This week’s Legends of Tomorrow, “Silence of the Sonograms,” is a series of confrontations. Bishop has returned after Sara (Caity Lotz) exploded his base in “Back to the Finale: Part II,” being “printed” out of the Waverider’s fabricator. But Bishop maintains this new version of himself has changed, and he expresses a desire to reconnect with his “family”: having created the Ava (Jes Macallan) clones and resurrected the alien-hybrid Sara (Caity Lotz).
The rest of the ship is equally dramatic, with Constantine (Matt Ryan) undergoing guilt and withdrawals from his blood magic as he (literally) confronts his inner demons, and Mick (Dominic Purcell) having his alien pregnancy reach labour. “Silence of the Sonograms” might not have the classic Legends “zaniness” which Bishop wants to be a part of – regardless of the alien head pregnancy – but it’s a thoroughly emotional and culminating installment that converges the series storylines together before the final few episodes.
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“Silence of the Sonograms” is clearly a reference to Silence of the Lambs, as true-crime enthusiast Ava leaps at the chance to play psychological mind-games with Bishop, who has been imprisoned in their containment cell. But it’s similar to the variation of Black Widow questioning Loki in The Avengers, since Ava is feigning openness with Bishop to goad his true intentions out of him. At least, that’s what Sara maintains while she and Nate (Nick Zano) watch and commentate the scene on the monitors, playing a somewhat heavy-handed chess match to parallel Bishop and Ava’s chat.
But maybe Sara (and Ava herself) underestimate how much this encounter means to her. Ava has always felt insecure about her “artificial” clone origins, and it provides a chance to confront her creator, discover how much of her personality is actually “her.” Bishop does not try to unravel Ava so much as reassure her independent agency, becoming a family-figure that can actually comfort her.
As Ava and Bishop wind up discussing her wedding plans, the line between “performing” vulnerability and actually feeling it begins to be blurred. When the two slow dance to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” – a shortcut to any emotional reaction – Jes Macallan sells the authentic conflicted breakdown of believing she was built as “incapable of love,” and wanting Bishop to be sincere to prove that clones can actually change.
Of course, Bishop is planning something. He was adept at predicting Sara and Ava’s wedding plans because his new clone body was rebuilt with 6% of Sara’s DNA. These extra few strands apparently mean he knows to suggest tapas over traditional wedding buffets, can predict the override codes for the Waverider to escape his cell, and perfectly matches Sara’s fight moves in a duel set to Bright Moment’s “Iz Ya Funkin Tonight.” Bishop locks down the rest of the Waverider while the battles Sara, including Mick undergoing labour in the medbay.
Earlier, Bishop had given a grey sludge to calm Mick’s headaches. But soon afterwards, Mick’s water breaks, his luscious hair starts falling out, and his head begins bulging. Mick even says Gary (Adam Tsekhman) can be the Godfather – to his obvious delight – if he helps him through this birth. But, after beating Sara, it’s Bishop who appears to midwife the 45 new alien eggs that are pushed through Mick’s nose. The birth sequence has surprisingly good VFX for the show, and is suitably gross.
Bishop claims he only wanted to help urgently deliver the alien babies, and struggles to approach situations to normal, non-supervillain way. He voluntarily returns to his cell. But he did not only take out the alien eggs, but also extracted Mick’s communicator. Now after taking things from one Legends facial orifice, he can worm his way into someone else’s ear.
Fate gives him a perfect candidate with John Constantine. Zari (Tala Ashe) has found out he was The Beast from “Bored on Board Onboard,” and uses Astra (Olivia Swann) to restore Spooner’s (Lisseth Chavez) memory of what really happened in “Bad Blood.” They discover his lies about the Fountain of Imperium, and Zari feigns ignorance of Constantine’s deceit – much like how Ava and Bishop play off each other – as she steals away his blood-potion.
The truth comes pouring out then, as Constantine needily follows Zari to demand the potion back, even though he swore to himself to stop drinking it. Matt Ryan looks increasingly ratty and pale throughout the episode, as he struggles through his withdrawal from the dark magic. But this mini-intervention works out surprisingly well, with Constantine apologizing for his lies and swearing to give up the magical elixir, ignoring the imagined dark copy of himself taunting him and telling him to take it back up.
Only this devilish, power-hungry version of himself is more substantive than Constantine realized. The blood-potion has given his worst instincts form, and when Constantine is adamant on quitting the stuff, it brutally assaults Constantine until he’s forced to take another sip. Genre shows often use magic as a metaphor for addiction – like with Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer – and “Silence of the Sonograms” displays the tough struggle and creeping self-doubt that prevents people from quitting. Bishop uses the communicator to contact Constantine, which is what inspires his dark self to take over Constantine and accept the offer of how to get his magic back.
It’s a neat way of merging together the two seemingly disparate storylines of this season. “Silence of the Sonograms” has many confrontations, but most of the Legends are able to pull through. Bishop is the creator of both Ava and Sara, but ultimately, he cannot reach them as they find strength in each other. Constantine has some similar support through Zari, but his pride of wanting to restore his former self wins over, even if doing so only twists Constantine into something darker and unrecognizable.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sundays on the CW.
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