Legends of Tomorrow S04E02 "Witch Hunt" Review

The Legends use the magical bones Constantine introduced last week as a new detector of magical beings. Since they have wrapped up the time anomalies that they were responsible for tracking and repairing over the course of three years it's only natural that they evolve their work and approach to new threats. Constantine is proving to be a rough-around-the-edges addition to the team. With the clashing between Constantine and Mick to be particularly comedic, there is great promise to what new material the writers of "Legends of Tomorrow" may have to work with in future episodes. But first... let's jump into this week's witchy shenanigans.

No fun in Puritan times

The Legends travel to Salem, 1692, right in the middle of the Salem Witch Trials. A young girl named Prudence is struggling because her mother Jane has been wrongly accused of being a witch. Yet again the series seizes the opportunity to offer a touching, timely story that resonates with today's social climate of fearing the Other. Zari grapples the hardest with the ethical dilemma of whether to maintain society's historical accuracy in which Jane died as a 'witch' or to save a woman from unjust accusations by religiously tyrannical men. As stories of witches are often at their strongest when offering commentary on the autonomy of women, it makes perfect sense to have Zari be at the forefront of teaching young Jane about forgiveness and to be the better person.

Is that music?

It seems more and more evident that the parties in charge of "Legends of Tomorrow" have embraced the more eccentric creative choices in shaping the show's adventures and humour. This week, the surprise flair comes with a wand and a blue dress. Young Prudence has a fairy godmother and in a hilariously meta introduction, she serenades the Legends while Ray voices his joyful surprise that music can be heard accompanying her. But this fairy godmother is more ominous than the designed-for-children fairytales have previously conveyed. She wants to use Prudence to enact revenge on humankind, turns Ray and Mick into pigs, and after being defeated, she offers an ominous warning to John Constantine that something wicked is coming for him. It's an excellent foreshadowing moment that grounds the story after all the hilarious antics of the fairy godmother story and brings the viewers back to the larger threat building over the course of this season.

I don't need your money.

Nate has an awkward dinner with his father, who still doesn't know what Nate has really been doing over the last few years. But Nate becomes further entangled with his father because the Time Bureau needs to pitch to him in order to secure funding to keep their operation up and running. It offers Nate the opportunity to be better explored to the audience, particularly since he's technically one of the newest characters compared to the other Legends who had more extensive introductions on past series before "Legends of Tomorrow" was commissioned. There's a good mix of family drama and comedy, particularly once magic is introduced to Nate's father. Following a strong season premiere, Legends is holding steady in quality and we can't wait to see what's in store for next week!

"Legends of Tomorrow" airs on Mondays on the CW at 9/8c.