Legends of Tomorrow – Tagumo Attacks!!!

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Thanksgiving is a time to…give thanks. For the Legends, Thanksgiving is also a time to save your Warlock friend from certain death, a time to travel back in time to Tokyo to defeat a tentacled monster and a time to accompany your colleague to dinner for your first authentic family experience. The Legends start with Constantine (Matt Ryan). Sara (Caity Lotz) and Ray (Brandon Routh) utilize Gideon’s (Amy Louise Pemberton) time-scanning abilities to find Nora Darhk (Courtney Ford) – the only one who can save Constantine’s life. Zari (Tala Ashe) enters Mick’s (Dominic Purcell) room to bring him to the team meeting and discovers that he’s honing his writing skills once again. Charlie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) drains the last of Sara’s whiskey, and at last, the meeting can begin. While Ray tracks down his fair lady of darkness, the other Legends and their fugitive shape-shifter plan to travel to Tokyo to condemn the monster to hell.

At the Time Bureau, Ava (Jes Macallan) and Nate (Nick Zano) guide Hank (Thomas F. Wilson) through HQ and introduce him to some of the cryptids they’ve captured. Their current process involves sedating the monsters and housing them in an enclosed space. Hank approves of the process, so long as they use some funding to make improvements and invites Ava to Thanksgiving dinner. Nate fears for Ava, but she jumps at the chance to engage with a real family. The gang disbands for their individual missions. In present day 2018, Ray finds Nora hiding in plain sight at a Renaissance festival. He immediately takes to defending the young witch’s honor against a skeevy patron. Elsewhere, Nate introduces Ava to his entire family. Gary (Adam Tsekhman), at the Time Bureau, calls upon Mona (Ramona Young) to bring him provisions. He invites her to join him for dinner and while he works his charms on the delivery girl, the creatures awaken from their forced slumber.

The Legends’ quest for the giant monster takes them to the set of Ishiro Honda’s (Erijiro Ozaki) latest film. When Zari and Mick speak to Ishiro, he denies spotting a creature and writes the incident off as a whale sighting. The footage that he’d filmed is somewhere else on set so Sara and Charlie search for it while Zari and Mick distract the timid director. It doesn’t take Charlie too long to find the film and they take it back to the Waverider for digitization and viewing. The film confirms that there is, in fact, a creature afoot beneath the waters of Tokyo. Sara resolves to capture and dispose of the creature, but Charlie has other plans. Charlie accuses the Legends, especially Zari, of the team’s seek and destroy methods – though she is but one of many voices.

The Legends decide to shrink the creature down to size in order to manage its destruction. As they scan the docks for the creature, they watch Ishiro throw a journal into the water. Mystically, the journal hurls itself out of the depths and back into Ishiro’s arms. Charlie grabs the leather-bound book with a sense of foreboding recognition. Charlie tells the group that the book is an agent of a Celtic goddess called Brigid and has the ability to turn the object of one’s imagination into reality. Ishiro reveals that the book came to him and filled him with the inspiration needed to create Taguma – the name of the giant beast. The only problem is…in Ishiro’s story Tagumo destroys Tokyo. Sara encourages the creator to try and recreate the ending, but the book won’t accept his pen strokes. The book was designed to help artists express themselves and so it will not accept un-inspired creation.

Ishiro confides in Sara and Charlie, expressing his guilt over creating such a horrible creature. His art was born from desperation, a means of coping with his own trauma, and Sara recognizes that need within him. Charlie watches on as Sara assures Ishiro that he is not evil for using art to manage…and that might just be enough to get Charlie fully on their side. Across the timeline, Ray has managed to bring Nora back to the Waverider to survey the damage done to Constantine. His magical injuries are extensive and advanced magic is the only way to restore his lifeforce. Constantine knew the extent of his injuries long ago but failed to disclose that information to the team. If Nora saves Constantine, she risks activating the evil that hides within her genes – or so she thinks. Ray and Nora have a brief exchange of encouragement and he devises a plan that will allow Nora to transfer energy to Constantine without having to harm anyone else.

Gary’s dinner with Mona is cut short when he spots a Chupacabra running through the halls. He does his best to get Mona to safety before he calls in Nate for reinforcements. Ava and Nate decide that Nate will go, and Ava will distract the family in his absence. Mona stumbles out of the room Gary had been hiding her in and begins correctly identifying the creatures. Mona, Nate and Gary watch as the creatures stuff their faces with everything that they can get their paws on and that’s when it hits Nate – they’re hungry. Mona strays away to get food to placate the creatures. The trouble amplifies though when Hank realizes that Nate is gone – forcing Ava to tell him the truth about what’s happening at the Bureau.

The Legends deployed in Tokyo struggle to find a way to use Brigid’s book to create an ending that will save Tokyo. They do not know of any painters or artists, but Zari does. The totem-bearer tries to hint at Mick’s passion for writing as a means of defeating Tagumo. Mick says he can’t write anymore, but Zari knows better. Before Zari can convince Mick to use his passion for good, Tagumo infiltrates the sewer system and executes an attack on the movie set. The Legends divide up to conquer more efficiently, with Sara and Charlie being the first to come face to face with the oversized octopus. Tagumo manages to capture Sara and constrict her with one of his tentacles. Charlie distracts the beast long enough for it to let Sara go and they work together to use their Shrink-Ray on it. The beam works, but Tagumo manages to evade them once again.

Nora and Ray return to Constantine’s bedside with a plan, but the warlock wants Nora to do this for herself – not for him and not for Ray. He takes Nora’s hands and shares with her images from his mind’s eye. A man’s face appears within and startles Nora, but she doesn’t know who he is. Ray returns with his contraption and hooks Nora up to it. She is ready and willing. The group begins the process of restoring Constantine’s lifeforce. The marriage of science and magic proves itself successful once again! Constantine is healed, and Nora is still good. With one magical problem resolved there are still two more that need to be taken care of. Hank demands that Ava take him to the Time Bureau to check on Nate. When they arrive, they find Nate and Gary standing over the creatures with tranquilizer guns as the monsters feast upon the goods Mona had brought for them. Hank compliments Mona’s creature-handling skills and tells Ava that he’s greenlighting more funding. He then makes a call to an ambiguous contact and greenlights a mysterious new endeavor called “Project Hades.”

Mick and Zari convene with Ishiro to discuss the positive side of Tagumo’s attacks. Through Tagumo, Ishiro was able to manifest a monster from his trauma that was tangible and that was a victory in itself. This inspires Mick to pick up a pen and begin writing within the sacred book. The pages accept his art. Sara and Charlie arrives in time for Zari to fill them in on their latest plan and Tagumo appears to seek revenge on Ishiro. As it grabs the director, Mick’s creation comes to life and begins to slay the octopus in an epic battle that destroys the miniaturized city Ishiro has set up for his movie. Mick’s three-boobed warrior queen, Garima, kills Tagumo with the strike of her sword and then grabs Mick for a post-victory “workout.” The Legends flee, to save their eyes, and to give their comrade privacy. When Mick and Garima are done celebrating, he meets up with Ishiro to say goodbye. Ishiro gladly gives up the book and Mick tells him to give up on the octopus monster. Lizards are king.

Now that all monsters have been relinquished, Sara and the rest of her crew hop back on the Waverider. Sara begins to clean up the common areas when Charlie pays her a visit to share a toast. Nora talks to Constantine about the man she saw in his head, but Constantine doesn’t provide her with any answers. Instead, he gets up to have a smoke when Ray enters the room. Nora and Ray have time to talk – something they haven’t been able to do much despite their love-like feelings for each other. Ray tells Nora to run again, so that she’ll never be a prisoner. He wants her to be free and she agrees. Nora brings them to the Time Bureau to show Ray that repentance is her road to freedom. Ray watches as Nora surrenders herself to the Bureau agents with a smile of hopeful resignation.