what Damien said. He wants to start their new lives together off of the Waverider…after one last mission with the team. They tell most of the other Legends, who are in the line for the bathroom while they’re all waiting for Zari to finish doing her hair. Ray clams up when he has to tell his “husband” (Nate) that he’s leaving the ship with his wife. Also the moment is kind of ruined by everyone standing around in their pajamas doing the pee-pee dance.

Mona is back on the ship for book club and she seeks Mick’s advice for what to do about Rebecca Silver’s troll. He dodges the subject. Ray discovers that Marie Antoinette is gone and the jars of Rasputin jam are empty. Sara brushes that off with Damien mentioning something about Astra recalling failed Encores to Hell. Did she tell Ray and Nora about Damien? Did she tell anyone?

Charlie briefs the others on one of the Loom pieces. It’s in London, 1594. Everyone (including Gideon) tries to prompt Ray to tell Nate he’s leaving, but Ray just can’t do it. Sara gives them a patented period-specific send-off in a terrible English accent.

SARA: “Enjoy the jolly old London, ya blokes!”

Charlie disguised the Loom pieces as rings, and she gave this one to a friend – who just so happens to be William Shakespeare. Ray, Nate, and Constantine try to intimidate the Bard when he’s reluctant to give up the ring, and I can’t tell if Maisie Williams is corpsing when they start slamming the table, or if Charlie is just really amused by the guys trying to act macho. Billy Shakes doesn’t have the ring, though – he gave it to his producer when writer’s block delayed his most recent play, “Romeo and Juliet.”

The producer enters the pub with some other men. Nate starts to come up with an elaborate plan to get the ring involving wire work, theft, diversions, and—-oh, Charlie just stole the ring from the producer while the boys were chatting. Not wanting the mission to be over so soon, Nate decides to turn it into Ray’s bachelor party, because missions that wrap up quickly on this show have never ever gone poorly because of a post-mission fuckup.

Zari joins Mona, Ava, Sara, and Nora for book club, which is more like “drink and chat about shit” club. She’s a little disturbed to find herself in the presence of a werewolf, a clone, an assassin, and a former dark sorceress. Zari dodges personal girl talk with the suggestion of throwing Nora a belated bachelorette party.

Yep, this is going to go horribly wrong.

Astra meets with the coin maker from a few episodes back who asks her what’s up with the whole revenge thing. Astra tells her about Constantine’s promise and how it could change her fate. The coin maker, who is like a surrogate mother to Astra, plants doubts in her mind and suggests finding out what Constantine is after so they can get it for themselves. She uses a weird-looking bird bath thing to let Astra spy on the bachelor party.

The boys get drunk and try to prompt Ray to tell Nate about moving out, but Mick tells everyone about his daughter instead. Constantine senses someone watching through mystical means and tries to find the source, bumping into someone else in the pub and starting a pub brawl.

Powers are used, Ray’s suit goes flying around the room on its own, and Shakespeare is taking notes. Oh nooooo. Also, Constantine uses a spell on whoever is watching and realizes too late that it’s Astra. She’s thrown across the room of the coin maker’s shop and knocked unconscious. The Legends realize Shakespeare has seen too much, so Nate tries to mind-wipe him, but he points the mind-wiper the wrong way and erases the memory of the brawl from himself and the other Legends.

Mission accomplished!

Back on the ship, the ladies are having a fun and safe-ish bachelorette party. Drinking, racing scooters, inviting a stripper. It’s all going so well until Nora notices that the book they were reading for their book club, “Romeo and Juliet,” has become “Romeo v Juliet: Dawn of Justness.” Frankly…that’s an upgrade if you ask me. I mean I roasted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but I liked it better than “Romeo and Juliet.” Mercutio has the ability to turn himself to steel in this one, which is kind of awesome. This scene is made better by everyone still being, uh…in party mode.

SARA: “We need to get out there and fix hiss-ory!”
NATE: “What’s that?”
SARA: “His-story. History–time! We gotta fix time.”
CHARLIE: “Une question, le Capitaine.”
SARA: “What?”
CHARLIE: “Are you sloshed?”
NATE: “Follow-up question: Why is there glitter on your face?”

I love this show and no, I am never going to stop saying that in these reviews.

Ray confesses to Sara that he doesn’t want to tell Nate because Nate is his best friend, and telling him makes it all real. He’s not sure about leaving, but Sara encourages him by likening the big life change he’s about to make to the one they all made when they first joined the crew. They hug and say their goodbyes.

Ray, Nate, and Zari return to London to stop the cast from rehearsing and confiscate the scripts. It’s so great seeing the Shakespeare version of Legends of Tomorrow. The actors even say “pew pew.” Nate breaks the news to the actors that their show has been replaced by Riverdale. HAH! Ray talks to Shakespeare, who’s planning a series of superhero plays and team-ups. The changes aren’t just about the superhero stuff; Shakespeare loves his characters and doesn’t want to say goodbye. Ray says the characters deserve a great ending. Endings are necessary, no matter how painful they may be. He shares his own feelings about his departure with Shakespeare, and the author is convinced to conclude his original play.

Unfortunately, Nate overheard Ray tell Shakespeare he’s leaving and he’s upset that Ray didn’t tell him. Gideon informs them that history still isn’t fixed, but rather than spending what time they have left together, Nate brushes Ray off and tells him to let the team handle it.

Shakespeare’s producer blames him for the stolen ring and has withdrawn his funding, so without a theater or actors, the play can’t go on. The Legends remedy this by putting on the play themselves with Gideon feeding them lines over the comms. Nate (playing Juliet) can’t finish his scene because of his feelings about Ray’s departure. Zari tells him to go say goodbye to his friend while he can, and she takes over the role of Juliet opposite Constantine’s Romeo.

Ray and Nora are all packed up and ready to go, so Ray says goodbye to Gideon, asking her to take care of the Legends for him. As he departs, Gideon’s hologram sheds a tear. Ray and Nora open a time courier portal to leave. When Nate gets back to the ship, he thinks he’s missed Ray, but Ray walks back in to say goodbye. The two share a tear-filled scene where they make up, say their goodbyes, say they love each other, and share one final hug.

Later, Sara offers to be there if Nate ever needs a bro hug. They hug, Sara accidentally hurts him, but Nate’s hopeful she’ll get better. Mick reads “King Lear” and is really into it. Mona tells him to talk to his daughter, but Mick says he’s protecting her, showing Mona the burns on his arms and saying “Nurturing fathers don’t run in my family.” Mona tells him she’s better off because she had Mick in her life and that Lita will be, too. Mick actually consents to a farewell hug before Mona leaves.

Astra wakes up, tended to by the coin maker. She tells the coin maker about the Loom of Fate. The coin maker is familiar with it, but asks Astra if she really trusts Constantine with that kind of power. Calling it now: Coin maker lady is one of the Fates.

Early the next morning, the remaining Legends gather around the table in the kitchen to drink a toast to Ray with the green health drink concoction of his…which has them all running for the bathroom, and that’s where we close the episode.

This is a good episode, but my feelings about what went into it are mixed. I hate to see Ray and Nora go because I think there was still lots of story potential for them, but this is a good ending for them. They’re both at a place where they can move on, and it’s a happy ending where neither of them had to be killed off by Nazis – and yes, I’m still salty about what happened to Professor Stein.

The mixed feelings come into play because I’ve read that it wasn’t the actors’ decision to leave the show, and Brandon Routh has said that leaving was hard on him. I know that an actor’s choice to leave doesn’t always line up perfectly with closures of character story arcs and the ends of contracts, but it still makes this bittersweet ending a little extra bitter.

Nora has been fantastic, and I love her redemption arc. It wasn’t played off as convenience for the character, she wasn’t redeemed solely by the love of one of the heroes, and she didn’t become an anti-hero where she’s still a bit bad. She set out to atone for her mistakes and be a better person. She worked for it and she’s going to continue working for it. She was dealt a really shitty hand by having a horrible father who put her in a cult, and she made her own mistakes along the way, but she chose who she wanted to be. I keep thinking about what she said a few episodes ago: “My upbringing was only dysfunction. But dysfunction doesn’t get to choose who you are. You do.” Between last season at the Time Bureau and this season as a Fairy Godmother, Nora decided who she is and who she wants to be. Personally, I think that made her pretty great. Go get your “happily ever after,” Sweary Godmother. You earned it.

Ray has had a long journey, starting on Arrow and ending here on Legends. It took me a little bit to warm up to him, especially with the first season’s obligatory CW romance, but he eventually grew into one of my favorite Arrowverse characters. I’m a sucker for the overly optimistic and hopeful characters. That sunny archetype has been used for characters like Superman and Supergirl in the past and it really worked for Ray. It gave Legends of Tomorrow something it needed in its band of misfits: heart. Ray was the ship’s morale officer in all but name, and though the other Legends rolled their eyes at things like his chore wheel or the jingles he came up with to remember certain codes, they all played along, even Mick. And his bromance with Nate was once of the deepest and most loving friendships I’ve seen between two men on television outside of J.D. and Turk from Scrubs. I call Ray a goober and a lovable dork out of respect, and I’m going to miss him.

Last but not least, massive credit to the writers of the show and especially the actors for bringing these two characters to life. Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford left their mark on the show, and it’s going to be hard to think about Legends of Tomorrow without thinking of them.

Next time: I can’t make sense of the next episode trailer at all, but I’ve got until April 7th to figure it out. See you then!

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Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays on the CW at 9 ET/8 CT. Kate claims to try to save her own timeline but generally just acts like a disaster lesbian on Twitter @WearyKatie.

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