Spooner (Lisseth Chavez) is in high demand on this week’s Legends of Tomorrow. Between the alien baby from “This is Gus” rapidly aging, Gary (Adam Tsekhman) losing his human camouflage glasses and Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) getting headaches from his surprise alien pregnancy, the Waverider’s alien translator has her work cut out in “Bad Blood.” Spooner welcomes the intervention of John Constantine (Matt Ryan) for “a shot and a chinwag,” even if he is also soliciting her services to locate the magical Fountain of Imperium. “Bad Blood” is a diverting Legends episode that does not always land, but it gives Spooner greater focus as a moral center as Constantine spins out on a dark path.
Constantine has been seeking to restore his magic since it was exorcised in “The Satanist’s Apprentice.” He interrogates that episode’s villain Aleister Crowley – voiced by Doctor Who’s Matt Lucas – by sticking chewing gum on the painting he’s trapped in, until Crowley tells him of an alien “map” of the Fountain’s location. Constantine retrieves it from the French banker Noelle, whom Constantine immediately clocks as a vampire when she asks to be invited inside.
Despite the episode being titled “Bad Blood,” Noelle is only a minor player, for now, giving Constantine the map and a magical potion of Crowley’s without much resistance. Constantine knows the Fountain is somewhere on earth but enlists Spooner to help him pinpoint it. Not only can Spooner translate the alien hieroglyphics on the map, but as it leads them to the Spanish city of Albacete during the Civil War, she can also speak Spanish too.
At a local taverna, Constantine and Spooner come across the legendary resistance fighter “El Gato,” who allegedly survived several assassination attempts. Constantine is convinced this is through the Fountain’s healing powers, although “El Gato” is cagey about his true identity and claims such powers (if they did exist) come from a donkey with giant magical udders. Knowing Legends, this could easily be true, but instead, Spooner and Constantine find Gato’s mute nephew Fernando hiding in the cellar.
Gato’s invulnerability is put to the test when fascist troops storm the taverna, declaring how General Franco just seized Madrid. Capitan Noriega claims he has orders from “Herr Hitler himself” to seek out the occult Fountain of Imperium, similar to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc. Although “Bad Blood” mostly borrows plot points from the films of Guillermo Del Toro, including the Francoist fascists (Pan’s Labyrinth), the mute Fernando (The Shape of Water), and a “Fountain of Youth” (Cronos). After Noriega shoots Gato, Fernando runs in and resurrects his uncle, but is captured as a by-product of the Fountain’s powers.
Constantine manages to escape unseen and returns to the taverna as a Vatican priest. He manufactures a ritual “bond” between Spooner and Fernando, who can actually telepathically communicate due to the “alien essence” inside Fernando. Matt Ryan deliciously hams it up as the Italian clergyman and signals the resistance fighters to make their move. But as Constantine, Spooner, and Fernando escape his desperation becomes increasingly clear. He demands Fernando lead them to the cave of the Fountain, and when only dry rocks are found instead, he flips out over being stranded as “normal.”
Spooner irately explains that many people – including her and Fernando – would love to be “normal” and not hounded for their respective abilities. Constantine passionately counters that growing up as an abused, working-class bisexual, “magic” represented a way to bend life’s harsh rules to his whim. “And I’m nothing without it, Spooner.” He pleads, “I’m nothing.” Constantine engages in increasingly selfish behavior in “Bad Blood,” but Matt Ryan authentically sells his tunnel-visioned focus in trying to regain his sense of identity.
Constantine even lies about the immediacy of the fascist troops to the cave in order to persuade Fernando to transfer his magical powers into him. Fernando agrees and Spooner uses their “connection” to ‘push’ the magic out of him and into Constantine. But it fails. Constantine’s desperate, somewhat selfish actions have made him unworthy of bearing the Fountain’s magic. Instead, as the fascists approach, he drinks Noelle’s magical elixir - Crowley calling it a cocktail of different rare bloods – to “juice” up his magic. Constantine takes the “easy” route, resulting in a psychedelic and genuinely unnerving sequence as Constantine cackles and slaughters the soldiers.
Constantine returns Fernando to El Gato and goes home to share a tender tête-à-tête with Spooner. But the damage is done, and he is addicted to the power provided by the elixir. When Spooner voices concern Constantine brainwashes her with magic, and sells off Aleister Crowley to Noelle in exchange for more vials. It’s a dark turn for Constantine, with him needing to maintain his “magical” identity corroding his moral one.
This main section of “Bad Blood” benefits from being a two-hander between Constantine and Spooner as it allows greater character space for each of them. Although “Bad Blood” does lack certain insights like “Here I Go Again” or even last week’s “This is Gus.” Instead, it’s a bit constrained by the convoluted plot, even if Matt Ryan does a good job showing Constantine’s character spiral. Legends makes the viewer care for its characters, even if by design “Bad Blood” is a grimmer and more serious installment than other wacky or carefree ones; Constantine even pessimistically reminds Spooner how the resistance lost the Civil War.
Such “fun” does come from the episode’s B-Plot on the Waverider, where the baby alien Gus-Gus rapidly ages into a rampaging Bigfoot creature whilst Mick’s daughter Lita tries to talk to her dad about his alien head pregnancy. Although as fun as Dominic Purcell shouting about pregnancy is, this half also suffers from being side-lined and not having full room to grow. Gus-Gus’ rapid aging and the Legends’ battle with it occurs entirely off-screen, for instance, and “Bad Blood” struggles to balance its seeming disparate halves.
Still, although it is brief, we do get some funny moments from the re-emerged “original” Zari (or “O.Z.”) (Tala Ashe) as she calls Spooner the “new girl” or gets increasingly frazzled hair. Plus, there are touching moments between Mick and Lita, particularly his guilt over leaving Kayla behind, even if it was to be reunited with his daughter. Lita does “fake” going into labor to force Mick to have his head examined, but it all boils down to her stubborn love and wish for her father’s survival. Unlike Constantine, Mick eventually accepts his changed circumstances and is ready to welcome what is next.
“Bad Blood” is not the most memorable Legends episode, nor the best-developed one. Entries like this make it clear Season 6 was partly filmed during a pandemic, and even though there are benefits to smaller and more focused casts, “Bad Blood” doesn’t always make the best usage of them. “Bad Blood” belongs among other wheel-spinning episodes like “Meat: The Legends” or “Stressed Western.” But as with every Legends episode, there’s enough entertainment and heart to keep audiences engaged, whether the characters embrace the new life growing inside them, or are drinking blood to regress back to their old ways.
Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sundays on the CW.